Focus on accomplishments
You may show your experience by listing all the functions you're responsible for:
"Responsible for all production processes and assembly, production planning, plant maintenance, production methods, and tool engineering."
What this statement doesn't show is how effectively you carried out your responsibilities. A series of accomplishment statements, one on each principal function of your job, not only will show you held the responsibility, but also how well you carried it out.
Fair: "Initiated the changeover from individual final assembly of our smallest screw machines to assembling them on a continuous line."
Good; "Oversaw the installation of assembly "introduced new techniques on our smallest screw machines, which saved $ 175,000 a year."
Sometimes you can't put numbers on your achievements, but they still can be worded more effectively:
Poor: "Recruited and trained 300 people."
Good: "In a very tight labor market recruited over 300 technical personnel. Developed training programs which rapidly upgraded needed skills. Increased minorities from 1 percent to 5 percent. Achieved lowest turnover locally in our industry."
Poor:"Wrote Purchasing Department procedure manual."
Good: "Developed first Purchasing Department policy and procedure manual. Researched current practices in Purchasing and related departments. Recommended many changes. Reconciled many differences of opinion. Got final approval of Vice President and Purchasing Agent."
If a major accomplishment was as a part of a team effort, write "Played a key role in..." or "Was a member of a team while...Your PAR write ups make writing your accomplishments much easier. Describing your accomplishments in this way means you have stated the responsibilities of your job at the same time. Don't bury your accomplishments on a separate page - show some key ones in the critical zone.
Objectives that are too general are usually worse than no objectives at all:
"A challenging, people-oriented, problem-solving position requiring the creative use of resources and opportunities."
"Challenging position offering growth potential and the opportunity to effectively use diverse administrative experience."
Effective job objectives can be worded in a variety of ways. The main characteristic of good ones is that they clearly indicate the type of job you're seeking. Some effective objectives are:
Production management.
Financial or administrative management in a company where there is a need for improvement of financial planning, control, and profit-planning techniques. (Note that beyond "management" little is added.)
School administration with particular emphasis on budgeting and long-range planning.
Sales or Marketing Management.
Development Engineering, particularly field testing of prototypes.
A less effective objective would be:
Vice President Finance or Treasurer (this may preclude some good opportunities, as employers may think you're interested only in these particular jobs. "Senior Financial Management" covers the same jobs, but it is broader).
If you start out with a broad objective and later decide to narrow it considerably, revise your resume accordingly.
Specifics to include
Education - You may want to include courses applicable to your job goal. State your degree, any academic honors or awards, amount of expenses earned, your major (if relevant). If you graduated within the past ten years, include offices in extracurricular organizations. If you have an outstanding recent academic record, stating that may be most effective right after your objective. Omit your high school unless you've had less than four years of experience.
Military - List your branch of service, rank at discharge, and commendations. A couple of lines will suffice unless this experience is a major part of your recent career.
Business and community organizations - List the organizations and your official capacity. Don't forget to include major organizations you're no longer affiliated with.
Personal - Include, one or two lines of hobbies, particularly any related to your job goal. This shows you as a well-rounded person and one of the items may develop rapport with a prospective employer.
