I recently had an individual who asked me to give him a detailed critique of his resume. In doing so, I found myself giving him the most important rules for writing a good resume. You might want to use this same technique to review your own resume.

His resume started with an Objective that said, “To grow professionally and broaden my horizon as a Pharmacy Technician”. This is not very different from many other resumes, regardless of the position they are seeking. What does it tell an employer? Only that they want a job. Don’t you think the employer who is holding their resume already knows that?

Next he lists his job experience as so:

2005 to Present – Acme Studio – Chicago, IL
Pharmacy Supervisor
Coordinate and monitor employees’ duties such as supervising cycle medications for skilled facilities.
Ordering, receiving and distributing pharmaceuticals and DME supplies.
Maintaining the resolutions of pharmacy errors and resolving pharmacy conflicts.

So what does this tell an employer? Only that he had a job as Pharmacy Supervisor. Then it lists the basic job duties of that role. It then goes on for 4 more jobs and lists the job duties of those positions.

Isn’t it obvious that an employer would know the basic job duties of these positions? So what has the candidate conveyed. In short, he has said, “I want a good job and I have held these positions.” Not a very compelling message.

An employer wants to know the skills and experience you can offer them. So instead of an Objective, use a Profile that gives a summary of what you offer. Example: “Over 10 years in Pharmacy leadership positions with a proven track record of driving record levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty.” Do you think an employer might want to know more after reading that?

Then, for each job, describe what a good job you did. There are many ways to do this, including indicating the challenge you faced, what actions you took, and what the result was. Quite simply, just mention how the organization was better off because you were there. Example: “Introduced improved inventory controls that reduced spoilage and slashed costs 10%”.

Hopefully, this simple way of reviewing your own resume will give you new insights and help you build the kind of resume that gets employers to call you.