There are many ways to compose an effective resume. There are tons of books, online aids, and tutorials out there. With such a wealth of information, it can be difficult to know how to start.

I always found that reading books on resume writing was never that helpful. I'm the type of person who has to learn by doing, not by reading what someone else did. And the truth of the matter is that the only exact science is mathematics, as my momma always says. In other words, there's more than one way to compose a winning resume. (View a sample resume.)

The main thing to keep in mind is this: The purpose of a resume is, among other things, to get that first interview. Nothing more. In other words, you need to tailor your resume in the way that the company wants. This means, practically, that there are about as many "right" ways to create a resume as there are hiring departments to read them. Before you even begin composing the actual text, you need to first find out what the resumes of those hired look like.

This is an often-neglected element of resume writing counseling. Most resume tutors tell you to start with your strengths, skill sets and work history, and do not even mention that in today's economy, many HR departments aren't even going to read your resume. They'll just run it through a word-checker or some other type of scanner to check for key words, format, style, structure, etc. If your resume doesn't meet their base level structural and content criteria, you won't get past square one.