THE FIRST IMPRESSION: KEY GUIDELINES TO WRITE EYE-CATCHING RESUME
Design: There is no one right design for a resume. The design of a resume largely depends on a person's background, employment need, career goals, and professional conventions in the area of specialization. For best results a resume must be designed to reflect the candidate's personality, employment goals and his/her career aspirations. A resume should be original.
Types: There are two different formats in order to present information in resume:
The Chronological Resume:Traditionally, the information required on a resume has usually been arranged in chronological order. The Functional Resume- The functional resume focuses on skills and strengths. Resumes can be written in objective method or in detailed method. Objective resumes give dates, titles and no qualitative salesmanship information. Resumes written in detail style provide information not only of dates, title and names, but also give in detail the quality and effectiveness of work.
However, whatever the resume design, the resume must answer the following questions:
a- How can the employer contact the candidate?
b- What are his/her career objectives?
c- Which institution has been attended?
d- What courses (academic or professional) has been completed?
e- What is his/her work experience?
f- What are his/her career achievement?
g- What are his/her special skills or capabilities?
h- What are the awards or honors he/she received?
i- What are his/her activities/special interests/hobbies?
j- What is his/her personal detail?
k- Who are his references?
The answer may be integrated to these questions into different parts of a resume.
ELEMENTS OF A RESUME
The standard parts of a resume include the heading, position sought, career objective, education, work-experience, specific skills, achievements, activities, personal detail and references.1- Heading:- The heading of a resume includes contact information, which contains the applicant's name, full postal address with pin code, telephone number with area code, fax number and e-mail address.
Example-
DR. RAHUL SINGH
6C/21, A Block
Rajendra Nagar
Jaipur-302001
M- 9897345623
E-mail: drrahulsing@gmail. com
2- Position Sought:- If applying for a solicited job position, the position sought should be mentioned. It is optional.
3- Career Objective:- It is a special part in a resume. If responding to an advertised job position, the resume should include the applicant's career objective.
Example
To contribute to the growth of high technology materials engineering enterprise by working in a position where i will have opportunities to utilize my exposure.
If you are just exploring a job position by sending an all-purpose resume, you may use a general statement as your career objective.
Another Example
Position in academic administration. Faculty position in computer aided design.
4- Professional Summary:-Some resume s may include a professional summary in place of career objective. It is a one sentence statement listing the applicant's most important qualifications, skills and key work experience.
Example
Six years experience as director in academic field.
5- Education: In this part of a resume, specific details regarding the applicant's education and professional training must be included. The name and location of the school/college/university attended, major areas of studies, degree/certificates received, grade point average/class/division should be mentioned. Relevant training programs, special courses, seminar and workshop attended or conducted should also be mentioned.
6- Work Experience: Work experience should be given in reverse chronological order, by listing the most recent employment first. Title of the position, employer's name or name of the organization, company, location of work, dates of employment and important job responsibilities, activities and accomplishment should be included.
7- Special Skills, Abilities and Aptitudes:- In this part of resume, the applicant's special skills, abilities and aptitudes that are of significance and of direct relevance to the purpose of resume are given.
Example
Special skills include computer programming, data processing and technical writing.
8- Activities and Interest:- Extracurricular, co-curricular, professional activities and interests must be mentioned in this part.
9- Achievements/Accomplishments/ Honours/ Awards:- Achievements/accomplishments/ honours/awards distinguish one person from another. This part should include scholarships, fellowships, awards, distinctions, certificates and commendations, or anything that shows achievements or recognition.
Example
Chancellor award for academic excellence (all semester) in M. Tech.
10- Personal Detail: Full name, date of birth, sex, health, marital status, religion, nationality, permanent address, contact number, email id and language known must be mentioned in this part of a resume.
11- References:- In this part of a resume minimum two or maximum three person's full name with their position, postal address, contact number and email id must be mentioned. These person may include the applicants previous employer, teacher, immediate supervision, research guide, colleague, subordinate and so on.
KEY POINTS TO WRITE EFFECTIVE RESUME
Your resume is usually your first impression to an employer, which makes it a powerful self-marketing tool which can make or break your chances at getting an interview. To make your resume stand out:
- Format your resume chronologically or functionally.
- Keep it short one-page, if possible
- Be succinct (brief, concise)
- Customize your resume for each job you reply for
- Be neat; make sure that you use bullet points when necessary
- Be honest about your skills and work experience?
- Job objective should be written to relate both the company and the job description
- Your experience should be continuous
- Use action word (developed, handled, organized, created etc. ) and phrases when describing your experience
- Choose effective and strong words and phrases for emphasis rather than complete sentences
- Ask someone you trust to check over your resume and make sure that they really critique your works
- Proofread your resume and make sure your resume is neat, visually appealing, attractive, grammatically correct and typo (misprint, typographical error) free
- Always include a cover letter referencing the company needs and your qualifications for the job. Cover letter is also known as job application letter.
- Lastly, the four questions your resume should answer-
a- What do you want? (Objective)
b- Why are you qualified to do it? (Professional summary)
c- Where have you done it? (Experience)
d- How well have you done it? (Achievement)
Appendices
Contact and Address Detail
# Put the contact and address details at the foot of the resume for middle and senior job vacancies, when you want maximum impact for your job-related strengths.
# Put your contact and address details at the top of the resume if you have the slightest feeling that the vacancy or the screening process involves processing large numbers of applicants, and in which basic skills and basic personal circumstances are the priority screening and selection criteria.
Writing Resume with no Career History or Work Experience
# Experience is in everything we do especially in the most important areas such as maturity (grown-up attitude) and emotional intelligence, communication, creativity, responsibility, determination, integrity, compassion, problem-solving etc. , are the qualities employers really seek so if you are leaving college/university and putting together your first resume then look for the relevant transferable learning in your life experience and use these examples with the structured resume.
Personal Profile
Write five to seven high impact statements that describes you. As
# Highly articulate, confident and persuasive, team-builder, able to motivate ant communicate to achieve exceptional business/job performance.
# High personal integrity and able to relate to and create trust to all.
# Result-driven, logical and methodical approach to achieving tasks and objectives.
# Seeks new responsibilities irrespective of reward and recognition.
Career History
Give a tight compact summary of your career.
Examples of Experience
# Planning
# Communicating
# Dealing with customers-internal/external
# Researching and exploring
# Creating
# Scheduling
# Designing and developing
# Decision making
# Directing activities
# Determining direction, policy and strategies
# Working under pressure and meeting deadlines, etc.
Examples of non-work experiences that can be used as a basic or relevant and impressive experience instead of work related experience
- Teaching and helping people
- Languages and creative writing
- Making things
- Local politics and trade union activities
- Computers and telecom
- Thinking and philosophizing
- Becoming Expert and accumulating knowledge in anything.
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Dr. Shivali SinghLecturer in English Department of Applied Sciences & Humanities CET, IFTM Campus Moradabad-244011
Jobs Online – Visit web sites of firms that have your field of specialization. It is possible that they have their own posting with a detailed career information and job search advice. Applicants can do a targeted search and can easily contact the recruiter who will be able to answer their questions immediately. Follow up when you have submitted your application but haven’t heard back from the company, call or send an e-mail to confirm that the resume was received and to show your interest in the position. Most companies expect to hear from applicants within two weeks after submission of their application. Learn more:
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Thanks for your Guidance! so valuable tips. Every students should know of this!
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