While many of us have long periods of employment, it is quite possible that those of us will face a situation where we will have to leave the workforce. This may be due to being made redundant, because of a disability, illness, maternity, education, or even a challenging job search. Naturally, this will result in gaps in work experience on a job resume. Anybody reading your work history will not have a way of knowing why there is a space in your professional experience just by reviewing your resume. Therefore you will need to give an explanation to why this is.

Tackling gaps in work experience on a job resume need not be considered as an obstacle in getting the position you want, if dealt with correctly and honestly. The first thing is to explain any unaccounted breaks in your work history. If you don't, it may lead the reader to believe that you have something to hide. Therefore, in order to gain the employer's trust it is very important to justify any gaps in your employment history.

When dealing with gaps in work experience on a job resume, any unaccounted period less than three months does not need to be clarified. A time period as short as this isn't seen as being too out of the ordinary, and often goes unnoticed within a resume. Anything longer than this should be addressed in a cover letter or e-mail. Regardless of what the reasons are for not working, long periods need to be accounted for so as to prevent employers drawing their own conclusions.

Life can be unexpected, and so there will be unavoidable situations where you may have extended absences from working life. Any potential employer will understand if you are honest about these gaps. Being straightforward reduces the likelihood of you having to worry about your references being verified, having background checks or being taken by surprise with certain interview questions.

Try to avoid the temptation to leave out months of your employment from your job details. It is far better to give an explanation when dealing with gaps in work experience on a job resume. Even if you've held jobs that you may consider aren't relevant to your desired career choice, include them anyway. In your cover letter, describe why you've taken on positions outside of your field to an employer. Whatever the reasons are for breaks the in your professional history, it's important that you convey a positive attitude in your cover letter and your resume. While you can't change your work history, always remain positive and demonstrate that you've never lost focus on your career.

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When it’s time to assemble your resume or spruce up a cover letter to a potential employer consider adding a few words that will help to create an exciting image of your work experiences in the mind of a potential hiring manager. Don’t just become a needle in the hay stack enhance your presentation with a few the power verbs from the listings below.

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Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for a college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

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No matter how far your career has progressed, you should be able to succinctly sum up what you do every day for anyone who asks. Furthermore, you should be able to summarize in a sentence or two every position you’ve ever held; and that information should be spelled out on your resume. The bullet points showing your achievements won’t impress anyone until they fundamentally understand the nature of the job you held.

For example, a CFO wouldn’t meet someone at a cocktail party and say, “I structure the overall budget for my company, oversee our compliance with SEC filings, manage the entire internal audit process, and ensure our stock continues to produce a profitable dividend for our shareholders.” He would simply say, “I manage all the financial operations for XYZ company.” Then, if it made sense in the context of the conversation, they would provide more details.

When writing your resume, diving right into the details without offering a summary is equally illogical. Therefore, as you’re outlining your previous history, make sure that you’re offering the reader a very broad summary of the nature and purpose of your position—before you start bombarding them with all your impressive accomplishments!

Jessica has a true passion for the job seeker, evidenced by her desire to share everything she can with everyone she can about resume writing and interviewing.

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

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Having a solid and effective resume can greatly improve your chances of landing that dream job. That is beyond discussion. How does one make sure that his resume is top notch and bullet proof, however? There are several websites with tips around the web, but most bring just a handful of them. We wanted to put them all together in a single place, and that is what you will find below: 44 resume writing tips.

1. Know the purpose of your resume

Some people write a resume as if the purpose of the document was to land a job. As a result they end up with a really long and boring piece that makes them look like desperate job hunters. The objective of your resume is to land an interview, and the interview will land you the job (hopefully!).

2. Back up your qualities and strengths

Instead of creating a long (and boring) list with all your qualities (e.g., disciplined, creative, problem solver) try to connect them with real life and work experiences. In other words, you need to back these qualities and strengths up, else it will appear that you are just trying to inflate things.

3. Make sure to use the right keywords

Most companies (even smaller ones) are already using digital databases to search for candidates. This means that the HR department will run search queries based on specific keywords. Guess what, if your resume doesn’t have the keywords related to the job you are applying for, you will be out even before the game starts.

These keywords will usually be nouns. Check the job description and related job ads for a clue on what the employer might be looking for. You can read more about resume keywords on the article Tapping the Power of Keywords to Enhance Your Resume’s Effectiveness.

4. Use effective titles

Like it or not, employers will usually make a judgment about your resume in 5 seconds. Under this time frame the most important aspect will be the titles that you listed on the resume, so make sure they grab the attention. Try to be as descriptive as possible, giving the employer a good idea about the nature of your past work experiences. For example:

Bad title: Accounting
Good title: Management of A/R and A/P and Recordkeeping

5. Proofread it twice

It would be difficult to emphasize the importance of proofreading your resume. One small typo and your chances of getting hired could slip. Proofreading it once is not enough, so do it twice, three times or as many as necessary. If you don’t know how to proofread effectively, here are 8 tips that you can use.

6. Use bullet points

No employer will have the time (or patience) to read long paragraphs of text. Make sure, therefore, to use bullet points and short sentences to describe your experiences, educational background and professional objectives.

7. Where are you going?

Including professional goals can help you by giving employers an idea of where you are going, and how you want to arrive there. You don’t need to have a special section devoted to your professional objectives, but overall the resume must communicate it. The question of whether or not to highlight your career objectives on the resume is a polemic one among HR managers, so go with your feeling. If you decide to list them, make sure they are not generic.

8. Put the most important information first

This point is valid both to the overall order of your resume, as well as to the individual sections. Most of the times your previous work experience will be the most important part of the resume, so put it at the top. When describing your experiences or skills, list the most important ones first.

9. Attention to the typography

First of all make sure that your fonts are big enough. The smaller you should go is 11 points, but 12 is probably safer. Do not use capital letters all over the place, remember that your goal is to communicate a message as fast and as clearly as possible. Arial and Times are good choices.

10. Do not include “no kidding” information

There are many people that like to include statements like “Available for interview” or “References available upon request.” If you are sending a resume to a company, it should be a given that you are available for an interview and that you will provide references if requested. Just avoid items that will make the employer think “no kidding!”

11. Explain the benefits of your skills

Merely stating that you can do something will not catch the attention of the employer. If you manage to explain how it will benefit his company, and to connect it to tangible results, then you will greatly improve your chances.

12. Avoid negativity

Do not include information that might sound negative in the eyes of the employer. This is valid both to your resume and to interviews. You don’t need to include, for instance, things that you hated about your last company.

13. Achievements instead of responsibilities

Resumes that include a long list of “responsibilities included…” are plain boring, and not efficient in selling yourself. Instead of listing responsibilities, therefore, describe your professional achievements.

14. No pictures

Sure, we know that you are good looking, but unless you are applying for a job where the physical traits are very important (e.g., modeling, acting and so on), and unless the employer specifically requested it, you should avoid attaching your picture to the resume.

15. Use numbers

This tip is a complement to the 13th one. If you are going to describe your past professional achievements, it would be a good idea to make them as solid as possible. Numbers are your friends here. Don’t merely mention that you increased the annual revenues of your division, say that you increased them by $100,000, by 78%, and so on.

16. One resume for each employer

One of the most common mistakes that people make is to create a standard resume and send it to all the job openings that they can find. Sure it will save you time, but it will also greatly decrease the chances of landing an interview (so in reality it could even represent a waste of time). Tailor your resume for each employer. The same point applies to your cover letters.

17. Identify the problems of the employer

A good starting point to tailor your resume for a specific employer is to identify what possible problems he might have at hand. Try to understand the market of the company you are applying for a job, and identify what kind of difficulties they might be going through. After that illustrate on your resume how you and your skills would help to solve those problems.

18. Avoid age discrimination

It is illegal to discriminate people because of their age, but some employers do these considerations nonetheless. Why risk the trouble? Unless specifically requested, do not include your age on your resume.

19. You don’t need to list all your work experiences

If you have job experiences that you are not proud of, or that are not relevant to the current opportunity, you should just omit them. Mentioning that you used to sell hamburgers when you were 17 is probably not going to help you land that executive position.

20. Go with what you got

If you never had any real working experience, just include your summer jobs or volunteer work. If you don’t have a degree yet, mention the title and the estimated date for completion. As long as those points are relevant to the job in question, it does not matter if they are official or not.

21. Sell your fish

Remember that you are trying to sell yourself. As long as you don’t go over the edge, all the marketing efforts that you can put in your resume (in its content, design, delivery method and so on) will give you an advantage over the other candidates.

22. Don’t include irrelevant information

Irrelevant information such as political affiliation, religion and sexual preference will not help you. In fact it might even hurt your chances of landing an interview. Just skip it.

23. Use Mr. and Ms. if appropriate

If you have a gender neutral name like Alex or Ryan make sure to include the Mr. or Ms. prefix, so that employers will not get confused about your gender.

24. No lies, please

Seems like a no brainer, but you would be amused to discover the amount of people that lie in their resumes. Even small lies should be avoided. Apart from being wrong, most HR departments do background checks these days, and if you are buster it might ruin your credibility for good.

25. Keep the salary in mind

The image you will create with your resume must match the salary and responsibility level that you are aiming for.

26. Analyze job ads

You will find plenty of useful information on job ads. Analyze no only the ad that you will be applying for, but also those from companies on the same segment or offering related positions. You should be able to identify what profile they are looking for and how the information should be presented.

27. Get someone else to review your resume

Even if you think you resume is looking kinky, it would be a good idea to get a second and third opinion about it. We usually become blind to our own mistakes or way of reasoning, so another people will be in a good position to evaluate the overall quality of your resume and make appropriate suggestions.

28. One or two pages

The ideal length for a resume is a polemic subject. Most employers and recruiting specialists, however, say that it should contain one or two pages at maximum. Just keep in mind that, provided all the necessary information is there, the shorter your resume, the better.

29. Use action verbs

A very common advice to job seekers is to use action verbs. But what are they? Action verbs are basically verbs that will get noticed more easily, and that will clearly communicate what your experience or achievement were. Examples include managed, coached, enforced and planned. Here you can find a complete list of action verbs divided by skill category.

30. Use a good printer

If you are going to use a paper version of your resume, make sure to use a decent printer. Laser printers usually get the job done. Plain white paper is the preferred one as well.

31. No hobbies

Unless you are 100% sure that some of your hobbies will support you candidacy, avoid mentioning them. I know you are proud of your swimming team, but share it with your friends and not with potential employers.

32. Update your resume regularly

It is a good idea to update your resume on a regular basis. Add all the new information that you think is relevant, as well as courses, training programs and other academic qualifications that you might receive along the way. This is the best way to keep track of everything and to make sure that you will not end up sending an obsolete document to the employer.

33. Mention who you worked with

If you have reported or worked with someone that is well known in your industry, it could be a good idea to mention it on the resume. The same thing applies to presidents and CEOs. If you reported to or worked directly with highly ranked executives, add it to the resume.

34. No scattered information

Your resume must have a clear focus. If would cause a negative impression if you mentioned that one year you were studying drama, and the next you were working as an accountant. Make sure that all the information you will include will work towards a unified image. Employers like decided people.

35. Make the design flow with white space

Do not jam your resume with text. Sure we said that you should make your resume as short and concise as possible, but that refers to the overall amount of information and not to how much text you can pack in a single sheet of paper. White space between the words, lines and paragraphs can improve the legibility of your resume.

36. Lists all your positions

If you have worked a long time for the same company (over 10 years) it could be a good idea to list all the different positions and roles that you had during this time separately. You probably had different responsibilities and developed different skills on each role, so the employer will like to know it.

37. No jargon or slang

It should be common sense, but believe me, it is not. Slang should never be present in a resume. As for technical jargon, do not assume that the employer will know what you are talking about. Even if you are sending your resume to a company in the same segment, the person who will read it for the first time might not have any technical expertise.

38. Careful with sample resume templates

There are many websites that offer free resume templates. While they can help you to get an idea of what you are looking for, do not just copy and paste one of the most used ones. You certainly don’t want to look just like any other candidate, do you?

39. Create an email proof formatting

It is very likely that you will end up sending your resume via email to most companies. Apart from having a Word document ready to go as an attachment, you should also have a text version of your resume that does not look disfigured in the body of the email or in online forms. Attachments might get blocked by spam filters, and many people just prefer having the resume on the body of the email itself.

40. Remove your older work experiences

If you have been working for 20 years or more, there is no need to have 2 pages of your resume listing all your work experiences, starting with the job at the local coffee shop at the age of 17! Most experts agree that the last 15 years of your career are enough.

41. No fancy design details

Do not use a colored background, fancy fonts or images on your resume. Sure, you might think that the little flowers will cheer up the document, but other people might just throw it away at the sight.

42. No pronouns

You resume should not contain the pronouns “I” or “me.” That is how we normally structure sentences, but since your resume is a document about your person, using these pronouns is actually redundant.

43. Don’t forget the basics

The first thing on your resume should be your name. It should be bold and with a larger font than the rest of the text. Make sure that your contact details are clearly listed. Secondly, both the name and contact details should be included on all the pages of the resume (if you have more than one).

44. Consider getting professional help

If you are having a hard time to create your resume, or if you are receiving no response whatsoever from companies, you could consider hiring a professional resume writing service. There are both local and online options are available, and usually the investment will be worth the money.

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If you are applying for the position of accountant, then here are some tips that you might find useful when making your resume. Keep in mind that your resume should be appropriate for the job you are applying for. Aside from this, your resume should be as effective as it can be for it would determine the fate of your application. It is your resume that would be your weapon against your competitors who are also applying for the same position as you are. So here are some of the tips you can use.

A resume would consist of at least these three parts: personal information, summary of qualifications, and professional experience. Obviously, the first part is all about your personal details. In this part, you must put your correct and complete name, present address, e-mail address, and contact number. Be sure to put the right ones for these will be used by the company to get back at your in case you progress with your application.

The next part is your list of qualifications.

You must put here all the skills, knowledge, expertise, and other qualifications that make you the ideal choice for the job. Include your skills like being able to take charge of paying bills; ensuring that the bills are paid on time and are verified; making reports and keeping information regarding payments; and more. You also include here your educational attainment, preferably with a degree of accountancy or commerce and being a licensed accountant.

The last part would be a list of your professional experience from your past jobs. Make a list here of the companies you worked for, the position you had with that company, the description of your role, and some remarkable tasks and accomplishments you had with them.

You must be able to list this in a chronological order, starting from the most recent position.

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Need information about sample resumes for Accountant, visit ProSampleResumes.com.

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When writing resumes during the job seeking process, does it sometimes feel like you’ve become a robot of sorts?  Like you’re simply writing the same resume over and over again without any real meaning behind it?

It’s very possible that you could develop a disconnect of sorts between the writing process and the actual meaning behind it if you write and send resumes all day long.  So how can you make the resume process as meaningful as it may have been when you first began your job search?  Consider the following tips …

1. Remember Why You’re Applying

First and foremost, it’s important that you really think about why you’re applying for the position you want.  Are you doing it because you love your career and want to further it?  Then writing a new resume to pursue employment should make you smile, because with each one sent, you have a renewed opportunity to make your dreams come true.  Really think about this as you write to help your positive attitude shine through in your resume.

2. Track Interview Callbacks

As you know, the primary purpose of submitting a resume is to have a company take enough interest in you to call you in for an interview where they can learn more.  So why not track the interview callbacks you receive after sending off your resumes?  This can help you to remember that, with the right amount of effort put forth, a resume actually does provide results.

3. Make Tweaks Along the Way

If you track interview callbacks and realize that your resumes just aren’t pulling them in, don’t withdraw from the process.  Instead, use this as an opportunity to become even more involved.  Make tweaks to your resumes by adding testimonials, changing the format and fonts, and adjusting the wording used to see what hiring managers seem to respond to the most.

4. Consider What the Hiring Manager Is Thinking

Another great way to better connect with the process is to consider the process in its entirety.  This includes the step when the hiring manager reads the resume.  If you were in his or her shoes, what would you want to see?  What would bore you to death—or convince you to request an interview with the candidate?  Take time to think about what the hiring manager would want.  This gives you an opportunity to better discern what should and should not be included in your resume.

The key to making the resume process more fulfilling is to truly immerse yourself in it—not just sit back and submit carbon copy resumes that mean little to you.  The more entrenched you are in the process, the more likely it is that it will shine through in your resume—and that hiring managers will take note.

For additional tips and advice on resumes and cover letters, follow us on Twitter @GreatResume or visit our blog.

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

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