A resume is an advertising piece designed for you to market yourself! It is a sales brochure that highlights your skills and tells a potential employer what you have to offer and can bring to their company.
v Maintaining a consistent writing style. Avoid “To apply …” then “Applying …”
Most of the people in Pakistan tend to forget or neglect the value of a good resume. Some think that as long as they submitted their resumes, they will be considered for the job. Truth of the matter is, good resumes are read while bad resumes are thrown into the trash can. So, in reality, bad resumes are actually not being considered at all. Many people think that one size fits all formula can also be applied in resumes. But that’s not true. You need to change and update your resume for every single position you apply for.That is why every applicant should strive to learn how to write an effective resume and we at brightspyre, help you do that!
First of all you need to understand that resume is the first tool for building your career and its purpose is to get you an interview so it must be designed and written in a way that it catches the employers attention and shows that you are the right person for the position.
RESUME FORMATS:
There are basically three types of Resume formats, Chronological, Functional and a Combination of both.
1. CHRONOLOGICAL FORMAT:
This type of resume format emphasizes your work history in a reverse chronological format. It explains where you worked and when and is most widely used by working professionals with a steady work experience in their desired career field. Given below is the resume of one of the employees at brightspyre with chronological format.
2. FUNCTIONAL FORMAT:
This type of format highlights specific skills for which the market has high demand. It is mostly used by technical people (e.g. software developers, engineers). Here is a very good example of functional format, a java developer profile that we recently came across during shortlisting:
STANDARD RESUME SECTIONS:
All resumes typically consist of the following main sections:
1. Header: The first line should be your name, then your address, e-mail id and phone number.
2. Objective: It is normally seen that most of the people here just copy paste their objective part from a friend’s resume who has in turn copy pasted it from somewhere else! We need to use our brains here. The objective part should be different for every position that you apply for. It must be written from the company’s perspective. E.g. for a java developer, it should be like this:
“To attain a web application programming position where knowledge of Java
and the Struts framework will add value to the overall development process”
3. Skills: This is where you emphasize your technical skills. You can write about the programming languages, platforms and packages you think you are best at.
4. Education: Write the names of the degrees/ certifications and year when you have attained them.
5. Experience: Starting from the most recent job, you write the employer and location on the first line, position and time span on the second line. Its better that you emphasize more on your outcomes and contributions and less on the duties and responsibilities.
6. Projects: Write all impressive or relevant projects to which you have made real contribution.
Each project should have at least two bullets. Also indicate the tools used against each project in case of a technical one. E.g.
Enterprise Resource Planning for IC/IP Products
Developed for IC/IP software Manufacturers to do risk analysis and project estimation using different estimation models.
Tools: Spring, Struts 1.3, Hibernate, sencha, apache Lucene
SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION:
A resume can be supported with the following two documents:
1. Cover letter: It acts as your verbal introduction to the employer. Use it to focus attention on elements of your background that are particularly relevant to the company and job you are applying for. Use two to three paragraphs to given in-depth description of your selling points. E.g.
2. Reference letter: We normally add the references at the end of the resume but let me tell you that it’s a standalone document with the header from your resume at the top and the list of references and their contact numbers below. Always pick professional references that are familiar with your work and think highly of you. Always ask your references before mentioning their names in the document.
TIPS ON DELIVERY OF RESUME:
1. Posting online: While posting your resume online on a web portal like brightspyre.com, you should prefer using a PDF version if allowed. Be honest while mentioning your salary expectation for the job but make sure you don’t shoot for the moon.
2. Emailing your resume: Use of black ink on white background is preferred with fonts like Times New Roman, Courier, Helvetica, or Arial and Font sizes between 9 and 12. Attach resume as a PDF document (preferred) o
r Word document.
r Word document.
The team brightspyre, not only helps you to create your resume on the standard formats but also gives you valuable little tips that can give your resume a competitive edge over others. Here is a list of important Dos and Donts while writing your resume:
DOs:
v Use of action words in describing your experience. E.g. achieved, Adapted, Created, Assembled, Coached, Directed, Executed, Controlled, Attained, Managed, Introduced, Modified, Replaced, etc
v Act like a professional. Avoid cutesy or inappropriate graphics, images, formats,etc.
v It’s good to add logos of the organizations along as the pictures are more eye catching.
v Sticking to the truth. Don’t sprinkle buzzwords in that you really don’t understand. It speaks volumes about your character when you can’t explain your own resume.
v Focusing on achievements and results. Laundry lists of duties are not impressive.
v Using easy-to-read language.“Use short, old words.”
v Getting the words and punctuation correct. Errors and “broken English” could be disastrous.
v Following the instructions. If the company asks for specific information, then give it to them.
v Following up. If you said you would call, then call.
DONTs:
v USING ALL CAPITAL LETTERS
v Using several fonts to catch their attention
v Printing your resume on day glow paper.
v Including a non professional picture.
v Focusing on you and your needs.
v Using superlatives to emphasis your work.
v Using of flowing sentences.
BrightSpyre offers best jobs in pakistan
Absolutely fantastic posting! Lots of useful information and inspiration, both of which we all need! Thanks for the sharing information we will wait also for your new article keep posting.
Insights for Senior