Scott's Old Resume:   (top portion only)

Underdeveloped Descriptions

Exposing Useful Skills

Additionally, in his duties with his past employers, he regularly found himself overseeing or coordinating the details of company-based training seminars.  Roles like these should definitely be included on a resume because they help to demonstrate an applicant's organizational talents and help potential employers to imagine the jobseeker in a managerial role operating for them.

Also, from the worksheet Scott gave back to me it definitely appeared as though he had some strong salesmanship skills that he didn't highlight effectively on his original resume.  I sought to correct this mistake by adding the following descriptions under the heading of Michael's Pet Nutrition:

• Successfully increased sales in Florida and Georgia by 45%

• Routinely exceeded monthly sales goals by 35%

Also, under the heading of Terriac Corporation, I included additional descriptions concerning his selling achievements.  Please review the partial descriptions just below:

• In less than one year, the company's sales' skyrocketed by more than 275%

• In 1997 outsold all other Terriac sales representatives and was voted "Rookie Salesman of the Year"

• Exceeded sales quotas and was cited regularly in company memos and other communication as Terriac's leading seller

Also, if you'll notice from the examples above I tried to use numbers whenever possible to help highlight growth in important areas.  Without numerical terms (e.g. sales increased 45%, exceeded sales goals by 35% and sales skyrocketed by 275%) the descriptions would be less effective in capturing a busy hiring director's attention.

Additionally, if you'll briefly refer to the extracted portion of Scott's new resume just below, you'll notice that I decided to modernize the document's appearance slightly by isolating his name with the aid of a black box.  By doing this, I hoped to draw immediate focus to his name and also hoped to make it easier for a busy hiring director to extract his document later once it's been ultimately grouped with other resumes. 

Scott's New Resume:   (top portion only)

Recap of Building Techniques

As you can see, to turn a weak resume into a good one, you really need to consider adding a generous assortment of power verbs to your resume.  Also, using figures or numbers whenever possible to highlight areas that saw exceptional growth under your supervision will help increase your resume's appeal to hiring directors.  And depending on what type of position you're pursuing, you need to closely tailor your past job descriptions to match those duties of the position you're now considering.  For example, if you're trying to land a position as an office manager or program coordinator, it would definitely be to your advantage to shape your job descriptions to match key duties normally required of this position such as perhaps organizing events, monitoring departmental budgets or managing assignments or duties of an office staff.

Additionally, as in the case with Scott, he was pursuing a position as a sales consultant, so naturally, it was extremely important for him to cite specific cases where he had demonstrated skills that might be required of a sales consultant.

Writing Useful Job Descriptions

To help write better job descriptions or at least descriptions that are closely suited for the position you're interested in, it's always a good idea to obtain an actual job description from a company offering the type of position you're pursuing.  With an actual job description in front of you, you'll be able to better tailor your current or past duties to match those found on the company's job description.

Where To Get Additional Help

Now, I hope you're ready to sit down and tackle writing your resume.  I believe I've given you some pretty useful tips in pulling together a good one, but if you find yourself still having trouble once you sit down to write your resume, then maybe you should consider reading some of the different articles found under the heading "Resume" located on the left-hand side of this page.  If after reading these different articles, you still find yourself having difficulty with the assignment, then maybe you should consider testing out the services of a professional resume writer. 

There are numerous writers available through the Web.  Currently, careerbuilder.com, flipdog.com and monster.com offer links to resume writing services  Also, you can always type resume writers, resume help or resumes in the search box of whatever search engine you're normally accustomed to using and the engine will return a long list of companies offering resume services, but keep in mind that this won't be a cheap service.  You can expect to spend anywhere from $100 to $200 bucks for the conveniences of having someone else do your resume, but if you don't mind coughing up this type up money, then go ahead and start cruising the numerous web pages belonging to professional resume writers.