Tips for professional resume

Making a resume or CV can be a daunting task for anyone. If you are a professional, working on them after a long day of work can be mentally exhausting, especially if you are highly skilled and qualified. Summing up your years of work in a few pages can be tricky too. Well, it's obvious that you want to customise your CV for the job you are applying to. But it's easier said than done. If one is making a CV, which tends to be longer with detailed information about education, experience and other qualifications, one should give effort. So, here is a complete guide with tips and examples for professionals and entry level applicants with no experience as well as mid to senior level professionals.

Top details: This is the first paragraph of all CVs and resumes. It should only include your full name, address, email address and phone number. It is also worth noting that including a LinkedIn profile can be advantageous, particularly in today's digital age where recruiters often use online platforms to vet candidates.

Photo, or no photo: The debate over including a photo in your resume continues. While some argue that a photo adds a personal touch, others advocate for excluding it to prevent bias in the hiring process. Unless the job explicitly requires a photo, it is generally advisable to omit it and focus on showcasing your qualifications and experience.

Professional bio or objective: This section provides a snapshot of your professional identity and aspirations. Tailor it to the specific job or industry you're targeting. If you're a fresh graduate, highlight your career goals and why you're passionate about entering the field. For experienced professionals, summarise your key achievements and career trajectory. If someone is shifting their job or industry, this is the part where they mention it properly so that it catches the recruiter's eye.

For example, a fresher can write: "Motivated recent graduate with a degree in Computer Science seeking an entry-level software engineering position; passionate about coding and eager to contribute to cutting-edge projects while honing my skills in a collaborative team environment".

An experienced professional can write: " Results-driven marketing professional with 5+ years of experience in developing and executing multi-channel marketing campaigns, skilled in strategic planning, digital marketing, and brand management, seeking to leverage my expertise to drive growth and innovation at ABC Company”.

Education and certifications: This section should be above the work experience section if the applicant is a fresh graduate as they need to focus on their academics and what their relevant courses are about. Ideally, freshers should mention their last three to four degrees. Most importantly, they should include bachelor's and master's degrees if they have both. You can highlight GPA if it creates an edge or is a requirement for applying, or else you can avoid it. Freshers can highlight project work during the study or some major courses that are relevant to the job they are applying to.

Make the resume ATS-friendly: Before diving into detailing professional experience, it is crucial to ensure that your resume is ATS-friendly. ATS, or Applicant Tracking System, is a software utilised by recruiters to organise, scan, and rank candidates, especially in scenarios with a large applicant pool or global recruitment. This streamlines the recruiting process, enhancing efficiency for the hiring team. Therefore, it's advised to craft resumes with ATS compatibility in mind. Online resume checkers with ATS scanning options are available to verify if your resume meets ATS criteria. ATS operates by extracting keywords from resumes to align with the job description. To optimise your resume for ATS profiling and increase the likelihood of being shortlisted, incorporate relevant keywords from the job description into your resume. Let us consider a scenario where someone is applying for a business analyst position, and the job description highlights skills such as ‘data analysis’, ‘financial modelling’, and ‘market research, 'Conducted analysis of various business processes to identify areas for improvement', 'Utilised advanced data analysis techniques to identify actionable insights’, conducted financial modelling to assess ROI’, and ‘performed comprehensive market research to inform strategic decision-making.'

Work experience: For fresh graduates without full-time or any work experience, this segment can be replaced by extra-curricular activities and what role they played, what learnings and challenges they overcame etc. For professionals, it should have timelines of the positions they held, key responsibilities, major accomplishments, location of their job and if necessary some description of their companies. It should be in bullet points. Structure such as-- case study of a problem and how they solved and how much impact it had can be a good one to showcase experience.

Examples, for fresh graduates: "Volunteer Coordinator for Community Outreach Program: Organised outreach events, fostering community engagement and social responsibility." "Internship at XYZ Marketing Agency: Assisted with social media marketing campaigns, gaining practical experience in digital marketing strategies."

Example for professionals:

"Project Manager | XYZ Consulting Firm, CA, USA | May 20XX - December 20XX

• Oversaw the successful execution of multiple projects, ensuring adherence to timelines and budget constraints.

• Led a cross-functional team of 10 members, fostering collaboration and maximising project efficiency.

• Implemented project management tools resulting in a 20 per cent increase in team productivity."

Skills: In this segment, candidates should write properly about their skills rather than just mentioning its names such as- Microsoft Office, Communication etc. It is better to write - Proficient/Basic Understanding in using Microsoft Office software specially- Powerpoint, Good/Exceptional in written and verbal communication in both English and Bangla, keen attention to detail, ensuring accuracy and precision in all tasks etc.

Hobbies or interests: If one has genuine interests or hobbies that they can talk about with the interviewers or potential colleagues, only then it should be added or else should be avoided.

Formatting: It is good to avoid boxes to explain education degree or work experience unless the job requires one to format that way. Then make everything aligned to left and top details can be aligned to the left or middle depending on the formatting. Resumes should be in one or two columns, not more than that. It should have a flow from top to bottom rather than many boxes or columns all over the page. Recruiters want to see the information as clearly and in a concise way as possible. Formatting is not a way to show creativity in resumes. It's best to use one line spacing and 10/11 font with professional and common fonts such as- Cambria, Arial, Calibri, Georgia, Garamond, Tahoma, Work Sans etc.

Colour and theme: It is advised to use one colour theme for the resume. If there is a need to highlight different headings or lines then one can use mature and darker colour palettes such as - dark blue, green or grey. But ideally not more than two colours should be used. Unnecessary icons, rating one's skills by oneself with bar lines, creative formatting should be avoided.

Cover letter: Cover letter is not a part of the resume but when a resume is emailed, it should have a cover letter attached to it as well. Cover letter is not the same as an email body. In the email body one can write that they are applying to the mentioned position and some brief details. However, in the separate cover letter one can easily add more details about why they would be a great fit for the vacancy.

References: References should be added only if asked by the recruiter and the referee personally knows the candidate, or has worked in a professional setting or as specified by the job posting requirements.