Mistakes one should not do while creating résumé & CVs ?
- Thread starter avi
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Can we just not go OT and stick to the original topic? I want more members to pull in and share their experiences.
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Sei : A few word from you please.
I guess people have covered the basics of how to prepare a CV. Though I'm definitely not as experienced as some of the big guns here at TE who I have been seeing over the last 7 years, I can offer a few things which people miss quite often -
1. Target the company and the position you are applying for. It seems to be easy on paper but requires a little bit of planning and work. Let's say you want to be a SQL DBA at XYZ company. Your resume, your experience (if any), your work at your previous company (or internship for that matter) should all be shouting "SQL DBA".
Your would-be-employer is only concerned if you will be able to do the job that he wants done. He doesn't care a hoot if you actually did 100% of the work what you mentioned. They are more concerned whether you have the ability to do that work for them. That being said, you have to be very clever about this. Any experienced interviewer would know when you are faking something in an instant.
Before people target me on this, I'll give a simple example. I had done lots of testing in VDI (Virtual Desktop Implementation) for my company. We were planning to replace a big batch of computers with thin clients. That project eventually fell through. But not for my CV. For my next interview, I worded it properly, without lying, but not making it sound trivial. Of course, I was asked about it and I had enough knowledge to let him know that I knew it properly. He didn't pursue after a few questions but later I came to know that I had won quite a few brownie points because of that.
2. Tailor your CV differently for each position. Over a period of time, everyone has a set of skills rather than simply one. And we have different positions where we can apply. Do not make the mistake of using the same CV everywhere. That might be the most foolish thing to do.
So, what should you do? Open the JD for the position and re-organize your CV. Place the things they want on top and the skills they do not need, but you possess, at the bottom. No one has the time to scan through the entire CV to find things that might be relevant to them.
One of my friends lost out a coveted job for an MS SQL DBA because he chose to list his Oracle SQL certifications on top of his CV.
3. Don't feel shy of leaving out things. This might be a bit confusing when you read it but sometimes (as with me), you are assigned certain tasks that you desist and they offer no growth, personally or professionally. No need to mention those. It only detracts from your main skill-set and might lead to pointless questions.
For me, I was given the unholy, time-consuming and painful task of managing local assets for my office. Yes, that included computers, printers, RAM sticks, monitors, keyboards.. the list was endless. And all this was managed by an in-house POS application. So, when I was applying for the position of a tech consultant, there was no point mentioning this.
PS: Again, be careful what you omit. The main focus here is on highlighting your strengths with respect to the job you are looking for. Even if you have some knowledge about Excel, it is better mentioning that rather than omitting it.
4. Don't treat your CV as your biography. It is not your blog, it is not an internet forum post, it is not a conversation between friends. A CV should sum up all the work experience and skills in 2 minutes. You might have been working for 2 months or 10 years, it's still the same.
Once all this is done and you post your CV (or pass it to your friend for reference in a company), be ready with what you will say. The pre-screening interview is small phone call in which they are going to ask you to describe your work and specifically the skill-set they are looking for. Always be clear and concise so that you get called for the proper interview.
raksrules
Northstar
Some people have mentioned that one should target the resume as per the job profile. But say a case like mine where I am not directly applying in any company but rather uploading on the job sites like monster and naukri. In such cases various companies might be looking at my resumes. Here it is bit difficult to tailor the resume. What should be done in such cases ?
My point 1. Target your CV according to the job you are looking for. With your vast experience, I'm sure you know which areas you are keen to work in. That should be 80% of your CV.
Some points from my side, I rifle through quite a lot of CV's when recruiting, though am not a professional recruiter:
1. Use decent sized fonts, and nothing fancy.
2. Use a proper, intuitive email ID for contact. Not like : lovetovicky@rediffmail.com
3. Do not mention hobbies, pastimes and extra curricular activities: Unless they actually tie in with the target profile. Archaic now, and outdated style.
4. Mention skill sets you can actually do: i.e. if I asked you to do a 5 minute exposition on it you should be able to, or do a simple task on a terminal if immediately provided one. That is a good way to gauge what to put and what not.
5. If your career cycle has holes in it try not to lie and hide things. Just be simple and tell at the time of speaking.
6. Remember your CV: Is your strongest point in the discussion room, after your brain. So keep it so, and be confident in what you write, so you can speak about it in the same manner.
7. Do not lie about designations/roles/direct reports; and do not "become your manager" on the CV. Many do this, and it can be caught using some cross-referenced probe questions. Not even a back ground check. (Though not all recruiters are Blade Runners).
8. Keep the pages less. Maximum 2 pages. Though as your experience increases, so should the pages [decrease].
9. Keep it clutter free. Avoid useless details like: Passport #; marital status; school %'s; the line: reference upon request; multiple phone numbers/email IDs.
10. Tweak projects and KPA's as per the profile/company.
11. Spelling, spelling, spelling.
1. Use decent sized fonts, and nothing fancy.
2. Use a proper, intuitive email ID for contact. Not like : lovetovicky@rediffmail.com
3. Do not mention hobbies, pastimes and extra curricular activities: Unless they actually tie in with the target profile. Archaic now, and outdated style.
4. Mention skill sets you can actually do: i.e. if I asked you to do a 5 minute exposition on it you should be able to, or do a simple task on a terminal if immediately provided one. That is a good way to gauge what to put and what not.
5. If your career cycle has holes in it try not to lie and hide things. Just be simple and tell at the time of speaking.
6. Remember your CV: Is your strongest point in the discussion room, after your brain. So keep it so, and be confident in what you write, so you can speak about it in the same manner.
7. Do not lie about designations/roles/direct reports; and do not "become your manager" on the CV. Many do this, and it can be caught using some cross-referenced probe questions. Not even a back ground check. (Though not all recruiters are Blade Runners).
8. Keep the pages less. Maximum 2 pages. Though as your experience increases, so should the pages [decrease].
9. Keep it clutter free. Avoid useless details like: Passport #; marital status; school %'s; the line: reference upon request; multiple phone numbers/email IDs.
10. Tweak projects and KPA's as per the profile/company.
11. Spelling, spelling, spelling.
What difference will it make. Useless.
avi
Juggernaut
Firstly, thank you all for replying. I really mean it
I came across this resume [a guy from Udacity] & he got a job as Jr. Developer at NSI Infinium Global pvt limited [company behind Infibeam & Buildbazaars], if you see his resume, it is totally against what we discussed so far here. So my question is, how much resume actually matters ?
btw, I am not anything against this guy & I don't even know him. He has blogged about it & uploaded his resume on public google docs.
btw How about this guys, n00bs like me can upload their resumes in this thread & experienced members can check, just skim over it & give feedback Or it can be uploaded to some secret file-sharing service & link can be PM'ed to people who volunteer to help. Just a thought
I came across this resume [a guy from Udacity] & he got a job as Jr. Developer at NSI Infinium Global pvt limited [company behind Infibeam & Buildbazaars], if you see his resume, it is totally against what we discussed so far here. So my question is, how much resume actually matters ?
btw, I am not anything against this guy & I don't even know him. He has blogged about it & uploaded his resume on public google docs.
btw How about this guys, n00bs like me can upload their resumes in this thread & experienced members can check, just skim over it & give feedback Or it can be uploaded to some secret file-sharing service & link can be PM'ed to people who volunteer to help. Just a thought
Yes, it does matter, but how much is up to the interviewer. It is a key part of the interview process for me and many others. You can say that I tailor the interview largely based on the resume. Every person has different skills, I usually like to see how great somebody is in the areas that they claim to be very proficient in. There are many other uses for the resume during the interview.
Depends upon the quality projects you have worked on mine is 2.5 page.
1st Page Technologies worked on.
2nd Page Projects worked on it should also take your second half of your 1st page.
3rd Page Your personal details and achievements.
And to OP never highlight that you are a proficent on a technology especially when you are just out of college even a 2 years experience guy can expose you in matter of minutes.And never mention your salary expectation.
What you must do is have a tabular format in which you have described in a clean way
I have not worked for any IT Companies in my carrer its all being Hedge Funds and Investment Banks, the one thing which differentiates I.T Companies from others is they put too much emphasis on documentation i.e how should the C.V look like Bold , Italic etc total sh*t.Some companies prefer different type of resumes the one thing they look for is they want the format to be cleaner and in tabular form.
If you can send resume via PM can pass on comments
I disagree with not to mention objective and DOB. DOB is most important in a resume.
* It will let the interviewer / short listing people know you do not have any academic break before 10th Std.
Also age plays a role If hiring party is looking for candidates/people additionally to be manage people in the project, be it Team Lead, module lead and mentoring the fresher’s.
* Religion - Up to you.
* Sibling - no (people still write this)
* Father's name - old resume has these info; but no harm in mentioning your Father's name.
* Marital Status - this very important IMO. ( Have seen people short listing base on this. If the project hardcore tech. or Critical i.e people expect you to stay back and work long or travel abroad immediately in emergency ; Girls not preferred ,Married Girls are big no no (have seen this happening , do not start argument over this) ).
None of these applies to guys.
* Objective is BS , but it's kind of formality.
* Tables - if you like it use it for Academics and nothing else.
* Use same font all over. Make sure no spelling or Grammatical mistake.
* Enough spacing , there are resume's that do not white space.
* Description of project - 3 to 5 lines. For Fresher’s can be more-mail - should be correct and current one.
* Language - write this if it's more than 2 ; or foreign languages (French , Deutsch etc)f
or Experienced - Interview starts to find it's fake or Real. Know your previous project in and out in terms of business.
* Fresher's - Marks, Marks , Marks and may be Project's. Girls seriously have an edge here.(you already know that)
Visit the company website before interview.
* Do not copy or have same as your friends resume.
* Resume it just tool to get your self into the interview.
Good candidates have bad resume & bad one's have good resume.
Make sure you don't fall into either one.
Personal Experience - Only for experienced people.
People generally Ace the Tech. part and once they are selected they would be relax ,cool and happy.
But this where it get's Tricky.
* HR discussion of CTC.
They will be Very friendly , laugh a lot and behave they know you for years and (Girl HR ) even try to flirt with you but they doing their job and not you friend. Do not fall prey.
HR have budget , they generally offer the least CTC, they pull all nonsense stuff like market status, recession etc. (some get yearly incentive for recruiting less/low paid people).
If you short listed/referred by consultancy do not negotiate package with them as it's of no use and they might expose this to you HR before interview ; might MIGHT work out against you even before interview)
If CTC is not meeting your expectation Do not compromise on this.
Do some market research before quoting the CTC and have little room to negotiate.
HR's love the word Negotiation , leave some head room for it.
Do not under quote it. (there people who does this and whine about this after joining)
- Congrats and Cheers.
blufox
Explorer
I have taken interviews for a startup.
Some hard facts :-
- I do not care about your marks/CGPA.
- I do not care from where you did your BE/BTech or MS/MTech. All are treated equally.
- If you write it down in resume, then mean it. e.g If you write that you love programming, then mean it. Do not squander the oppurtunity when I ask you to write a slightly difficult programming problem.
As an example,
I rejected a guy with 9 years of experience having a MS from US. Why? Because he wrote so much high fundu terms in resume which I did not understand, but was unable to write a simple piece of code. Did writing all that paper presentations, a high CGPA helped? No.
On the other hand a guy with average experience and clean simple resume, nothing fancy but willing to learn from mistakes was welcome. He was selected, though he did not join eventually.
Also,
No one is really worried about your religion, DOB, Hobbies. Foreign languages are most important.
alekhkhanna
Herald
Forking through all this, I'm glad I ain't in IT. 
Bookmarked this thread. I may need it 3~4 years down the road.
Amen to that! On an unrelated note, the only subject I flunked during my entire grad. was in C++ (cleared later with a supplementary exam with a measly C grade though).
I knew programming and IT wasn't my cup of tea.
Forking through all this, I'm glad I ain't in IT.
Amen to that! On an unrelated note, the only subject I flunked during my entire grad. was in C++ (cleared later with a supplementary exam with a measly C grade though).
I knew programming and IT wasn't my cup of tea.
Not everyone may look at the GPA, but for people with not too much experience (<2.5 years) applyling for jobs which have explicitly stated a GPA requirement should have it on their resume.
Also, quite a few managers that I've talked to say an objective on your resume is useless. A summary on the other hand is quite helpful and it quickly lets them decide whether they want to read the rest of your resume or not.
Also, quite a few managers that I've talked to say an objective on your resume is useless. A summary on the other hand is quite helpful and it quickly lets them decide whether they want to read the rest of your resume or not.