Tips to improve your Resume

Improve Your Current Resume

If you are thinking about looking for a new job, you might want to take a look at your old resume. While your resume is a work in progress, it’s not always a good idea to simply input new information into the old format and assume it’s good enough.

By following just a few steps you can totally makeover your current resume, which will help you land more interviews, as well as make the tough task of writing your resume much easier.

Make Sure Your Resume Is Focused
If you are thinking about applying for new jobs because you want to advance your career or you are simply ready for a career change, you need to be sure that your resume has a focus. You might find writing an objective at the top of your resume the simplest way to give your resume focus. You’ll want to be sure that every person that picks up your resume knows not only where you have been and what you have done, but also where you want to go. When an employer can’t look at your resume and understand within moments what you want or why you are applying with them, they won’t be interested. So, pick your field of interest and make sure that what you what is very clear to anyone that may read the resume.

Don’t Forget About Education
Many people that have been working for a long time think that they no longer need to list their education on their resume, but this is something that you should definitely include. You should not only include your college, certificate, and diploma programs but you should also choose to include any optional or continuing education programs or certificates that you have earned. Education shows most employers that you are educated and have the ability to put your education to good use.

Use Industry Buzzwords
Read over your resume and insert industry relevant buzzwords. While this may seem as though it is not necessary, it’s a good idea to use the language that is relevant to the job you held. This shows employers that you have a grasp on the industry and knowledge that you are eager to apply in future positions as well. While you want to make sure to use these buzzwords to show that you are involved and knowledgeable, you want to make sure that your resume isn’t just all buzzwords. You don’t want a resume that is so full of buzzwords that it doesn’t tell the employer anything about you. So, review your resume to be sure that you achieve a balance between sounding knowledgeable and actually saying something!

Write Great Job Descriptions
You should attempt to write really great job descriptions for each of the jobs that you held. Not only will this include the buzzwords mentioned above, but also it will also engage the reader and actually have them interested in your past employment. You can get help with job descriptions by contacting the human resources departments of the places you’ve worked, or you can visit your library and browse through the Dictionary Of Occupational Titles, which will provide a great description of just about any job title you can think of and then some!

Give Job Details
When you list your jobs, don’t just list the titles and the dates that you were employed. Review your current resume and be sure that you give adequate details about each position such as what responsibilities you held, how many people you supervised, and any other important information. Remember to use buzzwords and keywords that are job specific here, as well. List

Your Accomplishments
It’s important to remember that a resume isn’t just a list of job descriptions; it’s also about your accomplishments. You need to really think about all of the great things you’ve done in your career. Ask yourself what you have done that has gone above and beyond your job description and detail these things in your resume. If you helped to develop a new product, exceed sales goals, or start a training program make sure to include that in your job description. Remember that when you are writing a resume it’s always a good idea to quantify your accomplishments because numbers are always impressive.

Don’t Be Afraid To Delete
After you’ve added new information and perhaps changed the formatting a bit to make your resume more focused, don’t be afraid to delete information that is not relevant to the type of career you are now aiming for. You don’t have to submit an all inclusive resume, you just need to give a prospective employer enough to get him interested, to get you in to have an interview. Make sure you keep sentences that have your all important buzzwords, but remember that less is often more with a resume so deletion generally isn’t a bad thing.

Grammar Check
Read over your resume and be sure that you have written in a language that your target audience will be able to understand. Make sure that your sentences are complete and avoid short and choppy sentences in your description of job duties. You want sentences that really flow together and are compelling and really sell your ability to do the job you are applying for. Sentences that begin with verbs are often the most compelling, though they should be positive in nature, as well as very brief and accurate. Only use words that you are sure of their meaning when you write your resume. When you are checking the grammatical correctness of your sentences you should also think about their order. Read your resume aloud so you can see if there is a better sentence order than the current one.

Extra Qualifications
Don’t forget to update your qualifications that may be above and beyond what other people have achieved. Your qualifications can be listed at the bottom of your resume after your work experience. You’ll want to list items such as special licenses, certifications, affiliations, and even hobbies if they relate to the industry in which you are applying for jobs. You’ll notice that when you review your resume and you make these changes that it not only looks better and reads better, it will serve you better! It’s never too late to revise your resume and breathe some new life into it. When you fail to update your resume the only person you are holding back is yourself. So, look over your resume closely and see if you can’t make some of these changes for the better!


Ten Easy Ways to Improve Your Resume from Quintcareers

1. Use a bulleted style to make your resume more reader-friendly. Given that employers screen resumes for between 2.5 and 20 seconds, they will find your resume a lot more readable if you use bullet points instead of paragraph style. It's just easier to read.

2. Follow "The Resume Ingredients Rule." Information on a resume should be listed in order of importance to the reader. Therefore, in listing your jobs, what's generally most important is your title/position. So list in this preferred order: Title/position, name of employer, city/state of employer, dates of employment Dates can be important to some employers, but they're generally not as important as what your position was and whom you worked for. Education follows the same principle; thus, the preferred order for listing your education is: Name of degree (spelled out: Bachelor of _____) in name of major, name of university, city/state of university, graduation year, followed by peripheral information, such as minor and GPA. If you haven't graduated yet, list your information the same way. Simply by virtue of the fact that the graduation date you've listed is in the future, the employer will know you don't have the degree yet.

By the way, the Resume Ingredients Rule is also the reason that experience and education are listed in reverse chronological order on your resume; it's assumed that your most recent education and experience are most important and relevant to the reader

3. Eliminate "responsibilities" words from your resume vocabulary. Never use expressions like "Duties included," "Responsibilities included," or “Responsible for” on your resume. Why? Because your resume should be accomplishments-driven, not responsibilities-driven. Anyone (well, maybe not anyone…) can perform the duties listed in a job description. Job-description language is not what sells in a resume. Accomplishments-oriented language tells employers how you've gone above and beyond in your jobs, what makes you special, how you've taken initiative and made your jobs your own.

4. Eliminate clutter from your resume. Several elements can clutter up your resume and impede readability:

Unnecessary dates. Don't list dates that don't add anything to your resume; for example, dates you spent involved in college extracurricular activities. If you were involved in these activities during college, the reader can pretty much guess your dates of involvement, and listing the dates will just clutter up your document. Same with dates of involvement in professional or civic organizations; ask yourself if those dates will be meaningful to the employer reading your resume.
Parentheses. Jobseekers have a particular tendency to set off dates of employment with parentheses. It's easier on the reader if you just use commas.

The line "References: Available upon request." This statement is highly optional because it is a given that you will provide references upon request. If you couldn't, you would have no business looking for a job. The line can serve the purpose of signaling: "This is the end of my resume," but if you are trying to conserve space, leave it off.
Articles. Those little words "a," "an," and "the." Generally, resumes aren't written in sentence form, but in concise phrases that have become an accepted shorthand that employers understand. Articles tend to clutter up that shorthand; your resume will read in a more streamlined manner without them.

5. Use strong, concrete verbs to describe your jobs, and don't mix noun and verb phrases. Let's look at this example:
/Managed and controlled all aspects of company's West Coast presence. [verb]
/Complete ownership of inventory and financial standards. [noun]
/Full P&L responsibilities. [noun]
/Analyzed market and forecast sales, prepared corporate budgets and monitored results to achieve ROI objectives. [verb]

Instead, be consistent with verbs:
Supervised inventory and financial standards.
Completely oversaw profit and loss aspects of operation.

6. Focus on describing past job activities that highlight the skills you most like to use and want to use in your next job. Don't spend a lot of time, for example, describing all that clerical stuff you did in a past job if you have no intention of doing clerical work again. Even if you've mastered skills that are in great demand, don't emphasize them if they're not the skills you want to use in the future.

7. Don't fret about the one-page resume rule. Sure, it's nice to keep your resume to one page if you can, but don't go to extraordinary lengths, such as by using tiny type. If you have significant experience, you'll probably need more than one page. What you should avoid is having one full page with just a little bit of text on your second page. If you fill a third or less of the second page, consider condensing to one page. Ways to condense:
/Narrow your margins. The margins in Microsoft Word are set very wide by default. You can have margins as narrow as .75” all around and still have a nice-looking document.
/Use a smaller point size, but not too small. A font size of 11-point is good; don't go too much smaller than 10.5-point.
/Many jobseekers use a two-column format with headings in the left-hand column. To conserve space, narrow or even eliminate the left-hand column and simply stack your headings on top of each section.


8. Make sure your resume has a sharp focus. Again, given the microscopic amount of time that employers spend screening resumes, you need a way to show the employer at a glance what you want to do and what you're good at. One way to sharpen your focus is through an objective statement. Another way is to add a section called something like "Summary of Qualifications," or "Profile."

9. Don't list too much experience on your resume. The rule of thumb for someone at the senior level is to list about 15 years worth of jobs. Age discrimination, unfortunately, is a reality, and even more likely, employers may think you're too expensive if you list too much experience on your resume. Similarly, don't give the date of your college graduation if it was more than about 10 years ago.

10. Be sure the reader will understand all the acronyms and jargon you use in your resume. Resumes in the high-tech field are notorious for these mysterious terms. We recently received a resume containing the following acronyms and jargon: MCSE, MCP+I, TCP/IP, CCA, CCNA, token ring and PCMCIA network interface cards for LAN connectivity, NT Service Packs, Ethernet cards, Server 4.0, SQL 6.5, 7.0, Red Hat Linux 6.1, Turbo Linux 4.0 and Caldera 2.3, Cisco 2500 routers and switches. Now, chances are that employers in this jobseeker's field understand all these terms. Just be sure that's the case. Spell out any acronyms you think could be questionable, and explain any terms you think some readers of your resume might not understand.



TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR RESUME

General

1. The name and mailing address including email ID, Tel No should be prominent.
2. Font style should be: [12-point size] [Use regular/ bold/ italics style]
3. The resume should not be too lengthy. The length should be 2/ 2.5 pages.
4. 'References'/ 'Salary Expected' should not be mentioned.
5. Location/s preferred: Metros/India/ Abroad should be specified.
6. Preference for a particular industry/ company should be indicated.
7. Job objective should be included in the resume/ it should be focused.
8. If you have a varied background it is advisable to prioritise.
9. Your date of birth and not age should be mentioned.
1 0. Indicate professional qualifications. Mention specialisation, University/Institute, year of passing the exam.
11. Check for spelling/ grammar mistakes.
12. Check the alignment before sending the resume, the margins should not exceed the printable area.



Professionals

1. 'Summary of Skills and Experience' should come just after 'Job Objective'. It should give total years of experience.
2. Under the heading 'Organisational Experience' you should begin with your current job.
3. The name of organisation/ tenure/ designation should be mentioned. Year should be also mentioned against positions held.
4. Provide company details like (a) name of the company, (b) products/ services, (c) area of operation, (d) turnover, (e) nature: MNC, ISO 9002 certified JV etc.
5. In case of promotions begin with the earliest position and move chronologically.
6. Show how your responsibilities grew with promotions.
7. Highlight your achievements/ expertise more than your responsibilities & Justify your achievements with figures/ percentages.
8. Separately mention responsibilities and achievements.
9. Furnish an account of projects undertaken.
10. Give a summary of training programmes attended (ignore if less than 4 weeks).



Freshers

1. Highlight your skills/ strengths like leadership qualities, communication skills.
2. Give an account of the Course including details of projects undertaken.
3. Give a summary of Projects undertaken and skills developed thereby.
4. Mention your qualification. Indicate elective papers.
5. Distinctions (if any)/ Scholarship/s should be properly highlighted.
6. Provide details of the training.
7. Give a detailed account of articleship in case of CAs.
8. In case of Software projects please specify language/ platform/ RDBMS/ Project description/ team size.