Pajama Deals
Resume Writing Handbook
Bhushan Lodha
Resume Writing Handbook
Resume Writing
Resume Guidelines
Your resume should be a concise summary of the high points of your education, work experience, and other qualications relevant to your audiences needs and to your employment interests, not a complete history of your life. It communicates your professional qualications to employers, to interest them in interviewing you, and it creates their rst impression of you. It is a marketing tool and an introduction to you and your experience. Do enough research about the employer and the eld to decide which messages are most important to your audience, and communicate these messages succinctly and clearly in a visually appealing format. Here are some guidelines to help you do this: Presentation Checklist Do not use a Microsoft Word resume template. None of them scan well. It is safe to use a conservative font, such as Arial or Times New Roman. Font size should be 10-12 points. Format Stick to one page; use two pages if you have an advance degree or extensive experience (10+ years) Make page easy to scan and graphically pleasing: leave sufcient white space. Select a format that suits your qualications. Do not automatically follow someone elses, which may not suit what you have to say. Avoid underlining, may use bullets to emphasize your credentials. Use bold face sparingly for headings and employer information. Content Put name, address, and phone number at the top of the page. If you have a second page, repeat your name at the top. Choose topic headings that invite your readers interest, e.g., Experience, Leadership, Skills, Activities rather than employment or other. Include marketable and/or relevant data only; for example, include classes that have been most important in your education and are most relevant to the type of work you seek; do not provide an extensive list. Highlight skills, accomplishments, capabilities, and work experience. Give evidence of your personal impact: show not only that you completed tasks but that you contributed to organizational goals. Cite numbers to convey size and/or scale of project, budget, and staff supervised.
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Resume Writing Handbook
Give examples that demonstrate desirable personality traits such as leadership, interpersonal facility, teamwork, and initiative. Minimize personal information and omit unrelated records, age, marital and health status, and information that is repetitive, implicit, or out-of-date. Generally, it is a good idea to exclude data relevant to religious or political afliations, and geographic descriptions. References are usually omitted. Employers assume that references are available upon request, so leave this phrase off. Style Proofread to eliminate all spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors. Use action verbs and strong adjectives. (See Action Verbs.) Make it future or present oriented, suggesting that I am this kind of person, with these abilities, as my past record demonstrates. Avoid repeating words or phrases. Leave out unnecessary words, sentences, and phrases such as Duties included / Hired to / Project involved. Avoid stilted or confusing language. Ask yourself, Would U talk like that? Do not use the rst person I or any pronouns. Be consistent and use the same grammatical style throughout. Avoid self-attering terms such as highly skilled, outstanding, or excellent. Describe your accomplishments effectively and let readers decide for themselves that you are well qualied. Be honest and accurate, but not overly modest. Convey through the style and content of your resume an understanding of your audiences needs, priorities, hiring criteria, and vocabulary. Final Edit Ask a friend, or someone unfamiliar with your background to review your resume for clarity and effectiveness. Tailor your resume to the specic qualications of the job for which you are applying and/or the specic employer. Include all-important information, such as dates of graduation, major, GPA, etc. Proofread one more time to ensure correct spelling and punctuation. Pitfalls in Resume Writing Too long. Restrict your resume to one page. Typographical, grammatical, or spelling errors. Have at least two people proofread your resume. Hard to read. Keep it simple with clean lines and white spaces. Too verbose. Say as much as possible with as few words as possible, avoid use of jargon. Not enough information. Give dates describing related work experience, be specic about skills, accomplishments, activities, and interests. Irrelevant information. Customize each resume to each position you seek (when possible). Of course, include education and work experience, but emphasize relevant experience, skills,
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Resume Writing Handbook
accomplishments and activities. Do not include marital status, age, sex, children, height, weight, health, etc. Obviously generic. Tweak each resume according to the job description. The employer needs to feel that you are interested in that particular position with his or her company. Too fancy. Of course, use good quality bond paper, but avoid exotic types, colored paper, photographs, binders, and graphics. Too static. Make your resume as dynamic as possible. Begin every statement with an action verb. Use active verbs to describe what you have accomplished in past jobs. Take advantage of your rich vocabulary and avoid repeating words, especially the rst word in a section. Too modest. The resume showcase your qualications in competition with the other applicants. Put your best foot forward without misrepresentation, falsication, or arrogance.
Writing about your skills-PAR Statements
PAR (Project, Activity, Results) statements in your resume make it easy for employers to recognize your achievements. They provide a writing formula that stresses your skills and achievements. This is a way of writing out your skills on a resume to maximize their impact. Using the action verbs listed on last page, write your experience in the following format. Describe this experience in terms of demonstrated skills and accomplishments: 1) Describe the project, the context, task, job. 2) What activity did you do? 3) What were the results, outcomes, benets? Do not use the words took part in, or gained experience in, or assisted in. Quantify the results by stating the amount of rupees saved, the number of clients served, the percentage increase in productivity or improvement in efciency. Below are some samples of PAR statements (both bullet form and paragraph form are acceptable): Investigated effects of gas phase oxygen concentration levels on the differentiation of embryonic stem cells in order to establish optimal strength for growth. Designed and implemented a website containing inter-active problem sets, information, and announcements for Math competition participants. Technically advanced and trained the Major Accountant Sales crew with computerized presentation designs and introduced customer and industry market data software. Organized and developed new methods of reporting and presenting to top advertisers. Reviewed literature and evaluated past models, expanded adaptability of key components, improved stress analyses of fuel forms. Consolidated 23 local customer service centers into ve regional centers achieving 15% cost reduction and improving customer services.
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Resume Writing Handbook
Led design efforts of ve-member team that developed and manufactured a cooling system for desert combat aviators in 90 days (10 days ahead of the schedule). Using critical path scheduling and sub contractor management, successfully organized Rs 3,000,000 pier renewal due to ship collision. Wrote software for simulating complex distillation processes that was adopted throughout XYZ Co. leading to signicant savings in manufacturing costs. Proposed procedure to streamline the process of reaching optimized fuel design. Produced corresponding computer program using C++ and Fortan, and designed Graphical User Interface (GUI) for better communication with users. Created, rened and trained Sales Team on new presentation package and materials. Model was adopted and resulted in a 2% increase in overall company revenue. Incorporated new algorithms into pipeline simulation modules and achieved tenfold increase in speed. Investigated and evaluated business communication practices and expertise within XYZ Co. to model framework for globalization initiative to improve the sharing and use of existing knowledge. Found systematic method to raise glass transition temperature of vaccines, which allowed a higher storage temperature for the vaccines. Generated Rs 300,000 annual saving in refrigeration costs. Describing Transferable Skills Your resume should describe your experience in the form of PAR statements: project, activity and result. The following exercise will help you to describe your skills. Complete the following worksheet describing your own experiences by using: Project + action verb + activity + result/outcome/benet. Project/Purpose Activity/task beginning with action verb Result/Outcome/Benet
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Resume Writing Handbook
Action Verbs
Management Skills Administered Analyzed Assigned Chaired Consolidated Contracted Coordinated Delegated Developed Directed Evaluated Executed Organized Oversaw Planned Prioritized Produced Recommended Reorganized Reviewed Scheduled Supervised Communication Skills Addressed Arbitrated Arranged Authored Co-Authored Collaborated Corresponded Developed Directed Drafted Enlisted Formulated Inuenced Interpreted Lectured Mediated Moderated Negotiated Persuaded Promoted Proposed Publicized Reconciled Recruited Teaching Skills Adapted Advised Claried Coached Communicated Conducted Coordinated Research Skills Claried Collected Critiqued Diagnosed Evaluated Examined Extracted Identied Inspected Inspired Interpreted Interviewed Investigated Organized Reviewed Summarized Surveyed Systemized Technical Skills Assembled Built Calculated Computed Designed Devised Engineered Fabricated Maintained Operated Pinpointed Programmed Remolded Repaired Solved Creative Skills Acted Conceptualized Created Customized Designed Developed Directed Established Fashioned Illustrated Instituted Integrated Performed Planned Proved Revised Clerical or Detail Skills Approved Arranged Catalogued Classied Collected Compiled Dispatched Executed Filed Generated Implemented Inspected Monitored Operated Financial Skills Administered Allocated Analyzed Appraised Audited Balanced Budgeted Calculated Computed Developed Managed Planned Projected Researched Spoke Translated Wrote Developed Enabled Encouraged Evaluated Explained Facilitated Guided Informed Instructed Lectured Persuaded Set goals Stimulated Taught Trained Helping Skills Assessed Assisted Claried Coached Counseled Demonstrated Diagnosed Educated Facilitated Familiarized Guided Inspired Motivated Participated Provided Referred Rehabilitated Reinforced Represented Supported Taught Trained Veried Strong Verbs for Accomplishments Accelerated Achieved Attained Completed Conceived Convinced Discovered Doubled Effected Eliminated Expanded Expedited Founded Improved Increased Initiated Innovated Introduced Invented Launched Mastered Originated Overcame Overhauled Pioneered Reduced Resolved Revitalized Spearheaded Strengthened Transformed Upgraded Revitalized Set up Shaped Streamlined Structured Tabulated Validated Ordered Organized Prepared Processed Purchased Recored Retrieved Screened Specied Systemized
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Resume Writing Handbook
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