1. Tell your story…provide contextual understanding. In other words, provide relevant details about positions (accountabilities, who you reported to, size of team, revenue etc.) and your company or division (the product or service, revenue, number of employees, domestic/international presence etc.). Your resume is not simply a listing of your prior work history.
2. Define, position and reinforce your personal brand through the information provided in the resume. What is it that you do better than everyone else? How do you add distinct value to an organization?
3. Exhibit your core foundational strengths through contextual descriptions of your accomplishments and responsibilities.
4. Weave the common threads across your work history that project a sense of consistency and direction.
5. Save bullet points to highlight meaningful and quantified accomplishments. These are your stories. Do not use bullets for every fact, accountability, activity on your resume.
6. Include a brief, impactful, crystal clear “Executive Summary”…this is your hook, your differentiated market positioning and value proposition enticing others to read further on.
7. Be succinct. Depending on how many jobs and years of experience you have…your resume should be anywhere from 1 to 2 ½ pages long.
8. Avoid non-standard resume formats. List all positions and companies. Readers are most interested in your work history company by company, position by position.
9. If you graduated with a high grade point average or received Honors show it. You earned it!
10. Include a few interests or hobbies to show your personality (one or maybe lines).
Chris Nadherny 