Mistakes one should not do while creating résumé & CVs ?

avi

avi

Juggernaut
I would appreciate if all TE members reply & give their valuable suggestions about creating a résumé/CV.

You can also interpret the question as :
  • What are mistakes you saw while you were hiring someone
  • As an employer, what things you expect to see? how much do you actually care about résumé/CV?
  • What contents a résumé/CV should contain
  • What one must NOT include in their résumé/CV

I know the basic contents what one must include/not. Apart those typical fields, what one should/not include.

Please also address :
  • What about programming languages ? In engineering we are taught basics of C/C++/Java/.NET/HTML/CSS & many more. One should mention all that ? How much knowledge one must posses to include ? for eg : OOP paradigms of Java/C++ etc.
  • What about apps/projects one has created ? Just simply mentioning the link to GitHub would do or 1-2 line brief description of major ones in résumé & good description in CV?
  • What about knowledge about technologies like Wordpress, vBulletin ? [not development, but installation,administration etc]

Thank you !!
 
just a word of caution, different companies, recruiters etc have different POV' . What works for one need not necessarily work for the other. Just because one recruiter or agency or co says something doesnt mean your resume should be a particular way. YMMV!
 
Be honest. A good interviewer can catch you fast, just by asking a few questions. People taking interviews can usually find out how good you are in any field from your answers.
 
If you're a fresher about to attend your first IT interview, then let the interviewer know that everything you've known about programming was taught to you in college and you can answer text-book programming questions. On the other hand, if you're experienced then your resume should reflect your exposure down to the letter. The problem with aspiring programmers, freshers and experienced, is that they have absolutely no clue what they want, what they've worked with and what they're getting into. For example, you'll find a lot of aspiring coders with 3~4 years of ONLY "scripting" experience apply for the position of a .NET professional that requires knowledge of C#(recommended) or C++(additional) simply because they meet the experience(years) requirements. Hell, i've seen coders apply for the same position with Java specified as their main exposure. When questioned if they can pickup C#, they just stare clueless without realizing that Java and C# have the same ecma specifications(1:1).
 
Dont's:
Mention the key areas where you can face the interview.
Do not mention any fake activities/projects you have not done.

Do's:
Highlight areas where you implemented something new to the organization and it helped the organization.
Highlight the tools that you made to reduce the work.

Content important for HR:
For any one to get shortlisted for the interview, you need to have Big brands,Good skills, Look of the resume too

For the Interviewer:
Technically, I will only look at the first page to catch the few highlighted terms, so that I can concentrate on those areas.First thing we do it to analyze if the candidate is FAKE. If he is genuine, then we will ask the actual questions.
Also the skills mentioned in the CV should be accurate. If you know ABC's of some technology and if you mention that chances are there that you will be digged in to deep in that.
Also accurately rate yourself on a technology. If you rate low and perform high its OK, but the other way around is not good.
 
Simplest way is to stay true to yourself. Dont mention something you havent done before or even if you got just a % knowledge about it. Mention it only if you have practically worked/used on it.

CV should be short and brief and not like any essay writing. Interviewer only has some seconds to go through to your cv. And he will be only eying the highlighted and major points. So be sure you use bullets and bold fonts wherever possible. Dont use any fancy fonts and combination of italic, underline and bold. Its not any poem or script writing.

For freshers, the cv should not be more than a single page. But for experience people it may range from a page to four or five.

Finally, it all depends for what post you are applying.
Eg: For call center jobs you need not explain the details for any script language you know but only need the languages you read and write viz. eng/hindi/marathi etc.
 
  • Grammar and punctuation is important.
  • Don't underline, bold and italicise random words in your resume. Always looks odd.
  • Don't make vague and general statements. (Actual line I saw in a resume - "Novel method to apply toothpaste to toothbrush".)
  • Be clear about what you are acquainted with and what you are proficient in. e.g., Proficient - C#, SQL, FORTRAN; Familiar - VB, HTML/CSS, JavaScript
  • Don't use big words to make the work you have done sound more important that it really was. In most cases, it is rather easy to see through. "Hooking up LAN cables and the router != Built networking infrasturcture from the ground up."
  • Don't list that 5th class debate competition when you are 26 years old and interviewing for a coding position.
  • It might also make sense to not list that financial exam you had taken hoping to have found a job in Goldman Sachs or Deutsche Bank. Tailor your resume to the job you are applying to.
  • JEE rank or AIEEE rank - Don't list it. And no, stating it as "In the Top 0.7% of JEE takers" doesn't sound as impressive as you think. (This is a personal pet peeve of mine :P)

Most importantly, keep in mind that the interview and hiring process is not a game you have to "win". You are representing your abilities and trying to find a good match for your capabilities. Being honest during the interview is easier than being let go within the probation period. (We have had to let quite a few people go due to misrepresentation of true capabilities).
 
1) 1 page, no more. A good guideline would be limit yourself to under 50 lines. A Resume will be looked at for 1 min. or less, so make it easy to read. No large words and sentences.
2) If you have worked before, you want to display impact, or anything that you did over and above your standard duties.
3) Use numbers for impact, be it in terms of money or in terms of number of users of an app, page views of a site, etc.
4) This depends on the company, but some seek out rounded individuals. So it might help to have a line or 2 about other interests and hobbies.
5) No objective, no DOB, no religion and all. It is just a waste of space. Your name, top center, below which you can put your address in 1 line, and phone no./email id in the next.

Please mention whether you are in college or have experience. It would help in giving your better advice.
 
whatsinaname said:
  • Grammar and punctuation is important.
  • Don't underline, bold and italicise random words in your resume. Always looks odd.
  • Don't make vague and general statements. (Actual line I saw in a resume - "Novel method to apply toothpaste to toothbrush".)
  • Be clear about what you are acquainted with and what you are proficient in. e.g., Proficient - C#, SQL, FORTRAN; Familiar - VB, HTML/CSS, JavaScript
  • Don't use big words to make the work you have done sound more important that it really was. In most cases, it is rather easy to see through. "Hooking up LAN cables and the router != Built networking infrasturcture from the ground up."
  • Don't list that 5th class debate competition when you are 26 years old and interviewing for a coding position.
  • It might also make sense to not list that financial exam you had taken hoping to have found a job in Goldman Sachs or Deutsche Bank. Tailor your resume to the job you are applying to.
  • JEE rank or AIEEE rank - Don't list it. And no, stating it as "In the Top 0.7% of JEE takers" doesn't sound as impressive as you think. (This is a personal pet peeve of mine :P)

Most importantly, keep in mind that the interview and hiring process is not a game you have to "win". You are representing your abilities and trying to find a good match for your capabilities. Being honest during the interview is easier than being let go within the probation period. (We have had to let quite a few people go due to misrepresentation of true capabilities).
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Pretty much sums up most of what I would like to to say

- Don't underestimate the importance of correct spelling and grammar. Of course, there can be mistakes here and there, but make sure that the resume is in a decent enough state that mistakes are not glaringly visible. Too many mistakes not only gives an image that your writing skills are poor, but more importantly reflects on your attitude. Word Processors have built in Spelling and grammar checks. If people are sending in resumes without even running a spell check, it is either an indication of laziness or incompetence.

- Don't be dishonest about your skills or anything else on your resume. You don't need to put down every programming language or software package that you ever heard about as part of your skill set. Highlight only the skills that you are comfortable with. you can mention the other skills that you are acquainted with, but make it clear that you are not proficient.You can always tell the interviewer that you are open to other skills sets.

- Don't write essays about every project that you have ever done in your life. Highlight the good ones. If they are team projects, clearly specify your role and also don't make it sound as if you are hogging all the credit for the project. that reflects poorly on your team spirit.

- Don't blindly mention arbitrary technical courses/certifications that you have gone through. They don't matter (at least to me). Mentions only the good ones and don't try to go extra mile to highlight them.

- Don't try fancy bullshit if you cannot live up to the expectation that goes with it. Ex: A guy whom I interviewed (he was being interviewed for role of Project Lead and had an experience of over 10 years) sent in a resume in the form of a single slide Power Point presentation. As it turned out, the guy did not live up to even a quarter of the stuff on that slide and more ever my interview partner grilled him more about his resume and the problems with it than on his technical skills.The slide had a lot text boxes each filled with content and it was very hard to read. It gave a poor reflection of his ability to convey information which is expected from a person being interviewed for such a role.
 
With a 7.5 year+ experience and in IT, how many page resumes should i make ? The last time i made a resume was like 8 years back when i had just passed put of college, so no idea about making resumes now.
 
What about programming languages ? In engineering we are taught basics of C/C++/Java/.NET/HTML/CSS & many more. One should mention all that ? How much knowledge one must posses to include ? for eg : OOP paradigms of Java/C++ etc.
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Highlight the ones that you are proficient with. Don't mention each and everyone just to make a long list.
A common question that many interviewers and I myself ask during interview is how the candidate rates himself on each skill on a rate of 1 to 10. say for instance in C++ programming in terms of features/syntax, In general I have found that people who rate themselves <= 5 are average or less than average, people who rate themselves 6 or 7 are good or very good and people who rate themselves above 8 are poor. There is no bound to knowledge and same applies for technical skills. A guy who rates himself 8 and above is simply being arrogant and ignorant to the vastness of the subject. No body expects you to be a master of the subject. There is always more to learn. In case of freshers, the only thing required from them by most interviewers is the ability to recognize their own standing and willingness to learn and adapt as required.
What about apps/projects one has created ? Just simply mentioning the link to GitHub would do or 1-2 line brief description of major ones in résumé & good description in CV?
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summary in a couple of lines is good. No body is going to hit the GitHub links to learn about your projects. Make sure that you put in only the worthwhile ones.
What about knowledge about technologies like Wordpress, vBulletin ? [not development, but installation,administration etc]
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Make a mention based on the kind of job the interview is for. May not always be relevant. You can just mention them as additional skills.

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raksrules said:
With a 7.5 year+ experience and in IT, how many page resumes should i make ? The last time i made a resume was like 8 years back when i had just passed put of college, so no idea about making resumes now.
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Regardless of the experience level, 2 pages is ideal. 3 should be max.(I have also come across 1 page resumes, but general tendency is that there is too little information in a one page resume and often get ignored). CV's can be longer than 3 pages, but 2~3 pages is the sweet spot regardless whether its a resume or CV. I have come across CV's of some girls coming to us which are 7~10 pages long and they seemed to have copy pasted half their project documentation in the CV. :annoyed:
 
Thank you for everyone for the replies. Even I needed to know about Do's and Dont's very bady as I will be facing interviews 2-3 months from now. :hopelessness::hopelessness:
 
okay, let me put my experience from an interviewer's perspective:
-> 2 pages is ideal, 3 pages if you have some thing extraordinary to share, more than that bores the interviewer.
-> Keep the resume neat and simple. no coloring etc... use standard font like ariel/times, no fancy bullets, lines, tables and stuff. Use bold/italic/underline for emphasizing but dont paint in colors.
-> You can keep your badges like mcse etc... on the first page header. looks nice and gives an impression to the interviwer.
C, C++, Perl/Bash Scripting Linux, Socket Programming, TCP/IP Protocol, Multithreading( Posix Threads), IPC/Wget
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-> dont open a can of worms. The above line is from an actual resume.and things like multithreading, networking protocols and IPC are like an abyess. if you kept them in the resume just because you will get search hits on your resume. you will have a bad day at an interview. So be careful about what you put in your resume. some time we fell good if a guy says he doesnt know something instead of shooting in the dark.
-> when writing about your projects, dont lie. if you do, you will be taken to a corner and beaten to death.
-> you can leave the personal details, no one is interested.
-> dont showoff your acedemic scores unless you are confident. I remember one guy posted his percentage score in btech and got pwned in os concepts. (galvin, the dinosaur book)
The bottom line is KISS+ dont cheat. if you cheat, you will get pwned.
 
OinkBoink said:
Sorry. Had to correct you when there was a grammatical error in the same sentence talking about having no grammatical errors.
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Couple of things.

1) If you look at the sentence, 'Grammar and Punctuation' can be treated as a unit and 'is' is not incorrect.
2) I would hope resumes are held to a slightly higher standard than a forum post. :P
 
whatsinaname said:
If you look at the sentence, 'Grammar and Punctuation' can be treated as a unit and 'is' is not incorrect.
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Okay. I'm not entirely certain, but I doubt you can just treat them as a unit. For instance, I don't think you can say 'masturbation and fornication is incorrect' (don't look at the moral validity of the statement, just the grammatical validity).

If I'm wrong, I'd like to be corrected and shown some online resources proving your point.
 
OinkBoink said:
Okay. I'm not entirely certain, but I doubt you can just treat them as a unit. For instance, I don't think you can say 'masturbation and fornication is incorrect' (don't look at the moral validity of the statement, just the grammatical validity).

If I'm wrong, I'd like to be corrected and shown some online resources proving your point.
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I wouldn't say "are" is incorrect, just that "is" is not incorrect. Another similar phrase would be Singing and Dancing. 'Singing and Dancing is not allowed' should be as legitimate as 'Singing and Dancing are not allowed'.

In your example, the two acts cannot be performed at the same time so I wouldn't consider them a unit.

Here is an example online where 'is' is used with the phrase 'Grammar and Punctuation'. (Though they ended up using an oxford comma as well, which is a different discussion altogether.)

Access forbidden!
 
whatsinaname said:
I wouldn't say "are" is incorrect, just that "is" is not incorrect. Another similar phrase would be Singing and Dancing. 'Singing and Dancing is not allowed' should be as legitimate as 'Singing and Dancing are not allowed'.

In your example, the two acts cannot be performed at the same time so I wouldn't consider them a unit.

Here is an example online where 'is' is used with the phrase 'Grammar and Punctuation'. (Though they ended up using an oxford comma as well, which is a different discussion altogether.)

Access forbidden!
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Hmm...there seems to be some debate here because some people strictly advocate the use of 'are' in such sentences. If you think in terms of logic, it does make sense though. As in, 'singing and dancing is not allowed' would be equivalent to 'singing is not allowed and dancing is not allowed' . Sorry folks. Don't intend to derail this interesting and useful thread.
 
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