Consider your audience by researching the company and its industry, and tailoring your résumé to the challenges faced by both. Point out how your talents and training dovetail with the company's needs, so hiring managers can picture you in the job they have available or other opportunities that come up in the future.
Start out with a short professional profile that succinctly draws a picture of your job skills, work ethic and natural abilities that translate into the kind of worker you are. The rest of the résumé should follow suit as it lays out a clear story of your work experience, education and the skills you developed.
Understand that most hiring managers are viewing your job history in a quick sweep. They want to see something that is easily readable. Don't use industry jargon or long sentences that create dense, hard-to-read narratives. Tell your story in bulleted form to create punch. Don't resort to résumé formats that look like a thousand others.
Throughout the résumé, aim for action. Using words like "I was responsible for ..." don't get to the heart of your abilities. Be specific about accomplishments, punctuating them with hard numbers -- increased production, sales figures -- where applicable. Use details to explain your work story. A résumé isn't just about what you've done, but about what you have learned, achieved and produced.
Online portfolio and extracurricular activities can play a role in your résumé
Don't indulge an inclination to show how social media-savvy you are by providing links to personal pages on YouTube or Facebook, because they are just that -- personal. A more professional tool is to have a link to an online portfolio that has visual presence with well-written sections about your accomplishments, career highlights and leadership and work style. Or direct people to your professional biography on LinkedIn or BrightFuse.
At the same time, your extracurricular activities or community service may tell something about the skills you bring to the job. If they show qualities such as organizational ability, leadership potential and creative thinking, list them along with work and educational history to show how you use your talents outside the workplace.
There's never a good reason to lie on your résumé, and any overstatement of job history or academic achievements can easily tarnish your credibility. Routine background checks and online research can so easily expose an untruth that the risk simply isn't worth taking when your integrity is at stake.
The progress you've made in your career shows a prospective employer the kind of direction your work experience has taken. This may be especially necessary for those moving into a new industry, where transferable skills are particularly important. Showing how your job skills are relevant to the requirements of a company's industry, as well as the company itself, is one way to portray yourself as the solution seeker they are looking to hire.