by Regina Pontow
author of Proven Resumes and Confidence Builders

When creating a resume, it's critical that you be able to land interviews for the jobs you want. However, most resume statistics are pretty bleak--not because people are unskilled--but because many job seekers have very weak resumes that do not sell them effectively.

With employer's receiving 100 to 400 resumes for each advertised position it's imperative that you understand how to analyze an employer's job requirements and match your background to their needs.

Once you've done that effectively, you must also make sure that the image your resume creates matches the salary and responsibility level of the jobs you want. Many people create resumes that market them beneath their skill and salary requirements. The first workshop in my website--23 Free Online Resume and Job Search Workshops--includes a before resume that marketed Fran at $9,000 beneath her salary goal and didn't land her any interviews. Her new resume generated her a 100% response rate for positions in her salary range of $33,000. Learning how to graph the image your resume presents will teach you how to tweak your resume until you do get the response and salary offers you want whether you're in the $20,000 or the $200,000 range.

My background includes writing over 4,000 resumes and spending more than 10,000 hours counseling job seekers in all areas of their job search. In addition, I've written several books, books and instructor materials now used by over 60 U.S. colleges. My materials substantially increased Employment Security Department client placement and salary levels, and as a result I was recommended to our state's governor's board on employment issues. I no longer write resumes but encourage you to visit my site and learn strategies that have been proven by over 30,000 job seekers and documented by ESD offices, college instructors and organizations such as Boeing Re-Employment.

To learn proven resume and job search strategies click a topic below, which will take you to my award winning site that has been reviewed and linked by leading universities and career centers:

Anthony Peeters of San Francisco Systems (www.sfsys.com/sfsys), a recruiting firm, said that the format of your online resume is very important. He noted that "more and more recruiting efforts are skill-set oriented, and this should be reflected in the beginning of the resume in very specific terms". Peeters cited a growing trend at online resume Web sites. Sites such as Intellimatch (www.intellimatch.com) use a survey to get a detailed inventory of skills from the prospective candidate. Peeters tells job hunters they need to design their online resume to emphasize skills.

Firestone shared tips for making your online resume easier to read. "Eliminate all formatting and put your resume on individual sheets of paper rather than a single two-sided sheet." For instance, some scanners can't handle bold type, underlining, or changes in font size.

Hnilo added that a laser-printed resume works best, and she ad-vised using standard typefaces (like Helvetica, Courier, Optima, Times Roman, and Palatino) in a font size of 10 to 14 points."Avoid vertical or horizontal lines, graphics, or boxes," Hnilo said.

Job hunter Dave Weir (www.pluggedin.org/davidweir/), a mobile computing specialist, said he added "several industry buzzwords" to his resume "that might help trigger a 'hit.'" Weir has sent his online resume to recruiters and companies by electronic mail, and the resume has gotten him jobs.

Jack Godwin, a technical writer in San Jose, also sent his online resume to a recruiter by electronic mail. That is how he found his latest job at Sybase. Godwin said, "Text resumes sent via e-mail are an effective way to quickly get your information into the hands of the hiring manager" While "pretty" desktop-published resumes are nice, Godwin noted that "graphic design issues are not a primary concern to hiring managers; however a well-organized resume illustrates the organization of your thoughts".

Cynthia Chin-Lee (www.expertcenter.com/members/cchinlee) speaks on "Untangling the Web" and "Networking: the Magic of Connections."; She is the author of It's Who You Know (Pfeiffer/Jossey-Bass) and Almond Cookies and Dragon Well Tea.