Tips for Employment Success

1. Choose a job target (also called a job objective). An actual job title that works best.
2. Find out what skills, knowledge, and experience are needed to do that target job.
3. Make a list of you 3 or 4 stronger skills or abilities of knowledge that makes you a good candidate for the target jobs.
4. For each key skill, think of several accomplishments from your past work history that illustrate that skill.
5. Describe each accomplishment in a simple powerful, action statement that emphasizes the results that benefited your employer.
6. Make a list of the primary jobs you have held, in chronological order. Include any unpaid work that fills a gap or that shows you have the skill for the job.
7. Make a list of your training and education that are related to the new job you want.
8. Choose a resume format that fits your situation-either chronological or functional. (Functional works best if you are changing fields, chronological works best if you are moving up in the same field.)
9. Arrange your action statements according to the format you chose.
10. Summarize your key points at or near the top of your resume.

By Joyce Cerubo

Philadelphia Daily News, Nov. 4, 1998, p. 53.