Résumé Writing

Résumé Writing

Employment communication:

Employment communication involves a complex process that includes writing employment letters, applications, and resumes. In fact, the success of employment search depends a lot on the candidate’s ability to design a persuasive resume and an effective cover letter. The process of short listing candidates for an interview might result in the rejection of a large number of applicants. Therefore learning the art of writing applications that highlight one’s strengths and designing resumes that package one’s skills and assets into a convincing advertisement is essential.

Writing resumes:

A resume is a selective record for an individual’s background. Writing an effective resume that represents one’s current skills, abilities and background is a challenge faced by all candidates. The following section presents several techniques and suggestions for creating persuasive resumes.

Resume design:

a)      There is no one right design, for a resume. The design of a resume largely depends on a person’s background, employment needs, career goals and professional conventions in the area of specialization.

Parts of a resume:

The standard parts of a resume include the heading, position sought, career objective, education, work experience, specific skills, achievements, activities, interests and references.

• Heading: The heading of a resume includes contact information, which contains the applicant’s name, full postal address with pin code, telephone number with area code, fax number, and e-mail address.
• Position Sought: If applying for a solicited job position, this part should be mentioned in resume, not necessary to include for an unsolicited position.
• Career Objective: Career objective should be a specific one-sentence, focused statement expressing career goals in relation to the targeted position. It should convey the candidate’s motivation and interest in the job he / she is seeking.

Ex: To work as a product architect in an innovative software company where I will be able to use my experience in the areas of product and system architecture with expertise in enterprise applications.

• Professional Summary: Some resumes may include professional summary in place of career objectives. It is a one-sentence statement listing the applicant’s most important qualifications, his / her essential skills, and his / her key work experience.

Ex: Five years of experience in sales of spare parts for Central Air Conditioning Equipment with extensive knowledge of spare parts of carrier for Bahwan Engineering Group, Muscat.

• Education: The name and location of the School / College / University / Institute attended, dates of attendance, major areas of study, degrees / certificates received should be mentioned. The applicant’s grade point average / class / division if it is on the higher side may also be mentioned. Relevant training programmes, special courses, seminars and workshops that the applicants might have completed, attended or conducted should also be included. Reverse chronological order is used to list educational information i.e. starting from the most recent educational information.
• Work experience: This part of the resume should provide a brief and specific overview of the applicants work and professional experience. Work experience should be given in the reverse chronological order, by listing the most recent employment first. Title of the position, employers name or name of the organization / company, location of work, dates of employment, and important job responsibilities, activities and accomplishments should be included.
• Special skills, abilities and aptitudes: In this part of the resume, the applicants learned skills and intuitive skills are listed that are relevant to the targeted job.
• Activities and interests: Extra-curricular, co-curricular, professional activities, and hobbies and interests must be mentioned. These activities must show that the applicant is a dynamic and energetic person who can accept challenge.
• Achievements / accomplishments / honors: This part should include scholarships, fellowships, awards, distinctions, commendations, certificates or anything that shows achievement or recognition.
• References: When applying for a solicited position where the employer want references, the names of three persons who can give letters of recommendations or references should be mentioned. The name of the reference, his or her designation, and full contact address with telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address should be given.

RESUME PREPARATION

Ø  The success of employment search largely depends on a candidate’s ability to design a persuasive resume and an effective job application.

Ø  Effective communication skills – most important factor

Ø  Learning the art of writing applications that highlight one’s strengths and designing resumes that package ones skills and assets into a convincing advertisement is essential

Writing resumes

Ø  A resume is a selective record of an individual background

Ø  It presents

o   A summary of an individuals education

o   Professional training

o   Experience

o   Skills

o   Abilities

o   Achievements and

o   References

Resume design

Ø  The design of a resume largely depends on a persons background, employment needs, career goals and professional conventions in the area of specialization

Ø  Resume may have to be rewritten for every new job application

The resume must answer the following:

1)              How can the employer contact the candidate?

2)              What are his / her career objectives?

3)              Which institution has been attended?

4)              What courses (academic or professional) has been completed?

5)              What is his / her work experience?

6)              What are his / her career achievements?

7)              What are his / her special skills or abilities?

8)              What are his / her awards or honors that he / she has received?

9)              What are his / her activities / special interests / hobbies?

10)           Who are his / her references?

Parts of a resume

1.               Heading

2.               Position sought

3.               Career objective

4.               Education

5.               Work experience

6.               Specific skills (key skills)

7.               Achievements

8.               Activities

9.               Interests

10.           References

Heading

Ø    Contact information

Ø    The applicants name

Ø    Full postal address with pin code

Ø    Telephone number with area code

Ø    Fax number

Ø    Email address

Position sought

Only for solicited job position, not for unsolicited position

Career objective

Ø   A special part in a resume

Ø   It occurs just above the main experience and education parts

Ø   It should be a specific one sentence focused statement expressing his career goals in relation to the targeted positions

Ø   It should convey his / her motivation in the job he / she is seeking

The following are some examples:

Ø   To obtain a challenging position in a large software consulting organization providing business consulting, application development, and product engineering services, where understanding and experience of business process modeling and organizational change management to suit customer needs can be used to achieve set targets.

All purpose resumes career objective statement:

1. Seeking a suitable position in design / project management
2. Challenging position in maintenance of computer printers and peripherals
3. Position in academic administration

Professional summary

·             Some resumes may include a professional summary in place of career objective

·             Highlight the relevance of his / her qualifications

·             Special skills

·             Key work experience to the position

Ex: Five years of experience in sales of spare parts for central air conditioning equipment with extensive knowledge of spare parts of carrier for Bhawan Engineering Group, Muscat.

Education

Applicant’s education and professional training (*reverse chronological order for experience)

·         The name and location of the school / college / university / institute attended

·         Major areas of study

·         Degrees / certificate received should be mentioned

·         Relevant training programmes

·         Special courses

·         Seminars and workshops attended and conducted

Work experience

·         A brief view of applicants work and professional experience

·         Reverse chronological order

      Title of the position

      Name of the organization / company

      Location of work

      Dates of employment

      Important job responsibilities

      Activities and accomplishments

Special skills, abilities and aptitudes

·         Computer programming

·         Computer processing

·         Data processing

·         Foreign languages

·         Necessary to be selective and specific, highlighting only these skills and talents that are relevant to the targeted job

Activities and interests

·         Extra-curricular, co-curricular, professional activities and hobbies and interests must be mentioned

·         These activities must show that the applicant is a dynamic and energetic person who can accept challenges

Achievements / accomplishments / honors

·         Scholarships

·         Fellowships

·         Awards

·         Distinctions

·         Commendations

·         Certificates, etc.

References

·         For solicited position

·         3 persons names (who can give letters of recommendations)

·         These persons may include previous employer, teacher, immediate supervisor, research guide, colleague, subordinate, etc.

·         Must mention name of the person

·         His / her designation

·         Full contact address with telephone number

·         Fax number