Seven Tips to Help With Interview Preparation

Hope Tips here can solve your problem:

One: The Resume

Of course, bring a couple of copies, and be sure to read your resume before the interview, so you’re completely familiar with everything you’ve written. You might also bring materials which would be particularly good at illustrating an important aspect of your work, such as creative designs, writing samples, and so forth. Be careful though, not to overdo it with the props. When in doubt, just bring your resume and your business card – they’re the most important props you’ll ever need.

Two: Appropriate Dress and Appearance

Dress professionally for the interview. Remember that you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. Your appearance should be neat and clean, pressed and polished. Conservative business attire is appropriate for most settings.

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Basic Principles of a Good Resume

By Steve Burt
Certified Professional Resume Writer

Focus

There's probably no aspect of your resume more important to selling yourself to prospective employers than the benefits you've made to your previous employers. Keep this in mind as you prepare your resume. A good resume doesn't just describe duties and responsibilities. A good resume focuses on accomplishments and achievements. Tell prospective employers what you've done in your past and current jobs that's made a difference in your employers' bottom line. Maybe you increased sales, or reduced costs, or implemented new procedures, or streamlined existing procedures. Give this some careful thought. Stand out from the rest of the applicants by showing prospective employers how you do more than just take care of the "duties and responsibilities" of the position. Show them you have a history of going beyond that to make yourself a valuable asset to the company.

Length

A good resume is only as long as it needs to be to market its owner effectively. If it's too short, you may not be selling yourself effectively. It it's too long, you run the risk of prospective employers not reading it at all. One page is ideal, but if it takes two pages, that's okay too, as long as you've looked it over with a critical eye to make sure you've eliminated the "fluff" and zeroed in on what will sell you to prospective employers. You should also pay close attention to your format and layout so that you make effective use of the space available to you on the page.

Positive Attitude

A good resume projects a positive image. If possible, don't include any negative material on your resume at all. If that's not possible, try to soften the negative impact as much as possible. For example, if you're a recent college graduate and have a low overall grade point average, either don't list your GPA at all or list your upper division GPA or your GPA in your major instead, if those are higher. Just be sure to identify your GPA accurately (i.e., 3.7 in major, or 3.5 in Engineering, or 3.6 upper division). Watch your wording when describing your work experience. For example, compare these two statements:

- Assigned to work on a multi-million dollar marketing project
- Participated on a multi-million dollar marketing project

Both statements are true, but the second one is much more positive.

Conservative Approach

Don't go overboard on what I said in the previous section. Sure, it's important to project a positive image, but no one likes an over-confident, pompous, know-it-all. A good resume is positive and confident, but not smug.

Accuracy and Honesty

Don't guess. If you're not sure about your dates of employment or any other information on your resume, check it. One inaccuracy on your resume can make the rest of your information suspect. Check very carefully for grammatical and spelling errors. Honesty is even more important than accuracy, so be careful about telling the truth. You might be able to talk your way out of an honest mistake, but if you're caught in a lie, you're finished.

Organization

First, make sure everything on your resume has a good reason for being there. Second, make sure everything on your resume is arranged in an orderly and logical manner. Present your most important information first and follow through with the rest of your information in descending order of importance.

Appearance

Regardless of what your resume says, if it doesn't look nice, you're in trouble. A good resume is printed on quality paper, with text arranged in a pleasant manner. It is prepared with a type size that's easy to read (preferably 12 point, but no smaller than 10 point).

I'm a charter member of the Professional Association of Resume Writers. I earned the designation of Certified Professional Resume Writer in 1992 and have helped 1,000's of people reach their career goals. I'd be happy to help you do the same. Read more about my services.
Thanks,
Steve Burt
Certified Professional Resume Writer

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Tips for How to Make a Resume

By: Jeffry Roebuck

Before helping you with how to write a resume, let me first give you two important facts you must know:

1. Your resume is the opportunity to make a good first impression on your prospective employer, and

2. Hiring agents are very busy and merely scan through the piles of resumes in front of them.

Tip #1 - Make Your Resume Relevant

Write your resume with the specific job in mind. It might be more work, but it's worth the effort.

Don't try and cram all your experience into the resume. Only include what your research says is relevant to the job.

You'll make the hiring manager love you if you give just the relevant information and save her the effort of wading through irrelevant experience.

Tailor your resume specifically to the needs of those who are going to read it.

Tip #2 - Write a Compelling Summary

Think of the summary at the top of your resume as the teaser at the top of a newspaper article, after the headline. That's how hiring managers read resumes.

If the hiring manager doesn't see something compelling in the summary, your resume disappears into the pile. Draw the reader's interest with an interesting and relevant summary of your experience.

With a great summary you'll be making the life of the hiring manager a lot easier.

Tip #3 - Sell Your Benefits

Many resumes bore people to tears. Do hiring managers keep tissues on their desk because they suffer from hayfever? No, it's the dull resumes that are boring them to tears.

The resume contains your own individual ad. What do have most ads have in common? They focus you on the benefits because that's what convinces people to buy. People only "buy" when they believe they will benefit from what they are buying.

Don't bore the hiring manager with just a list of your features.

What's a feature and what's a benefit?

"Ten years of website development," is a feature.

"Ten years of website development that will enhance corporate image and website search engine rankings," is a benefit.

Tip #4 - Make Sure There are No Spelling Mistakes

Nowadays you really don't have an excuse if there are spelling errors in your resume. If you can't be bothered to press F7 in MS Word, why should a company be bothered to hire you and pay you a salary?

You cannot "recall" your resume once it's out there in when wild.

Make absolutely certain that it's as near perfect as possible.

Submitting a resume with spelling errors give off a very bad impression.

It's one of the easiest how to write a resume tricks that many people forget.

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