Always Be Learning

Every job you take should be a learning experience. Even a job that you believe is useless should be able to teach you a skill for your next job.

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Be Confident

Be confident in your skills, they don't have to be perfect to land the job you want. You can increase your knowledge and skills etc once you are in the company. You will need to find someone within the job that can teach you more. If there is no one in the job that can teach you more you've taken the wrong job. There will always be someone who is smarter and if there isn't either you are looking too hard or the place where you are has stopped trying to excel or innovate.

Continuously Improve Your Resume

You should modify your resume at least every three to six months. Don't wait until you are in desperate need of your resume before trying to make all the changes at once. Your resume will not be up to quality if you are rushing to make changes for a job you need to apply for by the next day. 

Your resume is your calling card, it should always be of the highest importance on your list of tasks. You should occasionally send out your resume even if you are not in the process of looking for a job. It will help you to understand if your resume is listing qualifications in a manner employers are reacting to.

Don't embellish the truth

Don't pad your resume with things that are untrue. Even if you get the job eventually your employer will find out. It could be a case  of a couple of months or even years. It would  really suck to be at a job for over a year that you enjoy and they realize you fabricated something like your education. The outcome will not be good; you have tainted your image.

Put In The Time

Don't zoom through your resume, write it with every intention to truly land the job you desire. A resume that you spend 30 minutes on isn't going to make the grade.

Don't forget a resume is someone's first impression of you. If they haven't met you before seeing your resume it acts as the window to the perceived person that you are.

Take The Time To Build A Cover Letter

A cover letter is a good way to position yourself as one of the front runners for a job.  By using a cover letter you truly can get into detail of what makes you the best.  You are focusing specifically on the requirements that are listed in the job posting.  In the cover letter you are talking directly to the poster telling them why they should hire you and not someone else.  In three paragraphs or less your cover letter should be an introduction of who you are and your capabilities.

If you are applying for a writing position the cover letter shows your writing style.  Be strong in your writing and use descriptive words to help clarify your thoughts.  Your writing should be compelling enough to get the reader excited to see your resume qualifications.

You Need More Than One Resume

Build your resume based on the job that you are applying for.  Don't use one resume to try and land different jobs.  You need to tailor the resume to fit the qualifications that are being requested.  If your resume is general and it doesn't talk specifically to the job you need to revise it.

Here are some examples of when you would need to have different types of resumes.

You are applying for an accountant job at a large corporation. 
You are applying to be a financial adviser for a consulting company.
You submitting your resume to be a book keeper for a small family run business.

Even though these jobs are somewhat similar each one of these resumes should focus on different strengths.  The accountant position may focus more on the corporate experience.  The financial adviser may focus more on the consult aspect.  The family owned resume could possibly focus on past experiences if you had worked at a small business prior.

Your Resume Objective

Your resume objective needs to start off strong since it's the opening piece of your resume. It helps the employer to understand what you would like to accomplish in your career at the company.

The objective has the ability to either convince the reader of your resume to continue reading or to stop. Make sure the objective doesn't ramble. It should be clear and straight to the point.

Short And Sweet

Keep your resume to a manageable size around one or two pages. The attention span of someone reviewing your resume won't go past two pages. If you find yourself heading into three page territory you are padding your resume with fluff. Cut out the fluff and only get to the specifics of the job in which you are applying.