What is a resume?

There is a common conception about resume that it is a description of life on a page. But can you imagine how could anyone put everything important about his/herself on a single piece of paper (or two)? If you think carefully it is never possible to include all the important aspect of life in your resume. That means a resume is not just portrait of your previous life, it is more than that. It is much more specific and significant collection of information of your life including only relevant information about you and yourself for specific employers. We can describe resume as a short introduction of an individual prepared for job purpose containing his/her relevant educational, personal and professional achievement including skills information. The term Curriculum Vitae (CV) is used as an alternative of resume in some regions of the world. But these two terms have some basic difference. A resume is generally more specialized and shortly described document since a CV is a document contains more elaborate description of educational and personal information. A resume should be within one page and generally attached with a cover letter or job application, but a CV can be several pages long. In other words resume is the more specific demonstration of job expertise than a CV. For this reason resume is used by the veteran employee and CV by the fresher. A resume is not a constant presentation. With the passage of attainment of your life resume also steps forward. Like your life, a resume is always growing and changing. Your career goals and achievement may shift, change or be added; and every change relating your professional life demands an update of your resume. You can overwrite your resume or create a new format but changes should be included anyway. In that sense writing resume is a lifelong process. There are several types of resume. Every type is designed according to the difference of positions and skills. Mostly used types of resume are-

• 1. Chronological resume.
• 2. Skill base resume.
• 3. Functional resume.
• 4. Combination resume.
• 5. Video resume.

Like several types resume have enormous format of writing. There is no specific rule to follow in writing a resume but some traditions. There is also some information to be included. A resume is written to attract the employer and is considered as the first element of attraction. For this reason, the type and format of a resume is very important. In other words it is not possible to include all the information in a single page. You must be conscious about which information should be emphasized and which should be removed while writing a resume. A resume should be tailored according to the demand of the prospective employer.

Before writing resume

Before starting you should consider few aspects which are not obligatory but necessary and very important. Remember you have only one chance to grab a job with a resume. You have to attract and satisfy your potential employer by your resume so that s/he gives you the chance to step for the next step. Spend your time to make the opportunity a triumph. Thinking about perfection of resume increases the probability of getting chance.

Do a little research:

At first pay some attention to the job circular and read the duties and responsibilities of the position carefully you are interested to apply for. Before stepping into writing do a little research on the organization and try to understand the demand of the organization and the expectation of the employer from the position. You are not writing your resume for yourself. Try to understand the mindset to whom you are writing and this will help you to custom your resume according to their demand.

Set your objectives:

Before diving into writing your resume, plan out your career objective. Spend your time to think about what type of job you're looking for. Make it clear and focused. After your objective is determined, you can structure the content of your resume around that objective. Remember to keep the message consistent throughout your resume as you summarize your skills and emphasize your strengths.

Select a resume type:

Select your resume type according to your position. There are several types of resume. If you have no work history or have worked multiple jobs over a short period of time, an unconventional format may show you in a better light. Pick the type of resume that is best suited to you and your goals. If you have less than 10 years' work experience, you should only need a one page resume. Do not go onto a second page for unimportant information, like personal hobbies, out-of-date skills and achievements from over 10 years ago.

Chronological Resume is the most common type of resume which lists your work and educational history chronologically. In this resume dates are allocated serially and positions with responsibility are attached according to the date. If you have consistent promotion this type of resume may be the best fit for you.

Skills resumes allow you to group your work history by skills, not by dates or places of employment. This kind of resume lets you highlight the skills you think are most important. Your resume can lead with the most relevant experience you have instead of the most recent.

A functional resume is very close in style to a skill-based resume, and can also be helpful for recent graduates or people re-entering the workplace. More and more people work in temporary and contract positions these days; a functional resume is another way to highlight the skills you used in these positions.

A combination resume is the combination of the chronological, functional and skills resume formats. This format is appropriate for people with employments gaps. This style lets you focus on what you have achieved, not on times when you were not working.

Every type is designed for attracting the employer and all of them are efficient too. You have to determine which type matches you the most and do it before starting your writing.

Select a resume style:

There are several existing styles of writing resume and no specific style is mandatory to follow on or assigned as masterpiece. Select a resume style for you from the existing styles. You can create a new style of writing resume too. But you have to remember that there are some traditions to follow and basic information to include. You will select your style which you think looks nice and efficient for you. For example if you have some gaps in your career like one or two years for personal necessity and you want to write a chronological resume you should not include all of your work experience serially. Then gaps of your career will be easier to spot. In this case, you may organize your resume by relevance; that will prove your efficiency more effectively and hide your gap of working.

Ten common mistakes you should never do in a Resume

There is a proverb that ‘To err is human’. No one is above mistakes, it is natural to make mistake. But mistakes in few sections are very dangerous. One of these dangerous sections is the mistake in resume. Making mistakes is normal but the important matter you should think about that you can never change your resume since it reach to the employer. So you have to be extra careful during making a resume so that you can overcome the embarrassing condition of making mistakes in the resume. Before sending your resume you must check it at least twice by own and others. One may make various major or minor mistakes in a resume which cannot be figured in number. But there are some common mistakes which are mostly made by the candidates. Here we describe ten common mistakes which bother the employer most and the candidate should care about.

1. Grammatical mistake- The most important thing of a resume is the language by which you represent your information and the language depends on the proper use of grammar and words. Making grammatical mistake in the resume is a mostly seen matter and the most disgraceful too. You must be careful about the language and the grammatical uses. If your resume shows grammatical mistakes the employer will be clear that you cannot write few sentences correctly. This is the first stair to disqualify you for the next step of recruitment. That means you will be thrown away before participating in the competition.

2. To the point- You need not to make a large resume but a resume which properly illustrate your qualifications and of course as short as possible. Use the perfect and necessary word to clear your stand. You should be clear and concise in resume. If you fail to describe what you wanted to say the employer falls in a trouble. An employer does not have enough time to search into your resume as a huge number of resume is to be dealt within a short time. To overcome the trouble the employer firstly throws you out and will concentrate to the next resume.

3. Sending same resume- Resume should be prepared separately for every position you applied. Using same resume at every job may bring trouble for your career. The employer expects your resume only suitable for them which will contain specific terms related to the position you are applying for. A general format of a resume fails to fulfill the expectation of an employer as related terms normally absent there. For example- if you're applying for a sales position, it wouldn't make much sense to focus on your experience in an unrelated field like education or information technology.

4. Failure to emphasis success- A resume should specifically focus the strongest point of the candidate and the section in which s/he is expert so that an employer can find it out looking at a glance. Three key ideas which should be kept in mind when formatting your resume are: simple, bold and professional. The employer wants to know in which sector you are most appropriate and expert. Focus and emphasis your success in the resume. If the employer could not find out your success at a glance to the resume it will bring bad luck to your career.

5. Very small or very big resume- Resume does not have any standard size. Even there is no specific format of writing a resume. There is a vast difference among the professions, peoples and the qualification demanded. So it is impossible to bind the format in a single format. A resume has no limitation of contents too. But there are some common features which must be included in the resume like your name, address, educational and professional qualification etc. You should not make your resume too small just with these common features and should not make too large resume which bother the employer. Include the necessary matters related to the position you are applying for and delete the others which is added just to enlarge the size of your resume.

6. Unspecified Goal- A resume must have a goal. And the resume will follow the way of fulfilling your goal. What is your target and how will you achieve it, which process are you following and what is the relation between your goal and the position the resume should make a sense of these matters. If the resume fails to illustrate the goal and specific target of your career the resume will displease the employer. An employer likes to see the candidate having a higher goal. Dreamers are the winner. So set a strong goal of your career and then start to write your resume again according to your goal.

7. Wrong contact address- This is a major mistake made by many of the candidates. Mailing address that is given to the resume should be clear and proper. If the employer fails to understand or find out the address the candidate will miss the next step obviously. In many cases given mobile number become inactive or used by other than the candidate and the employer fails to contact with the candidate. This also disqualifies the candidate. You should always give a reliable address clearly and an active contact number.

8. Missing important information- To make your resume short and standard you should not miss any important information. Missing important information is not a mistake but a lack of proper judgment. That means many times the candidate fails to understand which one is important to include and which one should be cut. For example you have worked for a voluntary organization for two years which have no professional recognition; you may think that this information would not be important for my career. But the soft skills you have gained from this experience like ethical works and time management are more important to employers than your might think. Be selective to include and delete information. Do not miss any important information as it reduces the probability of your recruitment.

9. Describing working information- Working information is an important part of a resume. During describing it do not just go through the words. Try to illustrate and demonstrate it. For example, if you worked in a office and recorded minutes of the meeting it is very easy to write as work description- attended group meetings and recorded minutes. Employers, however, don't care so much about what you've done as what you've accomplished in your various activities. They're looking for statements. To satisfy them you should write like this- Used laptop computer to record weekly meeting minutes and compiled them in a Microsoft Word-based file for future organizational reference. Same work may seem different just for the quality of description.

10. Inconsistent layout of resume- Many candidates tailor their resume with a wrong layout. Using inconsistent margins, different types and size of fonts, irregular bullet and number may make the resume different from others but this is a very bothering experience for the employer. You should remember that you are sending resume for the employer, so try to satisfy him. Present your resume in a consistent layout. Set your margins evenly (right and left sides 1" margins; top and bottom). Have an even amount of space between each heading. Use a single standard size font. Be consistent with your verbiage. For example, if you are describing your current job, use all verbs in the present tense.