7 Hot Resume Success Strategies For Landing Your Next Career

Infuse these seven strategies into your resume for success.

1. Does your resume make a statement? Is it clearly positioning you as the next hire for the position you seek?
2. Intelligently integrate key words from the job description into your resume.
3. Carefully outline accomplishments with a dual purpose. The accomplishments display ways that you have done a great job, easily connected to the opening you wish to fill; plus the accomplishments reflect aspects of your job history that you personally like about your past.
4. Delete. Delete, edit, cut, make more concise, choose what you want to say about you.
5. Empower yourself to have the resume tell the story you want to tell. This ties in to "delete" and takes it a step further. Take ownership of your life. Choose your next job and then create a resume that reflects that job. It is your resume.
6. Is your resume authentic? This is a really big question, hidden in a short word. The closer you match your own truth to what you say about you, the more you will like your next job.
7. Throw in something somewhat one-of-a-kind or funny about you. For one client, we included "extraordinary baking skills." Maybe you like to scuba dive. Or perhaps you raise llamas. Maybe you have a sense of humor. Now, that might be appreciated. Allow some area of you that is rare or special to shine.

More career inspiration on No. 1: Does your resume make a statement? Is it cohesive? If I pick it up and want to know who you are and where you are going, can I get this? I recently read a client's resume who had nanny skills and executive assistant skills. Her resume was all over the map. She wanted to move from nannying into more office-like setting. So we re-framed her past. We focused on executive assistant and marketing jobs for core of her professional background, and then included the nanny positions at the end under "Other Experience." Now when you look at this client's resume you know she wants to be an executive assistant, and is already doing a great job in this field.

More career inspiration on No. 2: Key words are critical. To emerge as a top candidate today, you'll move up much easier if you take the time to carefully read the job description and match your background in ways that show you can do the job that is open. It sounds like no big deal, but it really does take time, attention and energy. It requires thought. If you do none of the other suggestions, do this one.

More career inspiration on No. 3: Own your accomplishments. You want to show good ones that match the opening. And you also want to like them, yourself, because you might be asked to achieve them again. One client wrote that she was good at handling disgruntled customers. Now, if you want to keep doing that, definitely include this as an accomplishment. However, if you hate it, delete it.

More career inspiration on No. 4: Many experienced job seekers have trouble cutting words from their resume. Don't be afraid to edit. Less is more. Say enough, and not too much. Overwhelming the reader is not a good idea. Just delete things you didn't like to do or accomplishments you don't want to ever take on, again. Sometimes I find people feel the resume has to be a perfect representation of their actual job experiences. I say no, your resume should be the right piece of paper or PDF file that goes in the drawer of your next perfect position after you have been hired. That's it. It is the right thing but not everything you've ever done. We don't want to know what you liked to do in kindergarten, yet sometimes people feel compelled to share every single thing they have done across a dozen positions. Please don't be afraid to delete.

More career inspiration on No. 5: This is the heart of my message. It is your resume, and it can tell the story you wish to tell. Take control. What will your next job be like? Write your resume to get that job. Forget about your past. Your resume needs to reflect the future you want to create.

More career inspiration on No. 6: What is real? Is your resume really about you? The more you can create a life history that shows not only what you have done, but sings alive with where you want to go, you feel good. You feel excited, energized, alive. When you are authentic about where you want to go, others will jump on board and hire you. The closer you are to your own truth, the closer your next position will reflect where you want to be next. Stop looking from outside in, and look from inside out.

More career inspiration on No. 7: Once I wrote that you know you need to hire someone to write your resume if you would rather clean out toilets than create a resume. I thought that was funny. And on my own resume one time I summed up a substantial and seriously award-winning journalistic career in this manner "Wrote lots of stories about lots of topics for lots of CA newspapers." Downplaying with humor can be tricky. If humor feels uncomfortable, include something like "dedicated seamstress" or "rugby player" or "scuba dive for fun." The levity will be appreciated by whomever is reading your resume, and the inclusion outside of topic gives the interviewer a way to break the ice.

Good luck!

For help with your resume, you may contact Erica M. Nelson, the author of a new book on career inspiration due March 16, 2009. She is the author of "Prospect When You Are Happy" available at amazon.com and http://www.EricaNelsonEstates.com - She writes to inspire people to live a full and authentic life. How to get where you want to go. Live today! You may contact Erica Nelson at authorEricaNelson@gmail.com.

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