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Many people get quickly discouraged when it comes to making a resume. While it does take time, there are a few important principles that can make the process much easier.

Do a research online about resume tips and you will find a lot of conflicting advice. People that argue for and against objective statements, career accomplishments, and listing references. The truth is if you can get a few things right on your resume, you will be just fine.

How to Make a Resume That Gets Results

1. Brainstorm Session – before you even start building your resume, take out a pad of paper and a timer. Set the timer for 30 minutes and write as much as you can about your career accomplishments, job duties, important projects you were a apart of and any other important work activities. Do not stop writing until the timer goes off. This will help you to keep going.  At this point, do not judge whether or not the item should go in your resume or not, just write. You will have a ton of information that you can use later on when building your resume.

2. Review Resume Samples in Your Industry – Building  a "swipe file" is one of the best exercises that you can do when building your resume. I know that swipe file sounds bad, but it is not. There are several websites online that display sample resumes for you to review. Many of these are listed by industry. Look for items that grab your attention because these would be great to build into your resume. Open a blank Word document and copy and paste any header, phrase, or power words that you like. You may not use all of them, but you will have ideas for your own resume.

3 . Build a Powerful Intro – The top half of the resume is the most important. I refer to it as "above the fold." It is the first thing a Hiring Manager sees upon opening your resume. Since most resumes are viewed on the computer, open your resume and see what it looks like (without scrolling down). You need to have a compelling opening in order to grab the reader’s attention. For more detailed info, see my previous post: The 7 Second Resume: Are You Above the Fold?

It is easy to make a resume once you have done the prior three steps. Most of your competition is writing out a boring job description at best. Just by doing the first two steps alone you will have a huge reservoir of ideas and information to draw from for making a resume that gets results.