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Technical Writing   Technical Writing Training   Technical Writing Blog  
How to Write a Resume
Technical Writing   Technical Writing Training   Technical Writing Blog  
How to Write a Resume

This is a guide to resume writing which will teach you to write a resume equal to one done by professional writers. Writing a great resume does not necessarily mean you should follow a specific resume format. Every resume is a unique marketing communication.

A resume should be appropriate to your situation and do exactly what you want it to do and this guide will tell you how to make your resume effective

Who are we to guide you how to write your resume?

We are a renowned CV / resume writing service with the best and brightest certified writers. Our primary goal is to ensure that your CV / resume reflects your accomplishments and makes you stand out as the ideal candidate among equally qualified applicants.

Today’s job market is complicated and Confai offers everything you could ever need to compete for the best positions. For many years Confai has helped people meet and achieve their desired goals by delivering powerful, winning CV / resume which grab attention and convince recruiters in any industry of value to the applicant.

The good and bad news

The good news is that, with a slight extra effort on your resume makes you get the job you are looking for. Not many resumes follow the principles that stimulate the interest of recruiter. So, even if you confront fierce competition, with a well written resume you would be invited to an interview more often than many people more qualified than you.

The bad news is that your present resume is probably much more incompetent than you now realize. You will have to learn how to think and write in a style which will be completely new to you.

To understand why your resume is incompetent, let’s take a look at the purpose of your resume.

Why do you need a resume? What a resume is supposed to do for you? Here’s an imaginary scenario.

You apply for a job that seems absolutely perfect for you. You send your resume with a cover letter to the prospective employer. Plenty of other people think the job is great too and apply for the job. A few days later, the employer is gazing at a heap of several hundred resumes “SEVERAL HUNDRED?” YOU ASK. “ISN’T THAT AN EXAGGERATED NUMBER?” Not really.

A job offer often attracts between 100 and 1000 resumes these days, so you are facing a great deal of competition. Back to the scenario and the prospective employer staring at the huge stack of resumes: These people aren’t excited about going through this pile of boring documents, but they have to do it, so they dig in. They are not really focusing any more.

Then, they run across your resume. As soon as they start reading it, they perk up. The more they read the more interested, and awake they become. Most resumes in the heap got a quick glance. But yours gets read, from beginning to end. Then, it gets put on top of the tiny pile of resumes. These are the people who will be called for an interview.

In this resume writing guide, our goal is to give you the basic tools to take this out of the realm of imagination and into your everyday life.

The goal of a resume

The resume is a tool with one goal:

to win an interview

If it does what the imaginary resume did, it works. If it doesn’t, it is an ineffective resume.

A resume is an advertisement, nothing more, nothing less. A great resume doesn’t just tell the recruiters what you have done but makes the same assertion that all good ads do: If you buy this product, you will get these specific benefits.

It presents you limelight. It convinces the employer that you have what it takes to be successful in this new position. It stimulates interest in the recruiter to meet you and learn more about you. It inspires the prospective employer to pick up the phone and ask you to come in for an interview.

Other objectives to have a resume

  • To pass the employer’s screening process (requisite educational level, number years’ experience, etc.), to give basic facts which might influence the employer (companies worked for, political affiliations, racial minority, etc.).
  • To provide contact information: an up-to-date address and a telephone number (a telephone number which will always be answered during business hours).
  • To establish you as a professional person with high standards and excellent writing skills, based on the fact that the resume is so well done (clear, well-organized, well-written, well-designed, of the highest professional grades of printing and paper). For persons in the art, advertising, marketing, or writing professions, the resume can serve as a sample of their skills.
  • To have something to give to potential employers, your job-hunting contacts and professional references, to provide background information, to give out in “informational interviews” with the request for a critique (a concrete creative way to cultivate the support of this new person), to send a contact as an excuse for follow-up contact, and to keep in your briefcase to give to people you meet casually – as another form of “business card.”
  • To use as a covering piece or addendum to another form of job application, as part of a grant or contract proposal, as an accompaniment to graduate school or other application.
  • To put in an employer’s personnel files.
  • To help you clarify your direction, qualifications, and strengths, boost your confidence, or to start the process of committing to a job or career change.

Resume is not a history of your past

It is a mistake to think of your resume as a history of your past, as a personal statement or as some sort of self expression. Sure, most of the content of any resume is focused on your job history. But write from the intention to stimulate interest, to convince the employer to call you. If you write with that goal, your final resume will be very different than if you write to inform or record your job history.

Most people write a resume because everyone knows that you have to have one to get a job. They write their resume reluctantly, to fulfill this obligation. If you realize that a great resume can be your ticket to getting exactly the job you want, you may be able to gather some genuine enthusiasm for creating a masterpiece, rather than the feeble resume.