Some argue that you don't really need one, but you should know how to prepare a
resume. Writing individual letters to every prospective employer and headhunter
is time consuming (and overkill). Let's run over some general rules.
Size and shape
Conventional wisdom says that you should keep your resume down to a page
because HR people poring through thousands of resumes stop reading after a
page. Let's face it, your chance of being hired because of the impression your
resume made among a pack of thousands is slim to none. Your resume is more
likely to be noticed if you write a dynamite cover letter, and if you write to
the hiring manager as well as to HR. So if you have something worth saying in
two pages, say it. Of course, if you can cut the resume down to one by using
bullet points instead of paragraphs, so much the better. If your resume is ever
printed (which it may not be in this e-mail age), you'll save everyone the
trouble of stapling it.
You don't want a one-and-a-quarter page resume. It shows lack of planning.
Cosmetics are important. The top of your resume should match the letterhead on
your cover letter. Spacing should be consistent and adequate for easy reading.
Look in resume books at the library or in a bookstore for ideas. Don't look at
any books that are more than three years old; resume looks go in and out of
style fast. After you've decided what you want, see whether your word processor
comes with resume software that you can customize.
Stick to one simple font, and one or two type sizes no smaller than 10 points.
Some employers have bad eyesight. Don't use color, for the same reason. No
photos; they make some HR people violent.
Try e-mailing it to yourself and some friends to make sure it comes out well.
Ask the friends to proof too. One misspelling and you could be out of
consideration. Hiring managers often think, understandably, that someone who
can't take the time to proof a resume won't be conscientious on the job.
Content
Resumes are marketing pieces. They're not legal documents. That's why many
employers make you fill out applications, which have to be signed. Employers
don't need your whole biography; they just need to know how your experience is
relevant to the job. That's why, while you should tell the truth and nothing
but the truth, there's no reason to tell the whole truth.
Items that shouldn't be in resumes include objectives, which you see in old
resume books. Employers don't care what you want, they care what they want. A
concise summary of your qualifications and experience, on the other hand, is
useful.
No personal information. No height, weight, health, marital status or hobbies
unless they're interesting and unusual like helicopter skiing or
dulcimer-playing or collecting antique ice-cream makers. You don't need
"References are available on request." Of course they are.
It's fine to limit employment de¬scriptions to the past 10 years, unless you
have old experience you want people to know about. Summarize your early life in
a short section called "Other Experience," and be sure to highlight anything
interesting. Everyone notices the bullet point, "A stint in the CIA."
Education should be after experience unless you've been out of school for three
years or less. Never list your high school if you graduated from college. Dates
of graduation aren't necessary and, for the great majority of you who aren't in
your thirties and are therefore often considered either too young or too old,
are undesirable. Office skills can go into your summary if you're apply¬ng for
a secretarial or call-center job; otherwise, put them at the end or leave them
out.
HR people tell you to list employment dates with months, because they like to
see whether the job you held "1999-2001" lasted one year or two. There's
nothing in it for you, though. Year-only listings enable you to leave off your
four months with the company from hell without appearing to have a gap between
jobs.
On that subject, HR people hate gaps. If you have them, try to account for
them. A functional resume in which you group your skills by category, such as
"accounting" and "market research" and list your employers briefly at the end,
is useful not only to deflect attention from a checkered history but also to
describe a career that may have taken untraditional paths. Some job boards
don't accept functional resumes, so you may need a chronological version too.
If resumes are scanned into databases in your industry, be sure to include all
the possible buzzwords that describe your skills. A headhunter told me about a
satellite TV engineer who was weeded out because his resume didn't mention
"dishes." A paralegal may miss an opportunity for a "legal assistant."
Sell yourself. Remember, this is marketing. Use power words. You didn't file;
you organized. You didn't make phone calls; you coordinated. You didn't type;
you produced.
Whether or not you hit the one-page mark, brief is better. If you left
something out that people want to know, they'll ask you-at an interview.
bharat vaya
lecturer Mahavir B.Ed College Dhrangadhra
Email ID bharatv...@gmail.com
contect no.09428973293
