RESUME GUIDE

A resume is a 1-2 page document that presents your skills and achievements and that you may use to market yourself. The purpose of a resume is to get you an interview call.

A resume should contain short summary of your qualification, experience and other relevant details which should help your recruiter make an assessment of your suitability for the given position. Before you write anything on your resume just ask yourself if that information will help you get an interview call.

• While it‟s good to have an objective statement in the beginning of a CV as it sets the tone for rest of the CV, but following things should be taken care of:
  • Avoid sugar-coated, vague, generic global objective statements. You know you don‟t mean it, the employers know even better
  • Objective should be very specific and should be substantiated by the internships/projects done.
• The ideal length of a CV is 1-2 pages (it‟s hard to imagine a CV longer than that even before the start of your career), so always be prudent about the use of space & choose the font and format wisely.
• Always follow the reverse chronological order (i.e. most recent ones first) while outlining educational qualifications, internships/projects, work experiences etc.
• Relevance should be the mantra while writing about projects, paper presented etc. Mention only those which go along with the objective of the CV instead of everything that you have done till date.
• Always mention timeline & duration of projects/ internships along with a brief description.
• Achievements: Was cricket team captain in school, participated and won dance competition in class 8th- really?
  Do not make your CV unnecessarily long by mentioning redundant information.
• Refrain from delivering unverifiable platitudes such as “I am hard working, sincere, diligent, team player” – let your achievements and experiences speak for you.
• Always avoid acronyms in CV as not everyone may be familiar with them. Also avoid using „lakhs‟, „crore‟ etc. – Internationally people understand million, billion.

Following is a list of common mistakes students make in their resumes. Have a look and see how many of these errors (if any) your current resume contains. You may correct them now or in subsequent chapters. Tip

These mistakes have been identified and listed as per what is generally expected in a professional resume in the industry. There may be cases where you may have to follow the guidelines issued by your placement office or recruiting company which may be contradictory to what is written here. In such situations, you have no choice but to follow what is asked by them.

• The resume file is not named properly: Have you named your resume file as resume.doc or cv.doc or something similar? This is not only unprofessional but also makes it difficult for a recruiter to identify your resume once he downloads and saves your resume to a folder (Think what will happen if all the applicants' resumes were named as resume.doc inside that folder). Correct practice to name your resume is First Name Last Name - CollegeName.doc. For example, if you are Offisong Emmmanuel from Unilag Lagos, you can name your resume as Emmanuel Offisong - Unilag Lagos.doc. Also wherever possible, always send your resume in PDF format - looks very professional.
• The resume runs into 2 pages or more: While there is no set rule that your resume necessarily have to be within 1 page but more often than not students' resumes run into multiple pages either because it contains too many irrelevant details or because the space has not been utilized efficiently. If your resume is more than 1.5 pages long, get your scissors ready. Remember, if Steve Jobs can mention what he did in one page, so can you!
• Resume follows a 2 column structure: At times, a few students make their resume in a 2 column structure. Please don't. Stick to a one column structure as provided in sample resumes. Two column structures make the reading extremely difficult for a reader as it becomes difficult to decide which column one should focus on. Plus it is highly space in-efficient.
• Your resume contains logo of your college There are a few colleges where Training & Placement cells make it compulsory that you put your college logo on top of your resume - in that case you cannot help it. But otherwise, or when applying off campus, you do not need to include the logo and make your resume unnecessarily bulky. Remember, your resume is your advertisement, not your colleges. If you have your college logo in your resume for no reason, delete it NOW.
• Your resume contains your photograph: Again, not required, if you have it in your current resume - please remove it. There is absolutely no need of a photo in a resume unless you are applying for a position where how you look matters such as aviation, hospitality, media, films, modeling etc. Else it is quite an outdated practice and unnecessary bulks up your resume file. .
• Your resume contains a very generic Career Objective statement: In your resume, things are not listed in reverse chronological order Look at your Academics, or Projects, or Internships, or Co/Extra Curricular section. Does it contain information in reverse chronological i.e. most recent first order? Yes, in each section, you should mention the most recent activity/achievement at the top and the least recent at the bottom. The reason being that employers are most interested in what you have been upto recently and you should make it easy for them to find out that information. If you have written it any other way in your resume in any section, please correct it now.
• You have mentioned each year's/semester's GPA/% Marks in your Academics section: Not required, just mentioning aggregate marks/CGPA is enough. For example, if you have completed six semesters of your B.Tech degree, you do not have to write each semester's GPA; aggregate CGPA at the end of 6th semester is enough.
• You have listed all the courses and labs that you have done till date: Not required, strike that section off please. At best list 2-3 most relevant courses along with your grades in those courses (if grades were good). If an employer wants to know all the courses that you have done till date, he/she will most probably ask for an official transcript anyway.
• You have included knowledge of Windows in your Technical Skills section: Please don't. It's like saying

1. What is the difference between a resume and a CV?

2. What all should one include in a resume?

3. Does a resume necessarily have to be 1 page?

4. Should one have a different resume for tech & managerial job?