You have the basic resume requirements—work experience, education and skills—but now you should set aside some time to improve and expand your simple structure. Author Louise M. Kursmark, in her new book Same-Day Resume, offers a few essential tips that will improve your resume and help you land a job.

Write or expand your summary section

“A summary or introduction—the first section of the resume below your name and contact information—allows you to quickly and clearly establish important baseline information that will help employers. Your goal in this section is to communicate who you are, your special skills and your uniqueness.”

Quantify your accomplishments

“Look back at how you have written your job descriptions or skills summaries in your simple resume. If your accomplishments are vague, now is the time to dig deep to find the details and specifics that will make them more meaningful.”

Expand your education and training section

“Let’s say that you are a recent graduate who worked your way through school, earned decent grades and got involved in extracurricular activities. The standard listing of education would not do you justice, so consider expanding that section to include statements about your accomplishments while going to school.”

Add new sections to highlight your strengths

“There is no reason you can’t add one or more sections to your resume to highlight something you think will help you. For example, let’s say you have excellent references from previous employers. You might add a statement to that effect and even include one or more positive quotations.”

Portfolios and enclosures

“Some occupations typically require a portfolio of your work or some other concrete example of what you have done. Artists, copywriters, advertising people, clothing designers, architects, radio and TV personalities, and many others know this and should take care to provide good examples of what they do.”

Source: JIST Publishing