Out of college and thinking about writing your first resume? But wondering where to get started or just the thought of writing a good resume intimidates you? Well resume writing is no rocket science and with few simple guidelines and tips you can soon congratulate yourself on writing a full fledged IMPRESSIVE! Resume. So here we are with some important but simple to follow guidelines which should help you in drafting a good and professional resume.

Length & Formatting of a Good Resume: The first and the foremost point in drafting a resume is its length and formatting. If you are new college pass out, then a one page resume should suffice, however if you are an experienced professional then 2 page resume is great. Remember to use underlines, bolds and italics aptly, so as to highlight your most important facts so that the headhunters are able to get to the core information with ease and at first glance. Ideally there are 2 types of resume formats chronological Resume format or functional Resume format.

**Be careful when selecting the resume format as some employers scowl on functional resume layout as it gives an opportunity to the candidate to hide some job laps and employment flaws.

Personal Details: Normally when an employer looks at your resume, he/she wants to know your name, contact information (phone number, email address etc.) So be sure to mention your name and contact details towards the starting of the resume so it is clearly visible and highlighted. You need not mention “Curriculum Vitae” towards the starting of the resume and waste the space, as it is pretty obvious what the document is about.

Career Aim or Career Objective: Writing a career objective in a resume is optional, but we would still accentuate on including an objective in your resume. As the recruiters just spend 2 to 3 minutes analyzing your resume, providing a good targeted career objective can help your resume get through the competition. To make your career objective look impressive make sure that it’s not vague or 2 generic. Keep it brief 2 to 3 lines should be good. Don’t miss out on illustrating your career focus and some experiences which you want to mention to support your career goal. The career objective should be so impressive that it gains recruiters attention and further forces him to browse your resume.

Education and Qualification: Once you have mentioned your personal details and career objective. Now it’s time to list down your educational qualification. Mention the highest or most recent degree first followed by other qualifications. Also include passing years, name of university/s, degree title and grades. In case your grades are low, avoid including them in your resume. Educational qualification, would be initially included towards the starting of your resume, but as you develop professional experience this section would move towards the end of your CV. Reason being, the work experience of a professional holds more importance then his/her qualification, latter down the career path.

Work Experience & Accomplishments: Work experience is one of the most important sections in a resume, as recruiters mostly pay attention on this part. As a college pass out it is obvious you will not have much experience to showcase on your resume, but you can still be in a position to show a summer job experience or any voluntary job you did. Ideally the work experience is shown on a resume in chronological order. The most recent comes first, followed by other past work experiences. However, it is recommended that you illustrate the work experience which is related to the current job first, as this will give an opportunity to recruiters to think that you took the time to do some background check of the company and profile and therefore you showcased the most relevant job experience first. This definitely means a positive sign for you.

Some important points to keep in mind while mentioning your work experience is to make use of effective verb statements. Mention the most core points and provide a brief summary to demonstrate your skill sets. This would give a positive impression to the employer that you have a great ability to focus on details and organize your thoughts well.

Other Information: This is the section where you can provide other information about yourself, like languages known, hobbies (in case you have a hobby which you feel is relevant to the job, mention it here), other skill sets which you possess and details about conferences and workshops which you might have attended.

Reference: Make sure that you have enough white spacing on your resume and in case you are falling short of space to mention details about reference or referees then a single line “References available on request” is perfect. If you have some space left then mention 2 references on your resume. Make sure that you have communicated in advance to the people whom you are going to mention as referee, in order to avoid latter hassles.

Some More Quick Tips to Remember: When Writing a Good Resume:

• Remember! Though social media platforms for professional growth has become a norm these days, but the importance and use of resume is not diminishing soon. Resume still serves as a reflection of candidate’s qualification and is a primary tool in finding a good job.
• You should be selective about the information you want to provide on your resume. Be ready for questions on them and have your best answers ready.
• A good resume should be clearly understood by the recruiters it should ideally have a simple yet professional layout and should be able to reflect all your skills at first glance.
• The information and details on the resume should be relevant to the job or post you are applying for. Any irrelevant information should be avoided.
• Avoid the use of pronouns (a, an, the…Etc) wherever you can.
• No long paragraphs please, remember recruiters have just 2 minutes to scrutinize your resume.
• Read more on Top 10 common resume Mistakes that should be certainly avoided in a good resume or CV.

Hope these resume writing pointers and guidelines will help you write an impressive resume!

Resume is the first impression that your potential employer gets to know about you. In just limited space of one to two pages, you have to make sure that the prospective employer knows all your key skills, achievements, work history…etc and is impressed enough to shortlist you for the interview. Which means your resume needs to be so impressive that the recruiter wants to meet you in person and also portrays you as the right candidate, who could be the potential solution provider.

If we see it from an employer prospective, any resume which has silly mistakes or some common mistakes which could be easily avoided, definitely looses out on the competition immediately. So, to help you make your resume impressive we have identified 10 most common resume mistakes that should take just little effort and can be wiped out easily. All you need to do is avoid these mistakes while writing your resume either for the first time or reviewing it during your mid-career job search.

1. Grammatical Errors: First things first, we as humans tend to sometimes do things haphazardly and forget to pay attention on small but important things. Typos and grammatical errors are identified by experienced recruiters on the first browse of your resume and if they spot 2 to 3 typos and grammatical errors, they are sure to believe that either you are too lazy, or you don’t care or probably your writing skills are not all that great. You obviously don’t want to give this impression to your employer, so better re-review your resume 2 to 3 times and if possible ask someone else to quickly proof read your resume.

2.  Generic Resume with No Focus: This is yet another most common mistake seen in the resumes. People tend to believe that they have created one resume and it should work fine for all the jobs they are applying for. But in today’s time where the head hunters do not spend more then 5 to 20 seconds in scrutinizing the resume, it becomes difficult for them to match your specific skill sets with the job requirement. So to make their job easier and to increase your chances of being selected make sure that you highlight your skill sets and experience as per the job requirement & description. Objective and summary of the resume also plays a very critical role here. By just tweaking your resume objective and highlighting your key skills in the summary as per the job description you can increase your chances of being selected.

3. Too Long Or Too Short Resume:

If you are a new college pass out and looking for a job, then one page resume is just perfect. For experienced people, the ideal resume size should be 2 pages. Try to fit in all your key skills and experience in 2 pages, avoid sending out a 1 ½ page resume. It looks incomplete and does not give a nice impression.

4. Keep The Resume Simple – Avoid too Much Creativity: Your resume should look professional and properly aligned, with simple font and bold text where ever needed. Avoid images along with fancy or colorful text, until and unless you are applying for a creative position. Too much of colors and fancy looking resume, looks kid-dish and takes away the importance of the document.

5. Properly organized and Easy to Read Resume: Your resume should be simple to read and should be formatted in such a way, that the employer gets to the core information easily and is immediately able to make the decision. Double check to see, that your resume is not illogically organized with inconsistent formatting which makes it difficult for the recruiter to read and understand. As mentioned in point 4 keep the resume simple and professional with proper bulleting and logical formatting.

6. Avoid Action Verbs Instead Mention Accomplishments: As a potential candidate sometimes we get tempted to showcase our day-to-day duties and tend to use terms like “responsible for” or “duties included” and then list down what all things we did as our job profile. But from an employer standpoint, they are not interested in candidates who can just perform their day to day activities well. Instead they are more interested in people who have accomplished and achieved something more then their regular work. So in your resume, try to focus more on accomplishments which would help you earn more points when compared to other candidates.

These accomplishments, will not only help you get the attention of the reader, but would also help you sell yourself to the employer in a perfect way. One point of caution to be kept in mind here is that the accomplishments you mention in your resume should be inline with your career goals and should be customized as per the job you are targeting.

7. Do not Undersell yourself: This is especially applicable for senior employees, who try to be more humble and do not believe in blowing their own trumpet. But in today’s time, if you want to shine out and let the world know what have you achieved you need to mention it in fancy yet professional words. So that employer at least knows about your achievements and accomplishments and is aware of your potential.

8. Incorrect Contact Information: Yes this is something too basic, but several times this is one of the major reasons why the candidate does not receive a call. Before sending out your resume, make sure that you double check your contact number i.e. all numbers are their, sequence of number is fine and email address is properly and clearly visible. Many recruiters face this problem that once they have finalized the candidates they are unable to reach them out.

9. Address your Mail to the Identified Person: Almost everyday employers get 1000’s of resumes and mails addressing the “hiring manager” or “to whom it may concern” and these resumes are sure to be trashed. So do yourself a favor and find out the real POC [point of contact] for the job opening which you are targeting and then address your resume to an identified person. This small step will avoid your resume from being trashed, plus your probability of getting an interview call increases.

10. Resume without a Cover Letter: Last but not the least, this is one of the biggest mistakes one could do. Never send out your resume, without an official cover letter or introduction. Cover letter is the first thing that the recruiter looks at when scrutinizing your resume, so make sure that your cover letter is in align to your resume and to the job vacancy you are targeting.

Best of Luck!!