1. All Features, no Benefits Make sure you market yourself by highlighting benefits that you can offer to job and company. If you fail to market yourself, no one else will market you. Your resume is your first and last chance. Unfortunately, if you have few or no benefits or if your benefits are hidden away in some dark dingy backwater on line 200 of your resume, reader will give up long before reaching there.

Read Job Description and Person Spec. thoroughly. Reflect on essential and desirable skills and your experiences pertaining to vacancy. Then you should turn to your features and consider how each one relates to skills required AND how you can convert your features into benefits.

Remember an effective resume is a marketing tool...your most POWERFUL one when it comes to job search.

Attributes like, "excellent interpersonal skills" are a FEATURE (of you). What employer is interested in is "what's in it for me?" if I interview you...."being able to communicate patiently and clearly with customers" is BENEFIT of excellent interpersonal skills.

"A driving license," is a FEATURE, "willing to travel to clients," is BENEFIT.

Pack your benefits into your Statement Summary, which should be at top of page one of your resume and lead with your USP or your BIGGEST benefit.

2. Personal Opinions It's a big no-no. Firstly, giving personal opinions will be seen by reader as being unprofessional and something you may even do in future regarding them! Secondly, its just that...an opinion. When personal opinions are stated on a resume, it can come across as moaning. If there is something unflattering...omit it.

In an interview, you will be able to explain things from your resume and it sounds a lot better then than through a few coarse sentences on a resume.

3. Inadequate or Outdated Contact Details It is surprising how many candidates give no contact details or give an old phone number, email address or postal address. This is simply because they have not proof read their resume adequately. Other candidates, give a means of contact such as an email address or phone number that they check irregularly. Only give out contact details that you will answer directly or check regularly (preferably 3 or 4 times a day). It is often difference between an interview and a rejection.

4. Spelling and Grammatical Errors Proof read once for spelling, once for grammar, again for general content and once again for flow. Never try to proof read once and cover everything. Most candidates do try this, but unfortunately, if you adopt "one-read-covers-all" your resume is very likely to have errors.

Success is not something that only a chosen few can achieve. Everyone can be successful in every area of his or her life. You just need to know how to do things in such a way as to make sure you succeed every time. Success comes as a result of forming certain habits, and continuing in them. Consistency is key. To succeed, you need to be a certain type of person. Don’t be discouraged if you are not yet that type of person. With practice, anyone can become a successful person. The successful person thinks in a certain way, talks in a certain way, and acts in a certain way. The list below briefly outlines 10 of those ways (and a bonus tip!). Anyone who consistently applies these principles to any area of their life will experience success in that area.

1.Vision: Have a clear picture of what exactly it is you want to achieve or become. Keep this picture at top of your mind at all times. Doing something you want to do, because you want to do it, will motivate you to succeed at it. Start with end in mind.

2.Believe: Believe without a shadow of a doubt that you can do it. Believe that you will succeed. Believe in a Higher Power who is helping you get what you want. Stay away from negative influences (people, books/articles, anything negative), which make you doubt your ability to succeed. Surround yourself with things that remind you that you can, and will, succeed.

3.Responsibility: Realize that you alone are responsible for your future. You alone are responsible for outcome of your efforts. Don’t look for anyone to blame. Feel free to ask for help as you need it, but remember final decision is up to you. It’s your life, after all.

4.Affirm: Make a habit of saying out loud what you hope to achieve. Speak of it in present tense, e.g., ‘I am fit and trim’, as opposed to ‘I will be fit and trim’. If you feel awkward speaking out loud to yourself, write down affirmation. Then look at it (or better still, rewrite it) several times each day. This helps your mind stay focused on goal. It also builds your self-belief and confidence.