Resume building. Some Do’s and Don’ts
By: Saurabh Jaiswal
Tags: Work, Employee Engagement, Hiring, Mba, Resume

Photo by Bram Naus on Unsplash

A resume is a formal document presented that a job applicant creates to display his or her qualifications for a desired position. A resume is usually accompanied by a cover letter in which the applicant expresses an interest and objectives in a specific job or company and draws attention to the most relevant specifics on the resume. It includes your relevant work experience, skills, education and notable accomplishments. It basically displays your abilities and convinces recruiters that you are qualified and hire able.



Basically there is some difference between Curriculum vitae (CV) and resume. The CV presents a full history of your academic credentials covering every aspect of education, work experience, so the length of the document is variable. In contrast, a resume presents a concise picture of your skills and qualifications for a specific position typically covers 10 years worth of employment, so length tends to be shorter and dictated by years of experience (generally 1–2 pages).



What should be included in your Resume ? Here are some information that you should be sure to include in your resume:-



IDENTIFICATION:-

• This part is marked by the inclusion of name, address, telephone number at the top of your resume.

• The email address dropped by you should be professional.



OBJECTIVE (OPTIONAL):-

•This space is not mandatory to be dropped in your resume. If you want you can put you resume objective, but it should be concise and specific and should be demonstrating what you hope to accomplish in your field of work.



PROFILE (OPTIONAL):-

•This is another optional section in your resume, which is marked by summary of your skills, goals and experience written for the aim of job posting.

Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

EDUCATION:-

•Start with your Recent or highest degree the foremost.

•Add all other degrees in reverse-chronological order.

•If you finished college, adding your high school information becomes optional.

•You can either spell out your degree “Master of Arts” or just use initials “MA.”

•If you are mentioning any institution, include location, dates attended or graduation date ( or expected graduation date), can also include GPA (only if its above 3.5).

•You can also mention relevant extra curricular activities, study abroad program, any academic honors.



EXPERIENCE:-

•In this work history is typically presented in reverse chronological order, beginning with your current/recent job and working back in time. Internships, temporary jobs ,summer jobs, and, in addition to permanent positions all other work experience, can all be included in this portion of your resume.

•once you have worked for more than ten years, you may find that some of your earlier jobs are less relevant or minimal importance to your career, You can leave those positions off, or group together all earlier experiences in a very truncated format at the end of your resume.

•It includes an experience section about the companies you have worked for, dates of employment, the positions or responsibility you held, and a bulleted list of achievements and responsibilities are included in this section of your resume.

Photo by Mimi Thian on Unsplash

SKILLS (OPTIONAL):-

•The skill section of your resume includes your abilities and add on that make you a suitable candidate for the jobs you are applying for. In this portion you should list skills that are relevant to the position or career field that you are interested in, such as software skills ,computer skills, and/or language skills.

• Include foreign languages also with which you are familiar with. And also add the level of your fluency in a particular language like beginning, intermediate, fluent.

•If there are various types of skills that are essential or valid to the job you’re applying for, you can include multiple skills list in your resume.



VOLUNTEER WORK (OPTIONAL):-

• This is another optional section of resume where you can enlist your volunteer work in different organization displaying your leadership, management, and communication skills.

• Mention the name of the organization, how long you worked for in that organization, and your achievements too.



HOBBIES AND INTERESTS (OPTIONAL):-

•This is another optional space where you can drop your hobbies and interests, if they relate to your job like you can mention your hobby of drawing and designing if you are applying for a company which is based on designing.



RESUME WRITING GUIDELINES:-

RESUME LENGTH:-

• Your resume should be clear and concise depicting all the necessary details and experience which one is looking for the job.

• Basically two pages is typically the maximum length, but one page is preferable, if you can put all your necessary credentials there.



REVIEW EXAMPLES:-

• One page resume { for an entry level candidate}

• Two page resume { for an experienced candidate}



FONT AND SIZE:-

•The standard font size for resumes is 12 points in a classic and easily readable font. Larger fonts are good for emphasizing your name and section headings. If you can’t fit your content on one page you could try using a sans-serif font at 10 points, but that’s the minimum font size you should use.

• Avoid ornate fonts as it makes the resume difficult to read. Times new roman, Arial, Calibri are best.



PAGE MARGINS:-

• Resume margins should be about one-inch on all the 4 sides. You can do a reduction in the margins if you need extra space, but do not make them smaller than half-inch. If the margins are too small, the resume will look too busy and messy.



LAYOUT:-

• The layout of you resume is according to you, but it should be keep noticed that it should be uniform all throughout.

For example- if you have bolded one company name than all the company name should be in bold.



INFORMATION TO AVOID:-

• Don't include your personal information such as your age , date of birth, your height and weight, marital status etc.



ACCURACY:-

• Check and edit your resume before sending it to a company.

• Check spelling, grammatical mistakes, tenses in your resume.

• Also hand in your resume to your friend or career counsellor once and ask them to read it once.

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Do’s

· Try to keep your resume short, a maximum of 2 pages, if you have so many high accomplishments to mention, otherwise go for one-page resume and avoid irrelevant details.

· Use a formal Font and format for your resume don’t use hasty formats and don’t make your resume look colorful, use two formal color combination of you want to make your resume appear attractive.

· Always try to keep your resume updated to the latest information and achievements.

· Reorder your resume according to the job reference, and highlight your job-relevant skills.

· Wherever possible provide a link for the relevant document which your feel could be helpful for the recruiter.

· Always give your achievement certificate links, which could be an advantage as proof of the skills that you mentioned in your resume.

· Show-off your tech skills in your resume, mention the software you have command on with your proficiency level in that software.

Don’ts

· Don’t give wrong information, or don’t mention fake achievements, and don’t write anything that is not true because if the recruiter finds you cheating, they might complain against you, this might spoil your whole career.

· Avoid any grammatical mistake while writing your resume, this could cost you too much because a grammatical mistake can lead to your rejection.

· Make a precise resume, don’t mention every small detail, because it will make your resume bully, and a recruiter is not going to read a bulky resume and could reject you just by looking at the size of your resume.

· In the resume summary statement at the top, don’t write it as duties, weave the worlds as your accomplishments.

Avoid incorrect contact information in your resume.

· Don’t make your resume too much common, try to arrange your details effectively keeping it job-specific.

· Don’t forget to mention any important detail in your resume, which could be relevant for the job you are applying to.

Don’t mention the reasons for leaving a job in your resume