Resume Preperation

[stanley clement]

Resume selection process for selection of a resume, out of a whole
lots of them, works in the following chain:

1) A resume that attracts attention & interest -> 2) Leads to scrutiny
-> 3) If seems to meet requirements, selected for further action.

How do you attract attention? What can you do to catch the eye of the
scrutinizer in the 15 seconds that he has for you? In such a situation
how does one succeed? What if actually you were the right person,
competent and fit for the advertised job; yet your resume gets
rejected due to poor screening by the selector(s)? Relax. This article
is supposed to tackle exactly these issues. The purpose here is to
give out tips that will fetch you better results. To help you define
chances of your own success!

To achieve the first of the above objectives, you have to put in
efforts. The resume reviewer needs to be helped and guided to select
your resume out of the heap. Tone, flavor and focus add value.
Credentials are any way a bottom line. Focus helps the reader to
select the right resume. You need to consciously bring forth those
specific aspects out of your own years of experience, or of your
academic and extracurricular achievements, if you are a fresher, that
the advertiser is perhaps looking for in a "probably a suitable
candidate" and paste at the top of your resume as a summary in four to
six lines. He does not have time to go deeper, nor to read in between
lines to find out if you may be the right person for his job. That way
he might as well meet most candidates.

Step 1: Get your facts together.
As an applicant you must write the resume giving information about
yourself only after you have prepared yourself well. First of all,
therefore, it is advisable to keep your existing resume on the side
and have a complete re-look at your whole career, afresh. It is useful
to gather all information about yourself and jot down the various jobs
you have done, the various responsibilities that you held, various
achievements that you have achieved. Be it your in your jobs or in
college or at school. This is not easy. But have patience. Your future
depends on how well you are prepared.

To do the step1, it may be a good idea to sit down with a tape
recorder and go back to your first ever job and talk through your
career. Talk about learnings, pitfalls, mistakes, contributions and
failures.

Assimilate this information and compartmentalize based on category of
experience, skills, period or what ever, even if across jobs. Put it
out as a draft. Refine and finalize. Having penned the information,
collate those portions of your resume that are relevant to the
position being applied for. Estimate the time that you would have
spent on such activities and specifically mention.

Put all these details in the cover letter and also in the main resume
at the top frame under sub heading: Summary: It is one Para comprising
of 4 to 6 lines and is the flavor of the resume. This should remove
the need for the "Objective". I have seen most objectives are abstract
wish statements of candidates that are generally irrelevant to the
reviewer at the initial resume-screening stage barring rare critical
positions. The summary is a good forum to mention awards and merits.
The credibility needs to be established early on. It will help hold
interest for the reader to go on.

Be precise and honest. I have seen many resumes that are well bloated
and also flavored. Flavoring of the resume to requirements leads to a
selection for an interview call. But when it matures in to an
interview, the sharp interviewer will eliminate you. If your actual
work profile does not suit his requirement he is not going to hire
you. Interviewing is a scientific process of information gathering.
Many interviewers have mastered the skill of interviewing and a good
interviewer will puncture holes in a resume-forte and will be able to
see through the bloating however carefully one may have woven. While a
resume may sound impressive, result of the interview may turn out to
be just other wise. Time and time over again. More number of times you
lose, you only add to your own frustration. One is playing a lose-lose
game.

By summarizing your experiences carefully, you are helping the
reviewer to look at the relevant portion of your work life and if it
interests him, he decides to spend more time on you.

Step 2: Present your resume neatly
Formatting your resume is crucial. Format it so that a neat print on
A-4 sized sheet can be taken. If you are printing a hard copy
yourself, use good quality white bond paper.

There is no need to write "Resume" or "Curriculum Vitaé" as the Header
to your document. Putting your name in bold with font size 16 on top
left hand corner should be sufficient. Keep the font size as 12 for
the rest of the document. Use Arial or Times New Roman and Auto or
Black color. Give your present address contact details, phone, mobile
and e-mail. If permanent address is separate, mention it at the end of
your document and not on the top.

While you should make all the headings bold using title case, the sub-
headings should be normal-italic. Add spaces after a coma or a full
stop and not before. Leave one space, max two spaces, after full stop.
Avoid using exclamation marks (!) or question marks (?). Use Tab(s)
after colon (:) and standardize one tab position for the whole
document to present information neatly.

There should not be any spelling mistakes. These speak poorly of your
candidature. Poor spellings and wrong sentences puts off the readers
and gives them a reason to reject.

Do not waste efforts in dividing your resume by shaded heading text-
boxes. While such formats look neat on your computer screens; the
print outs may turn out to be horrible or garbled.

After the Name and contact details, mention your qualifications. It is
useful to begin with the highest one first and then go backwards. It
is important to mention the course, university / institution and the
period of study. Percentage CGPA or any other ranking helps. Take an
opportunity to highlight merits in class / college/ university,
including scholarships, certifications etc if any.

In case if any course is part time or through correspondence, do
mention it now rather than being discovered later.

Experience details
Cover the current job responsibilities first and go back wards. Best
is to cover points area wise, major ones first. But cover all aspects
that you have handled. Mention in brief only. Who knows that may be
that's what the prospective employer is looking for? Be proud. There
is no harm in saying, "I have done it", but state facts.

Skills, technologies computer savvyness needs clear mention
IT professionals should maintain one pattern for all projects through
out the length of the resume: Mention duration from-to (specify period
in months); give project name / Module; Technologies used: OS /
Languages / Tools. It is useful to keep a separate section where you
self-assess your competence on various technologies, especially the
ones that you have used. For mentioning the Team size it is useful to
take maximum size. Also do mention the location of the project.

Do not abbreviate or create your own acronyms. Mention key words in
accepted standard form only, lest they get missed in electronic
search.

I may like to warn here that Virus can kill your candidature. So make
sure your machine is well updated on anti-virus definitions. Do
mention your role / reporting relationship and add the specific
achievement / contribution that you have made to the project / job.
Mention about reviews and quality aspects. Customer appreciations
about your work are best credentials. Don't miss mentioning them.

Don't do cut and paste job responsibility descriptions across the
projects/jobs. Treat each one separately. Even if the job is similar,
no two are exactly the same. Some things are different. Break monotony
in writing and bring out the difference. Shortcuts by you will only
encourage the reader also apply the same when he is reading. In the
end, do mention your extra curricula achievements, hobbies, and
interests, permanent address etc.

A well-selected resume will increase your success rate. For, once the
reviewer has understood your candidature, he is calling you with an
expectation to select and not to reject. There is a vacancy that he
needs to close quickly. Having seen your honest resume, he knows
fairly well what kind of work you may have done in your career. You
may have the right experience that he may like to leverage upon. And
precisely for that he will be ready to shell out more money, some
thing that will only benefit you. He now wants to meet you and
evaluate you. Your credentials will be verified. He is going to judge
by what you say, how you say, what body language you exhibit, your
analytical ability and agility. And most of all, attitude,
pleasantness, eagerness, warmth and your fitment in to the
organization culture guide his assessment of your capability of
handling the job that he has pending, awaiting the filling of the
vacancy. He questions himself, Are you the best person to handle the
assignment?

Therefore, please understand that writing a good resume is essential
for success. It is an art you can easily master. Seek professional
help if you still do not have the skill or the patience with
yourself.

Once having had a good detailed resume, self assess yourself against
the specified requirements and participate in the recruitment process
if you are well convinced that you can handle the advertised job with
ease. Keep the Chaff away. Avoid unnecessary repetition. No one is
interested in knowing how many students were in your class unless you
were a ranker. If you have made his job easier even before joining, he
would imagine what you would do if you actually worked for him.

Apply in good time. Do not wait till the last date of application
submission. By that date, in a private organization, the recruitment
may already be well beyond half way. Remember, the advertiser is keen
to close the position the quickest. His business is suffering.

I remember in one interview, I was talking about my role and
responsibilities as HR head of my last organization. When I stopped,
the interviewer asked me, "What about Recruitment? Have you ever
handled recruitment?"

I immediately realized that I missed an obvious thing. "Of course", I
recovered and answered back, "I did that almost all the time!
Recruitment to an HR person in IT is like food to the human body." I
still wonder, how I missed mentioning an obvious thing.