A resume is a summary of academic or work history or experience, not a litany of irrelevancy. Let’s make sure we all are in agreement on that right now. Good.
Given that understanding, powerful resumes are written with impact in the least amount of words. Power words, or… action verbs makes clear the value of the candidate without confusion or obfuscation. Stop! Make sure you never use that word in your resume.
Examples of Power Statements with action words beginning with the first headings found at or near the top of the resume’s firsts page:
PROFILE STATEMENT
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY
These headings are often confused with or in lieu of an OBJECTIVE heading. The Objective Heading is seldom used anymore since the Job/Title makes it pretty clear what you are applying for. The weepy statements in the Objective Heading became so repeated and overfamiliar through overuse that they became outdated and replaced by a Profile Statement or something similar.
These sections normally are written from about the 10,000 ft. level. Meaning not too detailed, broad in scope very relevant to the job description. Good statements might contain selected comments/ideas of what your business references might say about you.
Examples:
“Proven sales professional who knows how to increase revenue and expand market share.” A recognized top performer in solution sales.”
“Human-capital executive with 10 years of human resource experience, an innovator with a strong history of engineering employee benefits. A revolutionary training and development star.”
Next heading might be one of the following:
SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS
SUMMARY OF SKILLS
SUMMARY OF CORE COMPETENCIES
SUMMARY OF TECHNOLOGY
KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS (What is the word “Key” short for in this heading? Yes….Summary!)
Nothing says who you are more than clearly defined career achievements.
ACTIVE WORDS TO WRITE POWERFUL RESUMES
| Management skills | Communication skills | Technical/Analytical |
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