How to Write a Resume

When your resume lands on someone’s desk, you want it to be more impressive, more amazing, and more valuable than any of the other resumes that person is getting.

How to Write a Good Resume

Let’s review some of the principles of writing good resumes. First of all, tell the truth. I know you’re proud of that fictitious past you’ve created, complete with endorsements from the Queen. Drop it. Tell the truth. Lots of people lie on their resumes, and they often get found out. Even if it takes decades to discover the lie, you can get fired for it. And besides, it’s just plain wrong. You wouldn’t be happy if they lied about the salary they were going to pay you, would you?

Use Specific Action Verbs

Read these: “I worked on the hovercraft system.” And, “Designed, tested, and deployed hovercraft system.” The second is much stronger; it starts with action verbs that are much more specific than “worked on.” Since the subject of virtually every sentence is “I,” in the case of a resume, you can leave it out and go straight to the exciting verbs.

Lead with Results

If your actions led to impressive results, put those first. You’re being hired for your results. Your work history only matters because it tells the reader a credible story about why they should believe you can produce those results. So when they’re impressive, lead with the results: “Reduced transportation costs for Zombie World Domination Army by 30% by creating hovercraft transport system. Designed, tested, and deployed hovercraft system.”

By the way, if you want tips for cover letters, I created an audio program several years ago where I walk through a real cover letter and rewrite it.

Use Your To-Do List to Write Your Resume

So where can you find a list of the amazing things you’ve done, in convenient verb form? Simple: your to-do list. If you don’t have one, well, you’re out of luck. But if you do have one, there’s no better place to look for a specific list of every action you’ve taken for the last forever months.

You won’t be copying to-do items verbatim. Your to-do items might include “wash socks” and “prepare marketing posters.” Those don’t belong on your resume quite like that. Scan your old to-do lists and for each item, ask what project the item belonged to, and what results it produced for the company.

Discard Marginal Accomplishments

When you’ve scanned several lists, you’ll have a general idea for what goes on your resume. Discard the things that are too small or too marginal. For instance, the socks. I’m not saying you have small feet, but even big feet aren’t a big deal on a resume. But the marketing launch… that’s another issue! Remember that you’ll start with results first, backed up with your specific actions:

Made first-day sales of $50,000 through new product launch. Prepared marketing posters. Created innovative recycled product packaging, lowering packaging costs and contributing to our Green initiative.

Save Your To-Do Lists

In the unlikely event you don’t already do this, set up a file for your old to-do lists, and at the end of the day, toss your to-do lists in the file instead of throwing them away. Or, if you use a bound organizer system, save your old volumes so you can review them for resume purposes.

Once you’ve converted a list into resume material, you can throw away the list. I find it easiest to save up for about a year, then update my resume or bio and toss the to-dos all at once.

Summary: How to Write a Good Resume

Happy resume creating! Save your to-do lists. Use them to pull out the projects you worked on, and the results you produced for the company. Put them into action-verb, specific sentences and voila, your resume will be gorgeous, truthful, and specific. The other candidates won’t stand a chance.

Work Less, Do More, and have a Great Life!

RESOURCE:

steverrobbins coverletter – my Cover Letter audio

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