A resume needs to highlight your qualifications and showcase your talents and value.  It cannot simply be a listing of your job duties.  Your resume is a marketing tool to SELL your skills to the company so they want to bring you in for a job interview.  If your resume has worked well for you in the past, that doesn’t mean it will work well in today’s competitive job market.  I spoke with some HR Managers for leading companies in San Diego and whether small or large companies, they used to get 25 to 75 resumes in response to an ad.  Now, some of them are getting up to 500 resumes for one job.  The simple truth is if your resume is too long, not visually appealing or worse, doesn’t have the “right” information in it, you won’t be called for an interview.

A professionally created cover letter and resume will not only contain keywords or buzzwords that a recruiter or computer program is looking for, it will include the keywords with a description that demonstrates your experience and understanding of the subject matter.  The reason for this is that if you have 10 years of experience as a Project Manager your resume needs to focus on your core competencies so that you are not compared to someone just out of school from a certificate program.

Visually, if you have a poorly organized resume, too many font types or sizes, overused italics, bold, underlining, etc, even if your resume is selected to look at, a human won’t want to read it.  Graphics and pictures are rarely recommended as they often cause you to be excluded from a computerized search.

Whether you are seeking a Professional Resume Writer to write your Resume or Curriculum Vitae (CV), whether you need an Entry Level Resume, Professional Mid-Career Resume, Executive Resume or Federal Resume you need to invest in having your cover letter and resume professional written to ensure you are maximizing your time in your job search and investing in yourself and your career.