In the corporate world, your identity is recognized through your carefully drafted Curriculum Vitae or Resume and written applications. Those few pages become your key to landing a successful placement to the job you have always wanted (or even the internship you seek to get) thus, increasing its importance in your career.
If you’re reading this article, you’ve probably had a moment where you’ve sat down to make your resume, perhaps even made it halfway, then decided procrastinate a few minutes until the task is delayed to next day. Let’s admit it – making a resume isn’t easy. For freshers have no experience to add to it, and the seniors aren’t sure what one can add that will be taken seriously by professionals.
So here we’ve compiled a few handy tips you could keep in mind while preparing the key to your career’s success:
Stick to the basics
Depending on the career path you choose, you can make your resume cater to the domain accordingly. However, the basic requirements in every CV should ideally be – personal details with contact information, educational details, previous work experience, if any. Keep it precise, clean and to the point. Ensure that your CV gives a very brief but clear introduction of who you are and how you’ll be suitable to the company needs and job profile.
Pro Tip: Mention all your details in a chronological order. Rather than relying on a ‘CV building’ app, create one for yourself in a word or PDF document.
Presentation and PDFs
Keep in mind that the recruiters don’t have much time to go through every CV very carefully, most would simply skim through the details. You’ve got to make sure your resume is as neat, evenly spaced and presentable as possible. Yes, you read the subtitle right – PDFs. If you’re sending across a virtual copy of your CV, it’s always considered advisable to convert it into a PDF document than keeping it as a word document.
Pro Tip: Keeping your resume in the e-mail body itself is a big no. Keep the educational qualifications in a tabular format for neatness and have even spaces between different sections. Give your email a suitable subject line.
Size matters!
Or at least the number of A4-sized pages you use. Even if you have enough achievements in life to write an autobiography about it, your resume needs to be professional, precise and the maximum number of pages should be 2. Ideally, a strong one page resume (with both sides printed) works even better especially if you’re going for an interview with a hard copy in hand.
This point is possibly the most important one, and it’ll help you focus upon the most important things to put in your resume as compared to the other lovely hobbies you’ve pursued in the past.
Pro Tip: If you’re carrying a hard copy of your resume anywhere, make sure it’s inside a neat folder. In a Word document, decrease the margin size so you have more space for content, vice versa if you’ve barely got anything to write.
Suit to the need
Imagine walking inside a Multi National Company to apply for the position of an editor, only to have your CV filled with your experience in your band and how you toured around the city; or going in for a chef’s job with a CV full of marketing roles. It simply doesn’t match. Similarly, always keep the profile and requirements of the role you’ll be applying for, and try to cater and change your CV according to the position you’ll be applying for.
Pro Tip: Keep a basic CV ready in a word document. As and when you apply for any position, alter and prioritize the content in it accordingly.
Proofread and Update
Last but definitely in the lead, the key is to constantly keep updating your resume and perfecting it on a regular basis. The more well presented, updated and perfected a resume is, the better its care is reflected to the recruiter.
Pro Tip: Ask friends to cross check and proof read, and take criticism intelligently
Featured Image Credits: skills4communities.co.uk
Shaina Ahluwalia
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