Art of Writing a winning Resume

If you are reading this blog, I am sure you are on the lookout for a new job.

Most job aspirants do not recognize the importance of writing a good Resume that will help them get shortlisted and give them power to take control of the Interview itself. Please remember, Resume is your marketing brochure and you are the product you are trying to sell in an interview. Therefore, preparing an attractive resume giving concisely the qualities, skills and uniqueness precisely matching the job profile that you are applying for will ensure your success in getting selected.

Well then, how do we go about writing a winning Resume? Here are the steps you need to follow to come up with an eye catchy resume.

Things to remember before you start your Resume writing:

• Your Resume should be short and precise. No one has time to read long Resumes. Statistics shows that, an HR professional spends only less than 20 seconds on a Resume to do first level shortlisting. In 20 seconds they can only read half a page. Therefore, use the real estate diligently.
• Resume is not a Job Application. Therefore, do not have Declaration statements, Sensitive personal information like DOB, Passport #, Aadhaar #, Postal address, References etc. These are required only when you are given a Job application to fill when you are called for an interview. Adding these and sharing your Resume over internet and email will have a very adverse impact if these information land up in the hands of people with criminal mind. They could harm you with this information. These are required only in the subsequent levels of selection process.

Follow the below steps to arrive at a powerful resume.

Step1: Read through the’ Job Description’(JD) carefully. Understand the ‘must have’ and ‘preferred’ skills and experience section of JD. Your resume must be written in such a way that you are the best fit for the Job that you are applying for. This can be achieved by highlighting your skills, abilities, achievements and experiences that matches with the JD.

Step 2: Make a list of skills, abilities, education, achievements, Personality traits, Training attended and experiences that you have that matches the JD. Spend time to think of evidences and examples to demonstrate these and note down those to refresh before going for an interview as you will have to justify every word written in your resume. Do not write anything in your resume that you cannot explain or justify as that will put you on spot during interview.

Step 3: Choose a template from internet that you like. Format is not so important, but it demonstrates your taste and ability to neatly organize the details. Therefore choose the one you like most.

Step 4: Organize the above list in the template of your choice. Organize them in the below order for better results

1. Header to include, your Full Name, Phone Number, Email Id and LinkedIn id if you a LinkedIn profile. A photo is preferred. Make sure that it is taken in formal dress and with a good smile.
2. Objective is optional. If you are keeping, make sure that, it is not copied from internet. Write your own.
3. Profile Summary: This is where you are bringing in items to really highlight that matches with the JD. This could be a mix of Skills, Personality traits, Abilities, Achievements etc. HR should be able find you as a perfect match just by reading this section and shortlist you.
4. Fill the remaining sections covering all the items you listed in a very organized manner.
5. Do not add anything that is not relevant for this job. Have different versions of Resume if you are applying for different Job Titles.
6. Save you resume with proper details name for example : Resume –FirstName-LastName-BTech-EC-2017-1yr Java exp.doc . This will help HR save and retrieve easily without having to open each file he/she gets.

Step 5: Preserve all the notes that you may have prepared while preparing the Resume for preparing for interview.

Step 6: Do spell check. Proof read yourself multiple times and have it reviewed by couple of others to ensure there are no obvious errors/mistakes.

Your winning resume is ready now. Make sure that you write a proper covering email body or letter when you apply for a job. Please write very formal English in all such communications.

Wish you all the very best in finding a write Job. If you need further help, contact Skillup Global.

Regards,

Sony George

MD- SkillUp Global