Why your Technical Resume Sucks?
Target Audience: For the people who don’t hear from the company back, gets Rejected most of the time or about to give up for Job Search.
So what you must have done till now?
Still after getting rejected, Applying for More Jobs with increase in Application Submission, Improvising your Resume, Asking for feedback on your Resume from your Friends, Senior or some highly qualified person.
This what you must actually do!
I like to explain things using analogy. Think about it.
There are different Mobile Companies in the market.
Competition is quiet high, but how top companies are able to get so much sales.
Comes Advertisement and Marketing.
What is the Goal of these advertisement?
To get customer attention, increase their sales, showing those features and latest technology which are not there in other phones.
Finally, Creating a brand.
Think about it, your Resume is just an ad about you and different people are submitting their ad so that recruiter can select the best brand.
Hence, Recruiters look for different factors
Just as Visual ads is appealing to your eyes, a simple black and white with no visual is appealing to a Recruiter.
Are you following me? The recruiter is your customer.
A company always research about the target audience before launching its ads.
This is why an iPhone ad in one region might be different from another Region.
The focus here is the targeted audience.
People complain about the fact, their resume was rejected by so and so company. But Have you done your homework, did you researched about that company, maybe asking the company employees what are the essential thing that are required and the HR looked for in his/her Resume.
Yes, we were talking about visual.
The first thing is select any Resume format, which satisfy the following condition.
The name must appear at the top of the Resume. Also, while writing the name, make sure you the first letter of your First Name and first letter of your Last Name must be capitalized. (Make sure it is in bold format and font size is greater then 12px so that recruiter can read it). I would suggest it to be between 16 px to 20 px.
Font style matter too: For this Reason, I would suggest you to play safe and select Times New Roman, Aerial or Calibri.
Font Size: For the rest part of the Resume (12 px) (Except Name)
Coming to the question.
How long should a Resume be?
I think after extensive Research, I can answer this question better.
It can be anywhere between 1 to 2 page.
If you have went through How to write a Resume by Google, They have suggest to keep it to one page.
But if you read the blog of Intel, they have suggested not to be afraid going to the second page.
So again, it depends from company to company.
For student, I would suggest they can keep from 1 to 2 page.
But for person with less than 10 years experience, 1 Page.
Greater then 10 years, 2 page.
Now what after Name.
Well, make sure you include your phone number, Email ID and Github ID.
(Personal Portfolio and LinkedIn is again optional).
Shall I include your personal portfolio?
Okay, you might have read a recruiter takes 6 second to scan through Resume.
My suggestion is if you are applying for the role of Web Development role, it is good idea to include your personal portfolio.
If you have a very creative website which you are genuinely proud and tech community have appreciated it. Sure, Include it.
What about LinkedIn?
Again its a personal opinion, its up to the person. If you are active on LinkedIn and have a great reach. Do include it. Otherwise, if you have just created a LinkedIn which you hardly use, I would suggest let it be.
Now coming to the email ?
It’s a better idea to provide them with your personal email address rather than work email ID.
If you don’t check your personal email id regularly and prefer the work email id sure go ahead with that.
Should I Include my Home Address?
Now days company do ask for Address while submitting application. I would suggest it’s not required.
How should I write my phone Number?
(Country Code) (4 Digit)-(3 digit)- (3digit)
Example:- +91 1234–123–123
Notice, how it increase the readability, that should be the goal of your Resume
Phew, What after this?
Education or Experience.
If you have recently graduated, then Start with Education Section.
If you have great experience in more than 2+ companies for quiet a few years.
Start with Experience Section.
Let’s start with Education
Start with College Name from which you got the respective degree, also make sure to read the job description. Many of the time, Recruiters are looking for people with certain degree. So you will get rejected for example if you have BCA from so and so University and the job Required a candidate with B.tech Degree. You will get Rejected.
Should I include CGPA?
Yes and No
There are four cases to this problem.
Do you have a great CGPA that makes you candidate with A+, A distinction, Include it.
Does Job Requirement specifically require Candidate with certain CGPA, Include it.
Do you have a low CGPA, and there is no mention of CGPA in Job Requirement, Do not include it.
Do you come from Reputed Institute, Include it.
Recruiter know how tough getting a certain CGPA in reputed institute can be.
Also, few things to remember include your Graduation Start Year and End Year.
If you have not yet graduated, write expected Graduation Year.
Recruiter must know you are still pursuing your degree and by when you will complete it.
Also, Include the City and the State of your Institution.
You might be confused should I include High School, Secondary School education detail or just skip it.
Okay, Here’s the thing,
Read the job Description, if it says require 70+ percent in Higher secondary school or you can say 12th percentage.
Then Include it.
But if Secondary School is really reputed, Include it.
Experience:
This a broad-topic.
But you can follow this format. Include Experience in reverse chronological order, with most recent experience include at the top.
Designation
(On the Next Line) Company_Name
(2–5 Bullet point about your Job Description)
I would suggest, Do not include just random task you have completed.
Show Results. You have to tell them, I was able to achieve this using so and so technology. Use keywords Technical or functional words are used to search or filter resume from database.
Recruiter does not have time to read thousands of application, but the right keyword will get your resume directly to the recruiter.
Hint: The keywords are usually right there in the position Description.
That means, yes you have to make tailor resume for every job. Only then you can have great acceptance rate.
Use the skills section to show results and not just display laundry list of task you have completed.
Did you train others, Were you on team Lead, Got promoted.
Further you can also include, improved the SEO which led to 67 percent increase in traffic.
Talk Numbers.
Here’s a list of technical keyword you can include in your Resume.
Keyword list based on different skills:
Recruiters are also looking for a Team-oriented person who also possess leadership skills and have achievements.
Include details of major accomplishment and core-responsibilities, show your impact on the organization.
Notice in Job Description they always state, we are looking for a candidate who have leadership skills/Management Skills and such. This is what they mean.
Every word in the job description is important.
Your experience and Projects must be according to it. If it’s not consider for other. If you have a background in Web Development and applying for the role of App Development. Do you think, Recruiter would consider you? Nope.
Only apply to those jobs which match yours skillset.
Projects
- Only include those projects, you are familiar with, Know the projects by heart.
- Make sure to include the tech stack in the Project
- You can add link to the project, if its live and you are okay to share with recruiter.
- What was the outcome of the project? How many people are using? Traffic on the site? What problem your project is solving?
- Also, you have to showcase your project such that it is different from those available on the internet. Because, Let’s be honest, Anyone can fork and claim they built the project. Hence, Talk about those features that makes it different.
- At last, make sure you can talk about your project for at least 30 minutes.
Technology and Skills
Few things here, Remember to check for spelling mistake.
Few Common mistakes:
Do not write Javascript, instead its JavaScript.
Wrong (Php), Right (PHP)
Right (SQL, PowerBi, Objective-C, AJAX, ASP.NET, TensorFlow)
These are some common spelling mistakes I have seen in the resume. Make sure you right the spelling correctly.
It’s up to you. You can include Programming Language, Tools, Skills, Libraries, Framework on separate line.
Regarding Programming language, make sure you include the programming language you are most comfortable with on the top. So that recruiter know which language you are proficient with during further interview round.
Make sure, you do not rate yourself. Rating
Few Tips:
Save your Resume in PDF Format.
Do not need to use Italics in your Resume.
Be sure of punctuation.
Check for Grammar.
