Important Tips for Resume Writing
Resume is the first step for successful job hunt. A good resume increases your chances of getting shortlisted for further technical discussions. In next few articles, i will attach some sample resumes for wide experience range, mainly for software testing professional.
In this article, i am sharing some important tips for resume writing. Please do share your comments.
Important Resume Tips
1. The obvious first: Resume should highlight your actual skills, not fake ones.
2. Length: A professional resume should NOT be more than 3 pages long. Nobody got time to read beyond that.
3. Summary: Replace ‘Objective’ with a “Professional Summary”. Anyways nobody reads that standard copy-paste objective, then why waste the much-needed space?
4. “Professional summary” at the top is most important. It should highlight the Testing types & levels worked upon, tools experience and domains know-how. First page of your resume should give enough info about your overall skills.
5. Keywords: Many Orgs use ‘applicant tracking system’ (ATS) which parse the resume for matching keywords. Hence it is important to use relevant tech/skill keywords to get shortlisted.
6. Format: Word format is the most common since it is ATS compliant. As for the file name, it can be given as “Full Name_Role_Experience”.
7. Initiatives, Rewards
8. Certifications: Any relevant certifications add up to your candidature.
9. Highlights: Make strategic use of bold, caps and italics. The point is to make important information easier to find.
10. Order: Maintain the reverse- chronological order which lists your experience from most recent to oldest (till education).
11. Career Gap: Write explanations for large gaps in your career history. Address significant gaps by writing brief explanations next to the jobs where the gaps occur. A bullet point should suffice.
12. Font: No designer font please. Keep it simple with standard & clean fonts like Arial, Times Roman or Verdana. Keep your font size between 10 and 12 points. Selecting a clear, readable font will help make your resume appear more professional.
13. Links: Got an impressive LinkedIn profile? Or a git code repository? Or a Blog that you maintain? Any publications like whitepaper? If any, make sure to include that hyperlink in the summary. This is what gives you an edge over others. Take an extra couple of minutes to make sure that your URLs are live and to hyperlink them in the text so they are accessible.
14. Spaces: Balance your text and white spaces. It’s same as adding margins. It makes your resume aesthetically pleasing and easy to read. Do not sacrifice white space in the name of fitting everything onto one page.
15. Interest: If you have space, consider adding a “Hobbies and Interest” section to your resume. It can be a great addition to your profile because companies are beginning to emphasize work culture. E.g. Language skills, Voluntary work, etc.
16. Last: Do NOT forget to run word’s spell check, spacing and alignment. Microsoft Word is a great tool which highlights the obvious issues – resolve them all.
Note: Most important is to highlight the Testing types, Levels, Tools and Domains you have worked upon.
