Resume Writing for Experienced Professionals

A resume is a summary of your educational background, employment, volunteer experience, special skills, and any other information that you think helps you become more marketable. An effective resume, while emphasizing what you have gained through past experiences and achievements, is focused on your future work performance. Thus, it should communicate the potential you have to contribute successfully in a new work setting.

As you prepare your resume, think about the impact it has upon the employer. If it is well done, it can communicate your competence and your interest in the position. Conversely, if it is disorganized or has mistakes, it can communicate a lack of willingness to do a job well.

BASIC GUIDELINES FOR YOUR RESUME

Customize your resume for each position.
Emphasize your strengths and accomplishments.
Avoid excess narrative. Write in phrases, leading with action verbs. This eliminates the need to use personal pronouns, like "I" and "my".
Use dates in the experience; however, avoid excessive use of dates in other categories.
Omit salary requirements. If a job announcement asks, include information in your cover letter.
Length should be dictated by the amount of information you have to convey. Never try to crowd two pages of information onto one page.

CONTENT SUGGESTIONS

A resume should promote your individual skills and strengths; however, there are categories of information that employers usually seek and you may wish to include (see below.) Keep in mind that these categories should be added, eliminated, or rearranged based on their relation to your strengths, background, and job objective. Category headings may be changed to meet your needs. Be creative in developing your categories and the headings you give them. For example, you may wish to use "ACADEMIC BACKGROUND" instead of "EDUCATION", or "COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP." Consider specialized categories such as "RESEARCH EXPERIENCE" and "PRESENTATIONS AND PUBLICATIONS."

JOB OBJECTIVE

To maintain flexibility, you may choose to omit an objective on your resume. If not included on your resume, your objective must be included in your cover letter.
Make certain your job objective will enhance your employability. Objectives, which are vague, will not tell an employer what kind of job you are seeking.
Keep your objective short. Typically, you should only address immediate plans in your objective.

PROFILE SECTION

The purpose of the profile section is to inform the potential employer in the fewest words possible who you are and why you are qualified.
Profile sections should focus on hard skills and experiences.
The profile should stimulate the reader's interest and tells the employer what to look for in the remainder of the resume.
A good profile will allow the reader to route the resume to the appropriate hiring person, without reading the entire document.

EXAMPLES OF PROFILE SECTIONS

PROFILE (Management)

Extensive Background in Line Management Positions.
Strengths in Sales, Marketing and Distribution, Supplier Relations, and Customer Relations.

EXPERIENCE SUMMARY (Management)

Strengths include all aspects of operations management: distribution, plant operations, quality assurance, technology management, and labor relations.
Experienced in working closely with executive management team to revitalize operations, motivate staff and maximize productivity.
Success with managing rapid growth and turnaround situations.

PROFILE (Finance)

Skills encompass financial analysis, forecasting, financial management, cash management, accounting control, policy development and implementation. Diversified experience with a major accounting firm. CPA.

QUALIFICATIONS SUMMARY (Finance)

Over 10 years of progressive experience in financial institutions.
Positions required knowledge of total bank operations and involved the hiring, training, supervision and evaluations of employees.
Areas of interest include: commercial lending and business development.

CORE COMPETENCIES (Sales)

Relationship Building - Proven ability to build rapport and develop long-term relationships with existing and prospective clients.
Project Management - Experienced in budgeting, report writing, customer profiling and problem solving.
Organizational Skills - Able to manage multiple tasks simultaneously and complete projects in a timely manner.
Sales Management and Leadership - Skilled in team building, training, development and motivation.

SUMMARY (HR)

Experienced human resource professional with solid skills in HR administration, policy and procedure development, recruiting (traditional and electronic), hiring, training, employee relations, corporate communications, contract management, and affirmative action.
Solid knowledge of state and federal employment/unemployment laws, EEOC, ADA and OSHA regulations.
Proficient with HRIS and Microsoft Office Systems with the proven ability to quickly master new software applications.

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY (Government/Administration)

Senior level administrative and management skills developed through extensive service in the public sector.
Advanced knowledge and exposure to all aspects of city and county government administration and policies.
Skills in program development and direction, budget development and administration, public/community/media outreach and relations.
Excellent trainer, speaker, motivator and team builder.

QUALIFICATIONS SUMMARY (Political Campaign)

Campaign strategy planning with specific emphasis on image development and communications design.
Advanced skills in paid and media management.
Proven experience in design and development of successful grassroots organizations.
Ability to manage a successful campaign on a limited budget.

SYNOPSIS (Healthcare Administration)

Expertise includes strategic and structural contributions in managed care environments, initiation and control of organizational change, initiation of healthcare alliances, negotiation of contracts and memorandums of understanding with clinical and business partners, and knowledge of governmental issues regarding the current healthcare environment.

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE (Healthcare Administration)

Areas of Expertise
Surgical Services/Outpatient Services
Managed Care
Resource Management
Utilization Review/Quality Assurance

EXPERIENCE SUMMARY (Healthcare)

Creative and visionary program development and implementation, including turn-around management when needed.
Collaborative decision-making and consensus building with internal constituents.
Design of programs and policies, which serve marketing priorities as well as cost control and quality assurance goals.
Development of quantitative/qualitative measurement tools to establish statistical control of medical service operations.

AREAS OF EXPERTISE AND EXPERIENCE (Public Relations & Communications)

Strengths include communications project management, excellent written and oral communications skills, and organizational follow-through. Technical skills include proficiency with several publishing software packages and ability to design web pages.

TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERTISE (Computer)

Expertise in needs assessment and programming in several C++ and Visual Basic.
Good working knowledge of PASCAL, Clinical Analysis and SPSS.
Solid experience in database architecture, systems analysis/design and testing.
Experience with MS Windows Server.

EXPERIENCE SECTION

Consider categorizing your experience using headings such as Banking Experience, Sales Experience, International Marketing, Public Accounting Experience, Research Experience, or Public Service Experience.
List jobs in order of interest to the targeted employer. For most professionals with a logical career path, the experience section lists jobs in reverse chronological order.
However, if another chronology will serve you better, reorder the jobs.
Introduce each position with job title, organization name, city, state, and dates of employment.
Describe your responsibilities and achievements, the skills you gained, and the impact you had in your work experiences. Highlight skills that are valuable to employers. List most important job responsibilities first.
Use quantitative descriptions when possible and refer to achievements and accomplishments.
Describe your skills and responsibilities with action verbs and for enhancement, add adverbs.

VERBS
Accomplished Administered Advised Analyzed Appropriated Articulated Collaborated Compiled Conducted Contributed Coordinated Created Designed Developed Devised Directed Edited Ensured Established Evaluated Exceeded Executed Facilitated	Formulated Generated Guided Implemented Improved Increased Initiated Launched Maintained Managed Maximized Negotiated Orchestrated Organized Originated Oversaw Pioneered Planned Prepared Presented Produced Projected Promoted	Provided Published Reconciled Reduced Reorganized Reported Represented Researched Resolved Restricted Revised Schedule Selected Served Spearheaded Strategized Streamlined Structured Supervised Trained Troubleshot Utilized
ADVERBS
Effectively Efficiently Consistently Personally Successfully
EXAMPLES OF QUANTITATIVE/QUALITATIVE STATEMENTS
Plan, manage, and monitor sales campaigns for key markets that generate combined revenues of $13 million per year. Consistently rank in the top 10 of 100+ sales representatives in the Midwest. Trained and mentored inexperienced employees who want on to earn "outstanding" marks on performance reviews. Promoted from entry-level position to store manager within one year. Controlled departmental costs to perform at 10 percent under budget. Implemented tracking systems that increased productivity 20 percent in one year. Created a sales training program that was presented to 350 new sales trainees. Converted manual accounting system to fully computerized system, resulting in a six-figure savings to company. Implemented promotional programs that tripled sales performance within two months. Standardized budgeting and financial reporting for five branch banks. Received _______ Award for ____________________.

EDUCATION

As a rule, the Education Section comes after the Work Experience Section. Exceptions to this rule might be: You went to a name brand school, you have a very recent degree, or you are in medicine or academe.

List your degree, month and year of graduation first, followed by your major(s), minor and any special concentration or emphasis. Complete this information with your institution, city, and state.

CERTIFICATIONS

Include other certification information as appropriate to your education or profession.

Examples would include: CPA, CFA, insurance licenses, health professions licensures or certifications, etc. List only current certifications.

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES, PRESENTATIONS AND PUBLICATIONS

Include memberships, offices held, and other involvement related to your profession. If you have an extensive list of presentations/publications, consider separate categories.

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

List community organizations if you have been an active member. Include offices held, committees, responsibilities, and results of projects and activities. This illustrates leadership qualities and how you spend your time. List significant offices held first.

REFERENCES

Employers are usually considered the most significant references. Their names should not be used, however, until they have agreed to serve as your reference.
List at least three and no more than five references. In most cases, references will be telephoned about your ability to serve in the new position.
Choose your references wisely. Many times a name on your reference list or a conversation with one or your references will be your ticket to the interview.