Your resume plays an important role in establishing your future career opportunities. Outlined are a few key points that you may find useful in preparing your resume for future employment opportunities. In principle, there are five key areas you should consider when preparing your resume:

Who I am?
Your resume should contain you name, address and a contact number. Include everything that might help the employer contact you as soon as possible, including a mobile phone number and email address.

Where am I located?
This should contain your current (or most recent) place of work. Include any skills and major responsibilities while at your job. It is important to outline these in detail and it may be useful to include your reasons for seeking alternative employment opportunities, although, this question will more than likely come up in the interview.

What have I done?
Remember that you need to keep this information current. More detail should be given to the latter part of your career and as a rule of thumb it is good to focus on the past five years in more detail, providing, where appropriate, highlights of work carried out prior to that time.

Who can verify it?
This is not required but it will make you look more together and professional. Being able to verify what you write on your resume is vital. Be sure to include up-to-date references and contact details for these people either in the resume or as a supplement to the document.

How do I look?
Remember that your resume is representing you and every picture tells a thousand words. To some extent your resume represents not only now but your life history. Be sure to spend some time working through the presentation of the document. Microsoft Office now carries templates for completing such important documents.

Optional Information:
Skills - This is not required but it will be helpful for the employer as they look through your well developed resume. The question of "What skills have you acquired from your previous work experiences?" will more than likely come up so it's best to be prepared in advance.  If you decide to list skills, list the skill acquired, the level at which you perform the skill, the last time which you used the skills, and the years of experience you have with the skill. 

Activities - Again this is not required in your resume but it will be helpful to your employer as they look through your well developed resume. If you participate in activities, such as being active in your community or volunteer work, you should list them in an activities section rather than under the employment section of your resume. 

Misc - These are helpful to your employer as they look through you resume. You can also include professional trainings, languages spoken, affiliations or appointments, and any current, up-to-date licenses held.

Note: Personal Information should NOT be included in your resume. Examples of personal information which should not be included are: date of birth, social security number, or marital status.  Information of this type is not appropriate for a professional resume.

The resume should be no longer than 2 pages.