A Winning Resume

When you get ready to market yourself you have to give the person in charge of hiring the information that they need to put you at the top of their list. Too many people destroy any chance they may have of getting to the interview process by submitting a poor resume. Just recently I had an opportunity to see what I would have to classify as the worst resume that I have seen in over 25 years. This individual lacked any common since and put in their resume why they did not like their past job and what they did not want to do. That is one resume that had to have a short travel distance from the envelope to the trash can.


When selecting a style of a resume to use, many individuals say you must use a chronological resume (Lists your employment history in reverse chronological order), then their second choice is the functional resume (Highlights your skills and strengths). Both of these styles have their limitations. I have reviewed many so called resumes that looked more like a job description than a career marketing tool. In short they didn't tell me what the person had done or could do. With my past experience, these type of resume are what almost everybody else will use, especially the chronological style.

Being creative is so much better then competing with like minded individuals. And being creative is where the hybrid resume is a much better choice. The person that is reviewing the resume possibly has 40 seconds to look over the resume to make a choice of "go" or "no go" With a hybrid style resume you start out with a summary which is a short paragraph that summarizes your experiences and qualifications. Then you are able to follow up with bullet listings of your skills. This is where you can show your worth. You need to list out specifics such as you "increased sales by 30%"; "reduced waste by 15%". Show your worth and don't forget to include action verbs. These are words such as: achieved, assembled, coordinated, decreased, executed, initiated, negotiated, produced, reduced, started, updated. These are words that add punch to your resume.

After you put the "bang" out there with the summary and skills section, you then add the typical items in a resume such as employment history, education, special training and other items that would be relevant for the position. One key thing to remember is to keep it to one page if possible and not over two pages.

Another plus that I have found with the hybrid resume style is that it is a good format to use it if you have limited experience, like a college student or if you have had some gaps in your employment.

As you put it all together, the thing to remember is that the résumé does not get you the job, it gets you the interview.

And if putting together a resume still does not seem like something you want to do.  Contact a Career Coach, Resume Writer or us at the Accent Group and we will put together a custom resume for you.