Get Noticed
Fix up your resume with some expert advice from Varun Reddy Sevva

CV or Resume? There is a difference between your CV and your Resume. A Curriculum Vitae, or a CV, contains all possible details related to your educational and academic background, as well as teaching and research experience, publications, presentations, awards, honours, affiliations, and other details. Your resume, on the other hand, is a one-two page synopsis of your skills, experience and education. A CV is supposed to be long and elaborate, and is used mainly for an educational purpose, while a resume is brief and is used for a job-related purpose. A resume is supposed to highlight who you are to your potential recruiters. It can make or break your chances of getting an interview call. Remember: the first impression matters the most, and your resume is their first impression of who you are. Most people approach resume making as a routine task. You first leave some space to put up an impressive objective, then provide your educational and professional qualifications in a tabular format, and give details of the areas you are skilful at. Once you’re done, you try to revisit the language, the font, and tweak it till it looks presentable. This approach is almost certain to result in a commonplace resume that highlights what you did, not who you are and what you can do. A resume is not just a document – it’s a marketing tool, where the product is YOU! Those of you who have seen the 2008 blockbuster 21 might remember the scene where the hero, Ben, is sitting in an interview for a prestigious scholarship to Harvard Medical School. The interviewer, Professor Phillips, notes quite bluntly, “The Robinson scholarship is going to someone who dazzles, someone who jumps off the page. Ben, it’s all about the essay. You really need to explain to us what makes you special. What life experience separates you from all the rest? What can you tell me, Ben, that’s going to dazzle me?” This is similar to what one expects from a resume. Recruiters often have a pile of 75–100 resumes from which they have to select 4–5 candidates for an interview. Most employers spend as little as 90 seconds skimming a resume, and unless there is something in your resume that dazzles them, they will move on to the next resume. Your resume should market you as the best possible candidate for the role.

The first step before making a resume is to take some time off to jot down all the important events in your professional and educational life. Careful introspection might reveal that breakthrough you had in your engineering project that increased the efficiency of XYZ two-fold, or the fact that your idea was instrumental in helping the group realise a new way of solving a technical issue at work.

Then write down each and everything that you have done in your professional or academic life, from where you went, or what you attended. Try to think of two-three positives for each critical event. This exercise will help you achieve two things – you will be able to understand your strengths/weaknesses and also get a broad idea of your skillset. Once you have everything in place, try to put each and every point in a proper order.

Keep these points in mind:

• Verbs are called action words for a reason – they convey action and movement. Action words like ‘addressed’, ‘collaborated’, ‘demonstrated’, ‘evaluated’, ‘interviewed’, ‘out-performed’, 'reviewed', 'supervised,' etc. project activity. Try using as many as you can to make your sentences active!
• Mention results and not just work done: Do not merely list the tasks you have done in the past but rather the results you achieved and the skills you have learned.
• Personal information should be restricted to Name, Age, Gender, Contact Address, Email Id, Contact Number, and Marital Status. Other contact details are not necessary and need not be mentioned. Mention your name, age, email id, and contact number at the top of your resume, and the rest at the end. Make it easy for them to reach you if they are impressed.

Watch out for these common goof-ups:

• Tables: Avoid using tables as far as possible – they give a very unprofessional look to your resume, even though they do save space. I say this with personal experience, because tables force the reader to read your entire details, and the connectivity flow breaks with each column and row. They also make the reviewer feel you are taking the easy way out. Try to avoid tables as far as possible, even for mentioning your acads.
• Fonts: The most common and accepted font for business and professional use is Times New Roman (Size 12). However, using a different, legible font could make your resume stand out in the clutter. Arial (Size 11), Helvetica (Size 10-11), Century (Size 11-12), Tahoma (Size 11-12) are some of the fonts that are generally used to give a different look. My personal favourites are Palatino Linotype (Size 11), Garamond (Size 12) and Cambria (Size 11) - I tend to use the former a lot. Georgia is another font that makes it easy to read a document on screen. But don’t go too far afield. Unusual or showy fonts can make your resume stand out in a bad way.
  
• Formatting: Make sure your rows are equidistant and have the same width all through the resume. Straightforward formatting guides the recruiter’s eyes towards the finer and more important points.
• Grammar: A survey reveals that close to half of all CVs received by recruitment consultants contain spelling or grammatical errors. Check the grammar and spelling once, and check it once again, and check it once more. Poor spelling is the quickest way of getting a rejection, without even a consideration. Poor grammar tells the recruiter “Hey, I just made a resume in haste; I am as interested in this job as I am in washing the dishes”. Also, long sentences are difficult to read and understand. Try to use short and crisp sentences.
• Single resume: Check five to six advertisements regarding a particular position, and use the common requirements to mould your resume. A resume is a targeted document, and hence do some research to understand what the recruiters are looking for. Each resume should be tailored towards your own skills, experiences and your job application.
• Exaggeration: Never exaggerate or lie about what you do or what you know. It is common to exaggerate (to a limit) to make things sound a little more impressive than they actually were, but your potential employer could ask you questions which you might not be able to answer. You can also be fired later on if it is discovered that you lied on your resume. Be as honest as you can, and let them take a decision if you are worthy for the position.

Remember: A resume is a marketing tool. You have to customise it for different roles and positions. Try to keep it short and simple, and make sure your resume dazzles the reader.

— The writer is an IIM-Lucknow alumnus who works as a Deputy Manager (Personnel) in a reputed PSU