Job Search and Effective Resume
Searching a job day and night, applying here and there, asking for the references, almost tried everything but not able to catch our dream job Why?
Most of the job seekers come and ask this question
One of my friend (Job consultant in Delhi) dropped a very good suggestion in my first post and asked me to emphasis more on resume writing. Ya true, if looking for a good job then Effective Resume is your Gate Pass.
Today my job search tips will give you few ideas to make your resume effective to get a Gate Pass or a chance to tell Why you !! Though these points you might have read some where in any website or any blog but I tried to summarize them and serve in a simpler way spiced with My experiences (to add taste in it)
From where to start, some talk about cover letter, some about objective, what is the first thing we noticed……..hmmmm!
Ok lets start with Paper and Fonts
Job application, resume should be on white or off white don’t try to show your hidden lover by choosing a scented or colored paper.
Try to catch employer’s attraction by the content of the resume not by the fonts, or use of different colors to show your creativity,
Try to be as simple as you can and emphasis by Bold or Italics to the essentials like your Designation, your Achievements or any special point need to be High lighted.
Career or Carrier Is like Cancer
Before making the final print have a spell check or typo error. Let me give you a very frequent example I come across especially just passed out, I have seen so many resume with career written as carier or carrier??? uuffff nothing less then a suicide, also responsibility as responsiblity and many more
One more example you will really like to read, I received a profile from a candidate, working but looking for a switch over, in his mail, he wrote ”I m IIT pass out having 3yrs of experience now you will really like to have a loo” I instantly called that guy and took him properly for his words. He was as shocked as I was, oh God! He wanted to write “You will like to have a look” so just one alphabet changed the whole meaning
I m not asking you to go through books and go for a crash classes for Grammar at least do MS Word spell check.
Oh yeah! I have also seen some persons who are least bothered about it , ok no issues but have you ever imagine a single letter mistake can change a medicine name so as to kill a person, same will happen here.
(May be you can find some spell or typo errors, even some grammatical mistakes in the articles posted here but you can not give an excuse in your resume, here i can)
Job Seeker or a Copy Cat
Sounds odd to read, ya but true again I have seen so many resume perfectly copied other then name of the job seeker.
It is so remarkable that the consultant points it out just in a while, especially when group of friends sitting together and thinking about the interview next day, one of them went to some cyber café get a cv prepared for them all.
Do you think it’s a joke no, never mention any thing in your resume which is not applicable on you though you all are not going together but consultant can ask any thing from your resume which is nothing but you on paper, ghosshhh! again suicide in job search.
Not even copying a resume I have seen many job applications or emails or cover letters sent to different positions without even noticing that they are applicable or not. For example in a Lift you are pressing the same level button to reach the different levels, like this never send the same application for the position it is not applicable, read the job details very well otherwise result will be ‘Delete’ and you are moved to trash within seconds.
Job resume is not a Dictionary
Ya all know this, resume can never be a Dictionary, even no relation can be there.
Ohk let me explain some candidates prepare their resume which is not less then a dictionary for them. If you keep the sentences aside, few even don’t know the exact meaning of the words they have used in their Career Objective or KRA or Summary
Please make your resume simple (under your grip), you can explain it well and make it presentable with the facts you have with you.
Resume-Love at first sight
You might be smiling with the heading, but it says all what I m going to discuss in this topic. Any Consultant or Employer will take your resume, go through it in few seconds like not view, just review. Resume need to be so attractive in the first shot to make interviewer read, think and ask you about it.
Before moving ahead I want to share few lines related and also not related to this topic
A boy asked a girl ‘Do you believe in the first sight love’
Girl-?????? (surprisingly looking at him)
Boy- or I should pass from here again
But we cant ask interviewer, if you are not getting the skills you want,I can go and make other resume. If your resume doesn’t spark interest, you may never get the opportunity to show your worth. If there is nothing in the showroom who will like to enter in the shop.
I mean by all these examples to highlight the points in resume which are useful to the Employer, know those points better by going through the ‘must’, ‘mandatory’ or ‘required’ skills in the job postings to flash those traits in your resume and make yourself the best option for that job.
You can highlight such points in Career objectives, Profile Summary and Achievements, best way to catch the curiosity of the interviewer is to provide figures in your resume
Job Consultant or Interviewer notice the first line ,after all the points we discussed earlier is your Name and Contact Details, now you must be thinking I have gone crazy what are the mistakes you can make in your name and contact details,
Job Seeker’s Details
In my first post I suggested to mention all the necessary details just after your name whatever consultant want to see, give in one’s hand before he searchs in your resume.
Before putting your details keep some points in your mind like-
(a)Your email address- handsomstud@gmail.com, sexy(name)@yahoo.com, how will you react to read such email id holding the resume in your hand, ooppss……! Crash before take off
Please invest some more time to create a new email id for the resume rather then making it more remarkable by using such hot words, it doesn’t make any difference in your experience or your profile but ya makes in Employers mind.
(b)Address/Phone Number- If you are living in a remote area or a location far from your target job location then Provide Local Address of that specific location (at least any correspondence address) and mention your actual address in the personal profile section in the last of the resume
Even if you can have any Local Number of that area for the interview intimation that’s far better, in this case you can mention your Email Address as Contact Preference, if you are not available on that given number .Employers and Consultants generally prefer local candidates, they prefer to call local numbers as compared to other contact numbers of distant locations.
(c)Name- When we are starting our resume with our name it says in itself to whom it belongs there is no need to write it like
Name-XXXXXXX,
Contact-XXXXXX
Career Objective
It’s a rainbow, attracts every one, every one want to see it, grab it but nobody knows the exact address. Some says short and straight like ‘Looking for a challenging position in Sales and Marketing’
Some says it will show your strength or an idea about you like ‘Sales Manager with 4+yrs experience in IT Sales with excellent network in multiple territories seeking for Sr Sales profile to prove my worthy ’
What I think!!!! I think it should be straight, showing your strength and also why you? Again I emphasis on the figure facts like ‘MBA IT sales manager with 4+yrs experience in multiple territories increased sales from 50 lacs to 150 lacs in 1yr, seeking for sr. sales and so on, it attracts the Interviewer to know more about your working and achievements.
Career History
This section has nothing for me to write everyone knows what to write and how to write,
The points I can discuss about are Company Profile and No. of companies you have worked with.
(a)I have seen many resumes full of so many companies and showing wide experience but it can be alarming also, especially within a small span of time. Employer expects a stable candidate, companies you have worked with should be according to your experience. Avoid to add so many companies just to make long list.
You can easily avoid initial stages where you have worked for 3-4 months in 2-3 companies especially in the entry level resume.
(b)your current company also shows your potentials, a prospective employer may be aware of the company you are leaving. But don’t assume so. Your objective is to give an idea of the size of the company, what it does, and who its market is so that the hiring company can place your experience in relation to what they are looking for.
To avoid the Lengthy resume, give some information at least about your current company and hardly 2-3 lines about the previous companies, this also shows your exposure in the market.
If the list is long, profile of your current company will also do.
KRA/Achievements
Job Responsibilities and Achievements are like Question Paper and Answer Sheet, all the students in the class have the same question paper but what makes the topper, just How they are Solving.
If you are a Recruiter, cold call, profile search, follow up are few responsibilities every recruiter has to perform ‘the same’ what’s new in it. Why to hire you ? every next candidate coming for the interview is doing the same
If you are a Sales Professional, you have to expand the business and maintain the existing clients, but what makes you different from others, how much revenue you have generated, what is the hike in sales you achieved from the existing clients, how many new clients you introduced.
This section is the dominating part of the resume to take you through the Race and win.
Whatever an Employer is seeking for, you can give through this section only, as my job consultant friend gave an example in his comment I will like to include that as it is.
“Resume is nothing but A-Z summary of a candidate. This is where, we, consultant, get irritated and throw profiles without looking. Sometimes, i have to call 3-4 times to get all info or else i have to spend enough time to gather what info are missing.
Second point is that, candidate knows what kind of job he is looking but don't know what kind of skill is required, even though he possesses that key skills. I mean if i am looking Manager- sourcing...and candidate has not mentioned sourcing but procurement, his resume will not be reflect to me. So profile should be customized according to job.”
Ya very true, you should go through the job description thoroughly to modify your resume, may be you know the skills but assume, consultant will understand by himself and least bothered to give time to resume modification.
I have always suggested to mention those KRA in your resume which are there in the job posting or required for the job. Even you can copy the same given in the job posting if applicable as per your profile, for the details please read my first article “Ordinary tips to make extra ordinary changes”
Check the website of the company if specific details are not given and try to understand what else I can add in my responsibilities to make myself close to the target job.
It is not necessary to have your achievements in the same skill, mention whatever you have achieved and also let the Employer know you have hand on the skills they require with the confidence you can make remarkable achievements in those skills as well.
Your number of achievements indicates the degree to which you are a go-getter. It also tells how well you know your job by how well you solved the problems. what you’re capable of.
So please put your extra effort to write your extra efforts you made in your current job with target responsibilities your ‘would be’ company desiring for.
Personal Profile
Again nothing much to discuss, don’t mention unnecessary details about your family until unless not required in the job it just adds few more lines in your resume,
We have to provide only that information in our resume which Employer wants and have to read, like the ingredients in any kitchen preparation.
Hobbies
Don’t list your hobbies unless they directly support your qualifications for the position.
Many of us mention playing cricket or any other game, its better to understand the purpose of the hobby section, it can also show how much you are going to devote yourself towards your work, as if your hobby is related to your work, for sure you will not loose your interested in the stretched hours or weekends.Like if you are computer engineer, your hobbies should be related to computers, internet, puzzles etc to show you can sit for a long time in front of the computer, your analyitcal, creative skills. If you are a recruiter are a recruiter so can have the same hobbies with socializing as well but for the sales professionals socializing is a good option but others are really against the nature of their job.
Most of the job seekers come and ask this question
One of my friend (Job consultant in Delhi) dropped a very good suggestion in my first post and asked me to emphasis more on resume writing. Ya true, if looking for a good job then Effective Resume is your Gate Pass.
Today my job search tips will give you few ideas to make your resume effective to get a Gate Pass or a chance to tell Why you !! Though these points you might have read some where in any website or any blog but I tried to summarize them and serve in a simpler way spiced with My experiences (to add taste in it)
From where to start, some talk about cover letter, some about objective, what is the first thing we noticed……..hmmmm!
Ok lets start with Paper and Fonts
Job application, resume should be on white or off white don’t try to show your hidden lover by choosing a scented or colored paper.
Try to catch employer’s attraction by the content of the resume not by the fonts, or use of different colors to show your creativity,
Try to be as simple as you can and emphasis by Bold or Italics to the essentials like your Designation, your Achievements or any special point need to be High lighted.
Career or Carrier Is like Cancer
Before making the final print have a spell check or typo error. Let me give you a very frequent example I come across especially just passed out, I have seen so many resume with career written as carier or carrier??? uuffff nothing less then a suicide, also responsibility as responsiblity and many more
One more example you will really like to read, I received a profile from a candidate, working but looking for a switch over, in his mail, he wrote ”I m IIT pass out having 3yrs of experience now you will really like to have a loo” I instantly called that guy and took him properly for his words. He was as shocked as I was, oh God! He wanted to write “You will like to have a look” so just one alphabet changed the whole meaning
I m not asking you to go through books and go for a crash classes for Grammar at least do MS Word spell check.
Oh yeah! I have also seen some persons who are least bothered about it , ok no issues but have you ever imagine a single letter mistake can change a medicine name so as to kill a person, same will happen here.
(May be you can find some spell or typo errors, even some grammatical mistakes in the articles posted here but you can not give an excuse in your resume, here i can)
Job Seeker or a Copy Cat
Sounds odd to read, ya but true again I have seen so many resume perfectly copied other then name of the job seeker.
It is so remarkable that the consultant points it out just in a while, especially when group of friends sitting together and thinking about the interview next day, one of them went to some cyber café get a cv prepared for them all.
Do you think it’s a joke no, never mention any thing in your resume which is not applicable on you though you all are not going together but consultant can ask any thing from your resume which is nothing but you on paper, ghosshhh! again suicide in job search.
Not even copying a resume I have seen many job applications or emails or cover letters sent to different positions without even noticing that they are applicable or not. For example in a Lift you are pressing the same level button to reach the different levels, like this never send the same application for the position it is not applicable, read the job details very well otherwise result will be ‘Delete’ and you are moved to trash within seconds.
Job resume is not a Dictionary
Ya all know this, resume can never be a Dictionary, even no relation can be there.
Ohk let me explain some candidates prepare their resume which is not less then a dictionary for them. If you keep the sentences aside, few even don’t know the exact meaning of the words they have used in their Career Objective or KRA or Summary
Please make your resume simple (under your grip), you can explain it well and make it presentable with the facts you have with you.
Resume-Love at first sight
You might be smiling with the heading, but it says all what I m going to discuss in this topic. Any Consultant or Employer will take your resume, go through it in few seconds like not view, just review. Resume need to be so attractive in the first shot to make interviewer read, think and ask you about it.
Before moving ahead I want to share few lines related and also not related to this topic
A boy asked a girl ‘Do you believe in the first sight love’
Girl-?????? (surprisingly looking at him)
Boy- or I should pass from here again
But we cant ask interviewer, if you are not getting the skills you want,I can go and make other resume. If your resume doesn’t spark interest, you may never get the opportunity to show your worth. If there is nothing in the showroom who will like to enter in the shop.
I mean by all these examples to highlight the points in resume which are useful to the Employer, know those points better by going through the ‘must’, ‘mandatory’ or ‘required’ skills in the job postings to flash those traits in your resume and make yourself the best option for that job.
You can highlight such points in Career objectives, Profile Summary and Achievements, best way to catch the curiosity of the interviewer is to provide figures in your resume
Job Consultant or Interviewer notice the first line ,after all the points we discussed earlier is your Name and Contact Details, now you must be thinking I have gone crazy what are the mistakes you can make in your name and contact details,
Job Seeker’s Details
In my first post I suggested to mention all the necessary details just after your name whatever consultant want to see, give in one’s hand before he searchs in your resume.
Before putting your details keep some points in your mind like-
(a)Your email address- handsomstud@gmail.com, sexy(name)@yahoo.com, how will you react to read such email id holding the resume in your hand, ooppss……! Crash before take off
Please invest some more time to create a new email id for the resume rather then making it more remarkable by using such hot words, it doesn’t make any difference in your experience or your profile but ya makes in Employers mind.
(b)Address/Phone Number- If you are living in a remote area or a location far from your target job location then Provide Local Address of that specific location (at least any correspondence address) and mention your actual address in the personal profile section in the last of the resume
Even if you can have any Local Number of that area for the interview intimation that’s far better, in this case you can mention your Email Address as Contact Preference, if you are not available on that given number .Employers and Consultants generally prefer local candidates, they prefer to call local numbers as compared to other contact numbers of distant locations.
(c)Name- When we are starting our resume with our name it says in itself to whom it belongs there is no need to write it like
Name-XXXXXXX,
Contact-XXXXXX
Career Objective
It’s a rainbow, attracts every one, every one want to see it, grab it but nobody knows the exact address. Some says short and straight like ‘Looking for a challenging position in Sales and Marketing’
Some says it will show your strength or an idea about you like ‘Sales Manager with 4+yrs experience in IT Sales with excellent network in multiple territories seeking for Sr Sales profile to prove my worthy ’
What I think!!!! I think it should be straight, showing your strength and also why you? Again I emphasis on the figure facts like ‘MBA IT sales manager with 4+yrs experience in multiple territories increased sales from 50 lacs to 150 lacs in 1yr, seeking for sr. sales and so on, it attracts the Interviewer to know more about your working and achievements.
Career History
This section has nothing for me to write everyone knows what to write and how to write,
The points I can discuss about are Company Profile and No. of companies you have worked with.
(a)I have seen many resumes full of so many companies and showing wide experience but it can be alarming also, especially within a small span of time. Employer expects a stable candidate, companies you have worked with should be according to your experience. Avoid to add so many companies just to make long list.
You can easily avoid initial stages where you have worked for 3-4 months in 2-3 companies especially in the entry level resume.
(b)your current company also shows your potentials, a prospective employer may be aware of the company you are leaving. But don’t assume so. Your objective is to give an idea of the size of the company, what it does, and who its market is so that the hiring company can place your experience in relation to what they are looking for.
To avoid the Lengthy resume, give some information at least about your current company and hardly 2-3 lines about the previous companies, this also shows your exposure in the market.
If the list is long, profile of your current company will also do.
KRA/Achievements
Job Responsibilities and Achievements are like Question Paper and Answer Sheet, all the students in the class have the same question paper but what makes the topper, just How they are Solving.
If you are a Recruiter, cold call, profile search, follow up are few responsibilities every recruiter has to perform ‘the same’ what’s new in it. Why to hire you ? every next candidate coming for the interview is doing the same
If you are a Sales Professional, you have to expand the business and maintain the existing clients, but what makes you different from others, how much revenue you have generated, what is the hike in sales you achieved from the existing clients, how many new clients you introduced.
This section is the dominating part of the resume to take you through the Race and win.
Whatever an Employer is seeking for, you can give through this section only, as my job consultant friend gave an example in his comment I will like to include that as it is.
“Resume is nothing but A-Z summary of a candidate. This is where, we, consultant, get irritated and throw profiles without looking. Sometimes, i have to call 3-4 times to get all info or else i have to spend enough time to gather what info are missing.
Second point is that, candidate knows what kind of job he is looking but don't know what kind of skill is required, even though he possesses that key skills. I mean if i am looking Manager- sourcing...and candidate has not mentioned sourcing but procurement, his resume will not be reflect to me. So profile should be customized according to job.”
Ya very true, you should go through the job description thoroughly to modify your resume, may be you know the skills but assume, consultant will understand by himself and least bothered to give time to resume modification.
I have always suggested to mention those KRA in your resume which are there in the job posting or required for the job. Even you can copy the same given in the job posting if applicable as per your profile, for the details please read my first article “Ordinary tips to make extra ordinary changes”
Check the website of the company if specific details are not given and try to understand what else I can add in my responsibilities to make myself close to the target job.
It is not necessary to have your achievements in the same skill, mention whatever you have achieved and also let the Employer know you have hand on the skills they require with the confidence you can make remarkable achievements in those skills as well.
Your number of achievements indicates the degree to which you are a go-getter. It also tells how well you know your job by how well you solved the problems. what you’re capable of.
So please put your extra effort to write your extra efforts you made in your current job with target responsibilities your ‘would be’ company desiring for.
Personal Profile
Again nothing much to discuss, don’t mention unnecessary details about your family until unless not required in the job it just adds few more lines in your resume,
We have to provide only that information in our resume which Employer wants and have to read, like the ingredients in any kitchen preparation.
Hobbies
Don’t list your hobbies unless they directly support your qualifications for the position.
Many of us mention playing cricket or any other game, its better to understand the purpose of the hobby section, it can also show how much you are going to devote yourself towards your work, as if your hobby is related to your work, for sure you will not loose your interested in the stretched hours or weekends.Like if you are computer engineer, your hobbies should be related to computers, internet, puzzles etc to show you can sit for a long time in front of the computer, your analyitcal, creative skills. If you are a recruiter are a recruiter so can have the same hobbies with socializing as well but for the sales professionals socializing is a good option but others are really against the nature of their job.
best wishes
shipra yadav
htp://jobmantr4job.blogspot.com/
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