CAREER START : SELLING YOURSELF IN 30 SECONDS : That’s all the time managers spend scanning a resume. Make it brief and stay away from neon paper.

It’s taken years of schooling and experience on the job to build up the credentials listed on your resume. But a personnel manager needs only 20 to 30 seconds to scan your resume before deciding not to hire you, or to put your resume in the pile of serious candidates.

Someone who has read thousands of resumes is Richard Andre, vice president of human resources at 20th Century Industries, a Woodland Hills-based auto insurance company. To pass the 30-second resume test, he said, candidates must be concise. “We’re looking for brief resumes, not five-pagers,” he said. “They should be a page, or two at the most.”

Another mistake, Andre said, is making a mistake. “Resumes should be grammatically correct. Nothing turns you off like typos or misspellings.”

Tom Washington, author of the book “Resume Power, Selling Yourself on Paper,” said another blunder is sending a resume on yellow, orange or blue paper, instead of using white or off-white paper. “There are better ways to get people’s attention than neon-colored paper,” Washington said.

No matter how neat a resume is, the real key is whether it is well-organized and written smartly enough to grab the attention of someone you have never met. As Washington put it: “Does the resume sell this person? Or is the resume just dates and a laundry list of titles and duties.”

To develop the best resume, Washington suggests writing notes on everything that comes to mind about past jobs, schooling, volunteer activities and any other special skills that you have. Write several rough drafts, then pare the information.

As you write, he said, don’t just list what kind of job you had; give some examples that show results or goals you achieved at work. Washington includes in his book the resume of someone who started as a waitress. Her resume said she was very professional, got along well with customers and regularly took home the highest tips at the restaurant.

“You should make the most out of whatever experience you have,” Washington said. “Anything that demonstrates you were good at what you did.”

The top of a resume should list your name, address and phone number. If you have different day and nighttime phone numbers, list both--a missed call can cost you an interview.

Keep your resume up to date; don’t just dust off an old copy. Washington remembers when he ran an ad for a secretary several years ago, and he was especially eager to find someone with good typing skills. “The resumes came in. And there was one in which the person scratched out her old address and hand wrote in a new address,” he said laughing.

Underneath your name, you can write a brief Qualifications section, in effect summarizing your skills. If you have worked at an office, for example, and you want to find another office job and know how to operate personal computers and fax machines, mention those skills here.

Most resumes, however, are built around two essential sections: employment and education history. If you have stumbled through a lot of jobs, though, don’t list them all. Instead, list the most interesting ones and those where you worked the longest.

“We do look for job stability, as opposed to someone who has jumped jobs every year or two,” Andre said.

For women who are trying to find a job after taking time off to raise children, Washington urges them to list their past jobs, “even if it was five or 10 years ago.” But they also should list any other recent activities in a separate section called Projects or Activities. “Whether it’s the PTA, Cub Scouts or any organizational things, it shows a person is still active and able to organize,” he said.

Education is the next section. Those who are college graduates should list their school and the degree they earned. If you went to college but did not graduate, you can still turn that into a plus. Write down the schools you attended and how many credits you earned. If any classes you took may relate to jobs you are applying for, list some course work.

And if you have taken some vocational training courses, list those as well. “It shows an employer they are serious and willing to take whatever preparation is needed,” Washington said.

Other skills such as typing, personal-computer experience or speaking a foreign language should be listed at the bottom of a resume. “Any bilingual capabilities these days is a plus to any business in southern California,” Andre said.

After writing your resume, ask a friend to check it for grammatical mistakes and to offer any suggestions on how to improve the content. If you are still unhappy with your resume, try one of the scores of resume services listed in the Yellow Pages.

For about $25 for a one-page resume, these companies will make sure that everything is spelled right and will lay out your resume in a computerized format and print it on fancy paper. The resume services will also write your resume from scratch. In effect, they will interview you, then compose a new resume. But expect to pay $45 to $80 per page.

Before hiring a resume company, Washington suggests that you read some of their sample resumes. If you’re not excited by those resumes, don’t expect the company to work magic on your case history either.

Once you have a resume, send it out with a cover letter. Your letter should be brief--three or four paragraphs. Mention the job you are applying for, perhaps highlight something from your resume and it may help to mention something about the company you are applying to.

Andre, for instance, is impressed when people know that 20th Century only sells auto and home insurance, not life insurance, and that it only does business in California. “That shows an initiative,” Andre said.

What he doesn’t like are gimmicky letters. “Occasionally, people write a poem as part of a cover letter to be cute,” Andre said. Insurance companies, he said, don’t need any poets on the payroll.