|
[ Back to Article Index ]
What a resume should do?
In this world of cut- throat competition, your resume is your
first and at times your only chance for an interview. To understand the art of
resume writing, you should understand that a resume is a self-promotional tool,
which gives you an opportunity to present yourself in favorable light and plays
a critical role in controlling your image to prospective employers. Your resume
should therefore act as your advertisement:
Speaking loudly and clearly of your potential value, skills and
accomplishments.
Make you stand out as a superior candidate for the job you are seeking and
propel the employer to call you. Our Resume Manager, directs you to tailor and
design your resume which will help you demand attention, with its key
The contents of a resume:
The presentation sequence for a resume varies considerably from a fresher to a
professional, though the content remains the same. Follow the order given
below, depending on your type.
Begin by Asserting Yourself:
Ask yourself:
What does the employer want?
What does the job demands?
What will make an ideal candidate for this job?
Why should they appoint me and pay me the demanded salary?
Am I worth the money?
1. Promote yourself throughout your resume in the light of these
questions such that you appeal to the employer.
2. Highlight yourself such that you match perfectly with what is
required.
3. If you are applying in a field where you have prior experience, then
you exactly know the essential qualities the employer will seek for that
particular position. Use that knowledge.
4. In case you are a fresher and don’t have the requisite expertise,
take special care while crafting your resume such that your qualities meet the
job demands. Try to show connections between what you have done and what the
employer wants
Below is the reverse chronological format, the most successful of all formats.
Write your name,
address,
telephone number
and e-mail at the top of the page.
Objective:
Keep in mind the answers of the above questions. Write the post for which you
are applying along with the most needed qualities required for the job present
in you.
Examples:
[A] A hospital administrator’s position in an organization,
which offers the opportunity to use my administrative and managerial abilities.
[B] A hospital administrator’s position, in an organization
where a wide exposure of medical, administrative and supportive services would
be needed.
[C] Seeking a position as a registered nurse where I can be
most effective in helping other medical personnel assist patients and provide
quality healthcare.
[D] An administrative position in the area of rehabilitation /
geriatric healthcare utilizing my knowledge of clinical, community, and patient
services.
[E] To obtain a position as a financial manager in the
healthcare industry, utilizing 16 years of success and accomplishments.
1. Your objective should be short and focused.
2. If in case you are applying for a diverse number of
jobs or for more than one position, create a different resume for each, stating
clearly your objective.
Summary:
As the name suggests, a summary is the gist of a resume. It is the most widely
read section by the employers and should do the following for you.
1. Strongly highlight your qualities, skills, achievements,
professional experience and your potential.
2. Give a complete picture of what you can do for your
employer.
3. Convince the employer– As to why he should select you.
4. Give an honest, impressive and crisp account of you.
5. Speak of the qualities most sought for the job, inherent in
you.
Examples:
[A] Healthcare professional experienced in software
development programmes. Expertise in managing IT projects. 10 years experience
in executive decision making, strategic planning. Extensive knowledge of the IT
industry. A hunger for solving problems, developing and simplifying procedures,
and finding quick solutions. Ability to motivate people for perfection.
[B] Extensive experience working as an information systems
analyst. Highly skilled in technically programming healthcare data and
healthcare systems. Extremely user oriented and guided by a natural flair for
providing fast, efficient, and accurate data analysis for both internal and
external customers.
Skills and Accomplishments:
This section can be combined with your professional experience
stating your achievements company wise.
Your skills and accomplishments must overtly convey to your employer what you
can do for the organization. Therefore it must describe your multifaceted
approach to any job or problem.
1.State the successful projects undertaken by you, the
changes and improvements you brought about in your previous jobs.
2.Use powerful verbs to describe your accomplishments
such as {designed, managed, implemented, planned, conducted, co-coordinated,
promoted, orchestrated, devised, instructed, spearheaded, directed,
streamlined, generated}.
Examples:
[A]. Raised ABC organization’s profit margin from xxxxx lakhs to xx
crore
[B]. Planned hospital improvement initiatives for xxxx Hospital
[C]. Conducted research for ‘Academy of Hospital Administration’
3. Avoid using first person pronouns such as I, me. Instead say
individually handled, independently assisted.
4. If the accomplishment is completed, write in past
tense. If you are working on it, write in present tense
5. Freshers or students can write about college
activities that won them accolades.
6.Also keep in mind that your accomplishments must be in tune
with your objective and your experience. Well-experienced people need not write
about the accolades received in college.
7. Use bullets to highlight each accomplishment.
Professional Experience:
Your experience must be in tune with the kind of job you are applying.
1. Most employers are interested in your current job, so start with your
current job describing your current designation, the job profile, and the
number of years you have put in, with a short address of the company. [Don’t
write pin codes].
2.Next write about your other jobs depending on their relevancy to your
objective.
3.You can write the job title or the name of the company which ever
sounds more impressive first.
4.Don’t go in detail on the jobs early in your career unless relevant to
your job target.
5.Don’t include months, unless the job was held less than a year.
6. You can also include internships if any.
Education:
1. Start with your latest degrees, diplomas, professional
trainings, short or long term courses with the college name and university.
2. Mention your optional subjects only if it will help
convince the employer of your qualifications for the targeted job.
3. If you are a college graduate or a fresher with no
experience then your education section comes directly below your objective.
4. If you are still studying and have not yet completed your
degree then write about the degree and the expected date of its completion.
Research or paper submitted:
This section will contain information about the research paper undertaken by
you during various jobs or in college. You can either write about your research
paper in the skills and accomplishment section or write it under this title.
Personal affiliations:
List the ones that relate to your objective.
Interests: State your hobbies and other areas of interests
only if they can support your objective. Do not write hobbies like listening to
music, chatting and surfing the net. Unnecessary details such as political
affiliations, height, weight should be avoided.
References:
1. You can write ‘References will be submitted on request’
[usually written in italics].
2. Do not write actual names of people in your resume. You can
write them on a separate sheet of paper and submit it if asked to do so during
the course of the interview.
Guidelines to enhance your resume:
1. After you have finished drafting your resume, go back and
check it for misspellings, grammatical and punctuation errors.
2. See that your entire resume has a consistent font
throughout.
For instance- if you have entered the degrees in bold then your diplomas, short
and long-term courses too should be in bold.
3. Ensure that a hurried reader is able to swallow your most
important skills and qualifications, which can be partly achieved by designing
an attractive layout using proper spacing, margins, headings, italics, bullets,
capital letters, boldface, underlining with uniformity and consistency.
4. Since resumes are viewed for a very short time they must be
short and to the point. Usually a one-page resume best serves the purpose but
at times lengthy and detailed resumes are imperative for people depending on
their background. For instance people from the teaching or medicine fraternity
may require a lengthy and a detailed resume.
5. There should be proper spacing between each section.
6. Do not include salary information, personal information and
references.
7. Use a font-size of 11 or i2.
8. Include the signature and date at the end.
9.Do not fold your resume. Incase
you have to post it, enclose it in a full sized envelope. If you still have to
fold it give it a single fold.
|
|