Here are some tips and considerations when putting your resume together and as you continually update it.

1. Keep your resume up to date in case that perfect job comes along and you dont have time to write your resume from scratch.

2. Ensure your resume has no spelling or grammatical errors. Typos can be an instant turnoff for hiring managers as they indicate a lack of attention to detail.

3. Include a short statement at the beginning of your resume stating your career objective and include a brief mention of what type of job you are looking for.

4. Structure your resumes bullet points by describing a problem, the action, and the result whenever possible ie. improved an under achieving division by upskilling a group of employees and increasing their work output by 25%.

5. Tailor your resume for the specific job you are applying for. You dont necessarily have to list a specific job title but at least tailor it to the job you are applying for.

6. Type your resume using fonts such as Arial, Times New Roman or another popular font that is virtually guaranteed to be viewable by the person you are sending your resume to. Using obscure fonts only increases the chance that your recipient might not have that font installed on their computer.

7. Print your resume on plain white paper or off-white paper. Dont bother with the fancy paper.

8. Use action words in your resume bullet points that describe your job tasks rather than just listing your tasks. When describing your role, consider using words like managed, maintained, saved, directed, supervised, achieved, improved, etc.

9. Keep your resume focused on the job you are applying for. Having unrelated job functions and skills can quickly make a hiring manager believe you are unqualified for a job and cause them to stop reading your resume.

10. Clearly highlight the special skills and experience you have that the hiring manager is looking for.

11. Prioritize your skills and experience and ensure that the most important information is visible at the top of your resume not at the bottom. The person reading your resume might skim resumes and not make it past the first page.

12. Explain gaps in your resume if you were between jobs for a significant period of time ie. more than several months. If you were traveling, taking courses, on maternity leave, etc then state this in your resume along with the specific dates when this occurred.

13. Clearly show your educational achievements including the date you graduated. If you are one or two credits short, you dont have a degree. Lying about your educational achievements is normally a very serious problem if you get caught.

14. Include Mr. or Ms. in front of your name on your resume if you have a first name that could be male or female ie. Mr. Robin Jones, Ms. Pat Jones.

15. Protect the exclusivity of your resume. Mass emailing your resume to recruiters and employers either through a resume distribution service or on your own is a low impact job search method unless you really believe putting your resume in front of thousands of people who dont know you can somehow be effective. Plus, if youre planning on using a recruiter to assist with your job search, they generally wont work with you if your resume is plastered all over the Internet already.

Carl Mueller

My name is Carl Mueller and I'd like to thank you for learning a bit more about me!

I feel that I have numerous relevant experiences during my career that come in useful when helping people with their careers:

I know what it?s like to work internationally, having worked overseas (in New Zealand, from 1994-1998).

I've survived several corporate downsizings while many of my colleagues were being laid off.

I have also experienced being laid off twice myself during corporate downsizings.

I know what it?s like to be self-employed.

I've helped many people find better jobs. I started to work as a professional recruiter in 2000 first as an Information Technology (IT) recruiter and then in general recruitment across many industries including IT, manufacturing and marketing. Since this time, I have helped many people find their dream career and it?s a great feeling.

I experienced one of the slowest hiring periods in recent memory especially during the general hiring slowdown that followed the Y2K frenzy in 1999, the bursting of the dot com bubble in early 2000, and then the employment market bottoming out following September 11, 2001.

These were certainly not great times to be a job searcher in most industries nor was it a particularly good time to be a recruiter.

Following this, I began running the day to day operations of an Internet-based company in early 2003 that focused on developing online software and subscription-based websites for consumers. It was then that I fully realized the power, usefulness and potential of the Internet which really spurred me to set up my own website which you can view in my Personal URL section below this bio.

I?m also a Platinum Ezine Articles Expert as recognized by EzineArticles.com, one of the most visited websites on the Internet. This special designation is earned by having consistently high-quality articles published and viewed on their website. All of my submissions are related to helping you find your dream career and many of my articles get reproduced on other websites by their webmasters.

Good luck with your career and I hope I have been of assistance to you!