When you are job hunting, your resume is a valuable tool. While just about everyone has a resume, few people know just how to write one correctly. If your resume has not been getting you the interviews that you want, it may need a little polishing. Follow these tips to perk up your resume and get you noticed!

1. Focus your resume to reflect the career that you are seeking. Generic resumes even though they are convienient and easy are not very effective. Review the employment description for the position for which you are applying. Think: skills, knowledge and abilities and allow your resume to reflect your gifts for each requirement. Use industry buzzwords to show what you know about the industry that directly pertains to the job.

2. Focus and keep your objective short and sweet. Your objective should be directed towards your intended position and tie it into your experience, education and skills. Use powerful words like dynamic, experienced and qualified. Write one or two lines and definatley not more than three. Just make sure that those fews lines pack a real punch to get their attention to get to the interview, making them want to know more.

3. Utilize your resume as a marketing tool. Your resume should sell yourself to interviewers. Structure the resume in a way that it is easy to read, gets the employers attention and gets you an interview. Highlight your experience and skills with bulleted lists and brief descriptions. You are not writing a book here, so don't go into great details.

4. Your resume is meant to get you an interview, not a job. You don't have to explain in great detail every duty for every job you have ever held. Highlight the jobs that you have had that tie into the position you are seeking. You can mention the others to fill in gaps in time, but don't feel compelled to go into great detail about those positions. You can list your main jobs in one section and list the less significant ones under a heading "Other Employment" or something similar.

5. Use a lot of action words. Your resume will really stand alone when you use descriptive words like negotiated, implemented, conceptualized and streamlined in your descriptions. These action words let your potential employer know that you are a "doer" and that you are assertive. Use the words that show what you have accomplished and can do, don't just tell.

6. List your strengths in the first third of your resume. When an interviewer picks up your resume, you have about 30 seconds to wow them before they either move on to the next resume or pick up the phone to set up an interview with you. This means have a powerful objective and move right into your experience and skills. Also, use symbols like %, # and $ because they stand out in a resume. For instance, you led a team that increased sales by 20%.

7. Create your resume to be easy to read. Stay away from long paragraphs and use bullet points to highlight instead. Be concise and get to the point. You want it to be easy to read and understand. Make sure that you don't say anything to detract attention from what you can do and your qualifications.

Your resume should show who you are and what you can do. Use it to sell yourself and get you in the door with an job interview. Keep your resume simple and to the point and try to keep it to one page. Use these tips to make your resume shine and get the job that you want.