Resume Preparation

Finding a job is not an easy task. Especially when the job market is tough, people finding it very challenging to get a job. Competition in today’s time is very high, and the job market is full of other strong candidates, too. You had internship and good grades, and you have been active all through college, but still not getting the job? So how to increase the chances of getting a job in your desired field? For everyone, the first step for getting a job is submitting a Resume. During a job search, a resume plays an important role. It is the first document which can help you in getting an interview call. A resume proves that you are capable of doing the job.

In this article, experts tell you about - What is a Resume, how important this document is for getting a job. How you can prepare a good resume or what information should a resume include?

A resume is a document which can help you in getting interviews. It’s a tool for advertising yourself, it speaks for you in your absence. A resume is a summary of your skills, competencies, professional experience and qualification. It’s a first document that an employer typically looks at and decide who to interview. It gives the details about your professionalism, your accomplishments and increase the chances of getting interviewed.

A resume should be detailed, but not too long. An ideal resume is considered two pages, but three-page resume is also okay, only in case if you have good working experience or you have done lots of work. While writing your resume, always think like an employer. Try to include as much of the following information.

Career Summary: Career summary is an extremely important section in the resume as it grabs employer’s attention by briefing the important professional information about you at the top of the resume. It usually helps in summarizing your skills, experiences and achievements in order to get a quick sense what value you can offer for the job employer is looking for.

Keywords: Keyword are those magical words that ensures that the employer would be interested in interviewing you. Every job has a different set of keywords, so you should know what keywords are fit to justify your expertise in that particular field. The keywords should include your skills, software competencies, knowledge and other relevant credentials as most companies use Recruiting Management Software to screen the resumes for job openings. And, if your resume doesn’t have the relevant keywords the employer seeks than, you will definitely loose the interview.

Work Experience: A resume should include all your present and past work experience or history. It should include the full name of the company you have worked for, job location, tenure, designation and details of your job responsibilities. Usually 6 -7 bullet points are more than enough to describe your job responsibilities.

Achievements: Achievement is also the most important section in a resume. It helps the employer to identify a reason why you are fit for the role. It gives details about your career progression and explains your overall career success. Always try to give a list of 4-5 achievements to justify your previous experiences.

Education: You should include all your educational qualifications in chronological order. Mention the details of degree obtained, college, university and the passing year. Also, don’t forget to add other qualification, including licenses or certifications you have attained.

Contact Information: Your resume should contain complete contact information like your email address, mobile number and your mailing address. Most of the people make this silly mistake of not mentioning the contact details. Make sure you have given the complete contact information. Avoid giving home landline number or spouse number.

Professional References: Try to mention at least 2 professional references. References should always be from an employer or you can give one academic reference (Teacher) and one professional (Reporting Manager). Also, employers generally don’t check references at interviewing stage, so it’s your choice to completely omit this section or just write ‘References are available on request’.

Avoid making silly mistakes while drafting your resume. Spelling and grammar, age, poor format, religion details, etc. are the few things which need not to be included in a resume. Also, it’s very important that you are completely honest, while writing your resume. Don’t put any wrong information as writing wrong information on the resume is illegal. Companies usually do background checks of the candidate and if they found any wrong information, it can lead to the legal actions against you or loss of the job. Also, you forget getting any chance of them employing you in future.

Now, you know what is the importance of a resume in winning an interview and how to write a professional resume. Getting your resume reviewed is also very important. Make sure you get your resume reviewed by someone who will actually tell you what’s wrong in the resume. You can get your resume reviewed by your co-workers, teachers, parents, etc.