by Kevin Donlin - Guaranteed Resumes - Click for Info

If your resume is like most of the dozens I see each week, it's heavy on features and light on benefits.

And your job search is probably taking longer than it should, as a result.

Because features don't sell. Benefits do.

Stop thinking along the lines of "Here's where I worked and here's what I did." Start thinking: "I produced this specific thing and here's how my employer benefited."

See the difference?

Think back on your daily duties. What good things happened when you did your job well? Write them down! Focus on benefits. The more specific, the better!

For most people, this is one of the hardest parts of resume writing. Perhaps it's because we often take for granted the good things we do every day. So, here are three shortcuts to help you focus on benefits in your resume.

1) Write down all the money you saved or earned for employers. What have you done to increase overall profits in your current and prior jobs?

2) If it's difficult to quantify your work in terms of dollars/pounds/shekels, try this. Write down everything you've done to increase efficiency or save time ... because time is money to employers. Perhaps you wrote a training manual or devised a new system in the mailroom. Anything and everything is fair game.

3) A third way to focus on benefits is to keep this phrase in mind as you recall your on-the-job duties -- AS A RESULT.

Take "as a result" and stick it on the end of everything you've done and see what you come up with. For example, you could say: "Worked with staff and vendors to eliminate slow-moving products. As a result, increased product turnover by 15% and sales by $23,000 in five months."

To succeed with your next resume, do the work for readers and make it plain exactly what kinds of benefits you've produced on the job before ... and can produce again. Ordinary resumes make it hard for employers to figure this out for themselves. Don't be ordinary.

Best of luck to you!

Kevin Donlin is President of Guaranteed Resumes.

Since 1996, he and his team have provided resumes, cover letters and online job-search assistance to clients in all 50 states and 23 countries. Kevin has been interviewed by USA Today, CBS MarketWatch, The Wall Street Journal's National Business Employment Weekly, CBS Radio, and many others.

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