The hiring managers that visit your Campus or to whom you go for an Off-Campus interview typically have hundreds of Resume cross their eyes on any given day. Trust us, those people are bored of looking at similar looking Resume, especially the poorly written ones. Also, for many of you, this might be the first interview and so you should take special care in preparing your Resume. What can you do to stand out? Follow these 6 key steps:
Even if you have written your Resume well, including all your key achievements, it is not going to be read fully the first time itself. A resume gets scanned for roughly 25 seconds. Scanning it becomes difficult if the font is varying, it is poorly organized or is more than 2 pages.
Do not get your Resume prepared by someone else. This is a job you want and the Resume talks about what you have done in life. Therefore write the words yourself. You can get it verified and checked by someone you trust but the first copy should always be your own. Also, do not blatantly copy lines from your friends or internet samples. Take the ideas if necessary but put them in your own words.
Q: What is the most common resume mistake?
A: Making too many general claims and not writing in simple words. A resume is a marketing document designed to sell your skills and strengths, not to give a summary of your life till now.
Do not submit the same Resume for every interview. Different companies with different market expertise demand different traits in candidates to select them. Understand the company that you are interviewing for. Do some background research and cater your resume to their needs. You will come out looking like the ideal candidate for the job.
Remember, you only have 25 seconds to keep the manager interested and your career objective goes a long way in doing this. Most Objectives sound similar: Seeking a challenging, interesting position in X where I can use my skills of X, Y, and Z to contribute to the bottom line. Not unique at all.
Think of what is it that you really want from this job. And then write your career objective.