Are you a college student looking for an internship? Or a fresher hunting for a job or already in some field and looking to switch companies? The first step that you need to look into is creating a resume which stands out from the crowd. VoiceTAP (what’s VoiceTAP?) founder Mrigank Tripathi has some tips on resume writing. Before starting VoiceTAP he worked as a management consultant and holds an MBA from INSEAD, so these tips are based on his experience as a recruiter during his consultancy days. It’s a short podcast – around eight minutes long – and has some noteworthy tips.
Listen to VoiceTAP Resume Writing tips by clicking here
Over the past few weeks VoiceTAP has held many career advice calls. A good resume can make a good first impression on your recruiter – and a bad one can doom your application to the trash bin. Applicants often tend to go overboard when writing a resume stuffing in details which recruiters might not be interested in. As you can imagine, companies get lots of applications for a post and if you can’t communicate concisely the skill set that you have then they probably won’t be interested in taking an extra effort to dig deeper.
The podcast tells you which types of information recruiters are really looking out for in a resume. Whenever possible try to include performance figures (if available). Try to mention precisely what tasks you’ve accomplished at a previous company. Alternately, if you’re a college student or a fresher then make sure to mention any extra-curricular activities that you’ve been a part of, any positions that you’ve held, events you were associated with in college, etc. These go a long way in showing that apart from academics you’re also a well-rounded person who knows who to work in a team environment. If you know which person in an organization is going to see your resume, then make a conscious effort to tailor it to highlight the bits of information they’ll be more interested in. Whatever you do, be precise and concise with what you’re writing. Don’t drone on and on in paragraphs. Be confident but not cocky.
Remember that a resume is a just a beginning. It’s a good beginning if your resume is good, but ultimately it’s going to be the interview that you have after making this good first impression – and how well you perform in the interview – that’s going to determine whether you get hired or not.
