Careers and Opportunities

Important Tips for Effective Resumes
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If one plans heading out of the front door for finding a new job, they would need a good resume to plant that foot in somebody else’s door. It is surprising about the number of mistakes which are made in sending the resume. These would however not be made now with the following tips for better resumes.

Resume Tip 1 - Be Neat
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Some job seekers drop in resumes with the coffee stains and some wrinkles creating huge mess. If one is looking for jobs, they need to see as though they could handle being employees. If you would never turn in the weekly sales report in sheets of toilet paper then why on earth will you send a resume which is not presentable?

Some standard grade office paper for printing the resume on along with a matching envelope would always make good sense. It would not cost you too much, but would keep the resume from landing up in trash.

Keep the size of the font fairly large, around 12 points is standard and also easy to read. It is not the time for any fancy lettering or the bold type. A person needs to look crisp and clean; not like trying to get the reader to hire you right away, even if you actually are towards that.

Resume Tip 2 - Corrections
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A way to get the resume to the nearest bin of trash is by having many spelling and grammatical errors in it. One need not have a degree in the English language for sending in a perfect resume. People should run a spell check program for reading through the sentences quite a few times and ensure that they are not missing any words or are saying things that they do not mean.

A right way of handling this is by reading the resume backwards. It does sound quite odd, but perhaps helps to stop the brain from skipping the words. We need to focus right so as to read text backwards. This would help you to get hold of the errors more quickly.

Besides, another good way of finding mistakes is by reading aloud the text. One may find a quiet or a private area for doing this. You would be amazed about how different the words would sound. It is one of the good classic tips for the resumes taken from various writers as the computer screen would not always translate the content well.

Resume Tip 3 - Sending it to right people
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As people send their resumes to companies without any direct person in address, they are as well sending resume to the trash bin of the company. One would need to spend few moments knowing who is the hiring head and this is well worth every effort.

You could just call in to the human resources department for seeing the person in charge of departments which you plan to apply for. Having one name for referring is a good way to leave impressions in people’s mind.

These are few simple tips for the resumes which are nearly guaranteed for getting the resume seen and also read. All you would now have to do would be starting to write it. And that is the easy part.

Thanking note:-
These tips are taken from an article by Abhishek Agarval,career consultant

                           Tips for Professional Resume Writing

If you're writing a resume for a technical position here are a few valid guidelines.

1) Put your Technical Skills first

The most important resume tip is to highlight your technical skills, training and knowledge in the best manner. Make sure it is detailed and organized and that your technical expertise is clear. Your resume will most likely be electronically perused for the important keywords before routing it to the prospective employer. So always make sure you include relevant keywords, such as industry or job jargon, on all operating systems and programs with which you are proficient.

2) Customize Your Qualifications for the applied position.

The second resume tip is to customize your qualifications according to their relevance to the position for which you are applying, with the most relevant listed first. Your degree or certification is only listed if relevant to the available position. If, for example, you are applying for a graphic designer post and one of the prior positions you've held is as a graphic designer that job should be listed first - no matter where it appeared in your work experience chronologically.

3) Quantify Your Past Results

The third tip is to quantify your past experience and the knowledge gained. You could, for instance, enumerate the code lines you debugged, the amount of money you contributed to company’s turn-over, or the number of websites you have designed or developed.

4) Be active in your reference.

The fourth resume tip is to be active rather than passive in your resume. Begin each sentence with an action, keeping it in the past tense.
Eg. - Provided website maintenance services to an average of 25 customers per day for a period of 2 years.
It is important to clearly describe the value you provided to the employer in the past tense and starting with an action word. This will surely boost your chances since employers always prefer actions to words.

5) Sell yourself well.

The fifth resume tip is to blow your own horn. This is not the time to be shy. Treat your resume as a marketing and sales tool for yourself. Write it as if you are the product and the employer the consumer. Sell yourself. If you have a significant accomplishment that doesn't seem relevant to the job list it separately, but do list it.

6) Clear and Concise

The sixth tip is to be concise but the at same time put your point. Try to complete your resume in one to two pages. Don’t elaborate the details of past projects where you were not a vital part. Also keep in mind not to give any unnecessary information regarding yourself or your previous company to the potential employer.

7) Check for Silly Mistakes

The final tip is to check for errors. Check yourself for grammatical and punctuation errors or typographical mistakes. These types of mistakes gives you an image of carelessness.