Things your Résumé should reflect

"First Impression is the Last Impression." Well, quite literally and in the Job Market, it refers to your Résumé. It is your foremost chance to impress the recruiter and expect an interview call. An impressive résumé, increases your chances of getting noticed by the recruiter by placing you ahead of your many competitors. (PS: The terms Curriculum Vitae - C.V. and Résumé or Resume are used interchangeably in the job market to refer to the same type of document. Although, the meaning might differ in literal terms)

There is no one such standard format for a résumé or a C.V. However, following points should reflect in your résumé.  

A good Résumé should reflect the following points clearly in the following sequence: 

1. Personal Details: It should consist of Your First and Last Name, authentic mobile number, email ID, residential address, Date of Birth (DoB), languages known. At the top: Name, mobile number and email ID only. Have a proper email ID resembling your name in the CV and avoid email IDs based on nick names or anything alike. At the bottom: Date of Birth (DoB), Address (Permanent as well as Correspondence if applicable) and Languages known. 
2. Career Objective: It's a brief statement describing your career goals. It gives the recruiter an idea about your expectations and helps in matching it with the job requirement. Sample Career Objective: To secure a challenging position in the finance domain with an organization of repute that would help me in expanding my knowledge & skills and enhance my learning curve. You can also narrow down your career objective by making it more precise and focusing on your specific expertise.
3. Academic Credentials: Start in a descending order. For example starting with T.Y.BMS, H.S.C. and then S.S.C. in a tabular format. You can have five columns with headlines like 👉 Exam/Degree, Name of the College/School, Name of the University, Percentage/Grades, Year of Passing. 
4. Work Experience (if any): It should be in a descending order in case you have any work experience. It should contain details like Organization, Designation, Duration and Key Tasks Handled. If you don't have any work experience then you can replace this area with internship details or major projects undertaken. 
5. Major Achievements: Start with the latest and specific achievements appropriate to your job profile. In case you don't have any, just skip this heading.
6. Extra Curricular Activities: Few may not have anything to put here because they never participated in any such extra curricular activities either during college days or otherwise. But many will have a lot to put under this heading. Highlight only the important ones like clubs or associations and where your contribution or participation has made a difference either to you or someone else. Be prepared with proper details as questions may pop up in the interview. 
7. A Self Declaration: A self declaration at the end stating that all the above information is true and authentic is a must. This should be followed by date, place and your signature (Name if sending a soft copy). Just above self declaration, you can also mention that references if required shall be furnished upon request.

Certain Do's and Don'ts to remember while making a Résumé:

• Use a good format. Various free apps are available that might help. Canva is one such app that might help you'll with good formats.
• Save the file with your complete name either in Microsoft Word or PDF. Eg.: Pooja Fernandes-CV or Pooja Fernandes-Resume. 
• Customize your resume depending on the profile that you are applying for. There is no 'one size fits all' approach when it comes to bagging a good job. 
• Use/Insert proper Keywords pertaining to your profile in your resume that the recruiters try to search. For Eg.: Digital Marketing, SEO, Food & Beverages, Business Development, Investment Banking etc. It gives your resume an edge to appear in the search filters applied by the recruiters.
• Don't copy even the formats of someone else's resume. Be unique, be original and avoid plagiarism.
• As a fresher, your resume should not exceed more than one page. So use font style and font size accordingly. 
• Putting a professionally clicked photo on the resume is optional.  

Best Wishes to all in your future endeavours!

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