Your professional resume and CV can either help you greatly increase your salary or hinder your career advancement. Here’s how to achieve the former with your resume. First, focus on the structure. An ideal structure consists of Name and Contact Information, Career Summary, Computer Skills, Professional Experience, Education, and Training.



Then, secondly, consider the length. For entry-level purchasing positions, a one-page resume is appropriate. However, if you have more than five to seven years of experience, then you want to have a two-page resume. Don’t submit a resume over three pages, and there are reasons for that resume-reality. That will be another blog entry later down the line.



Next, ensure that the Professional Experience section is done well. List experience from most recent to oldest. Within the Professional Experience section, have headings listing each company and the years you’ve worked for those companies. But an additional, commonly ignored item that employers and recruiters like to see, is a short description of those companies you worked at in the past.



“Who is this company? What do they do? I want the annual sales,” answer these company descriptions on the resume in good written form. Employers like to know the type of organization that candidates are coming from in their past. Underneath each company heading, you should include subheadings for each position you’ve held accompanied by dates you’ve held those positions. Under the position subheadings, include your responsibilities and achievements in bullet point or paragraph form. For responsibilities, indicates the following information helpful for the HR or Hiring Manager readers, your audience:



* The categories you’re responsible for buying…

* The annual spend you’re responsible for…

* The type of supply base you’ve dealt with…

* The number of team members you’ve supervised…

* The purchasing organization’s structure…



For achievements, the first thing that they will look for is numbers such as “Improved delivery performance by 50%” and “Initiated structured cross-functional global sourcing process to accelerate $20 million of annual savings.”



As candidates, most importantly, include credentials such as the SPSM Certification or any form of credentials on your resume. It’s good to see it right under Education. In another way said: including a certification on a resume is really critical to show your ability and expertise to your future employer.



Here are some take-away’s on this week’s career blog:



+ Have your training and education close by to each other so that the reader can find your credentials easily.



+ Credentials? Put all of them on your professional resume.



+ Have a well-written profile composed by a professional resume writer for best practices.



+ Maybe include all this information of your profile on your LinkedIn.com profile. It’s very very useful and good marketing of your career.