Resume Preparation

Drafting a resume that adequately and accurately represents your experience and skills can be a difficult process. Even if you chose a professional to write your resume on your behalf you must provide them with the necessary tools to enable them to produce a document that reflects your work history and potential.

It is not enough to think simply in terms of duties, you must demonstrate achievements and successes to date in your career.

Make a comprehensive list of your achievements, skills, attributes, experience, personal characteristics, strengths, qualifications and professional affiliations. Some of these you will find easier than others, qualifications and membership of professional affiliations speak for themselves so simply provide the relevant information.

Detailing your work experience takes a little more time and effort particularly for people who have held various positions over a long period of time. Don’t be put off by the work involved because it will pay off once you have produced an effective resume.

Be thorough in detailing the aspects of your role that make up your daily routine. It is far easier to omit information later on as you begin the process of creating your resume.

Detailing your achievements can be a more difficult part of the process as more often than not modesty prevents us from shouting about our successes and talents. While we do not promote hype or creative writing when representing your achievements you can do more damage through excessive modesty. Structure your resume so that you effectively promote your accomplishments including those achieved outside of the work environment.

Interviews will bring aspects of your personal life into play and you will strengthen your profile considerably through use of illustrations and examples of the personal successes achieved through community or sporting activities amongst others.

As you list your duties, responsibilities and achievements take a moment to analyze the personal qualities and aptitudes that contributed to these successes. Very often job seekers undersell themselves on skills and personal strengths.

The following list of skills will assist you in your preparation:

People Skills Oral Presentations at meetings Negotiating skills Foreign Languages Organizational skills Counselling Analytical skills Managing Computer skills Mediating Planning skills Training Developing new business opportunities Interviewing Delegation

Remember that while some of these personal characteristics are inherent to your personality others are developed over the progression of your career and are fundamental to your position, a fact that you must demonstrate within in your work history detail as you detail your personal and professional development.