By Barbara Poole
Career Coach

The age of technology has had a profound influence on the manner in which people apply for prospective jobs.

E-mail, online applications and cell phones have eliminated the old practice of picking out just the right stationary, carefully crafting a cover letter and putting it all in the mail to wait and wait for an answer. Instantaneous response is now the name of the game, and the shelf life of appealing openings has dramatically decreased in the process.

In many ways, the job search is a multiple-hurdle process. You have to make a fabulous impression on the people you interview with, but it’s the resume that typically gets your foot in the door. So it’s a pretty important piece of paper, virtual or otherwise.

What makes a particular resume stand out in a sea of qualified contenders? Here are some guidelines for helping your credentials make it to the “A list” of top picks for interviews:

Use a functional format instead of a chronological resume. Although the chronological approach is more common, it’s far less powerful. The focus is on where you have been and when, rather than on what you can do. A functional resume emphasizes the skill sets and capabilities you bring to the table and makes it easier for the reader to cluster the kinds of experience you have. This approach is especially valuable if you have worked for a number of different organizations or have some gaps in your employment history.

Have a “career summary” at the top of your resume instead of an objective. The objective is a focus on what you want, versus what the company needs. It may also be limiting, in that if you specify only one particular objective, the human resources folks might not consider you for some other kinds of positions for which you might also be qualified. By employing a career summary, you lead with a strong statement of exactly what you bring to the table that can add value to the organization.

Describe your background using strong, past-tense action verbs rather than the heading, “Responsibilities included.” Consider how much more powerful it sounds to state that you created, developed, spearheaded, led, managed, etc., instead of simply listing a series of activities that you were responsible for.

Use numbers wherever possible. Rather than saying you improved sales, say that you increased revenues in your territory by 65% or you doubled market share in a nine-month period. It’s obviously important to make sure that your claims are accurate, but where you can substantiate them, numbers sell.

Don’t “age” yourself by identifying the years you graduated from high school and college. It’s nobody’s business that you got your MBA in 1975, and if you volunteer that information, they may feel that your education is outdated.

Design your resume around a particular industry or market. This may mean that you wind up having several different versions of your resume that you use to target jobs appropriately. However, it will allow you to tailor your information to a particular setting or type of organization.

Omit personal information. A resume is not a place to list your hobbies or unrelated personal interests, unless they happen to support the job in question.

Make good use of space. Lay your resume out well on the page so that it is easily readable and will transmit well electronically. It’s better to have a two-page resume than to use an 8-point font. And while we’re on the topic of fonts: Use a plain, standard font, not something in script or with curlicues.

Eliminate the phrase, “References available upon request.” This piece of information adds no value. Employers will assume that you have references and will ask you for them if they are interested.

Proof, proof, and re-proof! No matter how impressive your background, if you send out a resume that has typos or grammatical errors, you have just committed a potentially fatal mistake. And don’t rely on the spell and grammar checks on your computer. They may not catch technical terms or the nuance of your context. Review your resume carefully and ask a few people who you trust to review it as well.

Craft a resume that works for you. It will help you get your foot in the door and into a face-to-face conversation, which is where you really want to be.

Barbara Poole is a leadership and career development coach with Success Builders Inc. E-mail her at coachbarbara@successbuildersinc.com.

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