A Qualifications Brief instantly sets you apart from everyone else

If there is one document that will separate you from the masses of people who are submitting their resumes to prospective employers it's the qualifications brief.

Resumes give a brief overview of a persons work history and educational background. Resumes include jobs held perhaps with some job descriptions and accomplishments. While some formats may differ the information is fairly standard. the largest section nearly always explains a persons job history.
A qualifications brief on the other hand is designed specifically to get an interview.

At the top of the Q Brief you should have your name , address and phone number. This immediately gives the prospective employer the most basic information that he or she needs.

First section - "Record of Success"

This is where you are selling yourself - do not be modest! Use a bullet format with short sentences. Items like awards, attendance records, customer reactions and compliments are used in this section.

Next section - "Educational Accomplishments"

Anything relevant to this job.

Next section - "Extra-curricular Accomplishments"

Anything that shows you are a responsible person.

Next section - "Awards"

Any award you have ever received.

Next section - "Other Facts"

This is where you would show anything else that shows you are a good candidate for the job.

Next section - "Interests and Hobbies"

Anything that shows you are a team player.

Why take the time to create a Qualifications Brief?

Reason #1 - Most of your competition will not have one.

Reason #2 - It demonstrates you have the skills, personality traits, and record of success the employer is looking for.

At this point you may be saying...

"What if I don't have a lot of skills and success that I can highlight on a qualifications brief?"

Guess what?

Everyone, including you has things that he or she is good at and accomplishments he or she has earned.

All you have to do is take some time to dig them out of your memory banks. List them - then incorporate them into your qualifications brief.

Rules of Road

You should always have one when you apply for a job, ANY job, and it should focus on the needs of the employer.

A well crafted qualifications brief clearly shows you have the

* Character
* Personality Traits
* Background

to meet the employers needs.

If you take the time to design your qualification brief just right the prospective employer says to themselves -

"This is just the type of person we are looking for."

Have you ever submitted a resume or CV to an employer and not received a call for an interview?

It's frustrating and leaves you wondering what you did wrong.

Remember that your resume/CV and cover letter are the first things that an employer will see - they are the first impression your potential employer has of you, so make them good.

Here are 10 top tips on writing a resume or CV. Follow these simple guidelines and you will improve your chances of getting a call inviting you to an interview.

Tips For Writing A Resume Or CV

1. Upon first glance is the resume or CV easy to read?
Always use BLACK ink to print a resume.
Use a standard font such as Arial or Times New Roman.
The font size should be no smaller than 10, but no larger than 12
2. Use a good quality resume paper for your resume.
Do not use your typical white paper.
A good color choice in paper would be a light off-white or cream paper
3. Run spell-check and correct any grammatical, punctuation, or spelling errors!
Have someone else read your resume if you do not have spell-check.
4. State previous job history in chronological order starting with most recent job first.
State Company name.
State your title.
State length of employment.
State responsibilities or duties.
If there are any large gaps in between jobs, explain them.
Concentrate on skills and achievement relevant to the position you are applying for.
5. Does your resume objective sell you? A good resume objective should state:
The job you're applying for.
Why you're the best candidate.
What you can bring to the company.
6. Keep your resume as short as possible.
If possible keep it to one page but not more than two pages.
You can make a statement that further information is available upon request or refer to an appendix for less relevant information.
7. Be honest.
Do not profess skills you do not have.
Do not exaggerate lengths of employment to cover up gaps.
8. Make sure it's relevant.
Tailor your resume or CV to each job you're applying for. Employers like to see you have singled their job out particularly.
9. Make sure to follow instructions.
If an employer requests a resume via regular mail, email, faxed, etc. submit your resume as requested.
10. In your cover letter make sure you make mention of the specific job you are submitting a resume for.
Keep your cover letter short and to the point.
State the position for which you are applying for and where you saw it.
Make a statement such as "I have" such and such experience.
Make a statement such as "I can" do such and such for your company.
Make a statement such as "I am" looking for a position that ...
Make a closing statement thanking the employer for their time and saying you look forward to hearing from them.

If you follow these simple guidelines when writing a resume or CV, you will present yourself in a favorable way. Employers are looking for employees that can stand out above the rest of the applicants that are vying for the same position. By catching their eye with a professional, relevant and interesting resume, and presenting the facts in a way that the employer does not have to search for them, you are showing the employer that you take pride in your work. This is what every employer wants.

Resume writing tips for the chronological resume should take aim at a particular position/skill set. A chronological resume is the type of resume that you probably use now or have used in the past. It is used when applying for a job where your job history matches the target and shows a sensible progression of career steps.

Although employers never hire resumes - they hire people - a good resume, if constructed and used properly, can be a great tool to showcase your relevant experience to the target market. And that is the goal of the chronological resume. The resume is meant to grab the attention of the employer regarding your qualifications so they will call you for an interview. Employers want to know what you did that yields results. Employers are always looking for what sets you apart from the stack of 40 other resumes sitting on their desk. Don't try to be all to all or you will find yourself editing your resume every two days!

Resume writing tips that grab the attention of the employer in a chronological resume include:

Resume Writing Tip #1 - Like the functional resume, a chronological resume uses an objective. It should clearly state your purpose and target. The objective should be about the value you can bring to the company not your expectations about opportunities the company may be able to offer your career!

Resume Writing Tip #2 - Show qualifications that you can bring to the organization. Communicate the knowledge, skills and abilities you can provide to perform the duties of the job. Show how you can benefit the employer and be successful in this position. Let the resume highlight your uniqueness. Your combined assets, abilities, talents, experience and education are not like anyone else's.

Resume Writing Tip #3 - A resume should not be an exaggeration of skills or an unorganized clump of job descriptions all printed on quality paper. With new and improved ways to check background information, it is important that only the facts are stated and no exaggerations. A discovered exaggeration could mean loosing the opportunity to move further in the recruiting process.

Resume Writing Tip #4 - In the overall look of the chronological resume, here are several general tips:

* The resume should not show or state height, weight, whether you're married or single, a smoker or non-smoker or wiling to relocate.
* Clean up any typing errors or grammatical errors. Find someone to proof read the resume.
* The resume should be neat, clearly written and inviting to read.
* The resume should be no more than two pages in length with the most important information on page one.
* The resume should show the length of employment for each position. Break it down to the actual month and year you started and left each position.

So to summarize resumes, they have two goals - to be a statement of purpose and proof that you are capable of accomplishing that position. Networking will almost always outperform mass mailing so take aim! Network to make the right connections and stay focused on what you can do for the employer - not what they can do for you.

Reason 1: The Cost For That Resume Is Significant

Unless you learn how to make a resume, it will cost you lots of money for a skill that you really need to know first-hand. With the right reference materials, the essentials of resume writing can be learned in an hour or two. I offer an excellent book on this topic at my website, if I may say so myself. Of course, as you know, you can also visit almost any bookstore to find several other books that will bring you up to speed.

In the end, you should expect to pay between $100 and a few hundred dollars for an experienced resume writer to write a resume for you. You can find advertisements that post a lower price, but the saying "you get what you pay for" applies here, too. After all, the professional resume writer wants to make a good living, too. If the cost to you is exceptionally low, chances are it will be farmed out to a less experienced writer.

Reason 2: It Will Cost You Even More Money Later

Let's say that you pay someone to prepare your resume for you. A bit painful to your pocketbook, but maybe not so bad depending on your budget. The problem is, in today's highly competitive job market, you will need to do everything you can to increase your odds at landing a job favorable to your career. That includes tweaking and tuning your resume as the situation dictates.

As an example, let's say at your current job you have been called on to handle a wide range of tasks - and you have carried them out exceptionally well. The problem is, you may not want to list all of those responsibilities in a single resume. That might give the impression that you are not focused on any particular expertise and that may put you at a disadvantage. Better to research what skill sets and what role the company you are interested in is looking to fill. Then, tune your resume accordingly. Takes more time? Yes. Gets better results? Absolutely.

If you paid to have someone write your resume the first time, you will no doubt lack the confidence to make significant changes to fit each situation. Sometimes you may just need a tweak - and you will handle that. Other times, it may take some serious changes to put your background and capabilities in the most favorable light. Going back to the professional writer to get this done each time is going to cost you!

Also, don't forget cover letters. This the single best way to showcase how you would fit each job opportunity. Even if you decide to stick with one version of your resume, each cover letter must be customized to be effective. Here again, you will start to feel pain in your bank account if you don't master the skills to tailor your own resume and cover letters accordingly.

Reason 3: You Will Have To Do Most Of The Work Anyway

Even the best professional resume writer is not a mind reader. He or she cannot assemble the raw materials - the details of your background - without significant input from you. What you will soon discover is that this can be the most time consuming task of all. In other words, you are going to be put to work by the resume writer. And among the resume writing stages and tasks, this fact collection process can be the most time consuming.

So, let's see...you will wind up doing the grunt work of collecting and organizing the "raw materials" for writing your resume. Then, you are going to pay someone else the big bucks to turn it into a concise summary. Not that great of a trade-off, if you ask me.

Reason 4: You Know Yourself - The Resume Write Does Not

Speaking of mind readers, who knows you better than you know yourself? You will have to convey your career aspirations, your likes and dislikes, your motivations, etc. This may take some deep thinking and reflection on your part. So here again, the burden is on you to shape this into your career objectives...all so the resume writer can simply summarize this critical information in a few bullet points.

Reason 5: You Need To Know Exactly What Is On Your Resume And Why

Obviously, you know what is on your resume, right? Not necessarily if you had someone else write it and you don't review it very carefully. Keep in mind that many facts large and small went into the shaping of your winning resume. When the time comes to sit in front of a hiring manager for a face-to-face interview, you should not be hesitant about which facts made it onto your resume and which ones did not. Chances are your words will not be in sync with your written resume if you are not thoroughly familiar with exactly what your resume says. The best way to be on top of those details is to write your resume for yourself.

Don't put yourself at a disadvantage, learn the art of writing a good resume now!

There is no doubt that our current economy is a little scary to say the least. Companies are laying off in mass numbers while gas, food, and energy costs are reaching record highs. It can be very difficult to maintain sanity in the midst of such uncertainty, let alone think about finding a job. But with responsibilities like bills and family always present, one must learn to keep pushing forward.

If you're trying to find a job in our unsettling job market, you may feel less than excited about your prospects. However, you can find a job...and a good one at that. You just have to develop the right attitude, and an even better resume.

Make Yourself More Marketable

With layoffs on the rise, more people are competing for the same job. So in order to make yourself more marketable, you'll need to perfect your resume. This means, no spelling or grammatical errors. You'll also need to make sure your skills stand out above the rest.

One way you can do this is by conducting thorough research on the company and position to illustrate how you can enhance their goals. When describing your skills, try using action-oriented words like designed, marketed and researched, instead of phrases like "responsibilities included." And also focus on specific achievements, like how much money you made at your previous company, and on which projects, to help employers assess your skill level.

Consider Economic Growths, Declines, and Specific Regions

Before you even apply for a job, it's good to look at which business areas are growing, which are declining, and how your region is fairing economically. For example, a May 2008 Newsweek article reported that finance and accounting, engineering, technology and science are seeing growth, while construction, manufacturing, and automotive seem to be declining. In the same article, it noted that Midwest jobs may be on the decline due to its strong construction focus, while cities like New York, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, and Dallas may see a rise due to their professional focus.

After you conduct your research, if you find your field isn't negatively impacted by the economy, you may still want to conduct more research to learn details such as whether managers and administrators, or hourly employees, are keeping or losing jobs. And if things aren't going so well in your industry, you might consider a slight career shift, such as moving from software development to hardware networking, or even switching cities. That is if the prospects for long-term employment seem more promising.

Maintain the Right Attitude

In this economy, it is important to keep a positive attitude about your career prospects. Because the fact of the matter is, if there is a job available, someone must eventually fill the role. So why couldn't it be you? You are just as qualified for the job as you were before the economy worsened. So try not to let the economy's current state negatively affect your job search.

Under stable conditions, getting on track career-wise requires strong determination. But in a weak economy, it takes more. So take time to perfect your resume, conduct extensive research on your field, and keep a positive attitude. You will see that despite the economy, you'll be able to thrive.

Hiring managers are a harried bunch. I know because I am one.

In addition to their day-to-day responsibilities, they have to read resumes and interview people whenever they have an opening to fill. And this is becoming increasingly more time consuming with the advent of online job sites and electronic applications. It is much easier today for applicants to electronically apply and electronically send a resume, rather than going to the trouble and expense of mailing a paper application.

This means that hiring managers are reading more resumes per opening than ever before, which means we see more bad resumes than ever before. It should thus come as no surprise that a hiring manager will very quickly put your resume in the "to be shredded" stack if you commit any of the following resume sins.

More Than Two Pages in Length

Even if you are a seasoned executive with many years of experience, you should be able to keep your resume to two pages or less. Remember: your resume should only go back 10 years with your job history, and you should include only your most relevant experience and accomplishments. The purpose of the resume is to get you an interview, so keep it succinct and make every sentence powerful.

In fact, many hiring managers won't read past the second page of your resume anyway, and they certainly don't care much about experience that is more than ten years in the past. They want to know what you've done recently and they don't want you to take several pages to tell them.

Actually, unless you truly are a seasoned executive, you should be able to keep your resume to one page. This forces you to ruthlessly cut out the unimportant details and focus on your best traits. This is what makes a powerful resume and this is what gets interviews.

Remember: resumes three pages or more in length frustrate hiring managers and have a high likelihood of a short trip to the shredder.

Using Colored Paper and Other Cute Tricks

Whenever I receive a paper resume that is printed on colored paper, or heavy cardboard-like paper, or printed using several different colors, I automatically think of one word: "unprofessional".

True professionals do not rely on tricks to get their resume read. They spend their time tailoring their resume for that specific job and let a clean, well-written format do their selling.

Yes, there are some creative type positions where this sort of thing may be appreciated, but even then you still must have the experience and qualifications for the job. For all other positions, these cutesy resume tricks will simply start you off with one strike against you.

Here's the bottom line: Use 20 pound, good quality white paper for your resume. Use black ink only and at the most two typefaces. This makes your resume look professional and will get the hiring manager's attention far better than colored paper and rainbow ink.

Little White Space and No Bullets

There are few things that will make a hiring manager cringe more when reading a resume than long paragraph after long paragraph, with no space or bullets to break it up.

This sends a signal that you were too lazy to spend the time recapping your experience and skills for the hiring manager. Instead, the hiring manager has to plow through long narratives trying to uncover those qualifications that may match the job opening. Most of the time, these long, wordy resumes don't get completely read and seldom result in an interview.

If you want to catch the hiring manager's attention, you have to make your resume easy to read and easy to see what are your significant qualifications and experience. Don't make the hiring manager dig for this. You should have far more bullets than paragraphs, and never have paragraphs longer than three sentences. This shows you respect the reader's time and will get your story across far better.

Bad Grammar and/or Spelling

This should go without saying and is certainly included in every article ever written about how to make a resume. In spite of this, I will see at least two out of ten resumes with serious grammar or spelling errors.

While you may say that this shouldn't matter unless you're applying for a job as a writer, it does. Bad grammar and spelling demonstrates one of two things: either you have poor writing skills, or you were simply too lazy and careless to properly proofread your resume. Either way, you look bad.

If you are not an excellent writer, and many of us aren't, then have your resume proofread and corrected by someone who is. It's surprising how many hiring managers are absolute sticklers when it comes to grammar and spelling and won't read past the first or second mistake before (you guessed it!) sending your resume to the shredder.

It is a mistaken belief that the interview ends as soon as you wish the panel good-bye and get out of the room. For an interview to be truly successful, some measure of follow up is necessary. And what better way to follow up than a well written thank you letter!

True, it is the age of the internet and the mobile phone. Yet, an e-mail is impersonal and official in nature, and a phone call is too run-off-the-mill. A personally written thank you letter will provide the much needed personal touch. Hiring managers across the board tell that a thank you letter is very much noticed and remembered, just because it is so very rarely received! It is the perfect method to influence your interviewer after you have left the interview.

Besides this, a thank you letter gives you the following advantages-

1) A thank you letter is used to express appreciation and reiterate your interest in the position.

2) Besides demonstrating your courtesy and professionalism, it reminds the employer that you are genuinely interested in the position. This is very important, since it is logical for the employers to believe that a person will perform better if he is really interested in the position.

3) If the employer is considering more than one person for the position, a good thank you letter can help influence them in your direction. If they have already decided in your favor, it will endorse that they have made the right choice.

But before you sit down to draft a thank you letter and dash it off, take care about a few things-

1) A thank you letter should be sent immediately after the interview, preferably within 24 hours.

2) It should be addressed to a specific person. Don't address it to "Dear HR Manager". Take care to collect the interviewers' business card and other contact information at the time of the interview only.

3) An informal hand-written written letter will create a much better impact than a faxed letter or an e-mail.

4) Follow impeccable professional standards. Use good quality stationery. Avoid use of emoticons and shorthand.

5) KISS. Yes. Keep It Short and Simple. Avoid verbosity, use simple words.

These days, even a single good vacancy will attract hundreds of applications, and many candidates are interviewed for the position. A well written thank you letter will create the much needed personal connection with the interviewer, and will pitch for you long after you have left the interview. So, the next time you complete an interview, come back home, and send a thank you letter to the panel. See the difference for yourself. Wish you all the best!

The first thing you need to do if you want to know how to write a resume is know what a resume is and what it is supposed to do for you. Simply put, a resume is a summary of professional experience and personal information that serves to market you to a prospective employer. It is supposed to introduce you, justify your application and elevate your application status to having an interview with that employer.

There are a few things you need to know on how to write a resume. First of all, you need to know what its contents are. Basically, you need to include a statement of your career objective, your contact details and personal profile, your educational background, your employment history and a qualifications summary. You may also include a list of character references, your interests and hobby, and a formal ID picture. Second, you should know how to organize the information you have. You may use a chronological format, where you write the information in reverse chronological order, or a functional format where the information most relevant to the position you wish to be considered for front the resume regardless of when they were attained. Third, you need to know how to layout your resume. There should be the main header with your full name and contact details, then sub-headers for every other category. You should be mindful of margins and indents, as well as of typographical details and spacing. Finally, you should not forget to sign your name at the bottom.

Proofread your resume before you submit it. It should be as flawless as possible, for it will make the impression for you. Keep it factual and informative, you do not want to make them believe your capabilities are beyond what you can actually do or to sell yourself short. Knowing how to write a resume is a major accomplishment for anyone who wishes to climb that ladder of career success.

Writing a great resume requires planning, and the ability to bring out the best that the person has to offer. It is a skill and an art, and a science. There are ways to write the resume so that the employer gets to understand the person's strengths and winning attributes from the very first few lines.

Writing a great resume entails an understanding of the employer mindset. As mentioned above, the employer reads a resume in order to find out who among the many applicants for a job can benefit the organization the most. The science helps to structure the resume to make this possible. At the very top of the resume, the potential employer must be able to understand what the person has to offer. He must be able to answer the question - 'Why should I hire you?" right from the very first few lines. Employers screen through maybe thousands of resumes a day, and simply have no time to go through a resume where the value proposition of the person applying for the job is not clear.

Writing a great resume, moreover, also entails making sure that the fundamentals of composition are sound, from the grammar, to the overall formatting and presentation of the resume. The resume must be readable, easy to understand, and easy to navigate through.

There is the science of resume writing, consisting of a winning structure and form, and which covers the fundamentals of good composition. On the other hand, there is also the art and the skill of the craft. Interviewing is part and parcel of the great resume process, and is a valuable and indispensable skill necessary. In the interview, the resume writer gets to understand what the client's motivations and personality are, what makes that person stand out. Those insights then make writing a great resume possible.