My Resume

For the past 5 months I have been deeply engrossed at work with a lot of recruitment jobs. The downturn had caused a lot of talent reshuffling in the corporate world. Many are looking for jobs in ‘greener/safer pastures’; many want to replace the jobs they lost. What however amazes me is that despite the number of vacancies open to be filled, you find very few skilled/qualified talents competing for it – sometimes none at all; leaving the recruiter in a dire search for the right person for the job opening.

Haven looked through over 5,000 resume (this is being modest) in my course of work, allow me say this – over 95% of resumes that apply for jobs are crap! (I must however admit that bad resumes are not the only reason for low availability of talents). Very often, applicants leave the recruiter in a position where he/she has to use judgment to determine which applicant can compete for a position. This is because the average resume does not achieve its objective and this affects not just fresh graduates but believe me very experienced professionals who are supposed to be ‘big shots’ in their fields considering their years of experience. 

Your resume represents you; it says all about you –at least as it pertains to your professional life - in your absence. It tells the recruiter what you can do and how well you can do it and what job you are well suited for (or if you are suited for a particular job opening). Your resume shows how well you communicate (both in writing and as a form of expression). Your attention to details is also shown by your resume, amongst other things. Your resume represents you and if you understand the objective of presentation in communication, you will agree that having a resume that ‘blows the mind of the reader’ is a must have especially when job searching. 

Going by experience, I have put together some dos and don’ts for resume preparation below:

·         What’s with the picture? – except the job you are applying for requires your picture (e.g. modeling, etc) or the application requires you submit your photo, please spear the recruiter the horror of huge photos on your resume. Some even go as far as making the first page of their resume a picture of themselves – not passport size but full length – what non-sense?!

·         Make it brief – you can bet the recruiter has not received only your resume for the job, so you might want to help by SUMMARISING your experience without losing notable points in such a manner that you send an express message of ‘I am smart enough for the job’ to the reader rather than boring the person with long pages of details of your experience (this particularly applies to candidates with many years of experience. You can bet the recruiter won’t shortlist you because you have a voluminous resume! Your resume should be brief and straight to the point.

·         Start with the 'freshest' memories – it is best you present your experience chronologically, not just jumping into different experiences just so you put a seemingly interesting experience first. Your most recent job should appear first, followed by your immediate past job, etc.

·         Fonts and colors – use fonts that are formal in appearance and do not appear playful like most italized fonts do. Only use italics for emphasis, not for the entire document. It is easier on the eyes of the reader. Also, stick with black and do not play with colors unnecessarily (except for hyperlinks on emails/web pages as may be required) - your resume is a formal document not an art work.

·         Be reachable on your contact – avoid emails that do not work. What’s with the phone number of your sister or mother or worse still – your boyfriend?! The whole essence of your resume is to attract a recruiter to you. So why make reach difficult? But be mindful of emails such as ‘sexylady@email.com’, ‘beerandboys@email.com’- they do not make you appear serious-minded and please do not use your current employer’s address (email, phone number or physical address), it’s inappropriate.

·         Do you really have an objective? – then state it briefly and ensure that it adds value to the position you are applying for. If not, spare us the cliché objective of ‘contributing to the productivity of any organization’ speech. 

·         Follow instructions – if it says apply only via email, do not send your application by post. If the application requests for the summary of your experience in 1 page, even if you have over 2 decades of experience, make it fit into one page. Following instructions displays some level of responsibility to the recruiter. If it says you will be contacted via email, please do not buzz their office numbers – it will only make you appear desperate.

·         Presentation is everything – proofread your resume to avoid typos and grammatical errors, justify or align your margin and format right to make the document  appear orderly, presentable and easily understandable.

www.howtowritearesume.net and www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Resume provide guides to developing a great resume - for fresh graduates to executives.

All the best in your career endeavors!