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 50 Tips for the Perfect Resume

Whats the Need?

A resume is your SALES AGENT.

Also called curriculum vitae, the resume was born when the number of applicants
for a position began to rise. The time spent by a panel to conduct interviews was
becoming increasingly high when compared to number of positions under
consideration.

To solve this situation, employers began to ask candidates to document their

strengths and send it for pre-screening.

Today employers receive hundreds of resumes for every job posting. The
competition is stiff so your resume must stand out.

On an average recruiters spend less than 15 seconds when reviewing a resume

so first impressions are extremely important.

You have to communicate CLEARLY CONCISELY CONFIDENTLY

It can be a daunting task to sell yourself via a sheet of paper but it is absolutely
essential for you to make a great first impression; only those whose resumes
pass the initial screening of the resumes are called for an Interview.

This book condenses years of interviewing and review of 1000s of resumes to

bring you powerful recommendations...

Read these tips and draft your resume according to the guidelines for a super
resume, your faceless salesman!

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 50 Tips to Easy and Effective Resumes

1. Objective
This is the first line of your resume it creates the base. Make it powerful
and grasping.
How you say it is equally important as what you say.
To get a job so that is a dull and unimpressive line while
To get an opportunity to grow states the same in a positive, upbeat
fashion.

2. Focus on Your Strengths

These are your allies that will push you ahead of the competition.
Dont just list words like problem solver, out-of-the-box thinker, good
communicator; briefly enumerate real life situations where you
demonstrated these skills.

3. Use Keywords
Welcome to the electronic age. Resumes are stored in databases and
searched by using keywords.
The best way to find effective and relevant keywords is to look at a few job
postings in your field and include terms from there at relevant places in your
resume.

4. Effective Titles
Use specific titles to give a quick idea about what you did.
E.g. Bad: Financial Accounting
Good: Managing Receivables and Payables & Bookkeeping

5. Short Bullet Points

These are more difficult to come up with when compared to long paragraphs,
but much easier and quicker to read and remember.

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6. Highlight Key Information
Anyone who has to review 100s of resumes will tend to flip through the
pages quickly. Make sure that your key selling points are at the top.

7. What do You Bring to the Table

While creating your resume always ask yourself
What am I offering the employer?

8. Be Positive
Avoid failed ventures; if these were good learning experiences, focus on the
bright side. You cannot sell yourself citing your weaknesses and sounding
negative.

9. Show Ambition
Insert short and long term goals where applicable. A good place to add
them is in the Objective Section.

10. Show Achievements

Describe situations where you have excelled and demonstrated your
strengths.
By simply listing terms (such as strong communicator, effective salesman)
you do not give your strengths much credibility.

11. Bank-able Big Names

If you have worked with people who are known in your industry, cite them.
E.g. Worked with the CEO of XYZ company on an infrastructure project.

12. Quantify
Where you can measure your success, quote numbers.
Resulted in savings of $1M works better than improved process,
Increased sales by 27% is more effective than sold more.

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13. Power Words
Action verbs such as managed, improved, sold, developed, resolved,
analyzed boost your statements, use them intelligently.

14. Cut the Is and Mes

Structure your sentences to eliminate these.
Instead of I managed, use Managed; instead of abc was given to me,
use Bestowed with abc.

15. Limit Historical Information

If you have a lot of years of work experience limit your resume and
elaborate the last 10-15 years.
This timeframe is sufficient for the interviewer to judge your current
capabilities.

16. Work Experience for Fresh Graduates

List summer jobs, internships, project work that are related to the profile.
If it is relevant to the job at hand, it is valuable.

17. Honesty
Is definitely the best policy. Do not cheat your prospective employer. Even if
you dont get caught in the comprehensive background verification, your lies
can get you sacked whenever discovered.

18. Relate to the Employer

The job opening is the result of a specific requirement.
Understand the responsibilities of the job and you will be in a better position
to answer why you are best suited for it.

19. Baseless Claims

Do not make statements like I will be the best employee you ever had or I
can triple your sales in a year unless you can substantiate them.
More often than not, such claims are unfounded and should be avoided.

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20. Valuable Real Estate
Dont include information that is not required. Bigger is not better if it is filled
with irrelevant information.

21. Short and Sweet

The ideal length of a resume is about 2 pages. It could be 1 page for a
fresher with little or no experience and 3 pages for someone with a lot of
professional accomplishments.
If you absolutely need to include information which makes your resume
bulkier, make them as separate attachments and append them to the
resume.

22. Formatting
Be consistent. No fancy fonts, no color, minimal bolding, italics, underlining.
Arial and Times Roman are generally acceptable fonts with size 10/11.
It is a good idea to print a copy and check for layout and formatting issues.

23. Header / Footer

Its a good idea to put your name and page number on every page. Check
to see if it prints correctly.

24. White is Good

Difficult to read resumes are simply tossed out. Space out your resume so
that it is easy on the eyes.

25. Graphics
Unless the job requires examples of pictures, artwork (models, actors,
graphic designers) dont include them.
Even when required it is better to send separate attachments as you dont
know the printer quality at the other end.
Carry copies of the samples youve sent with your resume (and any others)
for the interview.

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26. Not-required Details
Unless specifically stated, you dont have to give details on your age,
nationality or complete residential address.

27. Personal Preferences

Your favorite movie, actor, team, political party or cuisines have no place in
your resume.
Always remember that every word on your resume is precious and has sell
your capabilities for the job at hand.

28. Contact Details

State your name and contact information clearly on your resume.
It is a good idea to put a Mr. or Ms. before your name as it may be foreign to
your interviewer.

29. Salary Talk

Never mention your expected salary on your resume and avoid giving past
history unless specifically asked.
How you project yourself will impact the final offer made to you; and the first
impression you create is not at the interview but with the resume that you
send.

30. Hobbies
It is good to portray yourself as a fully groomed individual but highlight those
hobbies that relate to the job.
Reading books is a good hobby for an editor while trekking is irrelevant.

31. No Outdated Information

Keep your resume as updated as possible. You will be called for an
interview based on the information in your resume.
An outdated resume screams I am not particularly interested in the job
You may be rejected for giving stale information.

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32. Gaps in Employment
If you have breaks between jobs list the relevant activities that you did
during the break. If it was for maternity or non-professional reasons, state
that briefly.
Always focus on skills acquired, knowledge gained and performance shown
whether it is on a job or while on a break.

33. Frequent Jumps

Never looked upon favorably.
Positively explain why you moved without blaming people / situations.

34. Slang / Jargon

Eliminate all cool words; if they are not in the dictionary, they should not be
on your resume. Professionalism is the key.
Replace coz with because, wud / shud with would / should; also do not use
words like super-nice, chilled-out.

35. Quotations
You may feel strongly about a saying or a famous quote but on your resume
it only wastes valuable space remove it.

36. Please Hire Me

On the resume (and in the interview later) your skills and achievements
should make the manager want to hire you.
You should not have to explicitly write or say it; it creates an impression of
desperation which is not helpful.

37. Spell Check / Proof Read

You have all the relevant skills and would make a great employee dont let
a spelling mistake take that away from you. Use tools that spell check.
Spell check may not catch all grammatical mistakes and will not indicate an
error between know, now and no.
Use spell check but also read your resume a few times.

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38. Second Pair of Eyes
You will rework your resume a few times before it is final. In this process
you may overlook some obvious improvements that can be caught by a
fresh pair of eyes.
Request a friend or family member to review.

39. Attachments
Supporting documentation should be appended as separate attachments.
The resume should be crisp and engaging so that the person reviewing it
does not lose interest.

40. Research
Search for similar job postings will similar responsibilities to get a better idea
of what may be required. Tailor your resume accordingly to showcase
relevant strengths and outshine the competition.

41. Its YOUR Resume

Put a little bit of you into the resume. Points 17 &18 tell you what to avoid
but let your individuality come out in your writing style, presentation and
overall layout.

42. Use Templates

Use point #36 to enhance your resume. To overcome the daunting blank
page, use templates; why reinvent the wheel?

43. Its Not a Greeting Card

While most templates should be professional, stay clear of anything fancy or
colorful.

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44. Customize Resume
Some people recommend customizing your resume for every application
that you send out, but if you plan to apply to companies on a mass scale
(>20) then it is ok if you dont customize for every application.
For such situations you will rely on your cover letter which should always be
customized to meet the specific needs of the job.

45. Print Well

If you are sending hard copies use good paper (preferably white) and a
leak-proof printer.
Ensure that the envelope is also of good quality and write Do Not Fold on
the envelope so that the mailman doesnt crumple your papers.

46. Personalize
If you are sending hard copies, get the names of the interviewers and put a
copy for each interviewer in a separate envelope and address the envelope
to the interviewer.
In case of multiple interviewers you can put all individual envelopes in a
bigger envelope and mail that to the HR / admin contact.

47. Online Ready

Most applications are made online either by attaching an electronic version
or by entering data on the electronic forms on websites.
Prepare a well formatted resume that you can readily attach with emails and
also have an unformatted version from which you can cut-paste information
into e-forms.

48. Get Professional Help

If you are unable to do it yourself, get it done professionally. If you need
help, get it at the start it will be worth the investment.
Some organizations do not process newer versions of resumes that are
already in their system; submit a good version at the start to avoid rejection.

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49. Cover Letter
Must accompany every resume. Customize it as per the description in the
profile shared by the organization this shows interest and gives you an
edge over the competition.

50. Search Other Resumes

It helps if you look at what your competition is doing
Go to any job portal and search for candidates applying to jobs similar to
the one you intend to; look over the format, key words, layout and
presentation that others have used.
If you like something, incorporate it in your resume.

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