A resume is a macro level showcase of your life containing your biggest achievements and major productive skills backed by certifications. It looks easy to write a perfect resume but writing your life in few words is a challenge in itself. Writing a perfect resume is an art. So I am going to discuss how to master that art.
Focus on Achievements
Nobody is interested in investing their precious time in knowing what you can do rather everyone is interested in what you have done.
Even if you are a college graduate, even then employers are interested in knowing what you were doing while in college. If you are an MBA then they might be interested in knowing your GMAT score and ask you about how you prepared for your GMAT test and which GMAT Books you referred and how you chose those books. Further they may be interested in how well you did in your summer training and what you accomplished in that training period. If you are going for a job as an investment banker after an MBA, interviewer might be interested in knowing more about your personal portfolio and it’s returns. Volume of portfolio doesn’t matter but employer needs an assurance that you have capability of handling investments and you have past experience of generating good returns on your personal portfolio.
I have passed the IBPS PO exam, one of the renowned exams for recruitment in public sector investment institutions. IBPS question papers are really tough to attempt so I mention that in my resume, further I mention how I made windfall gains with small cap stocks.
One of the biggest and the most attractive achievement in a resume is Promotions. Promotions show that an employee made significant contributions to the company with his services and there is high probability that he will do the same in his future jobs.
Resume is a marketing document !!!
Your resume is a marketing document by which you market yourself. You need to make it attractive and interesting but not false.
Have you ever given a good look to advertisements of fast food companies ? If not then search on Google now. There is no way that actual burgers looks like the real one. Although advertisements are not fake they are showing that burger contains beef, cheese and buns.
Same principle applies to your resume. You need to show things in an attractive manner. For example :-
“Worked for Gamestop for 1 year as Marketing manager”
“Worked with Gamestop for 1 year as Marketing Manager and increased sales by 25%”
You should decide yourself that which one looks better.
Give a look to this example, this is taken from a resume of a WordPress theme developer :-
“Worked for Skylimit Template as Lead Developer and it’s revenue increased by 15%”
“Worked for Skylimit Templates as Lead Developer and made bestselling wordpress theme Newyork Dreams ”
Interviewer would have access to internet on his device and he will search for “Newyork Dreams Theme” at once. If he gets some clues that the theme actually brought huge revenues for the employer then it may work wonders for that developer as online signals are better proofs than a resume.
Don’t make it so long
The biggest mistake I see frequently in the resumes is that they are very long. Basic motive behind a resume is to introduce yourself for further meetings. You don’t need to mention every single detail in your resume. Mention only big achievements. HR personnel you are going to meet read dozens of resumes everyday and there is no way that they will read a 4 page resume. They are not interested in reading your life story rather they are interested in finding the right man for the job.
I hope you like my views, follow me on twitter @designrapid to connect with me :)