Resume Tips Cover Letter Tips Interview Tips Meaning of a Resume? Silly question, right? Not really. Many applicants believe that the purpose of a resume is to help them get a job. This is not true. The purpose of a resume is to help you get an interview. You will never be hired solely on the basis of your resume.   Resume is your selling document.  It needs to be able to show your prospective employer that you are the person that they are looking for.  This goes beyond experience, training and skills.  It needs to demonstrate your personal strengths, capabilities and the type of person you are. The key to resume writing excellence is in presenting it the right way.  Most people make the error of just listing their experience and qualifications, this ends up being a rather boring document.  A good resume should not only demonstrate your skills and experience, but should also give the reader a good indication of the type of person you are.  It needs to have personality.   Let's say you want a customer service job. You review the job requirements and tailor your resume to speak of your customer service experience. If you have a lot of experience in outbound sales, that's great, but what's of real interest to the client is your customer service experience. Preparation of Resume To create an impressive resume, you need to pay attention to content, format and writing style. Remember, this document is often the first glimpse get of you. What do you want company to know? What can you offer that makes you unique and perfect for the job? Resume writing seems to be the part that gives people the most trouble. It isn't that hard if you follow some guidelines: Keep the words ‘current’ and ‘relevant’ in mind when you compose your resume. Company is looking for up-to-date resumes that clearly describe why you are right for the job in question. Keep your writing crisp, using bullet points wherever possible. Format your resume such that it is easy to read and scan. If you are submitting your resume online, use plain text. Start talking about your major achievements early on. Be detailed, specific and quantify your work where you can e.g. managed a team of 10 members. This will allow you to stand out from the crowd and help them understand your level of expertise. List a few of your interests outside of work. They appreciate well-balanced people who can add spice to their work environment. Be honest. If inaccurate information comes to light later on in the recruitment process, you could lose your chance to join. Write simply and clearly. Jargon may confuse and bad grammar or spelling will only create a bad impression. Be sure your contact information is accurate, so that company can reach you if you have been short listed. Provide two referees - tell us how (and how long) you’ve known them. Ideally, you would list your most recent managers so that company can understand the current, rather than historical, you. At some stage or another during your life, you will need to prepare a Resume. If you are like most people, you will have many attempts at preparing your resume before you actually get anything decent together.  The problem is generally due to a lack in planning. Following are some helpful hints on getting started, Definition of a Resume Getting started     Let's start at the beginning, what exactly is a Resume and what is it's purpose. The sole purpose of a Resume is to show the reader what you are capable of.  The resume is your selling document.  It needs to be able to show your prospective employer that you are the person that they are looking for.  This goes beyond experience, training and skills.  It needs to demonstrate your personal strengths, capabilities and the type of person you are. It also needs to be a concise document.  Most employers will skim through all the resumes and put aside only 5-10 that might be worth reading.  On average an employer will only spend around 1-3 minutes on each Resume.  In other words your resume has to stand out from the others. This does not mean that the resume should be full of graphics, colours or printed on coloured paper.  Employers feel that if you have to use gimmicks to impress them, then you probably don't have anything to offer.  The resume needs to have a clean, professional look about it.  It needs to be easy to read and should look balanced. The format or style you choose depends on the type of resume that you require, but no matter which one, the resume should always be easy to follow and read. It is true that we are selling ourselves through our Resume, we have to explain what all are mentioned in our Resume, the way of presenting is important in an interview.