How to Write a Resume? A Smart Resume is Your Key to Success!

Before analyzing the rules and guidelines of writing a resume, let us understand ‘what is a resume?’ A resume is generally a word document or a PDF that carries your academic, professional and contact details to the recruiter.

A well-built resume highlights your experience as well as your technical and interpersonal skills.

Building a good resume increases the chance of your profile to be reviewed by the recruiters, called for an interview, and get placed soon.

20% EFFORT

A small effort makes a huge difference. What extra effort can result in building an outstanding resume? understand your career goal and write it down, read through the job description posted by the recruiter, understand the business and work culture of the company you are planning to join, relate your qualifications and experience with the new job profile, highlight your key skills and achievements, and emphasize your interpersonal skills and carefully tailor your resume. Read more to find the 80% result...

How to Write a Resume?

Recruiters glance through the resumes only for a few seconds and decide whether to call a candidate for a test / an interview. You need to follow resume writing techniques and frame your resume specific to the job requirements to reserve your place in the list of interviewees.

The resume writing guide consists of the following general points:

1. Preparing an elaborate cover letter by specifying why you are the best person for taking-up  the role;
2. Writing a crisp career goal explaining your vision and how this job is an excellent opportunity to prove your skills;
3. Listing all your academic and professional distinctions in an eye-catching way, specifying the institute in which you have/had studied, the board, year of passing and percentage of marks secured, mentioning all your extracurricular activities in the resume, highlighting any other diploma/training pursued;
4. Displaying details of the awards and achievements to grab attention;
5. Mentioning previous experience, roles, responsibilities, and achievements if you are an experienced hand, specifying the companies you have worked for and the period through which you have served those companies;
6. Presenting your contact information for the recruiter’s perusal.

Resume Writing Tips

Resume Writing Rules and Guidelines

Let us now deep-dive on important points. The check-list of ultimate resume writing techniques is given below.

1. Go through the job description and understand the requirements such as educational qualifications, technical and interpersonal skills, communication skill, etc.;
2. Check-out LinkedIn profiles of those who are already in similar positions and understand their profile summary;
3. Make a list of keywords and key skills that are relevant to you in your resume;
4. Present all your achievements and its significance;
5. Explain quantifiable results of your contribution to your previous work or academic projects;
6. Show-case your LinkedIn profile, project portfolios, blogs, participation in hackathons, certifications, etc.;
7. Understand the job description and write a well-structured, simple and direct cover letter that explains your passion for the job/company;
8. Include references, if any.

It is not only technical skills that matter, but also the recruiters are keen on understanding your interpersonal skills. So make sure to mention how good you are in working with a team and can develop a good rapport.

80% RESULT

So, now is the time to analyze the outcome of your effort. Here is the result that you can expect from your outstanding resume: make the best first impression, get shortlisted by almost all the companies you have applied, receive a quick call and schedule of an interview, and set yourself as a role-model for being an outstanding performer even before you step into the company.

Resume formatting

A simple format with sufficient spacing for each element of the resume will look professional. Always choose ‘lists’ over paragraphs. You can use sans serif fonts such as Arial, Bell-Gothic, etc. and 1 line spacing.

Final Words

While listing your academic and professional details, follow reverse chronological order to showcase the latest ones at the top.

The ‘career objective’ is recently replaced with ‘career goals.’ So make sure your resume adheres to this change.

You can present your professional achievements in terms of numbers and percentages. A quantifiable result speaks louder than a long summary.

In case you are aiming to become part of Google, Microsoft, Facebook, etc., 'The Google Resume' written by Gayle Laakmann Mcdowell, available on Amazon, will be of great help. The topics covered in this book are advanced preparation, resume writing, deconstructing the resume, cover letters, and references, interview preparation and overview, interview questions, the programming interview, and behavioral interview questions.