Resume-Writing Tips: Not Just Any Piece of Paper

A Resume isn't just any piece of paper - in case you are still wondering how to make your resume look good, and capture just the right amount of attention by the interviewer, then read on and follow these simple resume-writing tips.

Resume-Writing Tips

Declaration

The personal declaration is a self-declaration section, which states that the contents mentioned in the resume are accurate. This section appears at the end of a resume. However, it is unnecessary to include this section in a resume, since it is outdated and hence a waste of space. Since resumes are mostly digitally sent, there is no need to take a printout and sign the resume. Hence, it is advisable to use the space for more valuable information.

Resume Headline

Does your resume require a resume headline? A resume headline can be used when you have gained 2+ years of experience in any particular role. This highlights that you are an expert in that area. Thus, when the interviewer glances at your resume, the headline itself creates an impression.

However, if you are a fresher with a postgraduate degree – you can use a headline, which states ‘MBA Fresher’ or ‘A budding MBA Professional with acquired skills in X, Y, Z.’

Remember what your resume headline says, must be reflected in your projects, work experience, and internships.

Certifications

You are always in a dilemma whether to include all certifications or not. There are times you have completed courses, but have not received a certificate for the same – should that be on your resume?

You mainly require certificates for educationally related points. Most of the extensive courses you have completed will offer you a certificate. In addition, you can also link your certificates to your resume. For e.g., Courses done on Coursera has a unique permalink to the complete certification. Thus, make sure the important courses are highlighted on your resume.

Professional Experience

Your professional experience should be noted down in a crisp manner. You can use the following order to highlight your professional experience:

Core Qualifications
Technical Skills
Work Experience
Key Projects

If you have any internship experience and believe, you have done a significant amount of work and benefitted the organization, that can be mentioned too under a section of Internships.

Strengths

Is it essential to highlight your strengths under a separate section? The current best practices to resume writing suggests that adding a section to strengths does not add much value. In case you are a fresher, then you can add a section under strengths. It’s unlikely as a fresher, that you’d have any expertise skills.

However, for a person with a good amount of experience, your strengths can replace with Key skills and Technical Skills depending on your respective profile. List down your hard skills instead of soft skills.

Must you add your LinkedIn URL to your resume?

Yes, you can add your LinkedIn profile URL to your resume, provided your Linked profile is up-to-date and substantiated with necessary information. While adding your LinkedIn profile URL, make sure you just add it as a hyperlink with anchor text as LinkedIn Profile.

Adding your LinkedIn profile URL has an added benefit of making the recruiter’s life easy, instead of having him/her search for it. It also helps concise your entire professional timeline under one roof. Recruiters also use LinkedIn profiles to validate any candidates experience and check for recommendations and endorsements.

If you still haven’t created a LinkedIn Profile, it is about time!

“The challenge of life, I have found, is to build a resume that doesn’t simply tell a story about what you want to be, but it’s a story about who you want to be.” – Oprah WinfreyPhoto by Green Chameleon on Unsplash