Women@Work columnist. Skills you build in university.

Nov. 14, 2012

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Leah Eichler is an award-winning editor and celebrated columnist. Her weekly column Women@Work takes a fresh look at issues women face in the workplace and has appeared as an expert on the issue on CNN. She offers new takes on ideas such as the “mommy track” and “work-life balance”. Ms. Eichler launched her journalism career in Jerusalem in 1997 before returning to Canada, where she spearheaded Reuters’ entry into the digital age. She left Thomson Reuters in 2012 to pursue her dream of creating her own innovative digital media business, Femme-O-Nomics.

From a career perspective, what’s relevant about a post-secondary education? Join us for a new feature, Career Buzz Conversations. This week’s topic: Employability skills and career ideas you develop in your post secondary education. Call in or email me with your comments and questions as co-host Melissa Rodway and I spark the conversation!

What should you put in that profile section at the top of your resume? How do you integrate keywords into your job search?

It was a delight for me to host two of North America’s top job search experts on the last Career Buzz, Louise Kursmark and Wendy Enelow. Together they are directors of Career Thought Leaders Consortium and the Resume Writing Academy.
I asked Louise Kursmark for her tips on the profile or summary section of your resume. Louise emphasized that there are no rules about that section, and that it can be whatever you want it to be. What you want it to answer is, “who are you, where have you been, what have you done, and what can you do for me.”

“I do like to use a headline, right at the top, for example, Accounting Professional or Field Sales Manager,” Louise said. “If you can put a job title up there instead of a word like Summary which is relatively meaningless, I think that makes it stronger and a more immediate impact. And then you might use sub-headings to define specific areas of expertise. Below that you might have a short paragraph, or bullet points. It’s wise to include specifics. I call them the wow-achievements. If you can have two or three of those one line wows up at the top that are explained in the experience section, that makes the resume speak to you and makes it interesting to read.”

Listen to the whole interview and you’ll hear Wendy Enelow share secrets about naturally integrating keywords into your resume, LinkedIn profile and Twitter description.