Resume Writing Tips: Create a Powerful Opening Statement

From iLostMyJob.com | By Mary Elizabeth Bradford

"The Career Artisan." - Career marketing expert and nationally certified advanced resume writer.

Most professionals would love to land their dream job but when it comes to writing a resume that would qualify them to make the jump; they end up stuck with what to say and how to say it. Not knowing how to create an interest-generating opening statement is a common problem and can quickly lead to job seeker discouragement before the job search even begins!

In the current economy, with so many applicants and so few jobs, your resume has to GRAB the readers attention quickly in order for you to remain in consideration.  If not, you will never get the chance to showcase your knowledge, skills and expereince during a face-to-face interview.

Here are 3 tips to creating a powerful opening statement that will quickly get you positive attention:

Tip #1 - Create a Qualifications Summary

A qualifications summary should go at the very top of your resume. It does not explain what your professional objective or goal is, but but rather it communicates a clear and powerful overview of who you are and what you can do. This will showcase the skills that you want to convey to the interviewer.

Why don’t you want to use a professional objective? Because your resume needs to be focused on what you can do for a company versus opening with a statement that leans towards what YOU are looking for.

Tip #2 Create an Authentic Opening Statement

To maximize your focus and clarity try a simple writing trick:

Begin to write about what you are doing when you are at your very best, followed by your other key strengths and attributes. Do not edit yourself as you freely write up to a page of information. After a quick break, return to what you wrote and begin to highlight the key words and phrases you feel are the most powerful. Your document should be reduced to about half at this point. After another break return to your document a second time and repeat this exercise. Now you have a powerful, authentic and compelling draft statement describing where you really shine!

Tip #3 Use Universal Language

Another common mistake professionals will make is to load their opening statement with industry jargon. Yes if you are a CIO, corporate counsel or a VP of Finance you have very specific language that you use. However your resume has to be written for multiple people in multiple departments. In many cases your resume is being viewed (and thus must be equally compelling) to directors of human resources, division presidents and various managers.

Scan your opening statement for red flags including acronyms that are not spelled out, information on specific companies, too much detailed technical information and sentences that are only decipherable to people intimately associated with what you do.

These key tips will help you to easily create an authentic statement about who you are when you are at your career best, and command the attention of the companies that are looking for someone….just like you!