Maximizing Your Exposure
Part 1: Communicating career goals for a successful job search

What type of job are you looking for? What are your skills? What are your long-term goals? These are questions you can answer, but does your resume answer these questions for a potential employer? The easier it is for an employer to evaluate you on paper, the more likely the chance for an interview.

Creating Targeted Resumes
When was the last time you updated your resume? Not just when you tacked on the segment about your last job, but actually evaluated it with the eyes of a prospective employer?

A great resume is vital to getting the types of jobs you want. Your resume reflects your expertise and skill. Creating a good resume is time consuming, but once complete, can be udpated with minimal effort. Your resume can become a dynamic self-sales tool.

The Objective Statement
Effective resumes contain either an objective or summary paragraph at the top of the page, right below your name and contact information. If you are looking for a very specific position (i.e., medical writer for a pharmaceutical company), you can summarize it and your qualifications for this position. Highlight your skills relevant to the position, and don't be afraid to brag. If you are open to different types of positions in different segments, then you could use the summary approach. The summary serves as an introduction and a place for you to highlight your greatest skills and accomplishments. A succinctly written, strong objective statement will set you apart from other job-seekers.

Work Accomplishments, not just Work History
Resumes should summarize work history, but not always in the literal sense. List your employers and job descriptions in reverse chronological order, starting with current or most recent job. If you have a long work history, pare down your list to only the most recent and most relevant jobs. If you have an advanced career (management level) and have extensive, relevant experience, then make your resume two pages.

If you were laid off from one job and worked elsewhere in the interim in a position completely unrelated to your profession, then you may wish to emphasize the skills you learned instead of the job itself. It's up to you which jobs you decide to include. Prospective employers may frown on large gaps between jobs. And if an interviewer asks about your full employment history, you should be ready to discuss it.

Summarize your job description for each employer, focusing on the main duties. Most jobs have a "will fulfill additional responsibilities as needed" clause. Potential employers need to see the duties that would be most relevant to the job for which you are applying.

Prospective employers will be more impressed by your unique accomplishments rather than your job descriptions. Focus on the most impressive and relevant details of your work experience, and highlight your accomplishments by quantifying them whenever possible. For example, an alternative for, "Wrote training manuals for company's sales force," is "Created new training manuals for sales force resulting in increased education and understanding of company products. Contributed to overall ___% increase in sales and increased customer satisfaction in 2005." Show your accomplishments, quantifying them where possible.

The Power is in the Details
Use active verbs and punchy adjectives whenever possible. Job-hunting guides are full of winning-resume vocabulary lists. A thesaurus is another option. If you find yourself using "effectively" over and over again in your resume, consider synonyms. Or you may want to rewrite sections to specifically say why what you did was effective, rather than just stating that it was.

Resumes have their own writing style: sharp phrases are preferable over long complete sentences and word quality is valued over quantity.

The Overview
Is the resume format easy to read and pleasing to the eye? Unless you are applying for graphic design work, stick to basics:

• Use a standard font throughout the document
• Set tabs and margins with ample white space and in proper alignment
• Leave some white space on the sides and between resume sections to increase readability
• Use boldface consistently for section headings and/or employer names
• Use bullets to highlight accomplishments under each job section

Ask a Friend to Proofread
Have a friend review your resume for errors. Spelling mistakes should be avoided, especially in applying for a writing or editing position.

Good Luck!
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