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If you think you know how to write a resume, think again.

The typical way of writing resumes is in the past. In today's world, job seekers have to focus on writing a resume that caters to the cyber world that most employers depend on. According to an article by The Seattle Times, the algorithm for resumes has changed significantly.

Before the beginning of the economic recession, it was common for job seekers to write resumes for actual people, when in fact, humans don't usually read resumes anymore. Instead, resumes are handled by online software systems programmed to look for specific keywords.

Here are some tips to keep in mind when writing resumes:
Don't focus on length - It used to be that resumes should be short, about one page, maybe two. However, software often processes how many pages are in your resume and associated fewer pages with less experience.

Don't focus on a career objective - In the past, it was common form to start your resume with a statement about what the applicant wants in a career and a list of past experience and job skills. Today, resumes should list technical skills first, because that's what software will look for.

Get certification whenever possible - While having a college degree is still essential, it most likely won't make your resume stand out. However, job training or certification in certain skills that are applicable to your career might be picked up on by certain software.

Present a professional online profile - Your resume should include links to online sources where employers can find out more information about you. Most software automatically looks up your LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter profiles.

"After LinkedIn, the next place the resume software will look will be Zillow to look up your address find out the value of your home," the article notes. "There's a lot that can be learned from this. Are you carrying a very high mortgage? Will you want to relocate to their office in Boston if you just bought a new house? Do they want to hire someone from Marysville if the candidate has to commute to Redmond every day? They'll use a lot of this information to second-guess your application."

Labels: How to Write a Resume

If you're wondering how to write a resume, you should focus on the technical aspects of the document.

While many people try to make their resume into a type of narrative or creative document, employers will make hiring decisions based on the facts of your career more than the stories. According to an article by Examiner, the most effective and powerful resumes provide analytical and precise details about your background and achievements.

Most employers will assume that what you show on your resume correlates to what you can do for them. That means if your resume lacks key metrics and quantifiable information, it will fail to demonstrate proof of your performance to a potential employer.

There are three steps you can follow to make sure your resume has enough detail:

• List all the major tasks and projects you have been involved with at work. These can be formal initiatives that required an entire project team or subtle assignments that you decided to complete yourself.
• List the results each project or effort had on the company or your department. You should think in terms of money saved, the number of people affected or the amount of business generated. This can include efficiencies gained during a business process improvement effort, costs cut while implementing a new system, or new business gained by creating customer relationships.
• Show precision by putting percentages, dollar values or other metrics with results. The more analytical your resume is, the better.

Following these steps will allow you to show what you can do for a potential employer.

Labels: How to Write a Resume

If you're a recent college graduate, you should know by now that the job market is tough. However, there are some steps you can take to make the job search process a little easier on yourself. Perhaps the most important step of all is knowing how to write a resume.

While there are fewer companies hiring new workers, there are more people searching for jobs. This means employers will receive hundreds of resumes for open positions, all the more reason to make your resume stand out.

Your resume should include the basic information - your name and address, the college you graduated from, the degree you obtained, what you're looking for and what kind of experience you have, whether it's internships, full-time jobs or classwork.

When putting your resume together, you should make it visually stunning. It should look clean and easy to read, but it also should stand out. You can do this by using a different font, using unique symbols to separate different sections of your resume, or aligning the font in an unusual but neat way.

When writing your resume, keep in mind that you should: list technical skills first, customize your qualifications, quantify your past results, use action words, give yourself credit, be short and concise while being clear, don't give more information than the reader needs and make sure there aren't any mistakes.

Once you have a resume you're satisfied with, there are other steps you can take to make your job search more successful. You can expand your network, use your college career services center, create an inexpensive business card, join a professional association, prepare for interviews, think about all the opportunities outside your comfort zone you could apply for and, most importantly, don't give up.

Labels: How to Write a Resume