The purpose of the resume is to describe your life-work experience to best advantage for the prospective employer. It should be a precise description about accomplishments, skills, and experience so that employers will want to know more in an interview. You may need more than one version for different jobs.

· Contact Information - your name, address, phone number, fax and e-mail.

· Background information in a summary or brief overview.

· Specific accomplishments related to performance on the job and leadership activities in professional, civic, or community affairs.

· List employment experience and education, in reverse order (highest degree or most recent job).

Omit

1. Names and addresses of references. These can be supplied at the interview. Listing "References available on request" is not required it is assumed.

2. Salary information. If requested, include in cover letter.

3. Personal data, such as age, marital status, height, weight, ect. Prospective employers must consider you solely on the basis of your qualifications. It is illegal to request pictures or information related to race, religion or national origin.

4. Personal pronouns. They weaken statements.

5. Objectives narrow your options. Your objective is to get an offer from the company.

Include

1. A generally stated professional summary. It is an overview of what you have done and how you fit the needs of a company. Includes business environment experience, personal characteristics and industry key words.

2. Unpaid experiences as well as paid employment if it is significant, professional, and pertinent to the industry.

3. Resumes placed on Internet sites must follow company format. Avoid bullets, italics, and underlines. Use HTML format.

4. Careful editing to check for typos and grammatical errors. These may suggest to prospective employers that your work is careless.

5. May be more than one page with experience, but not more than two.