The Top 3 Categories You Must Include on Your Resume

Fall is the season for resume writer conferences. I attended one session and listened to a recap of another session with recruiters and hiring managers from Fortune 500 companies that are currently hiring globally. In these sessions, they shared with our group of career services experts these 3 key points they are looking for on your resume.

Your Value Proposition
An employer is searching for the best, most cost-effective candidate. When reading a resume they are looking for your core competencies, your strengths, your areas of expertise, and a clear statement of the benefits you can deliver their company. Think of yourself as a product, what would your brand statement be? What can you deliver that others can not? How do you differentiate yourself from your peers? The answer to these questions must be found in the resume and cover letter.

Your Chronological Work History
Most recruiters admit to skipping right over the summary (although they say you should still include this section) and going straight to work history first. They want to know what you did, where you did it, and how long you did it. Include details about each company such as number of employees, annual revenue, its core customer base and competitors, and whether it was a start-up or an established public company.

When discussing your experience, detail the big picture - not the minutiae of everyday details - of your position's functions and challenges. Use statistics that measure your value such as number of personnel supervised, dollar amount of budgets managed, and promotions through the company.

Education and Professional Development
Employers want to know that you are dedicated to keeping your knowledge current and your skills updated. Seek out opportunities to further advance your skills by attending free workshops, webinars, seminars, or courses in your area of specialty. In addition, affiliations with industry-relevant organizations is another way to demonstrate your focus on honing your craft.

The 5 Most Important Factors in Your Resume

There are really no rules when it comes to writing a resume. This fact can be both freeing and frustrating! Although there may be a lack of rules when it comes to writing a resume, there are some items that must be included. Here are the top 5 most important items, as defined by human resources professionals, that you need to include when writing a resume.

Relevant Skills

Whenever I speak with HR professionals, receiving a resume that is full of irrelevant skills and experience is  their top resume pet peeve. Don't force the HR department to sift through irrelevant information to get to the most important information. Chances are good that they will move on to the next, more relevant candidate if you include irrelevant information.

Functional Experience

Your resume should demonstrate that you have experience performing the functions of the job for which you are applying. If you are making a career transition, it is imperative that you do your research and define your transferable skills.

Employment History

Your resume must include your employment history, complete with dates of employment. A resume without dates waves a giant red flag for an employer. Automatically, employers begin to question why you chose to leave off the dates. Doubts creep in about how old your experience may be and they can't tell how many years of experience you bring to the table.

Measurable Accomplishments

It is much more effective to prove you possess a skill through a proven track record of accomplishments. Instead of making empty assertions about your abilities, demonstrate your ability to utilize those skills through previous accomplishments. Whenever possible, make those accomplishments measurable with dollars, percentages, hours, numbers of people supervised, and other figures that quantify what you are capable of handling.

Industry Experience

Whenever possible, hiring managers are looking for industry-specific experience. If you are making an industry and/or career change and you don't have industry experience, this presents a challenge. Be sure that you do your research on the industry, the job, and the company before sending your resume. Determine the keywords that are specific to the industry and be sure to work them into your resume through your transferable skills.