Tips on Creating An Effective Progressional Resume

List your technical knowledge first in an itemized fashion. Use as many buzz words as you can conjure up which reflect your work and academic experience. List all operating systems and UNIX flavors you know. List all programming languages and platforms with which you're experienced. List all software you've thoroughly used. This will satisfy the visual curiosities of hiring managers and OCR scanners conducting key word searches.

List your qualifications in order of relevance, from most to least. Only list your degree and educational qualifications first if they are truly relevant to the job for which you are applying. If you've already done what you want to do in a new job, by all means, list it first, even if it wasn't your most recent job. Abandon any strict adherence to a chronological ordering of your experience.

Quantify your experience wherever possible. Cite numerical figures, such as i.e.; monetary budgets/funds saved, time periods/efficiency improved, lines of code written/debugged, numbers of machines administered/fixed, etc. which demonstrate progress or accomplishments due directly to your work.

Begin sentences with action verbs. Portray yourself as someone who is active, uses their brain, and gets things done. Stick with the past tense, even for descriptions of currently held positions, to avoid confusion.

Don't sell yourself short. This is by far the biggest mistake of all resumes, technical and otherwise. Your experiences are worthy for review by hiring managers. Treat your resume as an advertisement for you. Be sure to thoroughly "sell" yourself by highlighting all of your strengths. If you've got a valuable asset that doesn't seem to fit into any existing components of your resume, list it anyway as its own resume segment.

Be concise. As a rule of thumb, resumes reflecting FIVE years or less experience should fit on one page. More extensive experience can justify usage of a second page. Consider THREE pages (about 15 years or more experience) an absolute limit. Avoid lengthy descriptions of whole projects of which you were only a part. Consolidate action verbs where one task or responsibility encompasses other tasks and duties. Minimize usage of articles (the, an, a) and never use "I" or other pronouns to identify yourself.

Omit needless items. Leave all these things OFF your resume: social insurance number, marital status, health, citizenship, age, scholarships, irrelevant awards, irrelevant associations and memberships, irrelevant publications, irrelevant recreational activities, a second mailing address ("permanent address" is confusing and never used), references, ("available upon request" is sufficient), travel history, previous pay rates, previous supervisor names, reasons for leaving previous jobs, and components of your name which you really never use (i.e. middle names).

Have a trusted friend review your resume. Be sure to pick someone who is attentive to details, can effectively critique your writing, and will give an honest and objective opinion. Seriously consider their advice. Get a third and fourth opinion if possible.

Proofread, proofread, proofread. Be sure to catch all spelling errors, grammatical weaknesses, unusual punctuation, and inconsistent capitalization. Proofread it numerous times over at least two days to allow a fresh eye to catch any hidden mistakes.

Laser or ink jet print it on PLAIN WHITE paper. Handwriting, typing and dot matrix printing look pretty cheesy. Stick with laser prints or ink jet printing. Don't waste your money on special bond paper, matching envelopes, or any color deviance away from plain white. Your resume will be photocopied, faxed, and scanned numerous times, defeating any special paper efforts, assuming your original resume doesn't first end up in the re-cycling file.