I’ve read many resumes in my day and I’ve attended many resume writing workshops if you will. My only conclusion is that there is no right way to write a resume. Well that’s not the only conclusion I’m clearly going to elaborate.

A resume is ultimately evaluated by a person not machine and people by nature are subjective. Certain things will pique our interest. The number one pointer out there is “quantify your resume”, which is a very valid point but does not guarantee moving to the next step in the process. If you were evaluating resumes would you have a check list of all the pointers out there that should be included? That’s what I thought.

Next item on the table, “don’t pigeon hole yourself”. Is this really a bad thing? It depends, it always depends. Is there something specific you are looking for? What level in an organization would you like to be? These are only a few questions to consider. When I look at a resume I ask myself are there transferable skills? And more specifically I’m looking for something that stands out. Play around with the format. Don’t make the reader dig out important information (oh no I just put out another “pointer”).  When I read a broad or general resume I’m not sure what the individual is looking for. Having different resumes if never a bad thing, let’s face it you don’t provide the same cover letter with every application do you? If you do that’s a whole different conversation.