An online resume is the 1st impression a potential employer has of a job seeker. It is your selling tool. Here are a few tips to help you with your resume:

1. Plan First:
Prior to writing your resume, outline your skills, abilities, accomplishments and work history. Focus on writing down areas that would be pertinent to an employer’s needs. Provide accurate information about your qualifications, work history, degrees, etc. Employers do verify this information.

2. Contact Information:
All contact information name, address, telephone, e-mail address should appear at the top of your resume. If you are posting your resume privately, include your e-mail address only.

3. Objective:
Ideally your resume should be pointed toward conveying why you are the perfect candidate for a specific job.

4. Summary of Qualifications:
Write several concise statements that highlight your most important qualities, achievements and abilities that you have to offer. Use action words for powerful statements that catch the attention of the reader.

5. Skills and Accomplishments:
This is a separate section from the Summary of Qualifications that allows you to go into further detail. Quantify the results you produced, what happened as a result of your efforts, etc. Elaborate on the most important highlights of your summary.

6. Work History:
This is the evidence section of your resume that backs up your assertions with evidence that you actually did what you said you did. This is where you list and describe the jobs you held in reverse chronological order (most recent position listed first and so on.) Include company name, your title dates of employment, and key responsibilities of your position.

7. Education:
List education in reverse chronological order, degrees or licenses first, followed by certificates/designations and advanced training. Designate whether you have obtained the degree/certification or if in progress.

8. Other Information:
Include Awards, Professional Affiliations, Civic/Community Leadership if they are current and relevant.

9. References:
Do not include a list of references on your resume. You may put “References available upon request” at the end of your resume, if you wish although it is not necessary since it is usually assumed.

10. Review Your Resume Before Submitting:
PROOF your resume and all the other information you have filled out when you post your resume online. Check for typos, grammar, formatting, and inaccurate information. Eye your information as if you were a potential employer viewing it.

11. Final Tip:
If you are cutting and pasting your resume from a word document, bullets and spacing of paragraphs do not transfer over in the same format. View your information and make the necessary changes. An example of this would be to replace each bullet with a standard keyboard symbol such as: Dashes (-) or Single or Double Asterisks (*) (**)