As we try and keep ourselves warm and cozy this winter, as promised, I’ll be shifting gears for the next few write-ups, where you’ll see me discuss the nuances of resume building and how you can capture your best work on paper (even if it’s not extensive)!
For all final year students graduating in the coming months: you may be participating in placements soon and these next set of blogs from me are especially for you! For those of you not yet in that stage of your student or professional life (or past that stage), this is still applicable to you. Equip yourself with what you will inevitably need in your career - valuable resume building skills to stay ahead of the game.
Why a resume?
Let’s consider this. A product being sold today still benefits from marketing - be it digital or physical - to introduce its presence, uses and benefits to the market effectively. You can very well treat your resume as the marketing poster that sells you (LinkedIn being the digital equivalent with the same purpose). It is a record of who you are, your accomplishments and what you can contribute by highlighting your key skills and competencies and displaying your interests to a potential “buyer” of your services.
Resume Customization
While preparing for the interview takes significant time and effort, surprisingly, professionals discount the amount of attention required for the other vital aspect of recruiting: building resumes. While they may not seal the deal, their customization has the ability to make or break first impressions, which are not always in person.
- First Impressions last a lifetime. If you do stumble on making the right first impression with the interviewer, the rest of your recruitment process could become an uphill battle: The time spent by recruiters on each resume is negligible. According to recent research, with the advent of technology, machines scan a resume at an average of about 6 seconds! Within these few moments, you have a fleeting opportunity to make an impression. If your resume, in that time does not cater to what the recruiter is looking for, what could have been the beginning of a great opportunity can quickly turn into a wrong turn where you are out of the race before it starts.
- Getting an interview with a company is more of a privilege than a right. Get your foot in the door and then proceed to prepare for the interview: Your resume decides your chances of getting an interview. Even if you manage to get through without needing it, your interviewer would have most likely requested for and seen your resume before meeting you in-person and based on its quality, have formed an impression of you when you walk through that door. This will set the tone of the interview and the rest of the recruiting process, either a positive progressive one if the resume struck the right chords or tough questions and doubts caused by an unclear, or subpar resume. The latter can further lead to less interest/commitment by the interviewer down the line at each step. With a well-thought-out resume, not only do you stand a better chance of going ahead in the process, but the process itself can be a more productive use of both yours and the recruiter’s time.
Resume Building: Of the several aspects of the resume we’ll elaborate on, let’s start with the core structure and building blocks of a resume.
Making your resume stand out can be accomplished if you are strategic and willing invest time and effort. There are potentially hundreds of approaches to building a resume, but a structure that immediately captures the machine's or a human reader's ~30-second fleeting attention is what we need.
Just like every building, your resume needs an unshakable, strong foundation that can inch you closer to a recruiter's good books within seconds! To illustrate this, I’ve given a sample structure below that endorsed by some of the best career management professionals in some of the most prestigious business schools and companies in the world. No matter the level of experience, the below brackets are applicable to most candidates:
- Header - Who are you? What are the best ways for the recruiter to get in touch with you? Where do you reside?
- Your profile summary: Your past experiences & current professional skills in a nutshell (note the absence of interests in this section).
- Career history/Work Experience - If you have worked full time/part time or if you are in college and have interned during your course. If not, don’t fret! This section is relevant for those students without professional experience as well (a skill-set based approach suing the STAR method and calling out achievements, that we will tackle in greater depth in coming blogs).
- Education and courses completed (including education-related research, vocational, professional, extra-curricular certifications and academic awards)
- Professional Memberships and voluntary experiences (an optional header for certain instances)
- Interests and any other oddballs (hobbies, languages with working proficiency etc.)
5 headers and an additional optional header is all that’s needed to cover your professional past, preferably wrapped in a single page. And you’re covered!
With the above, your job is halfway done! While a great core structure will make a positive impact on your recruiter’s decision, the information enclosed inside each component is equally important, if not more. Now that you have an idea of what section headers work best, you are ready to hunt down the relevant information and fill them up!
The Road ahead…
We will go in-depth on how best to fill these sections in our coming blogs. Hint: While you are at it, a good practice is to ask yourself: Will this piece of information make my recruiter's life easy? Will it help them make decide faster?
If you are wondering what awaits you on our resume journey, read on:
- Recap: As part of this blog, we started off the series discussing the importance of paying close attention to your resume framework and settling on a core structure that can easily be followed for any type of resume/candidate.
- Moving forward we will further discuss how you can make an impact by turning mere words into powerful statements of accomplishment using the S.T.A.R. approach (a game changer during my corporate days)
- Next up, breaking down the components of our core structure, and suggestions on how we can use the above tactics best to create an impact in each core section. As a bonus, a few tips on content customization and doing it effortlessly will be added in!
- Finally, resumes go best with complimentary items such as references and cover letter. So we will wrap up the resume series with visual, verbal and formatting best practices, resume tools that can come in handy and interesting ways of disclosing references & cover letters! Stay tuned!
In the meanwhile, we have a simple activity for you! Share the different sections on your resume, if you have one, with us at team@corpversity.xyz. You’ll get an evaluation and suggestions if any to have the greatest impact, from us! For further resume services, please visit www.corporatereadytest.com/resume and get every detail of your resume checked, all for a nominal cost!
Manish N Gaba
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