Experts believe that designing a curriculum vitae is no mean task. In fact, it is more of an art. Want to learn this art to perfection? Well, here are some insights.
What is a resume?
If truth be told, your resume is more of an advertisement about you. It gives your prospective employers an overview of your qualifications, your experience and your strengths. It is after gauging this document that they decide whether you are suited for a particular job opening or not.
Opening Statements of the resume
When starting to design the resume, you need to start with a catchy title that would summarize your professional skills and immediately grabs the attention of the screening team in the organization. Make sure it is not superfluous and avoid exaggerations, as companies generally do not fall for such things. Follow the title with a summary statement which highlights your strengths and gives a clear picture of what career goals you have. Try to sum everything up in three or four lines, as it is easier to scan through.
Structure of a resume
Once you have the resume title in place and have put in a well-thought out summary statement, you need to add in all the other important information about yourself:
Start by adding your name and your contact details. This should include your home address, phone number and email. Include details of extracurricular activities you are interested in, if they apply to your professional goals. Educational qualifications should be listed from your most recent to the oldest. Work experience should also be listed with the most recent position first. Include your responsibilities and the skills you acquired. Don’t forget to include linguistic abilities, conferences and workshops attended, speaking engagements, and professionals publications you may have.
Important elements
When writing a resume, make sure you do not get too carried away. Keep the design as simple as possible. A complicated layout can be confusing and may put off the prospective employers. Do not go for superfluous fonts to write in the details.The ideal fonts for resumes are Times New Roman, Verdana or Arial. Also, make sure to stick to font size 10 or 12 as this makes for a professional look and is easy to read. The length of the resume matters too. It should not exceed more than two pages, as this may get boring for the employers when screening it. Generally, the screening team looks for only relevant information and is not interested in anything that doesn’t count. Most people still stick to the belief that a resume should be a single page, so make sure you know what is expected in your industry.
Things to avoid
While writing a resume, you may feel tempted to lie, or stretch the truth, about your abilities. This is not a good idea. Sooner or later your employers may find out about this, which can lead to loss of your credibility in the company. Writing in first person or adding unfamiliar abbreviations should be avoided when writing your resume. A resume should be concise and the same time should have a consistent tone. It should be tailor made to suit the job for which you are applying. Before forwarding a resume, make sure to go through it a number of times to ensure that there are no mistakes. Featured photo credit: SampleTemplates via images.sampletemplates.com
