Creating the Perfect Resume and Cover Letter - New Rules Apply

Resumes and Cover Letters are your personal marketing pieces.

Your resume and cover letter are your marketing pieces when you are hunting down that perfect job.

How your resume portrays you and reflects your strengths and abilities are all part of the overall make up of your personal marketing campaign.

The rules have changed.. Simply stating the positions you have had and your duties is not enough to impress potential employers. No longer is it necessary to list every job you have ever had. Employers and human resource recruiters are busy. They do not want to be reading pages of text that is very irrelevant to the position they are looking to fill.

What is it they want to see In a resume?

Employers want to know what you did relevant to the position for which you are applying.

It does not make sense to list a job as a mechanic if you are looking for a position as a restaurant manager. Likewise, it does not make much sense to list the duties you handled as a server, if you are looking for a position as a paralegal. Ask yourself if the position is relevant to the one, for which you are hoping to gain an interview . If not, there are options to consider.

The duties you performed on the particular job may be somewhat similar or could have been useful in helping you grow in your experiences. Great! Combining all of those skills and duties from any irrelevant or less than relevant jobs into a summary of skills and experiences at the end of your resume is likely a solution. It would be best to leave out any skills, duties and experience deemed as less than semi relevant. The same holds true with listing prior employers. At the request of the interviewer, you can provide that information later. The point is to get the information most closely related and relevant to the position you are applying for out in front of the prospective employer quickly.

These are just a couple of tips on writing your resume. I do not begin to cover all that is involved.

When you want the job of your dreams, you need to have a resume that is well written and polished. It is imperative to check, double check and triple check your resume for spelling and grammar errors.

I will never forget a resume that crossed my desk a few years ago. I was looking to fill several positions for mortgage loan processors, a position requiring the ability to pay very close attention to details. The cover letter the applicant sent in stated: " I am very good at paying attention to detale." Do you think that person got an interview? Little errors such as this can destroy any chance you may have at securing the interview for the job of your dreams.

I enjoy writing resumes and cover letters. I find it challenging and inviting to create a resume that portrays the applicant in the best possible light. Equally important to having a well written and effective resume is having a professional and polished company profile for your business. A company profile is your business resume. It's that simple of a definition. The same principles and techniques apply to both resumes and profiles. Keep in mind, that no matter which you are writing, you are looking to achieve a perfectly polished marketing document.