The Resumé has one primary purpose: to lead to getting a job interview! It is a marketing piece, not a personal history or autobiography. The following suggestions may help make it more effective:

• Keep it brief - one or two pages, with sufficiently wide margins. When posting on the Internet, reduce the line length to four inches to allow most monitors and email systems to print your Resumé attractively without unnecessary extra wrapping of lines.
• A Chronological Resumé that lists the current or most recent job first, dates of employment, title, primary duty and major accomplishments, and then previous positions, is still the easiest to read and understand. A functional Resumé can be used to distract from age implications, job hopping patterns or gaps in employment, but can also be a flag for those very same shortcomings.
• A new "profile/ accomplishment/ keyword" format has been gaining popularity with the increased use of Resumé-scanning software that automatically screens Resumés for inquiries or fills in databases from the data and keywords found in the Resumé. Be sure to use the most commonly used description and spelling for your job titles, software names and other keywords, to make sure the computer picks them all up correctly.
• Do not put your Resumé on the Internet unless you want it available to everyone, including your present employer. Some employers keep an "electronic agent" active that picks up any new Resumé that includes their own company name.
• Omit nearly everything else. But do not forget to give adequate contact information. Do not give phone numbers, email addresses or references you do not want used.
• Your "track record" is important. State specifically how you saved your employer time and/or money. Use action verbs. Use language that the desired reader will respond favorably to - return on assets, improvement in service level, reduction in inventory (by dollars and percentage), total dollars purchased, improvement in profit margin, dollars profit.
• Be meticulously honest, but always accentuate the positives. The entire Resumé loses credibility the moment the reader senses the least bit of ambiguity in the presentation of data such as certification, degrees or unexplained gaps in employment. "Attended Podunk University" is not only interpreted as, "non-degreed", but also as, "read everything else very carefully".

If you are an APICS member, I will be happy to give very general feedback on your Resumé and if you are between jobs you may want to place your Resumé in this chapter's Resumé referral service, described elsewhere in this newsletter. Or, you can call Jon Harvill at 770 952-0009 for more information about this chapter service.