The Role of the Resume

Resumes provide a stand alone written summary of your career related experience, skills, and education to potential employers, and have become almost mandatory in the employment process.

In this section we'll discuss the process used to create, update, and maintain your resume, and how to use your skills, experience, and education to maximize your employment potential. We will also examine the differences between several resume types, and what often works best for your career field.

As technology has progressed in recent years, a large number of employers have automated the employment application process and now only accept resumes as the application standard, which are either submitted via the internet, fax, or through the mail (mailed copies are then scanned electronically into the company's computer database and may delay the application process).

Often times, an applicant may not be provided with a standardized employment application until after an interview is granted and are often not provided access or direct communication with any physical person within the organization they are applying to. Therefore, the importance of and accurate and well crafted resume has become more important then ever before.

As defined by its definition, a resume is a written summary of your marketable career skills. The concept of marketable is one that you will see often throughout your career development, and it is vital to capture this concept within your resume.

Many career field have becomes more complicated today with erroneous or vague job titles, and actual work being performed can, and often does, vary significantly from one organization to another. These differences have brought about the need for each applicant to define their skills in a manner that will allow an employer to evaluate the candidates on the fundamentals of their experience and education; hence the foundation of the resume.

Potential employers have passed on the burden to you, the employee to sell yourself and your skills in the form of a resume, and use this document and its written content to determine whom they should contact and invite in for an interview.