Useful tips for resume building

A resume is the most important document that one has when he/she is applying for an internship or a job opportunity as it contains a summary of the candidate's skills and experience that is required for the particular position for which one is applying. The resume is just like the id card that helps you enter your desired position in a company.

Here, we will discuss the -:

1. Criteria for selecting the candidate
2. Format of a resume
3. How to make a good resume
4. How to make a resume/CV online
5. Free resume builder sites 

An employer gets 100s of resumes and applications in a single day so naturally, he does not have enough time to read every detail of each and every candidate, then how does an employer select a candidate for the interview round?

Let's see how this happens.

Criteria for selecting a resume for a job position

• First of all, the employer looks at the 'work experience' column of the resume where he wants to see whether the candidate has the relevant work experience required for the internship or the job position if he/she doesn't find anything relevant, they simply throw the resume in the trash (I know this is rude but this happens). In the case of internships, education and co-curricular are checked.
• If they find the relevant work experience in the resume they keep the resume on one side so that they can contact the candidates after screening all the resumes or sometimes they call the candidates at the same time after seeing their resume.
• Employers have certain criteria or skill requirements based on which they scan the resumes. 

Let's say, a company has a job vacancy for a sales manager and the employer got 100 resumes for the job position, the skills that he/she was looking for were 

1. Training the sales team
2. Creating strategies to achieve the target
3.  Recruiting and selecting the right candidate for the sales work

Now, the employer took the resume of candidate no. 1, he/she looked at the work experience section and found that the candidate only has the experience of recruiting but not any other skill mentioned above, so the employer will throw the resume in the trash.

He/she took the resume of candidate no.2 and looked at the work experience and found that the candidate has experience in training a sales team, has been a sales manager for 2 years, and knows how to create strategies to increase sales. Now, this resume suited the requirement of skills that the employer was looking so to take the things forward he/she will call the candidate for the interview.

This is how an employer selects a resume for a job position but if you are a fresher then they look at your internship experience and co-curricular activities if they seem relevant to the job position for which you applied, then you are called for an interview.

Format of a resume

When you are applying for an internship for the first time it really becomes difficult to think about what should you add in the resume such that the employer likes it. Here are some tips that you can follow for your resume building-:

• A resume has 6-7 sections which contain all the relevant information about your skills and education.
• The first line of the resume contains your name, email id, contact number, and profile summary which is followed by the work experience section.
• If you are a fresher with no work experience, it's better to leave the work experience section empty and start from the education section where you will fill your current education level.
• After that comes the really important skill section, here you fill all the soft and technical skills that you possess but keep in mind never add a skill that you don't possess because employers have their own way to test your skills and if you fail, your application might be rejected.
• After the skill section comes to the certifications, online profiles, and achievements section where you fill the relevant details of the courses you have done or awards you have achieved.
• Keep in mind that a resume should not exceed 2 pages as employers do not prefer long resumes, all the relevant information should consist of a maximum of 2 pages. 

How to build a good resume?

As explained earlier, the employer does not have enough time to read each detail of a resume, he/she will only look at the skills that are relevant for the position that you have applied for. So, how will you build a good resume that an employer will like? Here are some tips to do so-:

1. Fill the details of your education, which degree you are pursuing, from which college, your 10th and 12th scores with the name of your school.
2. Under the skill section, fill all the soft skills that you possess like: communication, active listening, leadership, motivation, etc. and all the technical skills like coding, python, javascript, Microsoft office, etc. 
3. After that comes the certification section where you fill the name of the course that you have completed apart from what is taught in your college, courses like Digital Marketing, Microsoft excel, Google analytics, etc. you can pursue these courses from sites like Coursera, Udemy or any other online education sources.
4. Participate in competitions that you find interesting like Gaming, photography, art, modeling, storytelling, etc. and try to win them. Participating in such competitions have two benefits, first, you get a lot of exposure when you connect with new people and it also develops a competitive spirit in you. Second, these points add in your resume as the employer gets to know about your hobbies and it also shows that you have an all-rounder personality which makes you a better candidate than others.
5. Take a position of responsibility like, be a campus ambassador or captain of your team which enhances your leadership skills and also adds some more points in your resume.
6. You can even add your blog name in your resume if it is relevant for the field for which you are applying, say, if you are applying for a marketing profile and you have a blog explaining 'tips to be a good marketing manager' then you can add it otherwise it isn't needed.
7. Volunteer at an NGO as it shows that you are socially responsible and it adds points in the Corporate Social Responsibility section.
8. Learning a foreign language has always been a plus point in a resume, so try to learn at least one foreign language to increase your skillset.

In short, do anything of your interest and ace in it, employers want hardworking and skilled candidates in their company and doing different things in your college increase your skillset and makes you more employable.  

How to make a resume/CV online?

In this internet era, everything is available online, be it ordering food, applying for a job, or booking a ticket to your favorite location so why not resume building. Creating an online resume has a lot of benefits like-

• You get the format prepared and you only need to fill in the information.
• A variety of resume templates are available online from where you can choose the appropriate template for yourself.
• Time-saving as it only takes 5-10 mins to build a resume online.
• Beautiful templates make your resume more presentable.

Now, let's get on to the steps to build an online resume.

1. Go to a resume-building website (say, indeed.com).
2. On indeed, you will be asked to sign-up, so do as instructed.
3. After signing up, click on the icon that represents a person in the top row of the page.
4. A drop-down box will appear in which you need to click on the resume option.
5. A new page will appear in which you have to fill all the relevant information regarding your work experience, education, achievements, etc.
6. Your resume format is ready and then you can download it in any of the templates that you like or you can upload it on indeed if you are using it to find a job.

Tada! your resume is ready and you can use to apply to any of the jobs or internships.

Free online sites for resume building

Plenty of online websites are available for your resume-building, some of them are mentioned here-

1. Indeed
   
2. Novoresume
   
3. Zety
   
4. CV maker
   
5. Resume build
   

All these sites are good and reliable so choose the one that suits your requirement better, build a great resume, and go for your dream career.

KEEP CALM AND GO FOR IT!!

ALL THE BEST CHAMP!!