Section 4: Creating a Resume Draft

Realize that you will have to create multiple resumes. Since the point of targeting is to create a specific resume for a specific job, you may find that writing and revising multiple resumes is time consuming.

Therefore, even if you have some old versions, it would be wise to create a new draft from scratch. The draft doesn’t have to be formatted as a resume, but more of a data base from which you can later copy edited paragraphs and paste onto the targeted resume.

Here are suggested data to include in this draft:

Contact details
Name
Address: Street, City, State, Zip
Phone (Home and Cell, 2 numbers to list)
Email Address (it is recommended to use your name as an email address, for example yourname @ gmail.com)

Career summary (optional)
Describe you major professional skills and expertise with # of years of experience.

Objective (optional)
Focus your statement on the position you’re aiming for.
Hint about your advantages and the benefits you’d bring to the position.

Work History – Experience & Achievements
Review your experience background in reversed order from the recent to oldest. List job title, company name, location, & employment dates (years)
Use action verbs as an active, expressive way to describe your achievements.
List major achievements per job and also include professional knowledge developed or promotions/appraisals you’ve received.

Key Skills
Highlight technical skills that you have through experience. You can also consider including your key personal skills that can make you an attractive candidate. Use keywords to detail these skills. Related Competencies that you feel are important to the position you are seeking – General personal skills, computer skills and/or technological skills.

Education
List educational degrees and institutions you’ve graduated from. List related professional courses and certifications received that are relevant to the targeted position.

References
Consider including 3 names and contact details of references.
Refer to: Job Reference Example/Format .

Job target
Make a list of the requirements per each job posting for which you are going to send your resume – Skills, education/qualifications and job description. You will need this information for targeting your resume to this particular job.