Free Sample Resume

1. Write your future success story! This is a prime opportunity to blow the dust off your career dreams and fine-tune your professional image and personal brand. Take time to contemplate your life-work and how you contribute significance and value to your corner of the world. Your résumé should be an authentic representation of who you are and what sets you apart from other candidates. Target positions that excite you! When there is passion in your work, there will be energy, creativity, and drive, the combination of which spells success.
2. Build a brand that is in market demand. This is the all-important link between your passions and the employer’s productivity and profitability. A “branded” résumé should convey a value proposition and demonstrate a fit with not only the skills required for the position but the company’s organizational culture as well. It tells recruiters or hiring managers that you are a “fast match” instead of a “Jack of all trades.” It establishes an immediate connection with employers and answers the eternally critical question: “Why hire you instead of someone else with similar skills?”
3. Think green-emphasize results. Write from the employers’ perspective. They want to know whether you can make a positive economic impact on the company-how you’re going to help them generate money or save money. You can tell them by emphasizing benefits and not just features. Features correspond to skills and tasks (such as programming, sales, and customer service). Benefits represent results, accomplishments, and bottom-line profit (such as a 12 percent increase in efficiency, a 24 percent increase in sales, or a 17 percent increase in customer retention). Emphasize benefits throughout the résumé to appear business savvy and underscore your understanding of the bottom line. A clear value proposition is essential.
4. Lead with a sizzling summary to capture interest and control impressions. A meaty introductory qualifications section can help employers zero in on the three to five greatest strengths that communicate your brand. Be sure to include tangible, “green” accomplishments (see tip 3) to help substantiate each of your strengths and whet the reader’s appetite.
5. Mirror job postings with relevant content. Before writing, select several job postings that epitomize your job target. Highlight key responsibilities and results from these postings. Then, diligently weave each of these items into your résumé. (Yes, this means that you must write a focused résumé for each job, not a one-size-fits-all résumé.) If you lack certain qualifications from the postings, strategize about how your experience is close to or parallels the requirements. When writing job descriptions, filter every sentence to ensure that it is relevant to your target. Keep job descriptions to three to seven lines at most (any more than this will make the paragraph look “thick” and uninviting to read).
6. Separate responsibilities from accomplishments. Recall from tip 3 that accomplishments are critical. Don’t bury them in the same paragraph as responsibilities. Use bullets to set off accomplishments and draw the readers’ eye toward the results you have delivered. Remember, when it comes to job search, it’s all about them, not you. Show how you can solve problems or serve needs.
7. Weave keywords throughout. Comb Internet postings, company newsletters, and current articles, as well as talk to people in your target industry, for terms that will help your résumé be unearthed after it is dumped into a résumé database. Emphasize critical keywords by leading off a bullet or paragraph with the keyword. For example, if “public speaking” is important to your candidacy, instead of writing “Made presentations to medical, educational, and business leaders,” write “Public Speaking: Made presentations to medical, educational, and business leaders-regularly earned ‘exceeds expectations’ on evaluations.”
8. Substantiate personality traits. Prove that you have any traits you claim. The phrase “Customer-focused: selected as primary contact for key account” adds more credibility than simply saying, “customer-focused,” or worse yet, “good people skills.”
9. Prune and proofread! Traditional print résumés should be no more than two pages (exceptions to the two-page rule apply for senior executives, academicians, and licensed medical professionals). Ask yourself, “does this information support or detract from my candidacy?” Omit information if it does not support. Also, weed out personal pronouns (instead of “I managed,” just say “managed”), helping verbs, and unnecessary prepositional phrases. After editing, enlist the support of a competent proofreader, preferably one well acquainted with the rules of grammar.
10. Go for the “wow” factor-make it gorgeous! First impressions do count. Your résumé should have the look and feel of a polished ad, with a design that is crisp, clean, and eye-catching. Consider tasteful use of graphic elements, color enhancements, or small, relevant logos. Match the résumé design to your industry-if you’re in a traditional field, lean toward a more conservative design; if you’re in a creative field, a more artistic or imaginative design might be just the thing. Add as much white space as possible to enhance readability-greater readability means you’ll get your point across faster. Consistent use of fonts, styles, spacing, and grammar throughout the résumé will also give the résumé a more attractive appearance. And, of course, proof it at least twice; typos will detract from an otherwise perfect résumé.

Bonus Tip:

Use the right delivery method. Résumés are useless if they can’t be read! Determine how the employer wants the résumé delivered. Some employers prefer to receive résumés by e-mail with the document attached as a Word or PDF file; others want a text document pasted into an e-mail message or online form; still others want the old-fashioned snail-mail method. If your brand is about technology, an e-portfolio and blog should be part of your suite of career marketing documents. And, be sure to include a brief cover letter regardless of your delivery method-employers don’t have time to guess what type of position you want. Even for those employers who make a habit of skipping directly to the résumé, a cover letter remains standard job search protocol. Finally, remember that job search is marketing! You are the product, and the employer is the consumer-find those who need what you love to do!