Resume – The shortcut to a better first impression

Resume:

A Resume is a creative summary of your entire life, with your accomplishments put down as points. In short it's your sales pitch to convince the guy reading it that you're worth more than all the other people making him read their resumes.

It can be pronounced as one feels comfortable, because both the French pronunciation as well as the English is accepted everywhere these days.

Things to keep in mind:

· You want to get hired, so don't bore the guy reading your resume by using the same old format you see in every resume book.

· The employer will not be spending more than 2 minutes on your resume; in most cases, there will just be a 30 second glance. So manage all content to fit within 2 sheets, because a person who cannot stop talking about himself will probably not be that good at the things he claims to do.

Writing the resume:

· Resume is expected to be precise, concise and point-wise.

· If you are using Microsoft Word to write down your resume, then you can make use of the following format, because it has helped me a lot; but once again don't stick to a pattern, customize the resume for the interviewer's needs.

o Leave a one inch space for margin on all 4 sides

o Text of font Arial

o Main headings of font size – 12

o Content of font size 11

o Main headings boldened, and underlined

o All bullets to be represented as dots and not numbers

o 1.5 line spacing, all text justified

· Do not leave large gaps/empty spaces in your resume

· Don’t write the word resume at the top of your resume

Things to be included in a resume:

· Name, Address and contact details

· Objective statement

· Educational qualification

· Areas of interest

· Technical skills

o Professional Trainings and Projects

o Software Exposure

· Other Achievements (Relevant to the job)

· Interests and activities

· Skills and attributes

· Personal details

· Declaration

How to write each of the fields:

There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to writing a resume. Each candidate will generally have his own style of writing.

It is a good practice to keep all things related to academics on the first sheet and include all other activities in the second sheet, because the employer may not even look at the second sheet while assessing a candidate. This also ensures that  you don’t leave blank spaces in-between your resume.

And Finally:

Begin the resume with your name in bold and set to font size 14

Immediately inset your Postal address after the name. In order to save space you can open a table and mention your landline, mobile number and email to the right side of the address. This also shows your skill at organization and makes the resume more presentable.

Objective Statement:

Write a brief objective statement that should state that you are looking for the betterment of the company as well as personal growth using your skills and resources offered by the company. One pitfall here is the use of overused words like "dynamic", "goal-oriented" etc. Let your interviewers come to that conclusion. Don't blow your own trumpet when they ask you for your objective.
Rule of thumb here is, look for what the employer wants from you in the job description and then use the same words they've used there. This way, if they're using filters to screen the number of likely candidates, your resume will get in!

Educational qualification:

This is written in the reverse chronological order for a fresher’s resume.

Technical skills:

In professional training and projects:

· Mention your project title, followed by a very short overview which must convey what was achieved by the project.

· Mention relevant academic achievements.

· Mention workshops attended if any, relevant to your course of study, which might have shown to enhance your academic enhancements.

· Mention if you have had any special training during an internship at a company, in-plant training.

· Mention summer camps only if they were of any major academic interests.

Software exposure:

All areas of study today include some or the other software, so mention the software with which you have been comfortable in the past. This field can include:

· Programming languages such as C, C++, JAVA, VB, Matlab...

· CAD and related drafting tools in mechanical and electronics.

· Web designing tools, Dreamviewer, Tally, Nudi, PHP, Photoshop, Corel draw, Google Earth etc.

Other achievements:

This field shows that you have the ability to handle something apart from curriculum.

· Mention all topics such as Typing lessons, Martial Arts, Music lessons/Instruments, Literary expertise, awards in Sports, science talent exams, Olympiads etc.

· This may also include doing honorary services, conducting club activities, organizing events etc.

Interest and activities:

Mention the sport you play in your leisure hours.

Mention your hobbies such as cooking, gardening.

If you are a very famous blogger then mention your core area of activity.

Skills and Attributes:

In this field you must mention what you are good at, or mention your strengths.

Mention if you are a good learner, an optimist, a good team player and if you are honest. (by default they expect these qualities from a candidate, so be prepared to justify each of these words if you mention them for instance they might as for a situation where you have been a good team player)

Personal details:

·        Mention your date of birth.

·        Age.

·        Spoken languages known.

·        Marital status.

·        Parents names.

Declaration:

The declaration part must include a statement that says that you have not lied in any of the details mentioned in the above parts.

The declaration is not mandatory, but the presence of one, makes the resume more authentic.

Sign below the declaration on the day of the interview.

Note:

• To be on the safer side, always get your resume corrected after you feel its complete. Show it to atleast 5 people before going to the interview.

• Make it a point to get all your spellings right.

• Expand all abbreviations.

• Make sure all the dates are right.

• Add references only if you have experience. How ever if asked be prepared to give references, it is best to keep 4 references ready 2 belonging to teachers and 2 from relatives.

• Yes your resume makes the first impression, but remember the rest is still up to you and you have to prepare well for the rest of the interview as well.

• Yes employers note the amount of effort you put into your resume.
• Don't copy resume from another person. In most cases it just doesnt serve the purpose.