How to Create an Awesome Resume: 8 Golden Rules

Your resume is your sales pitch, your chance to make an impact in the brief time the employer scans it.

Organizations are flooded with resumes far in excess of the openings; it is essential for yours to get noticed and interest a prospective employer enough to call you for an interview.

Here are eight “Golden Rules” for creating a resume that’s truly outstanding.

1. Write a powerful objective — or don’t write it at all

   The objective is a statement of your goals of employment, usually written at the top of the resume.

   The opening of the resume can make or break impressions — be extra-careful with how you word it. Write an objective statement only if you have very specific employment goals, or to convince your employers that you are a perfect fit for the role. A generic, jargon-laden objective statement adds no value to the resume.

   What is a good objective statement?
   One that has these qualities:

   • It is specific to the position and role being applied for
   • It highlights the applicant’s key strengths, or gives a snapshot of the applicant’s career
   • It is employer-oriented, i.e. it says how the applicant’s skills can benefit the employer rather than what the applicant hopes to get out of the job
   • It is sincere, it is sticky

   Example of a good objective statement:

   Technical architect role where I can effectively utilize my 10+ years of experience in Oracle Design and Development

   Example of bad objective statement:

   To work in an organization that gives me opportunities to learn and grow and constantly challenge myself towards higher levels of excellence

   A downside of writing an objective is that it can limit your options. If you are flexible about the role you want, let your résumé not set your objective too firmly. Where it is optional and you want to keep your options open – don’t write it.

2. Highlight your key competencies

   Don’t list down competencies in one mindless jumble. Tabulate, group and grade them.

   You may have skills in multiple areas, but you’re likely better in some than others. Say you’re a whiz as Oracle core DBA but have only passing familiarity with Oracle Apps DBA concepts. Let your resume convey precisely how good you are at them.

   This will not only give your interviewers a clear picture of what to ask you, but will also prevent embarrassing situations where the interviewer questions you about C++ only to learn that you haven’t touched it since school.

   Suggested grouping: Languages, Tools, Operating Systems, Business Areas, Special Skills

   Suggested ratings: Basic, Competent, Proficient, Expert

3. Talk about accomplishments, not responsibilities

   Responsible for preparing installation/migration scripts

   You did what you were assigned to do, which is all very well — but did you shine?

   Re-mould weak, passive statements into power-packed ones. Now this is so much better:

   Single-handedly designed and coded installation/migration scripts for Oracle 10G production database

4. Don’t fake it

   While it’s important to showcase one’s best side in the resume, it’s equally important to draw the line between fact and fiction. Don’t claim to being an expert in an area in which you know next to nothing. If caught, you lose your credibility, and that’s a far worse situation to be in than getting a couple of interview answers wrong.

   A tip about blatantly deceiving on stuff like year of graduation, course pursued or work experience: most organizations have a thorough background verification done after employees join them. If it is discovered that you have not been honest in your resume, you will be asked to leave. This can also damage prospects of future employment.

5. Tailor it for the employer’s fit

   A one-size-fits-all resume is good only if it’s being posted on a job portal. If you are applying directly to an organization, customize your resume to emphasize what the prospect is most looking for.

   Move items about, delete the non-essentials. Highlight your client-interfacing skills for a consultant’s role, the course you did in French if you’re expected to work for a client in France. When applying for a small startup, make your hands-on coding experience the prime focus and play down your team management skills.

6. Skip personal details

   Marital Status, Address, Place of Birth, Passport No. Social Security Number — keep these off the résumé. For one, interviewers do not need to know these details to hire you — indeed, they must not even ask. More importantly, guard yourself against identity theft.

7. Keep it short

   The résumé must never extend longer than 2-3 pages. Prune and retain only what you must. Some tips for shortening the résumé :

   • Mention key phrases in bulleted lists, not whole sentences.e.g.
     

     I developed the process for customer data integration

     can be shortened to

     Developed process for customer data integration

   • Leave long descriptions of projects worked on for project plan handbooks. Write only as much as will catch the interviewers’ attention, and is relevant to your work within the project.
   • Remove anything from the résumé that may not matter to the job you’re seeking.
   • Even if you have decades of work experience behind you, you have the same space to fill on the résumé as someone starting out. Emphasize your recent or extraordinary work and omit what you did as assistant software engineer 15 years ago.
   • Remove sentences like “References available on request”. That’s a given – don’t let it hog precious space.

8. Ice the cake — present it well

   As they say, last but not least. All the effort goes waste if a cursory look makes your resume appear sloppy. You may be a great developer, but you might miss your chance at getting an interview call if you haven’t bothered to spell words in the resume right.

   A checklist to ensure that your resume looks good:

   • Use consistent fonts. For an Oracle-related position, it is best to stick to standard web fonts. Stay far far away from Comic Sans.
   • Leave white space — between sections and paragraphs, around margins.
   • Do not use repetitive language, or worse still — SMSese.
   • Weed out spelling/grammar/punctuation errors.
   • Get trusted others to read your resume and tell you what they think. Analyse feedback and restructure the résumé if required.

Closing Notes

Your resume does not guarantee a job, but it does brings you closer to one. It is absolutely essential for this two-page piece about you to be top-class.

Follow the 8 golden resume tips and watch those interview calls fall into your lap. All that remains now is to ace the interview.

Photo by Olivier Charavel