The Job Front: Modernize your résumé content

A great résumé starts with great content that clearly communicates your value in the workplace. Just as important, a modern résumé is readable by humans and technology alike since both are important considerations throughout your search.
If you’re struggling to write powerful and modern résumé content, follow these five guiding principles:
Start with the “wow.” Begin your summary and experience sections with what makes you unique, memorable and qualified for the positions you are targeting. Highlight your achievements, responsibilities, technical skills and more that give you depth and help hiring managers remember you.
Write to your objective. The summary has replaced the objective on most résumés. However, your objective is still the guiding light. Always remember that your résumé is a marketing document written 
to showcase your skills, experiences and accomplishments as they relate to your career goals, while minimizing unrelated activities.
Tell your career story with power. Quantify your achievements whenever possible ($4 million in savings, 42 percent gain); start sentences with strong verbs (designed, directed, trained); add context and specifics (where and how it happened). Most important, always write in the first person, dropping the “I” from the beginning of each sentence. When you do that, you own what’s on the page.
Write tight, lean and clean. Long narrative paragraphs and lengthy lists of bulleted items are easy to skip over. To avoid that, tell your whole career story in half the words by editing ruthlessly and eliminating information that doesn’t matter. Don’t include words that mean nothing (a, an, the) and do use common abbreviations that your target audience will recognize.
Integrate critical keywords. Keywords are the foundation for all résumé-scanning technology and must be a core component of your résumé. Research keywords for the positions you’re targeting and include them throughout your résumé – if they are skills and qualifications you have.
Write using these guidelines, and you’ll succeed in crafting a modern résumé that gets you noticed and hired.

Wendy Enelow is co-author of “Expert Résumés for Military-to-Civilian Transitions” and “Expert Résumés for Career Changers.”