Unit-2 Resume

Resumes and Cover Letters

RESUMES

and

COVER LETTERS

RESUMES AND COVER LETTERS

Create a Strong Resume

RESUME TIPS
						TOP 5 RESUME MISTAKES:
							1.	Spelling and grammar errors
RESUME LANGUAGE SHOULD BE:
							2.	Missing email and phone information
	• Specific rather than general						3.	Using passive language instead of “action” words
	• Active rather than passive						4.	Not well organized, concise, or easy to skim
	• Written to express not impress						5.	Too long
	• Articulate rather than “flowery”
	• Fact-based (quantify and qualify)						DO:
	• Written for people who scan quickly						• Be consistent in format and content
							•		Make it easy to read and follow, balancing white
	DON’T:
									space
	• Use personal pronouns (such as I)						•		Use consistent spacing, underlining, italics, bold,
	• Abbreviate								and capitalization for emphasis
	• Use a narrative style						•		List headings (such as Experience) in order of
	• Number or letter categories								importance
	• Use slang or colloquialisms						•		Within headings, list information in reverse chron-
	• Include a picture								ological order (most recent first)
	• Include age or sex						•		Avoid information gaps such as a missing summer
	• List references						• Be sure that your formatting translated properly if
	• Start each line with a date								converted to a .pdf

PLAN TO WORK INTERNATIONALLY?

Resume guidelines can vary from country to country.

Action Verbs for your Resume

Action Verbs for your Resume

LEADERSHIP
Accomplished	Achieved	Administered	Analyzed	Assigned	Attained	Chaired	Consolidated
Contracted	Coordinated	Delegated	Developed	Directed	Earned	Evaluated	Executed
Handled	Headed	Impacted	Improved	Increased	Led	Mastered	Orchestrated
Organized	Oversaw	Planned	Predicted	Prioritized	Produced	Proved	Recommended
Regulated	Reorganized	Reviewed	Scheduled	Spearheaded	Strengthened	Supervised	Surpassed
COMMUNICATION
Addressed	Arbitrated	Arranged	Authored	Collaborated	Convinced	Corresponded	Delivered
Developed	Directed	Documented	Drafted	Edited	Energized	Enlisted	Formulated
Influenced	Interpreted	Lectured	Liaised	Mediated	Moderated	Negotiated	Persuaded
Presented	Promoted	Publicized	Reconciled	Recruited	Reported	Rewrote	Spoke
Suggested	Synthesized	Translated	Verbalized	Wrote
RESEARCH
Clarified	Collected	Concluded	Conducted	Constructed	Critiqued	Derived	Determined
Diagnosed	Discovered	Evaluated	Examined	Extracted	Formed	Identified	Inspected
Interpreted	Interviewed	Investigated	Modeled	Organized	Resolved	Reviewed	Summarized
Surveyed	Systematized	Tested
TECHNICAL
Assembled	Built	Calculated	Computed	Designed	Devised	Engineered	Fabricated
Installed	Maintained	Operated	Optimized	Overhauled	Programmed	Remodeled	Repaired
Solved	Standardized	Streamlined	Upgraded
TEACHING
Adapted	Advised	Clarified	Coached	Communicated	Coordinated	Demystified	Developed
Enabled	Encouraged	Evaluated	Explained	Facilitated	Guided	Informed	Instructed
Persuaded	Set Goals	Stimulated	Studied	Taught	Trained
QUANTITATIVE
Administered	Allocated	Analyzed	Appraised	Audited	Balanced	Budgeted	Calculated
Computed	Developed	Forecasted	Managed	Marketed	Maximized	Minimized	Planned
Projected	Researched
CREATIVE
Acted	Composed	Conceived	Conceptualized	Created	Customized	Designed	Developed
Directed	Established	Fashioned	Founded	Illustrated	Initiated	Instituted	Integrated
Introduced	Invented	Originated	Performed	Planned	Published	Redesigned	Revised
Revitalized	Shaped	Visualized
HELPING
Assessed	Assisted	Clarified	Coached	Counseled	Demonstrated	Diagnosed	Educated
Enhanced	Expedited	Facilitated	Familiarized	Guided	Motivated	Participated	Proposed
Provided	Referred	Rehabilitated	Represented	Served	Supported
ORGANIZATIONAL
Approved	Accelerated	Added	Arranged	Broadened	Cataloged	Centralized	Changed
Classified	Collected	Compiled	Completed	Controlled	Defined	Dispatched	Executed
Expanded	Gained	Gathered	Generated	Implemented	Inspected	Launched	Monitored
Operated	Organized	Prepared	Processed	Purchased	Recorded	Reduced	Reinforced
Retrieved	Screened	Selected	Simplified	Sold	Specified	Steered	Structured
Systematized	Tabulated	Unified	Updated	Utilized	Validated	Verified

A resume is a medium for advertising yourself, its the first most means which you use to present yourself and try to claim that you are the best choice to your prospects employer. Through your resume you have to showcase your major assets like −

• Qualifications
• Experience
• Achievements
• Capabilities, and
• Qualities

You have to prepare your resume in such a way that it gives impression in first look that you are a perfect fit for the job you have applied. An employer hardly takes 10-15 seconds to make a decision about your interview call after looking at your resume. If your resume is well written then definitely you will be in the shortlisted candidates does not matter you have required potential or not but you will get a call otherwise your resume will become a part of either recycle bin or dustbin, again it does not matter if you are Einstein or Newton.

The first draft of your resume may not be so impressive because a resume is always an evolving document which improves over the period of time, so keep modifying and improving it after its first draft and keep its different versions with you.

Now without complicating the things, I will take you through step by step to create a great resume for you. I'm assuming you have Microsoft Word to write your resume, so now just follow the following steps −

Step 1: Address Section

This section will be on top of your resume giving a detail about your name, address, phone number and e-mail address. Keep this section left aligned and put a bold line below to the section to separate it from rest of the document as follows −

JOHN WILLIAMS
Kondapur, Hyderabad - INDIA
Contact No: +91 2295103049
Email Id: john.william@gmail.com

If you are currently working then you can specify your company name just below to your name as follows −

JOHN WILLIAMS
IT Tools India Pvt Ltd
Kondapur, Hyderabad - INDIA
Contact No: +91 2295103049
Email Id: john.william@gmail.com

Step 2: Summary Section

This section will start with a heading called Summary and followed by listing down your over-all experience, achievements, certifications and positive attributes etc. It is very similar to a movie trailer where editor keeps all great scenes from the movie and after watching that trailer you get excited to watch complete movie. You will have to choose attractive & heavy words while documenting this section.

To draft summary section you will have to think a while with peaceful mind, jot down great points about yourself on a plain paper and check to make them more impressive and effective. If they are not leaving any impact on the reader then there is no point in including those points in the summary section.

If you are a fresh graduate then you should specify about your small but impressive projects you have done at university, highlight your achievements and project capabilities etc.

Let's look at one example which lists down few points about a telecom System Software Engineer, in your case this list can go from 2-3 bulleted points to 8-10 points.

SUMMARY A Hotel mgmt graduated from GGSIP University and having overall 4 years of extensive experience in developing state-of-the-art Culinary. Result oriented, self driven, highly motivated, smart and hungry to learn new technologies, methodologies, strategies and processes.

Step 3: Education Detail

Because you already have given summary of your experience and achievements, so now let's start telling about our educational background. There are many organizations who give lot of preference to your educational background. So it is important to tell about your academic records. You should put your highest degree on top and then lower qualifications at lower levels.

This is extremely important to give information about your position, rank, percentage or CPI along with degree or certification otherwise many employers would throw your resume in dustbin if you don't give clear picture of your educational background. Now lets see one example on how to put educational records in a resume.

Education Detail Masters  in Hotel mgmt. (2005) from GGSIP University with 8.8 CPI. BHMCT (2002) from G.G.S.I.P.University New Delhi  with 87.20% marks 10+2 with Maths, Stats (1999) from CBSE with 67.20% marks High School (1997) from CBSE with 77.20% marks Secured first position in Bar competition during BHMCT Gold medalist at 10+2 level due to highest rank in mathematics.

If you have done various certifications and trainings then I would recommend to add a separate section for Trainings & Certifications just below to Educational Section.

Step 4: Technical Skills

Next section in your resume will present your Technical Skills. This section will start with telling your major skills on which you have good command. So list down all the skills first where you are fully confident and then keep rest of the skills at lower levels. Have a look at the following example where candidate has good command over Pro*C and C but less experienced in Perl so put Pro*C and C first and Perl later. This is important to note that all the lines given below are not required in all the cases. If you know only one skill then just tell about that skill, for example if you don't have any experience in any protocol then don't give that line in your resume

Technical Skills WSET Level-II The Beer Start Winner in Bar Talent.

Step 5: Projects Detail

Here comes real story and this is really important to show your all the projects, assignments etc. Reader should understand what exactly you have done in past. Here you will put hands on experience with different type of projects, people and tools and technologies. You have to be clear on what was your, organizations, year of the project, roles, responsibilities, value add, achievements etc. on each and every project or position. You should also mention about what were the tools and technologies you have used during that project.

If your experience is not project based then you can simply name this heading as Experience Detail and list down all the experiences either in bulleted form or in simple & short 2-3 paragraphs.

You will start with the most recent project and continue listing down all the projects till the oldest one. If you have done only training project or thesis project then you can mention those projects along with your University projects in the same format. Here I will give examples of two projects −

Projects Detail 1 - Feasibility Report of Opening of the Fine Dining restaurant in Delhi Duration: Mar 2005 - Jun 2005 Team Size: Single Handled Role Played: Report Writer

After giving a complete detail of all the projects, now you can tell about your major strengths. Look at the following examples, may be you don't have all the strengths so list down only whatever you posses −

Strengths Good oral, written & presentation skills A high tolerance of stress and enjoys responsibilities Quick learner with good grasping ability Action-oriented and result-focused Lead & work as a team in an organized way Great time management skill

Step 7: Extra Curricular

This section is optional because it is always not necessary that you would have been involved in some extra curricular activities same time for various roles its not required to have any extra curricular. Some time this section may have lot of weightage specially when your resume reader and you have same curriculum. I'm giving you a simple example to list down your curricular activities

Extra Curricular Have been a member of University Technical Council Won first prize for debate at inter state level competition Played Cricket at inter state level Mono acting, Singing and Reading Good hands on Bar Tendering

Step 8: Personal Detail

This will be the last but mandatory section of your resume but will provide all important information about you. A simple and easy example is given here −

Personal Detail Date of Birth: 5th Aug 1983 Sex & Status: Male & Single Nationality: INDIAN Languages Known: English, Hindi, Urdu Passport Number: A09384848 valid till 2018

Step 9: Conclusion

Now you are done and you have a great resume in your hand. Let me put all the sections together in a word document to prepare a final resume. You can download Sample Resume from here and you can modify this resume based on your experience, skill etc. In fact resume building is an evolutionary process and your resume will get better and better over the period of time.

I will recommend to go through the following tips to add lot of value into your resume.

• Keep your resume file name short, simple and informational. A good resume file name could be like JohnWilliams-Resume2013.docx
• You can keep a small passport size photo at the top-right corner of the resume but this is really not required.
• Don't use various unnecessary formatting in your resume. Keep simple text as much as possible in your resume. Have a look at sample resume. You will find many HRs who prefer resume only in simple text format. So if you will keep resume formating simple then it would be easy to format that resume in any format.
• Don't include too many phone numbers, email addresses or addresses.
• Don't prepare too big resume. It should be as precise as possible.
• Always give a summary of the resume at the beginning.
• Always give a detail of roles and responsibilities you have taken during any project.
• Make sure the resume is neat, free of typing errors, and on plain white paper.
• Never give a reason for leaving your previous job, your salary expectations, your current job challenges etc, and better to leave such points to be discussed at the time of interview if required.