Resumes and Descriptions…
Having gone through many resumes for the past one and half years, I feel, many people are un-aware about preparing a “selling” resume. No! I am not talking about the look-and-feel, or the colors or the fonts. I am talking about the contents of the resume.
Many candidates tend to prepare the resume from an already existing resume. Fresh graduates usually use their senior’s resume or some unknown’s resume. The result, most of them carry the sames mistakes passed on, from one resume to another resume.
One of the major issues we face, (and probably everyone in any hiring board) is the descriptions of projects! Candidates just fill up all marketing stuff about the project they have worked in and forget to include their role in that project. People who hire always look for the roles and not the project descriptions. 90% of the interviewers are least bothered about the project descriptions, unless it is a terrific or some brand new concept etc.
Most interviewers will agree, if I suggest to give only a few lines of description about the project. Then, give a good description of what you did in that project. How you used the technology to achieve some task. To put it simple, write how you used ‘this’, to achieve ‘that’. This helps in understanding your exposure easily.
Here are some tips to write a better resume
1. Start with your name and your technical role. Use some role names like “Java/Struts Developer”, “ASP Developer”, “Web Graphics Designer” something that says who you are technically.
2. Your contact details on the top. Do not give your contact details in the last page. HR and Interviewers dont have that much patience to swap the pages and locate your contact details
3. Give a short summary about your professional life on the first page. Write how much year experience you have, write about your expertism in your domain, write about some specific certifications/ affiliations/ achievements that you own. For example, if you are CCNA certified professional, mention it in the summary.
4. Give a precise skillset. Mention your level of mastering (Intermediate, Expert, Novice etc) only if you are sure about that. Otherwise, avoid mentioning the mastering levels altogether.
5. List the name of companies that you have worked with, in a seperate heading. Dont let the interviewers browse through the resume to find the name of companies.
6. The project/product should be presented in a descending fashion. Always the very recent project/product should be listed first. The old project should be listed last.
7. For each project clearly mention the technologies you used, whether you worked in a team or solo, and most importantly, what you did in that project/product? Avoid writing an extensive project description. Just write about the project in a few lines, followed by your roles and actions in that project.
8.List customer testimonials / awards received during the course of a project /product / service.
Remember, your resume is your marketing brochure. It should sell you, and not the projects/products you worked with.
-Dharma