REVAMP YOUR RESUME

Padma Rajagopal
January 01, 2006

In a competitive job market, it's tough for job seekers on a steady career path to get their résumé noticed from among the thousands of other résumé lying at the recruiter’s desk. If you are pursuing a new direction, it's all that much more difficult to convince hiring managers to take a chance on you

An average recruiter spends about 40 seconds to glance through your résumé. An ideal résumé should therefore not be more than 2 pages and in case you are a fresher try to end it in a single page. There is a witty expression, “a good résumé should be like a mini skirt, short enough to attract attention, long enough to cover what you need to.” Résumé should also be modified frequently and reworked to emphasize on new experiences, key qualifications and new objectives.

Every line in the résumé should be relevant and should be focused and brief. Having to read a long résumé may mean that the recruiter has a greater chance of missing out the more important career facts that you really wish to bring before his attention. So how do you attract the recruiter and what could you do to make everyone notice your résumé and thereby your skills?

PRELIMINARY NOTES

Before you sit down to prepare your résumé, write down a career objective, the list of your most desirable and related qualifications, your previous job experiences, if any, including details of your company and your job profile and some succinct particulars about you. These should form the keystone of your CV. Always write your résumé in first person and NEVER in THIRD person.

CHOOSING A FORMAT

Once you are thru with the basic details, choose a résumé pattern. There are three popular kinds of résumé formats: Chronological résumé, Functional résumé and Combination résumé.

Chronological résumé is the traditional résumé format, which is also generally the preferred format. This style is written in reverse chronological order. Avoid this type if you have many job changes to your credit. This shall typically have your personal details, your objective and a brief summary, your employment history followed by your educational qualification and finally you’re your interests and any other information that you like to showcase in your résumé

Functional résumé is generally not preferred much since it is very difficult to follow. It concentrates more on the functional expertise and skills and the employment chronology and dates are ignored making it difficult to get the gist. This type can be used in case of a career change or in cases of large gaps in between in your career or in case of excellent accomplishments, which is more significant than the employment itself.

Combination résumé as the name suggests is a combo of chronological & functional résumé. This could be used if the job profile has been more or less similar throughout the career.

SOME DO’S AND DON’TS

Do use the spell-check on your computer! (Or check that the spelling is correct in some way).
Do use plenty of white space, and a good border round the page.
Do use ‘bullet points’ to start sub-sections or lists.
Do use a simple professional font like Arial, Tahoma or Verdana and ensure that the size does not exceed 10 points. Could go up to 12 points in case of headers.
Do always check and recheck your résumé for spelling, dates, grammar, contact numbers and other facts. These are some key information where you couldn’t afford a mistake.
Do not make it more than 2 pages.
Do not have jazzy colors and formats.
Do not attach your picture, which is huge in size. A Jpeg image of around 50k in size should be ideal.
Do not use too much bold or underline in your résumé.
Do not use complicated phrases or lengthy sentences. Flowery words are only for oratorical and essay competitions and not for your résumé.
Do not give details of your salary unless specifically asked to do it and don’t mention an expected salary.

A good résumé cannot ensure that you will get the job, but a bad résumé will certainly get you rejected in the first round. So go on and revamp your résumé, make it easy to read, short and attractive and lay your own road to your career success.