GOAL: This kit was put together to give you a guide for the design, creation and maintenance of your resume.

FORMAT: Your resume format may differ from others based on your experience and qualifications. Signature's recruiters review thousands of resumes each year with no two the same. Because of our close working relationships with hiring managers, we have accumulated over the years a number of key principles, which if followed, will lead to the creation of a successful resume. We've enclosed a sample resume portfolio. This should act as a good example for you to follow. Some additional key points to remember are:

• Your resume is the strongest tool you have for securing a job interview.
• The applicant selected is usually the one with the best resume, not necessarily the most qualified.
• Use only a few fonts - a resume with constant changes in font size and shade may distract from the content.
• Don't use the first person to describe your experience. It sounds unprofessional and may come across as if you do not share in the team work.
• Proofread your resume. Then have a friend or colleague proofread your resume. Typographical mistakes can easily be avoided and should be on such an important document as your resume.
• When you finish your resume, save it in rich text format by making sure that the file extension is ".rtf". This will allow more people to read your resume because the person you send the resume to may not be running the same windows-based application that you are using.

SUMMARY: Summarize your skills and experience in a full paragraph or two at the top of your resume. Mention how many years of experience you bring to the table state the scope of your experience. Don't forget to mention your key result areas and skills.

CERTIFICATIONS: Professional Certification is very important to most companies and hiring managers. It is best that you distinguish your certifications by mentioning them early in the resume. List them immediately after the summary statement. Mention any security clearances in this same location.

SKILLS: Most people focus above the center of a page when glancing quickly. We have found that it is good to distinguish your key technical and managerial skills in this area. Capture the attention of your reader and set this section apart from the rest by creating a small table or distinct skills list. Managers appreciate seeing your skills listed in order of strength along with an indication of the number of years of experience. An example could be Project Management (4 years), Microsoft Project (3 years), Data Modeling (3.5 years), etc. Be sure to list all of the skills that you have acquired in this section of your resume. In order to save space you may want to list secondary skills such as proficiency with Windows XP, 2000, Word, Excel or MS Office without pointing out the number of years. You may also include all of your skills in a matrix on a separate page. Many on-line database services such as MTS and ComputerJobs display skills with a breakdown by the number of months and years various candidates have with specific skills. The greater the number of years a candidate has with a specific skill, the higher he or she shows up on the list. When an employer performs an online resume search in MTS which resumes appear first on the list is based on how many times a given "buzz word" shows up in your resume.

EXPERIENCE: In this section you want to describe in detail your previous employment with appropriate dates. Your most recent experience should be listed first. Don't worry about keeping your resume to one page. Use several paragraphs to describe your experiences for every year of experience you have. Incorporate a description of how you have used your technical skills, equipment and work environment.

Don't be afraid to restate your skills if experience repeats itself. You owe it to yourself to accurately describe all of your responsibilities. If you have management experience, some questions you may want to address are as follow:. Did you have PNL responsibilities? Did you make hiring and firing recommendations? How many people did you manage? Were you in charge of annual performance and salary reviews for your employees? How much of a budget did you oversee? You can also write an addendum to your resume in order to give a more complete overview of your qualifications in a particular area.

EDUCATION: Your education may be important to a hiring manager but is usually dwarfed by any real world experience that you may have. Even if you have recently graduated or have an excellent grade point average you should list this last on your resume. If a hiring manager wants to find your education level very quickly he/she should be able to flip to the bottom of the last page and find it.

• www.ceweekly.com
• www.bgolden.com/fgy/res/resumehome.htm
  
  Please note your resume does not have to go into this level of detail displayed in this sample - but it would not hurt if it did.

Here are examples provided by us:

Note: These are real resumes, names have been changed to protect the innocent

• First sample resume: VB Developer
• Second sample resume: Peoplesoft Developer
• Third sample resume:Peoplesoft Developer
• Fourth sampleresume:Mainframe Programmer
• Sample reference check