It's the New Year and, no doubt, the beginning of many New Year's resolutions to lose weight and get healthier. I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon (and get your attention) and tell you ways to get your resume fit for a career move in 2011.

Shed Those Unwanted Phrases

Career experts have officially declared certain resume phrases "over-used" and no longer recommended. Phrases that won't help your resume stand-out include: 

• Extensive experience
• Innovative
• Motivated
• Results-oriented
• Dynamic

Give these tired phrases a rest and identify new words that describe what you uniquely offer. Be specific, use words that differentiate your contributions, describe how you add value and exactly how much experience you have.  Pull out the thesaurus if necessary.

Gain Key Words

If you are interested in working for a midsized or large company, you will undoubtedly complete their online job application form. This information feeds into their Applicant Tracking System. HR Managers use this system (or database) to search for best fit resumes using key words. The key search words they use come from the job posting and description.

In a competitive market, it makes a lot of sense to edit your resume for each position you apply for and change any words you can to match the words the company use in their posting.  As you increase the number of matching key words, you increase the number of possible times your resume will come-up in searches, thereby increasing the number of calls you get.

Drop Cookie Cutter Templates, Add Some Pizzazz

Imagine you are charged with reviewing 100 (or 200 or 300) resumes to identify best qualified candidates. Imagine yourself drinking a lot of Starbucks! Help the reader out by adding visual interest to your marketing document. Trust me, the standard resume templates in Word no longer impress anyone.

Minimize Job Responsibilities, Maximize Results

While it is important to describe the basic duties of the jobs you held, without stating the results you achieved, your value won't be recognized. For your most recent position, use two or three lines to describe your duties, but use four-to-five bullet points to describe your accomplishments.  You must talk about:

• The money you saved
• The time you saved
• The new customers your brought in
• The customers you helped keep
• The new procedures or processes you introduced that added efficiency

Increase Metrics

As you state your results, take it one step farther and calculate the financial impact. If you saved money, estimate how much money you saved. If you developed a new method that saved time, estimate how much money you saved the company each time someone used your method.

Employers seek employees that help them be more profitable. When you use metrics, your calculations prove that your contributions offset your salary. In addition, metrics demonstrate you speak the language of business.

A New Year calls for a new resume.  May your resume and career bring you financial health this year!

Your neighbor and career coach,

Christy