Resume rules abound! You’ve read them on the internet sites – make your resume one page, use only Arial or Times New Roman fonts, don’t list any specifics – leave those for the interview, never have someone else write your resume, you must have a graphic resume to grab attention, use colour, don’t use colour, [...]

Seth Godin, author of business and marketing books and prolific blogger, recently wrote: “Headlines matter now more than they ever did. Headlines provoke and introduce. They cajole and they position. No headline, no communication. If you want to communicate (your resume, your trustworthiness, your graciousness) you need to be sure your headline is compelling, accurate [...]

In the past, opening your resume with something to the effect of, “Seeking a position as an engineer” may have gotten you a job in your field. But today, focusing your resume solely around you probably won’t yield such great results.

Did you know that most job applicants don’t understand the purpose of a resume? The purpose of your resume is not to get you a job, it is to get you an interview. You can sabotage your very first impression by including too much in your resume. So what should you cut out? The answer may surprise you.

When creating your résumé, you may struggle with how to address a gap in your employment. While it’s critical to be honest on your résumé, there are steps to help draw attention to your work experience or abilities and away from your time spent out of the workforce. It’s also important to remain confident. If you dwell on your unemployed time, you’re not focusing on the skills and abilities you bring to the workplace. Keep in mind that most people understand that having a blank spot in your résumé isn’t inconceivable, life happens and sometimes that life takes you away from work. Here are three tips to handling a gap in your résumé.

Your resume is the primary branding tool to introduce and position yourself to the professional world. It is, quite simply, the most financially important document you will ever own: when your resume works you work, when it doesn’t you don’t. Properly executed, a carefully branded resume insures that prospective employers and colleagues see you, as you want to be seen. Short-change the effort you put into your resume and you cheat employment and future success.

Your resume is an awesome tool. In your job search, you use your resume for just about everything. Between blindly submitting it to various companies and passing it along to a friend of a friend, your resume goes through a lot.

Your paper resume works hard already, but what about your online resume? You pass it out to potential employers, but how else do you use it? Simply having your resume online does wonders for your SEO (search engine optimization) by linking professional keywords to your overall brand.
Check out these four nifty online places your resume can live:

Most job-seekers like to list skills on their resume. In fact, most experts suggest listing skills on your resume. The problem with simply including a skill set is that the reader has no reason to believe you. You could say that you’re an expert in hiring, training, sales management, payroll control, visual presentation, and loss prevention, but that doesn’t mean the reader will trust you just because you say it. That’s why it’s important to back up those statements with proof in the way of accomplishments.

Does your resume or online profile tell the world all about you? Does it sell your skills? Are you using key words that help it stand out in a search? Have you defined your brand? If not, now is the time to do it.
I put my website into a tool called Wordle, which creates word pictures based on key words.