Making your resume standout

You've just heard about a great job and you know you're an ideal candidate. But how can you make your resume stand out from dozens (or hundreds) of others so you can get that all-important interview? While a great resume won't guarantee an interview, you can increase your chances by avoiding the mistakes HR professionals see every day in resumes that come across their desks.

Let's start with the basics. A resume is more than a summary of your experiences and education. It's a invitation to discuss how you can help the company you're applying to. It's intended to make the a busy manager give you a few minutes of their scarce time to see if you can serve a need or solve a problem for their organization.

Switching your orientation from how they can help you to how you can help them is an important switch to make. Their goal is not to guarantee you a great job. Their job is to figure out what you bring to the table that's going to help their organization. If you're really looking for your dream job, learn as much as you can about the industry and companies you want to work for. Then, tailor your resume to meet those needs. What does that mean? It means highlighting those experiences that are important to the firms you're applying to. If your industry's main day-to-day work is troubleshooting technical problems for clients, make sure your resume includes concrete examples of customer relations and problem solving.

Next, keep it brief. Drop your hobbies (who cares?) and information about your family. Try to keep it to 1 page, or 2 at the most if you've had a lot of experience. Unless you can make a concrete connection that will help you in your job, for instance, volunteer work in which you managed a major event, leave it out. Remember your job is to make it clear what you can offer the organization, not have them guessing whether being in a bowling league qualifies you to be a team player.

If you're right out of school and have limited work experience, you may have to draw more on volunteer and other experiences. Just make sure you connect the dots for employers. If you were on student government, list the initiatives you were involved with that demonstrate leadership or skills that matter to them. Spell it out. As one HR professional said to me, "I hate guessing whether someone can do the job. Their resume should make it clear."

Because you've only got a page, make your words count. Be as specific as you can. "Raised revenues 38% or "cut costs by 59% over 2 years" or "decreased customer complaints by 50%" has much more impact than "looked for continual opportunities to grow." Measurable changes wins out over generalities every time.

Even if you're not detail oriented, most HR professionals are. As one asked me, "Don't these people have a spell checker? Spelling mistakes show me they aren't serious about their job." Ditto for grammar errors, acronyms that no one is familiar with and sloppy formatting. It's a shame to waste the 20 hours most people put into writing a resume because you haven't taken the time to proofread or have a friend check it for errors.

A resume is not a static document. As you gain more experience, age and develop new career goals, you'll need to update it to give yourself the edge and to stand out.