1. Your resume is not a record of your employment but a tool to get you an interview.

   Include an objective or summary statement (or a professional profile) that shows what you can do for an employer and relate the elements of your resume to this statement (or profile). This includes your work experience. Stress details and accomplishments pertinent to your objective, summary, or profile rather than the duties and responsibilities of your past jobs.

2. Write an organized, cleanly formatted resume.

   For hard copy resumes, this means using bolds, underlines, italics, and bullets to highlight information. Unfortunately, none of this formatting works when emailing your resume or posting it online. Your best bet is to write your resume in ASCII format. Use capital letters instead of bolds, underlines, and italics, and replace bullets with asterisks, dashes, or plus signs.

3. Position your most important and impressive skills first.

   Those who read IT/IS resumes often prefer to see skill sets in a block at the top of the resume. Likewise, if your work experience is more closely related than your education to the type of employment you are seeking, list that before your education. Conversely, if your education is more pertinent to your job search, list it before work experience.

4. Present your work history in reverse chronological order, and don't bury the dates of employment.

   Since things change so fast in IT/IS, the people reading your resume will probably be most interested in what you have done over the last five years. If you have gaps of six months or more in your employment, it is best to explain them on your resume. Examples include: project canceled or funding canceled, downsizing, pursuing one's own business, family obligations, independent study, and extended travel.

5. Use as many action verbs as possible.

   Action verbs such as implemented, supervised, trained, facilitated, and directed sound much better than verbs like gave, did, had, etc.

6. Demonstrate how your skills will improve the employer's bottom line.

   Instead of saying "Proficient at web design," elaborate on how your skills benefited the company, for example: "Consistently completed web design tasks ahead of schedule, resulting in an additional two projects completed per week and $2,000 additional profit."

7. Be concise. One page is best; you shouldn't go over two.

   Remember that the people who read your resume also read tons of others so they won't be willing to spend a great deal of time on yours.

8. Never include the following on your resume:

   social security number; marital status; health; citizenship; age; scholarships; irrelevant awards, publications, recreational activities, associations and/or memberships; a second mailing address; references; travel history; previous pay rates; previous supervisor names; and reasons for leaving previous jobs.

9. Sell yourself, but don't lie!

   Presenting your skills and accomplishments in the best light is different than fudging. Don't claim qualifications that you don't have. You'll most likely get caught, and in the IT/IS field, you could end up in a position where you are way over your head.

10. Proofread!

    This is often the most overlooked step in the resume writing process. Nothing will land your resume in the garbage faster than typos and spelling errors. Spell checker won't catch all errors, for instance, form instead of from. You must read over your resume several times. It's also a good idea to let a friend take a look at it, too. Don't forget to make sure your address and phone number are up to date.