How to Prepare a good resume for freshers
BY: GAZAL BHATNAGAR, VIDHYARTHI DARPAN
Basics of a Resume:
- It is a 1-2-page summary of your work experience, skills, achievements, background, and credentials.
- The main purpose of a resume is for job application, to share all credentials for employment, admission in universities or other professional purposes.
Sections:
A good resume includes following sections: –
- Header/Personal Details- Your information and contact details like name, email id, address, and phone number.
- Objective- What are your requirements and objectives.
- Education- Includes all your qualifications, institute name and other specialization or educational achievements.
- Practical/Experience/ Projects- It includes recent job including position, name and location of organization and dates of employment. Also mention your role, responsibilities, achievements, internships, and volunteer work.
- Skills- These are the strengths, personality traits, occupational skills, and list of information that you are seeking in a job.
- Interests- It includes all your professional aspects.
- References- A referee should be included at the bottom of a resume. By using the name of a referee, you make sure to ask their permission first otherwise write “References available on request”.
Guidelines for Resume header:
- only give basic information that you want to share like name, current address, email id, phone number etc.
- Do not include your photo, date of birth, marital status etc.
- Do not give unnecessary details like family information and don’t use vague statements like “I have excellent communication skills” etc.
Guidelines to the Objectives:
- The main purpose is to convey what your goal is.
- The objective should include the position, functional area, and industry of your choice.
- Keep in mind that objective is not about what you want but it’s the company needs.
For e.g.:
# If you are a job seeker: – Use trainee as a position or a beginner in a company.
# If you are seeking an internship: – Use ‘intern’ in which role you’ve applied.
Guidelines to the Education:
- The main purpose of the education section is to provide all the basic qualification for the job or internship.
- It includes the qualification details from class 10th to present, school/college name, board, specialization, year of passing and marks/CGPA.
- Remember to write all qualifications in chronological order and use tabular format.
For e.g.:
| Qualification | School/College | University/Board | Year | Stream/Specialization | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10th | ABC | CBSE /ICSE | 2010 | SCIENCE | 93% |
| 12th | ABC | CBSE /ICSE | 2012 | PCM | 94% |
| Graduation | XYZ | RTU | 2016 | B. TECH IN IT | 84% |
Guidelines to the projects, internships, experience etc.:
- Include all your projects, internships in 2-3-line description (must be brief and specific), and time period of your work.
- The entries in each heading must be in a reverse- chronological order.
- Only specify what you’ve achieved.
For e.g.:
XYZ Project from ABC company (Jan 2017-May 2017):
(Write all the description of your project.)
Guidelines to the Skills:
- It shows what you’ve learnt in the past.
- You can have multiple headings under skills like:
-soft skills: – To show your personality traits.
-core/occupational skills: – Your professional traits.
-IT skills.
- Always add your best skills and unique strengths.
For e.g.:
Leadership quality: If you lead a team during a campaign or in university activities.
Guidelines to the Interest:
- The main purpose of your interest shows about your real character. During discussion or interview, the interviewers asks about your interest first. So carefully choose your interest.
- Mention your meaningful and best interest that supports you.
For e.g.:
– I am a trekker and an active member of xyzzy club and completed 1- treks.
– I like photography and travelling.
Length of a resume:
Always keep your resume short and concise up to 2 pages.
Format and style:
The design and layout of your resume should be neat and use paragraphs and bullet points.
Do’s in your resume:
- Start from a template.
- Mention your relevant experience.
- Keep your resume short around 800 words.
- Include a summary statement.
- Do run a spell check.
- Include your soft skills like “effective communicator” etc.
- Do include your non-experience work and volunteer work.
- Mention your extracurricular accomplishments.
Don’ts of a resume:
- Don’t use obvious skills like ‘using the internet’.
- Don’t use undermining words like ‘first time’, ‘myself’ etc.
- Avoid use of many fonts.
- Don’t include anything private and confidential.
- Don’t try to hide gaps if any during academic. Be honest and confident in the truth.
- Don’t use negative phrases like ‘fixed problem’ etc.
- Don’t use a PDF format for your resume. Use word files wherever possible.
- Don’t copy the job description or copy from your friends resume. Use your original data.
