Some résumés simply enumerate the "abilities" and talk about the great "attitude and approach" of the jobseeker, without really supporting these claims. These empty words are entirely superfluous and tend to undermine the candidates credibility. For instance, most résumés contain a paragraph at the beginning which purports to provide an introduction to the candidate. It usually sounds something like: "A goal-oriented legal professional who brings entrepreneurial zeal and in depth analysis to legal problems and comes up with business solutions. A team player who thrives on challenge and problem solving. " These types of self-proclaimed personal assessments invariably generate scepticism on the part of the reader and should definitely be avoided. The better approach is to show the reader your unique value by reciting accomplishments that allow inferences consistent with your analysis of PMV.

Most people structure their résumés according to chronology. If this method is adopted, it should be remembered that the résumé should be written in reverse chronological order.

But what if you did not follow the traditional path because law was your second career? or you were working for the government before you entered practice? In these circumstances you may need to create categories to help the reader see the connection between seemingly disparate elements. To take a hypothetical situation, you may have after completing law school worked as a government employee in the Patents Department. After that you joined your present intellectual property firm after three years of general practice. If you follow the chronological order in structuring your résumé, the regular shift in focus in the nature of your work may seem confusing to your prospective employer. You can resolve this problem by not following a strict chronological order but by highlighting your specific experience under different categories or headings. For instance, you can lead with a category called "Intellectual Property Experience‹Legal and Government" under which you include your current law firm and your work at the Patents Office. Follow that category with "General Legal Experience" under which you include your general practice firm. Thus by using creatively defined categories you can effectively create themes in your résumé.

Experts feel a person should not structure his résumé according to liner chronology if he has changed a number of jobs. This would give the visual impact that you are a perpetual job hopper and would not be willing to settle down happily in one job. Therefore, as explained above, you would need to reformat your résumé by creating theme categories that tie jobs together.

Your résumé should be succinct and focussed and excess verbiage and complicated explanations should be avoided. Every sentence in the résumé should be there for a reason and therefore, before adding a sentence ask yourself the purpose keeping the job profile in mind. Use action verbs to preface accomplishments and always write in the third-person.

Avoid long sentences and stick to bullet points if possible. Prospective employers may not bother to read a résumé if the text looks too dense or the choice of language requires effort.