Avoid a dated resume

Swati Rai

It is as a young college graduate, facing the work world, when the real test of professional and personal aptitude begins. The need for writing a synopsis of your professional, technical and personal achievements and highlights, depends upon the college placement policy, personal goals and independent opportunities that may exist. Irrespective of the tailor-made content for such a document, no harm in brushing up on résumé basics, as you get ready to take the first step.

Trend watch

Writing a résumé, like all other professional literature, has changed over the years. It is best to keep abreast of the changes, to make this piece of paper, much more than just that. There is a need to be focussed on writing that will attract the application tracker systems of organisations — highlighting key words will help here. 

A professional summary that zooms in on your contribution and accomplishments as a go-to person for the task, is important.

• Lose the references in the résumé, as also the line ‘references upon request’. This is so, as, the recruiter will ask for them if required. Yes, also drop the address from your résumé, as, in today’s day and age of online applications, it’s rare to mandate this. There is always time for noting down the address if the contract gets signed!

• Trends such as brevity in writing a résumé, personalised structuring-either chronologically or functional and such like, need to be matched thoughtfully to your background. A functional format narrowing in on the most crucial qualities of the applicant, is what usually works best for freshers. This is so, as the focus then is on the key responsibilities and not on the number of years of experience. It is also good  to know that the world has moved on to crisp, easily readable, minus the bells and whistles of a long winded curriculum vitae. 

Write right 

Freshers can focus on their university degree, and more importantly on the student work experiences such as customer interaction, organisational achievements etc. There’s great value in writing simple, easy-to-read statements exhibiting a clarity of thought. Having a balanced composition of bullet points along with paragraph is a good practice. Spatial organisation of the résumé also needs looking into to make it an easy read. Using action buzzwords, but not clichés, spotlighting your accomplishment section, is a must check. Use your interning, volunteering and work experience during your student days to exhibit, organistaional, leadership, technical or team working skills. 

• Leverage your experience as a public speaker, leader and showcase other soft skills along with academic qualification acquired at the university.

• Keep the length of the résumé, to two pages, maximum. Avoid floral or ornate borders and any other frill.

• Spacing should be consistent and so should the norms of capitalisation, throughout the text.  

• Cover letters are mostly unnecessary, unless explicitly requested, and are now contained in the mail window, in which the résumé is sent as an attachment. 

• The format largely remains the same with personal information at the top followed by, educational details, professional, and in this case, an experience summary; accomplishments-extra curricular and academic and other skills. 

This format would depend on the pitch of your résumé as well as on whether it’s a non-technical or technical résumé. Personalising it to suit recruiter's requirement is a good idea, however, largely these are a few boxes that have to be ticked in a well turned out résumé. 

The thumb rule, of course remains the same, well written, presented and edited text is a sure winner- especially when you have, according to research, only 6 seconds to arrest a prospective employer's attention. Good luck!