Employers spend less than 30 seconds on each resume.
Getting your first resume right can be a head scratching exercise. So many conflicting opinions fly about and you are not sure what to do. Here’s a list of things that can definitely get you rejected during the selection process.
1. DJSCOE: Abbreviations in your resume that no one else understands. You may be from a reputed college and must have been a part of a prestigious event. But the abbreviations you think are popular might not be known to everyone. Even if you use an abbreviation, make sure that you explain it in parenthesis soon after – DJSCOE (D. J. Sanghvi College of Engineering) Make sure you get the capital letters right.
2. Won first prize in debsoc, 2011: Incomplete sentences convey incomplete information. You may want to capture all the details in a proper sentence. For instance: First prize in the inter-college debate competition held in Jesus and Mary College in January 2011.
3.
Formatting:
that is not done in the right manner. Remember to have a standard uniform font for all the different sections across your resume. The indents, bold, capitals should be uniform and at the appropriate places. Read more about the right fonts here
4. Long story: Nothing kills a resume better than making it a long story of your life. Remember the 30 second rule! Chop off unimportant points to make it occupy less space. Your resume should be about a page or one-and-a-half page with all the important aspects. If it stretches longer, try and check for areas that can be more concise.
5. Boast: All of us need to bolster our positives through what we have done in our lives. But adding hobbies and qualities to your resume just because they sound cool or important is a sure shot way to get eliminated. Your resume might get short-listed but the interviewer can see through your hoax during the interview. And you will lose your chance.
6. Gammer and speling mistakes: Nothing is worse than a resume that hasn’t been proofread properly. If that job is important to you, you need to put in the extra effort of going through your resume as many times as it takes to make it grammatically perfect with no spelling errors. Don’t just bank on spell check of word doc. Have a couple of friends/seniors read it and check for errors – in thought and language.
Suggested activity: Edit your existing resume to ensure that these tips are incorporated in it.
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