Writing a good resume

In past few months I have seen a lot of resumes as I was interviewing people.

If you are again in market for a new job. Then go through this checklist for making sure that you have an effective resume

Initial things :

-- Make sure you are ready for interview calls, if not make a revision plan and target to float your resume accordingly. Usually it takes 1 week to get your 1st call after you float your resume around.

-- Make sure you are not missing calls because you dont have cell network. You need to make sure you are reachable during office hours. You might consider switching to a better service provider.

Review the resume :

-- Don't write RESUME or CURRICULUM VITAE

-- Make sure you have your name clearly written. This should be in bold with a lager font, but not too big.

-- If you name is hard to pronounce, in braces you can include the name you want to get addressed by caller.

-- Include your blog address or linked in profile link , if you have something like that created.

-- Include you personal email which you check more often, need to be professional looking, shud not be some thing like hyd2010_abids@hotmail.com

-- Include your contact information , preferably cell phone number.

-- Specify your career objective clearly ( 2-3 lines ). Revise it with increasing experience. Try not to copy it from some-where and write of your own.

-- Provide a summary of your skills, you total experience, relavant experience, domains knowledge etc etc.

-- Create a separate section , if you have a demanding skill and give details related to that in this section.

-- Have a section for any professional certification / training you have taken, preferably a table type.

-- If you are a fresher, specify your % or grades in various courses, otherwise just specify highest degree earned.

-- Give details of the projects you have done under Professional Experience Section. For each project make sure to clearly explain the client name , location , project dates , your role , project summary ( 3-6 lines ), your responsibilities in the mentioned role and tools used ( 1 line ) .

-- For the last 3 projects provide the information in more detail for others you can drop the responsibilities section.

hmm.. what else

-- Personal Details section (optional): Dont include father / husband name / you house address / your martial status and race. Gender is also optional but if you can want you can include it.

-- No need to add disclaimer .. "I certify that all info is correct" .. funny

-- No need to add References, you can email them later when your future employer request you.

-- No need to put your name at the bottom or sign it.. trust me I have seen people doing it.

-- Make sure not to mention your current salary any where in the resume. You can tell when your future employer ask you about it.Also make sure when they ask you about your current salary, you also mention the perks/benefits you have with the current job.

Finally :
-- Make sure you are using ONE SINGLE font in the whole resume

-- Make sure you are using ONE type of BULLETS to arrange line items

-- Make sure you run the PREPARE Document wizard ( its there in Word program ) to clean all the properties. So many times resume is of Person X and Author of the document still says Person Y's name..

-- Make sure your resume should not go beyond 5 pages in any case.

-- Get it reviewed by a senior friend.. ok <-- Me ? that will be costly ;)

Leave me a comment if this helped you. Happy job Hunt.. :)

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