Before you begin to write your resume, you’ll need to get a comprehensive list together of all the jobs you’ve had in the past 10-15 years. You will need the name and address of the company, your title and your beginning and ending dates of employment. Make notes of any salary information you know, usually your ending salary is sufficient. You won’t be putting salary information on your resume, but it could be asked on an application, so gather that information now. List also the name of your supervisor and find a current address and phone number for that person if possible.

Respond to the Advertisement

If the job you are applying for comes from a newspaper ad, look at the words used in the text. List all of the key words in the ad and use those exact words throughout your resume. For some companies and government agencies, resumes are reviewed by human resources personnel who have a checklist of knowledge, skills and abilities listed for the job by the various departments. By using the exact terminology used in the ad or Web site listing, you’ll make the reader’s job easier and increase your chances of being called in for an interview.

Focus on Accomplishments

No one wants to hire an merely average worker and your resume is the one place where you should be highlighting your successes and how you helped the company be profitable. If you are in sales, give figures of your sales increases, your growth percentages and any awards you received. If you took on added challenges that helped your department reduce waste and cut costs, this is where you should detail your role. Do not give a boring list of tasks, tell your reader what you did that stands out and shows you are better than average.

Keep it True

Don’t try inflating your accomplishments or your background in order to get hired. It could come back to haunt you before you get hired or, worse yet, after you’ve settled into the job when it will become necessary for you to be fired. You need that dark cloud hanging over you. Checking employment history and college degrees is an easy process, so make sure what you are claiming can be verified.

Keep the Format Simple and Consistent

Make reading your resume easy. Keep it to one page, make your sentences well-written, concise and meaty. Use a variety of words and make sure that your sentences begin with action verbs such as executed, promoted, recruited, and so on. If you are printing your resume, use a sharp white, 100-percent cotton paper with matching envelop. Use a consistent format and one point size. Keep the bold and italics features to a minimum, and maintain a good margin for white space and ease of reading.

Everyone will need a resume at one point in their lives. A good and effective resume is intended to get you an interview. Once you get the interview, it’s up to you to get the job. So to make your resume work for you, keep the first reader in mind. This person in HR doesn’t know your field and doesn’t understand much of what you’ve accomplished. Try to help them do their job and you could be on your way to getting the job you want.