Mr. Ravi Mirchandani from Career Placements India is a Certified Professional Resume Writer from the USA. The only Placement agency in Pune with offices pan India and overseas in UAE and USA which has Resume Writing Services and providing employment to the desired candidates. We specialize in Middle and Senior level for Resume Writing Services and has been our forte for the past 2 decades.

Why you need a resume

In today’s job market, the resume has become the number one requirement potential employer’s request. Before an employer will take valuable time to interview you, he or she wants to meet you on paper. How you impress that employer with your resume can, and will, make all the difference.

Without a resume, you can’t even begin to compete, and an inferior resume will quickly eliminate you before you even have a fighting chance. That is why it is imperative to have a superior resume, one that effectively lets employers know what you can do for them.

A Resume is a summary of your qualifications

The term résumé comes from the French and means a “summary.” That’s exactly what your resume is: a summary of your qualifications, skills, and achievements. It shows a future employer what you have done in the past. It details your skills and training, work experience, education, and, most importantly, the accomplishments you have made with past employers.

It should also inform the employer of your career objective (the job you are seeking) and communicate in a concise manner the benefits you will bring to the job if hired.

A resume is an advertisement. It advertises you, your unique skills and qualifications, and it stresses the benefits you have to offer.

Technology brings new changes to resumes

Today’s workplace has become more competitive than ever before. Changing jobs has become a way of life. Many companies are downsizing to save money and as a result, more people, even those with solid backgrounds and skills, are out looking for work. Many people become quickly dissatisfied with their jobs and are looking to move into new jobs, too. On top of this, the increasing number of Internet job boards has made it possible for thousands of applicants to answer each job ad. Now more than ever, you need a top-notch resume to put you above the competition. Your resume must stand out or you will be lost in the shuffle.

Skills v/s Employer benefits

One way to rise above the competition is to make sure that your resume is loaded with employer benefits, not just skills. According to resume expert Peter Newfield, today’s resumes must be “results driven” rather than the skills driven resumes of the past. By reading your resume the employer must quickly understand what advantages you offer his company. Think of yourself as a product and the employer as the consumer. How would you sell your product (yourself) to the employer?

When a leading soap manufacturer came up with a new formula for their detergent, they told the public they had added a new ingredient, green crystals, and mentioned its scientific name. However, ingredients and technical jargon mean little to the consumer. What sold the product was the manufacturer’s claim that these crystals were responsible for getting clothes cleaner and brighter. Whether you are selling soap or your services, people want to know the bottom line: What can you do to improve my situation? What can you offer me? Or, in short, why should l hire you?

An employer is more interested in the benefits you have to offer, than in your impressive repertoire of skills. When you write your resume, make every effort to highlight these employer benefits. For example, if you are proficient in Page maker and desktop publishing, do not just list your skills (such as “Mastery of PageMaker”). Translate those skills into benefits. Tell the employer what you are able to do with your desktop publishing skills (for example, “ability to produce attractive brochures at a low cost”).

Skills indicate your potential, while benefits demonstrate your actual accomplishments—what you have achieved with your skills. An employer realizes that many applicants are well-versed in PageMaker. Your job is to explain to the employer what you can do with this skill and what kind of job tasks you have accomplished with PageMaker. This is what impresses employers.

To give you another example. Let’s say an actor listed his skills on his resume such as: “proficiency in character acting” or “ability to use dialects convincingly” or whatever other skills an actor may have. Chances are his resume will read like hundreds of others who also possess these skills. If this actor had won a prestigious acting award, listing that accomplishment would be far more important than a list of skills. By listing such an accomplishment, the actor is demonstrating to the employer, in concrete terms, what he or she has done and is capable of doing with his or her skills. This is what an employer looks for and this is what will make your resume stand out.

Determine which benefits are most important to your target employer, then stress them in your resume! Remember, while many people have the same skills you do, few will translate those skills into benefits on their resume. To be one step ahead of the competition, be sure that your resume highlights those important employer benefits you have to offer.

The purpose of the resume is to get you an interview

Most people think that a good resume will get them a job. This is a mistake. It is rare in today’s market to find an employer who hires anyone solely on what they have read in their resume. Employers want to check you out in person before they hire you. They want you to substantiate your resume and see if you have the personality they are looking for. This, of course, requires an interview. It is actually the interview that ultimately gets you the job.

But it is the resume that gets you the interview! In today’s market where many companies utilize resume tracking programs, where a computer selects your resume based on keywords, you must be extra careful to load your resume up with benefits. You not only have to impress the employer, today you must impress his computer as well! The purpose of any resume, electronic or otherwise, is simply to get you an interview.

How often have you thought, “If only I had met with the employer in person, I could have convinced him that I was the right person for the job?” Your only chance is to compose an impressive resume, one that will get noticed and get you in the door so you can meet the employer in person and get the job.

Other reasons for a resume

Although the main purpose of the resume is to get you an interview, there are other important reasons to create a resume:

• Prepares you for the interview. Most employers will use your resume as a guideline when they interview you. They will ask you to explain in detail many of the statements you have made in your resume.
• Organizes you. Preparing resume forces you to assess your skills. This, in turn, will help you evaluate the many employment options open to you. It will also help you plan an effective job search campaign.
• Let’s employers know you are actively seeking employment.
• Gives you a sense of security. It’s a good idea to always have an updated resume on hand. You never know when you will want to seek a better job or just a change. Also, in case you unexpectedly lose your job, it is wise to have your resume updated and ready.
• Can be used as a calling card. It’s there when you want to conduct informational interviews to test potential opportunities.

Writing an effective resume

Most positions generate hundreds of resume responses. How can employers read them all? They can’t! What they will do is scan the resumes. You sometimes have less than fifteen seconds to make that all-important first impression. That is why your resume has to stand out! Even in today’s high-tech market where many resumes are actually evaluated by a computer when ultimately chosen, your resume will be read by the hiring manager and it must be written to impress.

To ensure that your resume stands out in the crowd, concentrate on the three most essential factors in writing your resume:

Select your must powerful & impressive information

Selectivity is the key to writing a strong resume. You have only one chance to make a first impression, so you have got to give it your best shot. Don’t bore the reader with endless facts about your past employment. Your resume is not an obituary or biography. it’s an ad. Like an ad, write to impress. Present only the most significant information about your professional experience.

What is your most significant and impressive information? What information answers the employer’s primary question: Why should l hire you?

Your resume must communicate: l will be an asset to your organization. It should reveal you as a problem solver with important benefits to offer.

Be concise. Focus only on your achievements and skills that are required for the job you are seeking. Eliminate any extra information that detracts from emphasizing what the job requires. In the case of a resume, less is more.

How does one know which skills and benefits to highlight and select? Do research. Find out what sort of problems come with the job. Find out the qualifications the employer is looking for. Talking to personnel and reading the want ads carefully will give you a sufficient idea. Demonstrate to the employer that you are just the person he or she is looking for.

Write with impact

Use action verbs to describe your accomplishments. Action verbs conjure up a positive image in the employer’s mind and give you an advantage. Action verbs describe you as a person who gets things accomplished.

Action verbs are also more concise and make your resume more readable.

For electronic resumes, the name of the game is “keywords.” These are usually nouns, buzzwords, or catch phrases used to describe your job and level of proficiency. Chapter 13 will show you how to select powerful keywords.