Format for Effectiveness!
Audit professionals must be adept at a wide range of
written communications and your resume offers a window for potential
employers to assess your writing skills. But a resume is a resume and it
must look like one if it is to capture an employer’s interest.
Albert has excellent
credentials, experience, and accomplishments but they are difficult to
find in a resume that looks like audit work papers. While his numerous
headings communicate what follows, employers are most familiar with
resume formats that guide their eyes and they will not take the time to
search a different format.
Competencies, industry exposure, and standards can all be
detailed in a qualifications summary as Albert’s first section. He should
then follow with an experience section that showcases both his work
experience and accomplishments.
There is so much repetition in headings and words, making
Albert’s resume too long and less effective. He can beef up the
experience section by eliminating the function and achievement headings
and spending more time describing and quantifying each position. Is the
life assurance organization one of the largest in their field, in a niche
market, or generating $5 million in annual revenue? When it comes to
management, did you recruit, hire, coach, or evaluate? Careful editing
and a thesaurus or synonym dictionary will help with word choice. But,
pay special attention to punctuation and consistency.
References don’t belong on a resume; they allow potential employers to pre-screen you before they meet you. Only include references on your resume if an employer requires it, otherwise, place your references on a separate sheet of paper formatted to match your resume. The appropriate time to use your reference sheet is during a job interview.
