SIX tips to improve “Your Resume”

January 26, 2018

When you are applying for any new job or looking for a better career opportunity, Then the first thing
that comes into the mind is the 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper (US Standard), which we usually refer as
either a Resume or a Curriculum Vitea or a Profile for the candidature. A resume is critical for
success in your job search. It needs to be highly effective that it can attract the attention of the
employers/recruiters, making them to understand the skills and expertise you hold in doing the
job right.

Resumes are the first & foremost chance you get to prove your capability and worthiness to the
recruiter, and hence there is no question of committing any silly mistakes that can lead you to
drop the probability of getting hired. To make the things right, following are six effective ways
that can be helpful for you to craft an effective profile.

1. Font Selection
Remember, you are writing a professional document that will showcase your skills and
expertise in different domains, so it is absolutely not the place for cursive or decorative fonts. It
is quite obvious that many recruiters spend around 7-10 seconds on every resume (which can
be either less or more), so try to make use of any professional font that is easily readable. Also
make sure to maintain consistency throughout the document, limiting to 2 or 3 fonts only.
Market experts recommend using a clean Sans Serif font for better visualization and
understandability.

2. Formatting & Visualization
As you have pretty less time to impress the recruiter, you should be more focused of the text
formatting, alignment, numbering, and spacing aspects. Make sure to avoid lengthy paragraphs
and use bullet points, wherever applicable. Page breaks and adequate white spaces between
the paragraphs and bullet points should be used, which makes the text looks concise and easily
readable.

3. Use Proper Job Title
In most situations, companies will assign one specific job title (designation) to you and later
asks to work on different tasks/platforms. In such cases, your job responsibilities will not
adequately be described by your designation. So, it is recommended to use the job
responsibilities as your job titles with appropriate terms, i.e. use ‘Java J2E & J2ME Developer’
instead of just ‘Java Developer’.

4. Summary of Qualification Background
Most of the people generally think that qualification section has nothing to do when you have a
good amount of working experience. However, it is not appropriate most of times because
many companies (especially MNCs) while going through the resumes will also look for the
qualification details. So, encapsulate your academic and professional qualification details in an
attractive 5-6 bullet points.

5. Make Professional Experience Short & Simple
When writing your relevant professional experience, many of us go copious explaining each of
the job responsibilities in detail. Instead of doing so, it is recommended to use bullet points and
short paragraphs to concisely summarize your key skill areas, business achievements, awards,
recognitions, etc.

6. Be Perfect & Update Often
Recruiters are more likely concerned about picking the error-free profiles, especially while
communicating through emails. Therefore, you should be very attentive while writing the
resume. Check for the typos or spelling mistakes, extra spaces, alignments, and proofread the
entire document to ensure it to be flawless and up-to-date.

Wrapping Up
A Profile or Resume or CV is a professional document that summarizes your achievements,
skills, expertise, and work experience in a concise manner for a prospective employer. It
introduces you virtually to the recruiter, and communicates the important assets you hold to
accomplish a particular job. You should tailor the profile in such way that it can impress the
recruiter(s) to call you for the Face-to-Face discussion/interview.