• A strong opening.
  This is the vital part of your resume. Your best qualities or experience should be highlighted at the top of your resume. This will help get you noticed immediately and make it through the "first cut".
• Matching the employer’s needs.
  If you are applying for a specific position or field you should have a pretty good understanding of what skills are needed. Highlight these skills. Make sure that they know you have what they are looking for. Start with your strongest abilities or experience and work your way down.

The objective:

A resume should start out with a clearly defined objective. Something like “I need to get a job” is not going to cut it. You want to have a strong objective that is direct and to the point. It should show what role you would like to play in the company. If you are applying for different types of jobs you should adapt your objective to each one. Examples:

Applying for a sales position:

• Objective: To find a sales position in an organization seeking self-motivation and determination.

• Objective: Seeking a position that will allow me to use my people skills and customer service experience.

Experience

• List jobs in reverse chronological order.
• Briefly highlight jobs early in your career
• Focus on recent positions
• Include firm name, position held and timeframe

• Reverse chronological order
• Make degrees/diplomas easily visible
• Include grade-point average if it is higher than 3.4
• List your major

If you have had work published or awarded you should mention it in a separate section. If this relates to Education be sure to put it in your education section.

References:

References are not usually needed unless requested. Do not include them with your resume unless specifically asked. Keep a list of up to date references ready just in case.

Presentation:

Keep it neat and symmetrical. White space is your friend and can help with readability.

Use the same structure for your headings. If you bold one make them all bold. Keep a consistent structure throughout the entire resume.

Experience and Education - Reverse chronological order.