I recently came across a resume that listed a summer cashier position in 1976 as part of a person's "professional experience." While it may seem a little strange or ridiculous to include an irrelevant position from nearly 25 years ago, I can tell you that it's actually not that uncommon to come across something like this. A lot of people think that they literally need to include everything they've ever been involved with on their resumes, and I can assure you that not only do you not have to follow suit, you also don't really need to go back any longer than 10 years. The main goal of your resume should be to impress the reader with the specific qualifications and experiences that make you fit to be hired for a desired position. That being said, the reader is most interested in what you have done recently, not in what you did over 10 years ago. The bulk of your resume should be devoted to the last few years of your working history - this is what potential employers want to know about. If you're like most people, you've probably held a number of jobs over time if you include the part-time and casual positions. If wrote a little bit about each one of these, your resume would probably near the 4 page mark on experience alone. Considering it shouldn't be longer than 2 pages, this is far from ideal. When it comes to listing your professional experiences, stick to the most recent and relevant positions. There is no need to include everything, and writing about too much will sometimes blur your positions together and detract from your real qualifications. Unless you've held the same position for over 10 years, there is really no reason to go back any longer than this, and employers don't even expect to go back that far on your resume anyway. If you do have quite an extensive work history of relevant positions, focus on the most recent ones and then simply list the earlier positions under a new category for "previous or other employment." Just remember that there is such a thing as "too much" on a resume. Focus on what the hiring manager wants to see, not on how much information you can cram onto it.

1) What do human resources professionals / employers want in a resume? The most important part of a resume is the same no matter if you are a student or recent graduate or a CEO or executive. Recruiters and employers are looking for achievements and the value added skills you can bring to the job. Too many times a candidate will focus on the duties and responsibilities. While this is important it will not make a candidate stand out from the competition. Emphasising achievements backed up with examples is the most important part of resume writing. 2) Can you give us examples about why some resumes are never read past the first sentence? There is no set rule why a particular resume may be deleted however there are many factors that can contribute to a hiring manager pressing the delete button. What every candidate needs to remember is that for every job there is potentially another 100, 200 or even 300 other candidates applying for the job. Your resume is the first impression which a hiring manger will make about a particular candidate. Using fancy fonts, long sentences, bad spelling and grammar are just a few reasons why a resume will be deleted before the hiring manager has even completed the first sentences 3) How can you make your resume stand out? Professionalism is the key and targeting the resume for the job you are applying for. Remember your resume has a purpose and that is to get you an interview. It is not a pierce of artwork that will be hung on the wall. If the job you are applying for requires leadership abilities than provide examples about ways you have performed as a leader. Do not make the reader have to guess! 4) What is the number one tip to create a resume that gets the interview? Achievement based resume writing 5) In your experience, what are some of the mistakes that appear in resumes? The top 5 resume mistakes I see on a daily basis are as follows: • The use of "text Messaging" abbreviations ("Going 2 c clients") • No dates • Lack of achievements or highlights • Irrelevant information (long winded) • Spelling mistakes 6) What do you think about including a "career objective" statement in your resume? Career objective or career summary when written well adds great value to your resume. However when written badly or "generically" can have a negative effect on the resume. In my opinion I like to include a career summary to introduce the candidate to the reader. It is however very important to include value added information in the career objective rather than generic information such as "hard working individual who is very loyal and solve problems" 7) Can you give us an example of how a candidate can address gaps in their work continuity? Always one of the hardest aspects of writing a resume is dealing with working gaps. A cover letter goes hand in hand with a resume and a well constructed cover letter can explain to the reader why there is a gap. I recently worked with a senior executive who took 2 years off to travel and perform community work. We included the community work on his resume to show the reader that he had been actively doing something over that certain time period and then was able to explain in the cover letter that after working nonstop for 20 years he took a 2 year break from his professional career in order to perform the community work which he had not been able to do due to his work commitments. 8) Should you include your hobbies or interests in a resume? If the hobbies and interest add value to the resume than I recommend including them. If not leave them out. (Remember to target everything on your resume to the position you are going for) 9) How long does a resume have to be? Resume writing is not an exact science and there is no exact answer. A standard resume will be between 2-3 pages. This is also dependent on the stage of the career a candidate is currently at. For example a graduate or young professional will typically want to have a 2 page resume. A more senior candidate may need 3-4 pages to include all of their achievements and work history. 10) Do you need to include your whole employment history or should you list only the positions relevant to the role advertised? This answer is different for every candidate. Obviously a student or graduate will have fewer positions to include than a senior executive and therefore although a certain job may not be relevant to the position which they are applying for it does show the reader that they have work experience. A senior executive can afford to be more targeted and include positions related to the role.

The best way to market your career for employment is through your resume. It is your first point of contact and first impression, and in today's society first impressions count! If you want to get noticed and to leave an impact, your executive resume needs to be written perfectly and professionally. In accordance with the human resources experts, there are five basic concepts on how to write the executive resume. An executive resume must be able to market your skills and highlight your qualifications and experience. As an executive, it is expected that you are able to perform the duties and responsibilities. It is also expected that you have the experience in this type of role, and therefore simply listing your basic duties is not enough to stand out as an executive. The executive resume must focus on the intangible skills that you can bring to the job and it needs to reflect your visions and skills. Before you sit down to write your resume, imagine that you are the person reading it. So, this implies that you need to put yourself in the shoes of an employer. For every job application, your resume needs to be targeted and directly written towards the job you are applying for. If there is a great emphasis on leadership, then the executive resume needs to highlight leadership examples and areas of your past work history where you displayed leadership, supervision and managerial expertise to lead and guide employers. Using examples and quantifiable numbers will aid your resume. Rather than a broad statement such as "exceeded sales targets on a monthly basis", turn this statement into an accomplishment statement that uses evidence to back up the statement: "Exceeded sales targets by 25% over a 12 month period while working in highly competitive markets, leading to an overall increase in expected revenue by $100,000" The ten steps in drafting the perfect executive resume Step 1: The first step is to read through the job vacancy profile and begin to draft job objectives. Of course, they must be responsive to the position you are applying for Step 2: Identify what knowledge, skills, and experiences will suit the job position best Step 3: Create a shortlist of your qualifications and experiences that will reflect your suitability for the position Step 4: Draw from your past experiences and search for accomplishments that prove you can effectively perform the job responsibilities Step 5: Elaborate on your brief accomplishments that emphasize your abilities in handling the position you are applying for. It is also very important to emphasize how your work has benefited your previous employers Step 6: Prepare your work history in chronological order, emphasizing your achievements. Concentrate on areas of how you added value to that positions (increased profit, reduced costs, implemented a new proposal, increased accuracy, project work, employee development, leadership initiatives, awards and recognition). Step 7: Don't forget to list your educational qualifications, especially those that are relevant to the position. As an executive you have probably completed relevant training courses or leadership workshops that will further aid your resume application Step 8: Presentation is crucial and the key is consistency! Step 9: Target your resume with relevant information that will aid you in getting the job. At the executive level, the hiring manager is looking at your overall history - the tangible and intangible elements that make you an executive who can lead the business forward in a positive way. As mentioned previously, employers are looking for more than just work history when making personnel decisions at the executive level Step 10: Don't forget to use strategic keywords throughout your resume and even include 10-12 keywords to highlight your key skills. Examples of strategic keywords include: Strategic & Tactical Planning, Relationship Management, Employee Development, New Business Development, Team Building, Training and Mentoring, Client Vendor Relations, Account Retention, Lead Generation, Presentation & Negotiation.

It's no secret that the job application process has changed significantly in the past 10 years. Applicants used to send hard copies of their resumes and cover letters to hiring managers via email or fax, but most jobs today are posted online and applications are sent to hiring managers via email. Applications still consist of cover letters, but the format of cover letters has changed a little bit in the online revolution. Cover letters used to be written in a standard letter format, and while this standard format is still widely accepted today and is by no means wrong, a lot of people are adapting their cover letters to complement the use of email in the application process. One thing I always encourage people to do is to place their cover letter in the body of their email in addition to attaching a copy. I suggest this for 2 reasons. One, it speeds up the process for the recruiter (as they will only have to open up one attachment instead of two) and two, it helps eliminate the possibility (in the recruiter's mind) that your email could be spam. Think about it - if you received an email with attachments, you would be more likely to open the attachments if there were some personalized text in the body. There will also be times where the recipient is unable to open your resume attachment, and they are much more likely to respond and request another copy if there is some text in the body of your email. I do also suggest that you ALSO include a copy of your cover letter as an attachment just in case the recruiter would like to print it and show it to people. In the grand scheme of things, these suggestions seem pretty minute, but with the competition as high as it is right now, why not pull out all the stops?

I recently spoke to the hiring manager of a major accounting firm who told me they can receive in excess of 500 professional resumes for a single job. She told me that reading through every resume is almost impossible, and therefore she makes her decisions within the first 10-15 seconds of opening the resumes. If she didn't screen resumes this way, it would literally take her days upon days to read through every single application. How to reduce 500 resumes down to the top 20 Presentation is important when it comes to resume writing. When you're reading through 500 resumes you don't want to have to search through resumes with a fine-tooth comb to find certain answers. Weird fonts, pictures and graphics make the resume harder to read and therefore increase the chance of it getting deleted. Bullet points, for example, are far easier to read than long drawn out sentences. What you need to include on your professional resume • Relevant skills • Employment history • Industry experience (depending on the job) • Measurable accomplishments • Professional presentation and layout How to ensure your resume will be deleted • Long drawn out sentences for job duties and responsibilities • Irrelevant information • Lack of dates (don't make the reader have to guess) • Lack of professionalism (if the resume looks like it's been written in 10 minutes, it says a lot about the candidate) • Spelling mistakes Distinguishing between a resume that was written by a professional resume writer vs. a resume that had been written by the candidate When you read through enough resumes, it's obvious to pick out the ones that have been written by a professional resume writer. Most of it has to do with the presentation and the format. From a hiring manger's perspective we are only interested in the information contained within the resume. We are only concerned with hiring the right person and with what they can bring to our business. Final Point With competition for jobs at a peak and with online job portals in greater demand than ever before, having a professionally written resume can assist in the job seeking process. The resume is one of the most important documents you will ever write as it can potentially change your life. Just remember the golden rule. Your resume is a marketing document and needs to sell your skills. Once you have achieved this you are halfway towards your new job.