WRITING RESUME

WHAT RESUME ISN’T!!

■ It isn’t a log of your job history
■ It isn’t a summary of skills
■ It isn’t going to get you a job
 RESUME

■ Summarises your professional profile

■ Customised for the job at hand
■ Focuses on your skills, achievements
and professional roles
■ Ideal length: 1 - 3 pages
■ Best weapon to target industries
across the globe
 CURRICULUM VITAE
(CV)
■ Descriptive document of your professional
summary
■ Focuses on your academia, research
publications, scientific papers , achievements
to name a few
■ Ideal Length: No restrictions
■ Suitable for research scholars, academicians,
and fresher's (some job opportunities ask
specifically for a CV)
 BIO DATA
■ At best describes your personal information
including contact details, father name,
mother name, location, current position,
salary and so on
■ Focuses on nothing but your personal
information. Not a good idea to send to a
recruiter
■ Ideal length: Not more than one page
■ Best place to use a Bio
Data: Matrimony and in some rare
cases: Government Jobs
 WRITING A GREAT RESUME
■ Create a professional email address. 
■ Update your contact information.
■ Set your font size to 10-12 points.
■ Choose an attractive and readable font
■ Use reverse-chronological order.
■ Align your content to the left to make it skimmable
■ Make strategic use of bold, caps, and italics.
■ Only add jobs you’ve had in the past 10-15 years.
■ Give your sections simple subheadings.
■Include URLs to social media profiles, personal
websites, and your blog
■Choose a resume format that works for you 
■Consider using a professionally designed template
■Consider putting your education section first
■Read the job description and then read it again!
■Make sure you’ve created margins
■Balance your text and white space
■Consider adding a coursework description
■ Name your files properly.
■ Match your cover letter to your resume.
■ Write explanations for large gaps in your career
history. 
■ Insert action verbs wherever possible. 
■ Get rid of nonsensical jargon.
■ Consider saving a copy of your resume as a PDF.
■ Tailor your resume to the job description. 
■ Add achievements to your experience section.
■ Add numbers and details where possible. 
■ Make good use of the top third of your resume
■ Include a resume summary or objective. 
■ Use a proofreading tool like Grammarly.
■ Have a human proofread your resume.
■ Write a thank-you email. 
■ Clean up your online presence.
■ Create a professional persona for yourself.
■ Reinforce your professional titles by showing
career progression. 
■ Consider adding a Hobbies and Interest section to
your resume. 
■ Trim any unnecessary fact from your resume.
■ Try to find the personal email address of the
hiring manager.
■ Track your resume.
■ Do not lie on your resume.
■ Do not worry about making your resume one
page long.
■ Don't try to impress employers with fancy
paper. 
 WRITING A RESUME
■ Personal Information
■ Job goals / Objectives (what kind of job you are
seeking for and why)
■ Related Skills
■ Education (starting with most recent)
■ Work experience
■ Duties
■ Additional Experience
■ Interest / Activities
■ Reference
 COMMON MISTAKES
■ Spelling and grammatical errors
■ Incorrect or missing information (esp. contact)
■ Unprofessional mail ID
■ Including irrelevant/outdated information
■ Failure to demonstrate and quantify results
■ Annoying buzzwords and/or obvious keyword
stuffing
■ Being too generalized or not customizing to match
the job listing
■ Repetitive words or phrases used in multiple job
descriptions