A Resume – What it is and Why You Need One?

While writing about resume, the first thing that came to my mind is the unique comparison of a Resume with that of a movie trailer. As the movie trailer is short, crisp and precise, similarly a resume is a trailer of the movie “YOU”. The way audience has 3 hours to judge a movie; a recruiter also has limited time to judge a person through his resume. So, basically, a resume is a professional description about you, your experience, educational background and some amount of your personal details. Let’s see some of the pointers here:

What is a Resume?

A resume, is a professional document often used for job search, interview or for applying for a specific position to a company. Ideally, a resume has sections like an objective statement, summary of skills or experience, core competencies, employment details, educational background/training/certification and personal data.

In today’s competitive market, resume has become a tool to get a job or at least to showcase your skills to a potential recruiter. A perfect resume is usually one or two pages document depending upon the length and breadth of experience.

During the start of this article, we have provided a meaningful comparison between the resume and a movie trailer and it seems quite interesting. Generally, we watch the teaser or trailer and decide/judge whether we would like to spend our time and money to watch the movie or not. The same goes with a resume.

Seeing a resume a recruiter decides whether he would like to call up the person for face to face interview or not. Now, when it all comes to a piece of paper, you need to ensure that your resume is a perfect answer to what the recruiter is looking for.

A resume is a marketing tool which advertises about your unique skills, qualification and work experience in a professional manner. It captures the essence of your career objectives, what are your strengths and potential abilities, your interests and equally provides insights to the recruiters on the possible avenues where your skills and abilities may be channelized on being appointed after an interview.

What a Resume Should Contain?

As the resume is a kind of advertisement of your skills, it should talk about you as a professional. By going through a resume, a recruiter should clearly understand one fact, and that is, “what will be company’s advantage if they hire you?” If your resume answers this question perfectly, half of the battle is won.

Remember the core purpose of the resume is to grab a job and even before a job, to secure an interview which should later convert into a decent job. One thing you need to keep in mind is that your resume should have relevant keywords. For example, if you are managing sales, marketing, customer relationship, make sure your resume has these keywords. And not just keywords, you have to also ensure that those keywords are getting substantiated with facts.

Make every effort to keep your resume unique because a recruiter will be looking for something distinctive in a heap of many resumes. Achievements are something which sets your resume apart from others. Make sure you enlist your accomplishments and give it importance/weightage.

Why do You Need a Resume?

Now the question arises why do you need a resume? There are various good reasons why you need a professionally written resume:

1. A great resume catches the eye of a recruiter faster. Employers do get many resumes of various candidates for a particular position. Apparently, they will get bored out if every second resume is speaking the same language. It is a tool for showcasing your unique qualities and demonstrated abilities at work which may provide you an edge over your competitors.

2. To showcase your skills and achievements, it is important that you have a perfectly written resume. Whatever you have done beyond your day to day mundane routine work, mention them in your resume. It could be an initiative, some process streamlining, any cost control measures taken, any award won, any appreciation received from esteemed clients or management or even winning a deal. Do mention them because these are the details that will make your resume stand apart from others. Roles can be similar for related profiles, but it is how accomplishments are being put forth or articulated through your resume which will make all the difference.

3. Instil Confidence: When you have your resume well prepared, you will feel more confident if any interview or job call comes to you. You do not have to spend much time in creating your resume rather you can utilize this time to prepare yourself for the interview process. If your resume is well prepared, it saves a lot of time.

4. Makes you think: Many a time it happens that we possess some skills but when asked by someone we are not able to speak or show it. This shows unpreparedness and a lack of enthusiasm for your career/future. When you sit to prepare your resume, you will be required to think and evaluate your skills and then put it on your resume. You never know when the opportunities knock at your door, and you might need a good resume at once. So, it is better that you remain prepared for any circumstances that might come up.

5. Lasting First Impression: In the present competitive business scenario, effective communication (both verbal and non-verbal communication) plays a vital role in determining the success of individuals as well as organizations. For attracting interview calls and right opportunities to your doorstep, a resume can play a key role in creating long lasting first impressions, in influencing the recruiter’s mind for deciding in favour of your candidature and extending an invitation for at least a round of an interview.

   A well-written resume can leave a lasting impact on recruiter’s mind. A well-written resume should be an answer to recruiter’s question that why they should hire you? So, if you want to make the very first impression work for you, you surely have to put in some extra effort to build your resume and keep it up to date.

6. To Sell your skills: A great resume is a document which showcases your skills without boasting it. Resumes should neither be overboard and boastful nor too much subdued. Talk about your skills in a manner which supports your roles and experience gained so far. If a recruiter finds a mismatch in your skills and experience, chances are there that they would not take the resume seriously. So, if you are showing any skills in your resume, talk about some related experience or event when you have had the chance to showcase those skills.

Now that we know what a resume is and why do you need one, let’s get started.