With the Olympic Games fast approaching, athletes from across the world will all be vying to be the very best in their chosen sport and take home a gold medal. In events such as swimming and athletics it is usually only seconds that separate first and last and with competition so strong, a tiny mistake can often be the difference between winning gold or missing out on a medal. Just as an athlete will have to prepare and train in order to win gold, a job seeker needs to ensure that their resume is worthy of winning a gold medal! Although competition for a job may not be as fierce as competition for a gold medal, the same rules apply. A simple spelling mistake could lead to your resume being deleted and you missing out on your dream job. Preparation is key for any athlete and the same applies for any job seeker. Going online and using an out dated resume template which you complete in 10 minutes will not stand you out from your job seeking competitors. Before you even begin writing your resume, you need to have an understanding of the type of positions you are going to be applying for, and the type of skills and experience that will be required for that particular position. With this understanding, you will be in a far greater position to target your resume towards the types of jobs you are applying for. Market your Skills on Page 1 of the Resume: Reports suggest that hiring managers spend between 10-20 seconds when first reading through your resume. In this short time you need to grab the reader's attention. Introducing a qualifications profile or career summary is a great way to show off your skills to the reader within the first 2-3 lines of the resume. Rather than opening your resume with an objective statement (telling the reader what you want out of the job) -introduce a qualifications profile where you tell the reader the value-added skills that you can offer the business. From a hiring managers perspective which resume would you rather read? Highlight your Achievements: Your resume is your marketing document. Don't be afraid to highlight your achievements, awards, skills and expertise. If you are a manager include how many people you manage. If you received a promotion or award, point these out in the resume. The more quantitative examples you can provide the greater. Remember that your resume may be competing against hundreds of other resumes. Although you may be the most qualified or the most talented, if you are unable to portray your achievements throughout your resume than you greatly reduce your chances of being selected for the interview stage. Just as an athlete needs everything to go right on their day in order to win gold, a job seeker is the same. There is not one most important aspect that makes a professional resume but a lot of smaller details that goes into preparing a gold medal winning resume. Marketing your skills and highlighting your achievements will give you a strong advantage over your competition and help you stand out from the crowd.

If I had a dollar for every resume I saw that did not include "key achievements", I would be a very wealthy resume writer! Failing to include key achievements throughout your resume is a recipe for disaster and will cause your resume to be put straight in the deleted folder and never to be seen again. The job market is competitive, and if you're going to prove to the hiring manager that you are the best candidate for a job, you need to show off every key achievement and skill that will stand you out against all the other job candidates. Remember the golden rule of resume writing - your resume is a marketing document and, as such, needs to market all the great things that you can bring to a potential job. Providing achievements that are backed up with quantitative evidence will guarantee that you will stand out from the other job seekers. The best written resumes adequately sell the person's achievements, skills and personality. Do this correctly and I guarantee that you will find success. What Types of Achievements should you include in your resume? Employers want to know the value you are going to add to the business and therefore want to see examples of your past behaviours to indicate your future behaviours. Types of achievements to include are: • Ways you saved the company money • Examples of how you reduced costs • Examples of new ideas or implementations that resulted in positive outcomes • Special awards or recognitions you received (e.g. voted #1 salesperson for two consecutive years) • Training, hiring, mentoring, leading, managing staff • Resolution of problems or issues that led to a positive outcome • Training courses, seminars, workshops that you successfully completed Tricks and Tips to turn your resume into a selling tool: Use strategic keywords throughout your resume to catch the reader's eye. Strategic keywords will ensure that your resume will be picked up by employers using software programs that help eliminate candidate resumes Go through the job requirements to find out exactly what the employer is looking for in the right candidate and incorporate these directly into your resume. For example, if the job is looking for someone with leadership skills, make sure you provide examples about the leadership you performed either in your past jobs or through community involvement or extra-curricular activities Including responsibilities and duties in your resume are important because it shows the reader what you actually do on a day to day basis. However, in order to take your resume to the next level and stand out against the competition (and get the highest possible salary!), you need to focus on value added achievements.

People look at me strangely when they ask, "Do I really need to use a professional resume writer?" "Come on," they say, "I can easily just write my own resume - what are you going to do that I cannot just do myself?" Of course it's true that anybody can write their own resume. The same is true that anyone can attempt to build a house or change the plumbing or paint some artwork, however in each of these examples you'd prefer to call on an expert because of their specific skills, knowledge and experience in their particular trades. The same can be said of a professional resume writer. How long should a resume be? Should I include a qualifications profile or a career summary? How many duties and responsibilities should I include for my current role? Do I include the same amount of information for all my previous roles and how far back should my resume go? How about questions relating to "soft skills" - should you include information like "volunteered for the Red Cross"? Is this relevant on your resume? How about the fact that you were the football captain at school - is this relevant? Have a look at your resume and see if you have words such as "hard working", "dedicated", "team player", or "loyal" - do these type of words enhance or actually detract from your resume? If you are using these types of words do you think your competitors are as well? And what about achievements - do you have any on your resume? Is a hiring manager going to take one look at your resume and be impressed with your past experiences, skills and success? Have you mentioned initiatives you introduced to the business or awards you have won? This is what a professional resume writer can do for you. They can open doors to get that interview. Remember - resume writing is not about reinventing the wheel, it is about ensuring that you adequately highlight everything that is required to make sure that your resume is selected and you are given the chance to present yourself in the interview. Once you make it to the interview you have the opportunity to prove to the hiring manager how good you really are. Without a professional resume you may never get this chance.

One of my favourite books is the "The E Myth Revisited" written by Michael Gerber. In the book Michael speaks about the marketing strategy. He quotes "In a television commercial, we're told; the sale is made or lost in the first three or four seconds. In a print ads, tests have shown, 75 percent of the buying decisions are made at the headline alone. In a sales presentation, data have shown us, the sale is made or lost in the first three minutes" Same is true for your resume - Reports suggest that a hiring manager will spend no more than 10 seconds reading through your resume before deciding to read on or delete. Less and less time is being spent reading a persons resume. In today's society, hiring managers are more interested in eliminating candidates before they begin their pursuit of finding the perfect candidate. When it comes to writing your resume, remember the golden rule of highlighting your achievements and putting them on the front page. No matter how good your achievements, skills, experience and knowledge if the hiring manager has not found them within 10 seconds than your resume will be deleted - and once it is deleted from the inbox it will never be read again. Your resume is a marketing document - it's your marketing tool to sell yourself. First impressions count for a lot and if your resume is being deleted than it will be impossible for you to get the job Do the small things right and your already half way there to your new job!

How good is your current resume or CV? The first stage you need to go through in order to secure a new job is resume selection. Without a powerful resume that has been properly formatted, presented and written to effectively target your key skills and achievements, your job search may take a lot longer than you first anticipated. Remember your resume is a marketing document, a compelling reason to interview you. Find below 15 resume questions: Let's find out where your resume rates: • Does your resume flow, enabling a reader to easily understand your career history? • Have you provided achievements throughout your resume? • Are your achievements backed up with evidence? • Have you included your Key Skills? • Is your resume written in chronological order - complete with dates, job titles, job positions etc? • Is your resume targeted toward the job you are applying for? • Is your resume the right length? (Or is it too short or too long?) • Have you matched your skills and achievements to the job you are applying for? • Have you used Keywords? • If a hiring manager was to read your resume would they be inspired to want to interview you? • Is your resume correctly structured and formatted? • Is your current resume visually appealing? • Do you believe that your current resume will stand out from the competition and give you the greatest opportunity of getting the job? • Does your cover letter introduce and compliment your resume? • If you apply for an online job that typically can attract between 100-300 applications, will your resume be in the top 10%? Give yourself a point for every time you answered "yes". Did you receive a score above 12? A score of 12 or above will put your resume in the top 20%, and gives you a good chance of finding employment. But don't forget that typically your resume needs to be better than just the top 20% - it needs to be in the top 10%