Your Resume: A Play in Two Acts

For most of us, writing a new resume is a daunting task. The prospect of whittling five to ten years of work history down to one or two pages of text leaves many of us suffering from a healthy dose of writer's block. Deciding what to highlight and what to discard can also be confusing, especially when you are feeling the pressures of unemployment. You may begin to believe that your very life depends on writing a great resume. Here's some practical advice for writing a great resume.

Divide and Conquer
One very simple approach to determining what to include in a resume is to think of your resume in two sections: Assertions and Evidence. Your assertions are the claims or promises you make to a potential employer. Think of this as your sales pitch, explaining to the hiring manager exactly what you have to offer the company or organization. Are you an excellent communicator? Do you have stellar computer skills? Have you been described as the "PowerPoint Guru?" What knowledge, skills, and abilities are you selling to the employer?

The evidence portion of the resume is the proof that you have practical work experience and that you've actually used your knowledge, skills, and abilities in the workplace. Perhaps you received an award for outstanding customer service. Maybe you were solely responsible for managing a group of accounts. You might have even managed specific projects or supervised other employees.

As you are writing your resume, you will find that the assertions and evidence will overlap and intermingle. You will not format your resume in such a way that the assertions and evidence are in separate sections of the document. However, as you're considering what information to include in the resume, identifying each item as an "assertion" or "evidence" is a good check to make sure the information actually belongs in the resume.

With a little brainstorming and pre-writing work, you can craft a resume that truly sets you apart from all the other job seekers.
Best of luck!

Jerome Imhoff
jerome@TheResumeShopINK.com