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Resume  References

Sandhya Sengupta

In India there is a widespread tendency to impress the prospective employer by giving references of people who are either impressive in title or position. The gazetted officer is as much used as important ranking people in private organisations, and contacts with political powers is equally flaunted .Yes we do tend to get impressed but it may not necessarily translate into a ticket for a job.

But sometimes it could tilt the balance….

It could misfire too if  a reference is unavailable or says a comment that could be misinterpreted

Here are some useful tips-

-Inform the persons whom you are using as a reference.

-Prepare them for a call from a prospective employer.

-Keep in touch with them.

-Update their contact details on your resume when required.

Courtesy Jobnet Magazine issue 107

Republication or dissemination of the contents of this article are expressly prohibited without the written consent of the Author

Posted under Resume Writing tips

Your business resume must be your portfolio to dazzle placement consultants and Companies Like the portfolio for a model it should show a leg or a bit of flesh but the flesh should be sizzling enough to get an assignment for the model or get called for an interview by the film maker.  If you have great assets, FLAUNT them!

Your Business Resume!

Anil Mahajan

During the protectionist times of 45 years there was short supply syndrome ruling the market. I remember my father booked a bajaj scooter for me when I was 6 years old so that I get it after a waiting period of 18 years hopefully before my marriage. But, with capitalism spreading itself under the garb of liberalization, competition is taking strong roots. Every service, including political parties, has the tendency of becoming a Commodity.

And it is imperative for a commodity to move up the value added chain towards branding…

In the job market, the first brunt of liberalisation was borne by candidates. To outwit the competition, companies suddenly realized they need the best professionals to remain on top or sufficiently away from the bottom. Kumbhakarana awakened.

The Biodata became dead. The Resume took over. Family background or royal lineage took a back seat. Skills suddenly were in demand.

For presentation style & effective copywriting, resume writers entered the market.

Brandbuilding became important to job seekers too. Unfortunately, a plethora of obnoxious & purposeless websites on jobs started. 2-minute resumes (frying of a thorough professional in 2-minutes flat/ crash-course fad for definite death) entered the market & became passe’ in English & paasse’ in Punjabi. 2-minute resumes created more problems than they solved. Dude or baby CV writers or fresher / trainees started writing resumes of senior professionals from the backdrop & anonymity offered by big jobsites. This kind of wierdo performances or screwing of a professional’s profile & all essentially money making gimmicks/ fly-by-night initiatives taken by big jobsites created a bitter taste in the job market.

Capitalism is ruthless & spells death to those who are not able to promote themselves. The internet has made competition tough for everybody. If you are a placement consultant you have rest of the world to ward off or you will be in a soup. If you are a call center company, the candidate is the interviewer too & you have to be appealing & attractive enough to cajole him to send his resume to you. Before the candidate sends his resume to you, it is you, the company, who has to prepare a corporate Business Resume with power words & send it to candidates by actually publishing it in the “Ascent” pullout of “The Times of India” or host it in the form of a Flash or DHTML based beautiful company website. This website whether it belongs to a company, a placement consultant or a contractor is meticulously made & hosted as a Business Resume / online portfolio.

So, cheer up, dear candidate, you are not alone in making a resume. When the company is spending so much of its time in making a great resume to promote itself to all the prospective employees like you as the BEST EMPLOYER, it is natural that you should get your resume prepared by a equally good copywriter as a Great marketing tool.

Now Why in hell this Business Resume Talk? (Hell! I am NOT a Placement Consultant…NOR a Housekeeping Contractor…NOR a BPO Company- I don’t need a business resume!)

But you do. A Business Resume can be aptly called a Portfolio. A portfolio lets you dazzle potential clients (prospective employers) with your capabilities and achievements by providing shining or glorious examples of your work. A portfolio’s contents depend on your industry, but may include examples of your work, references, testimonials, a client list, media or press clippings, awards and other evidence of your professional accomplishments. Like the portfolio for a model it should show a leg or a bit of flesh but the flesh should be sizzling enough to get an assignment for the model or called called for discussion by the film maker. Only a great leg be shown.

The rules of the game are simple. If you have great assets, FLAUNT them. You have to be beautiful & bold too to show the entire world that you are beautiful. Localise the places where you are well endowed & showcase them. Tell the entire world in no uncertain words that you are a great head or a great leg or a headhunter or whatever.

It is relief that Job seekers need one & only one kind of resume targeted at companies, unlike companies. Placement consultants need 2 different types of Business Resume- one for the prospective client companies & the second one targeted at job seekers cajoling them to send their resume. Similarly, companies need more than 3 kinds of Business resume. One targeted at job seekers, another targeted at prospective consumers (marketing people call business resume as corporate marketing materials. These include brochures, business cards, letterhead, Web sites and demos etc.) & one targeted at prospective investors in Dalal street or elsewhere or banks.

We have much so much to discuss on this issue. Watch out for the next issue.

By Anil Mahajan, MBA PGDIT (IIFT)

He has made pioneering contributions in the field of Resume Writing and Resume Management.

Courtesy Jobnet Magazine issue 107

Republication or dissemination of the contents of this article are expressly prohibited without the written consent of the Author

Posted under Resume Writing tips

Feel Good Factor- – Is your Resume Shining?

Anil Mahajan

The country is inundated with “Feel Good Factor”, coupled with “India Shining” — (Don’t dare ignorance lest you be labeled eccentric). India is shining baby!

But why you are whining like opposition party spokesmen?

The marketing of a political party is coming of age in India. The noise is so loud that all of us who do not agree with the punch-line prefer to keep silent. To top it all, even some of the opposition members have been floored by the hype and are actually looking for ways to cross over.

This is sheer inundation of the target audience with a focused information campaign.

This is a calculated & well conceived branding strategy, with the achievements carefully worded & showcased in brocade in all the leading newspapers.

You are left with no option but to believe. The branding is all pervasive. The opposition think-tank has gone bust & has given up all hopes of winning.

And, though I have been a headhunter for so many years, I am suddenly getting calls  from journalists & correspondents all over the world to re-confirm (?) that India is shining so much that even UK & US techies have a bright future in India (in contrast to the days of ’91, when India was thought to be teeming with millions of hungry men & beggars, snakes and cows).

And they wish to be reassured in the positive. If I say the statement is false, they would write me off as an eccentric or an illiterate headhunter. I have no option but to agree.

This media hype has given me food for thought for briefing job seekers in the field of Resume writing & resume logistics.

We will start with learning from this marketing campaign in the sectors of resume writing, cover letter writing, resume logistics & move on in the next issue to Shining in the Interviews & Shining in the workplace to get very Positive performance appraisals & Faster promotions.

Is your Resume Shining?

Have you ever tried to analyse whether or not your resume is shining? Mind you, you will not get an interview call or an offer letter if your resume is not shining.

You look at your resume many times, & unfortunately every time you convince yourself that it shines well or rather very well. The stark reality could be otherwise. Maybe it is not shining. Maybe it is a damp squib. Maybe you are seeing it shine in the light emanating from your own or your close friend’s subjectivity, bias, sheer ignorance of the competition or even narcissism.

Have you ever asked yourself any pertinent question brand positioning questions? For instance, If you are a GM-Marketing in Onida. have you ever seen the resume of GM- Marketing in LG / Samsung / Sony / Philips? Frankly, you have not.  Maybe your resume looks trivial before the resume of your competitors? Ignorance is unfortunately not bliss in this case. As a GM-Marketing, you have tried successfully to know your competitors’ marketing plans but, in your private battle for a better job, you are a complete novice. No doubt, you are a professional marketing head, but you are not a professional in resume making.

Lesson no. 1: Your Resume is a Marketing Document, whether you agree or not. So, better start believing it & seeing it as a marketing document to promote your brand.

Lesson no. 2: Accomplished professionals certainly do jobs differently. Haldiram makes better gol gappas & better jalebis. Compaq makes better computers. Swami Chidananda is a better guru. So, use the skills of a professional resume writer having an expertise in preparing a mind blowing resume.

Your resume must shine & create Feel Good Factor among the GateKeepers (Placement consultants as well as HRD heads) & hiring managers. Consequently  you  will win with thumping majority.

Your Shining Resume needs wide Supply Chain

Now you have a Shining Resume. You keep it in a box & it will gather dust. No ad campaign becomes a winning campaign unless accompanied with a solid media plan. The political parties go for print media, they go for digital media & even internet & so does your company. You also need to draw a detailed plan as to which all headhunters your Shining Resume should go to, whether in print or by e-mail, you also must decide which companies need be attacked & made to get a Feel good factor by sending your Shining Resume. You also need to make a list of their websites & start posting your Shining Resume into the careers pages of these websites.

Alternatively, you must go for a resume blast to consultants & companies. Let the world know that you have a shining resume showcasing your unique achievements differently (you alone know that it is penned by a copywriter). This alone will generate marketing enquiries. Maybe every company which matters would love or even compete with all others to hire you. You have a choice. You are now being chased by headhunters & companies alike & you decide which company to join. That is the Magic Mantra for the day. See you later in the next issue.

By Anil Mahajan, MBA PGDIT (IIFT)

He has made pioneering contributions in the field of Resume Writing and Resume Management.

Courtesy Jobnet Magazine issue 107

Republication or dissemination of the contents of this article are expressly prohibited without the written consent of the Author

Posted under Articles from Jobnet Magazine, Job Hunting Tips, Resume Writing tips

Amitabh Bachhan or Shah Rukh Khan do not write their own great dialogues,professional scriptwriters or dialogue writers do it for them. Should you write your own resume? Well that is a million dollar question.

DEATH OF THE BIO-DATA

Anil Mahajan

Since the time I left my job and started a placement consultancy, a lot of water has flown under the various Yamuna bridges.

I never felt the need for a resume and, at best, I used to give my bio-data ( “Resume ? what’s that?” ) to companies and consultants.

So what’s the difference?

A Bio-data is just like historical data with maybe, or maybe not, a passport size photograph and absolutely nothing else.

What was most important yesterday? The man who is going to interview you (how well you knew him or his Chachiji’s behnoi for instance), and how much he thought you were from a decent family (bhadralok – I suppose!).

The biodata was also normally carried along for the interview.

The biodata contains information in a set parameter — your name, father’s name, nationality, father’s occupation, date of birth, followed by details of your education in a set tabular form. This table is followed by proofs of your lineage from a decent family elaborating on what your mother is doing and what your brothers, sisters and their spouses are doing or have done, if they have studied in or teaching in Welhams School or St. Stephens College, blah blah… well, that was important yesterday.

Today, Competition has set-in in the job market and the biodata is passe’. Today, a resume has become a necessity for getting the job.

A resume is a marketing document intended to sell you in the job market, and is designed specifically to highlight your skill-sets for a particular job / career.

It is sad that candidates still spin out a bio-data and send it to companies or consultants under the new title of resume. It is all the stinking old bio-data minus emphasis on family lineage. All the rest is the same… the same tables, the same historical data. Nobody reads it and it is simply thrown into the dustbin.

Just put yourself in the position of a HRD head of a company that releases an ad for the position of, let’s say, Manager-Accounts.

You (as HRD head) get as many as 20,000 applications from candidates all over India. You conduct a first scan and around 95% resumes find the graveyard of the dustbin. And mind you, they are all Bio-datas under the garb of resume.

The applicant blames God. Or, if he is less God fearing, the theory of probability, when, all along, the fault is his own.

Should you write your own resume?

Well that is a million dollar question.

You admire Amitabh Bachhan for his dialogues in Sholay; you still remember Shah Rukh Khan for his great dialogues in Baazigar. But they never wrote their dialogues. Though they are great actors, everything is outsourced to professional scriptwriters or dialogue writers like Salim-Javed etc. Do you go for a haircut with scissors in your hand and cut your own hair? How silly! But isn’t that what you actually do as far as your resume is concerned?

If you care a damn for a good resume and your dream job, your dream job cares a damn for you (I think it’s Newton’s Third law — For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction). In today’s environment, it is very much a good investment to get a professional resume writer to plan out your resume.

Of course, in case you do not come across any sound professional resume writer, here are a few tips for writing a great winning resume:

1. Determine your job search objective prior to writing the resume. Once you have determined your objective, you can structure the content of your resume around that objective. Think of your objective as the bull’s-eye to focus your resume on. If you write your resume without having a clear objective in mind, it will likely come across as unfocussed to those who read it (and the dust bin is always within easy reach). Take the time to form a clear objective.

2. Think of your resume as a marketing tool. Think of yourself as a product, potential employers as your customers, and your resume as a brochure about you. Market yourself through your resume. What are your features and benefits? What makes you unique? Make sure to convey this information in your resume.

3. Use your resume to obtain an interview, not a job. You don’t need to go into detail about every accomplishment. Strive to be clear and concise. The purpose of your resume is to generate enough interest in you to have an employer contact you for an interview. Use the interview to provide a more detailed explanation of your accomplishments and to land a job offer.

4. Use bulleted sentences. In the body of your resume, use bullets with short sentences rather than lengthy paragraphs. Resumes are read quickly. This bulleted sentence format makes it easier for someone to quickly scan your resume and still absorb it.

5. Use action words. Action words cause your resume to pop. To add life to your resume, use bulleted sentences that begin with action words like prepared, developed, monitored, and presented.

6. Use #’s, Rs. and %’s. Numbers, Rs, and percentages stand out in the body of a resume. Use them. Here are two examples:

* Managed a department of 10 with a budget of Rs.1,000,000.

* Increased sales by 25% in a 15-state territory.

7. Lead with your strengths. Since resumes are typically reviewed in 30 seconds, take the time to determine which bullets most strongly support your job search objective. Put those strong points first where they are more apt to be read.

8. Play Match Game. Review want ads for positions that interest you. Use the key words listed in these ads to match them to bullets in your resume. If you have missed any key words, add them to your resume.

9. Use buzzwords. If there are terms that show your competence in a particular field, use them in your resume. For marketing people, use “competitive analysis.” For accounting types, use “reconciled accounts.”

10. Accent the positive. Leave off negatives and irrelevant points. If you feel your date of graduation will subject you to age discrimination, leave the date off your resume. If you do some duties in your current job that don’t support your job search objective, leave them off your resume. Focus on the duties that do support your objective. Leave off irrelevant personal information like your height and weight.

11. Show what you know. Rather than going into depth in one area, use your resume to highlight your breadth of knowledge. Use an interview to provide more detail.

12. Show who you know. If you have reported to someone important such as a vice president or department manager, say so in your resume. Having reported to someone important causes the reader to infer that you are important.

13. Construct your resume to read easily. Leave white space. Use a font size no smaller than 10 point. Limit the length of your resume to 1-2 pages. Remember, resumes are reviewed quickly. Help the reader to scan your resume efficiently and effectively.

14. Have someone else review your resume. Since you are so close to your situation, it can be difficult for you to hit all your high points and clearly convey all your accomplishments. Have someone review your job search objective, your resume, and listings of positions that interest you. Encourage them to ask questions. Their questions can help you to discover items you inadvertently left off your resume. Revise your resume to include these items. Their questions can also point to items on your resume that are confusing to the reader. Clarify your resume based on this input.

15. Submit your resume to potential employers. Have the courage to submit your resume. Think of it as a game where your odds of winning increase with every resume you submit. You really do increase your odds with every resume you submit. Use a three-tiered approach. Apply for some jobs that appear to be beneath you. Perhaps they will turn out to be more than they appeared to be once you interview for them. Or perhaps once you have your foot in the door you can learn of other opportunities. Apply for jobs that seem to be just at your level. You will get interviews for some of those jobs. See how each job stacks up. Try for some jobs that seem like a stretch.

By Anil Mahajan, MBA PGDIT (IIFT)

He has made pioneering contributions in the field of Resume Writing and Resume Management.

Courtesy Jobnet Magazine issue 101

Republication or dissemination of the contents of this article are expressly prohibited without the written consent of the Author

Posted under Resume Writing tips

Resume Tips

Mehar Bhagat

A résumé, also known as curriculum vitae (CV), is a document containing a summary or listing of relevant job experience and education, usually for obtaining an interview when seeking employment. “Curriculum vitae” is Latin, meaning “course of life.” Often the résumé or CV is the first item that a potential employer encounters regarding the job seeker, and therefore a large amount of importance is often ascribed to it. In other words, a curriculum vitae is a marketing tool of a person seeking a job.

Most people underestimate the importance of a CV (resume). Many of us put off writing our CV until last moment and do an inadequate job. Others feel that they know it all and treat the job of writing a resume far too casually. Actually, you would be well advised to ensure that both your resume and covering letter are so well prepared that they stand out among a thousand others, not only in content but also in presentation. Any compromises at this stage and you may not be short listed for the interview.

CV – Crucial in getting an Interview

Your CV is your first communication with the perspective employer. It serves as personal advertisement for you and must therefore, be organized in such a manner to make it interesting, attractive, brief and informative. If you wish to be one of the few to be called for an interview, you must ensure your CV is distinct from the hundreds of other CVs of candidates who may be as experienced or as well qualified as you. There are some golden rules to be followed while preparing your CV -

- Remember you are advertising about yourself. So, highlight your strong points and try to shield your weaknesses. The prospective employer will call you for an interview if your strengths are highlighted.

- Shielding your weaknesses does not mean that you lie. No, do not indulge in misrepresentation of facts. It does not pay dividends.

- Essential information including phone number (if possible, mobile) must be included.

- Try to keep your CV as brief as possible. At the same time, it should include all vital information about you.

- It should contain relevant information about the job, experience etc.

- Make sure there are no grammatical errors in your CV. It leaves a bad impression.

Moreover, your prospective employers do not have the time or the inclination to meet all the people who may be interested in an opening and that makes it more important that among the other thousands of CVs, yours must stand out; not only in content but also by the way it is formatted.

Essential Information must be mentioned

There are certain items which must be included in every CV. Other items may or may not be mentioned depending on whether they are relevant or not. The items which must be included are given below –

Personal Information- Name, date of birth, marital status, language known, address, telephone number.

Educational Background- Institutions attended with years, marks obtained, qualifications, achievements, computer literacy.

Employment History – Name of organization(s), years, designation(s), responsibilities, achievements and training programmes attended. Include any part time or summer employment if you do not have any full time experience.

Stick to the Basic Rules

Stick to these proven guidelines for writing a CV -

The term “Bio-data” is out. Curriculum Vitae (CV) has replaced it. Make sure that your CV is not longer than two pages. It should, at the same time, not be so short that your prospective employer does not know anything about you after going through it. It must be concise and should be informative.

Presentation

Make sure your CV looks good. Presentation is of utmost importance. You must-

-Avoid spelling mistakes.

-Use good quality paper.

-Do not send a curriculum vitae with spelling errors corrected by whitening fluid or by hand.

-Use proper margins and spend time formatting it properly.

-Send printed laser outputs instead of photocopying. It may cost you more but it says a lot about you.

Don’t lie even if it is a small lie. Usually such lies are about achievements, grades and marks or summer projects. The personnel departments in most companies do take pains in verifying claims.

References

You may include references at the end of your CV. These are names, addresses and phone numbers of two or three people who could vouch for your character, competence and commitment. Ideally, these should be people who have worked with you, or your college professors.

Many job seekers starting out in their careers feel that important peoples’ references will impress prospective employers. Nothing could be further from the truth.

A big name will communicate that you are a name-dropper who gets by on his father’s contacts rather than achievements. An experienced interviewer will be far more impressed with the references of people who know you professionally. In any case, your prospective employer will check with referees, so make sure you ask your referees’ permission before putting their names in your CV.

Use one or at best not more than two typefaces while preparing your CV. If you are looking for visual relief and highlighting then you can use block capitals, italics, bold type, underlining, varying font sizes, or any combinations of these. Choose a font that is simple and easy to read. Do not go in for a fancy typeface. It will take away legibility of your CV.

Don’t leave gaps in your CV. If you have lost some years between your +2 and graduation or after your graduation, explain the gap.

A final word

Be honest in preparing and presenting your CV. Any manipulative presentations are bound to reflect back badly at some point in your career. Do not give any false information about your skills or experiences anywhere in you CV.

Mehar Bhagat

Entrepreneur, PR, HR & Corp. Training Professional, Business Consultant.

Email: meharbhagat.linkedin@gmail.com | Skype ID: meharbahgat

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courtesy Jobnet Magazine

Posted under Resume Writing tips

Cover letter a tool for your branding and positioning

Anil Mahajan

Here’s where your cover letter comes in.

A resume has to compete with a whole lot of identical clones for standing out of the crowd, whereas a cover letter has virtually no competition. If at all, some candidates use a cover letter, it is virtually a simple, stupid, run of the mill kind and that is “…ref your ad in times of India dated so and so, I am enclosing…” .This kind of cover letter is actually de-marketing you. An effective cover letter can help you in ways that a résumé can’t (and can actually cover-up things that work against you!)

Here’s a quick chart that makes it obvious how useful a cover letter can be compared to the humble résumé:

Why the Right Kind of Cover Letter Can Improve Your Chances

Your résumé perforce has to be a factual statement of your skills and past experience wide open to interpretation by the employer. The cover letter, properly written, shows an employer what you want them to see and tells them what they want to hear.

It’s all about Positioning. Let me give you an example and then apply it to job-seeking. All soaps have similar contents and manufacturing processes. Yet here’s what the soap companies promote –

…Dettol soap has been positioned as the soap you buy when you want HYGIENE and SAFETY from bacteria…

…Lifebuoy is for those who want “health and vigour” —

— Looking for beauty? Lux is for you —

All these soaps are made up of the same basic elements, but the marketing people go to great lengths to talk about these things in terms of the POSITION they want to occupy in the customer’s mind. So if you want beauty, you think Lux. That’s positioning.

A cover letter, written correctly, does EXACTLY the same thing with your résumé.

You and all the other applicants applying to the same job will have the roughly the same skills and experience listed in your résumé, but the key is to use your cover letter to POSITION yourself into the solution the employer is looking for.

Without a doubt, I can tell you that the ONE SINGLE KEY to unlocking a virtual torrent of interview offers is simply knowing how to read the job post to decipher the key requirements that tell you EXACTLY how to best position yourself and your application.

And for the best positioning to set your self apart from the job-hunting pack, you’ll need to have an effective cover letter. The cover letter is your first opportunity to impress an employer. It is the first thing they read and, if it’s not good, it may be the only thing the employer reads at all.

Nuts and Bolts

Writing your cover letter may be easier if you divide it into three sections: The first paragraph states why you are writing. The next explains why you are ideal for the position. And the final paragraph closes by stating how you plan to follow-up.

In the first section, indicate how you learned about the opening and mention the job title. The middle paragraph should relate your skills and abilities to the qualifications listed in the job posting. Address how you meet those qualifications with direct examples from your resume. Be open and clear about what you have to offer the prospective employer.

Throughout the entire letter, use clear and simple sentences so the reader doesn’t have to decipher what you’re trying to say. Keep paragraphs short so they are easy to skim. Proof read. Then proof read again. Even a small typo can look like a glaring error and may reflect on your ability to perform accurate work. Read your letter out loud. Does it make sense?

Ask someone else to review it for you. Sometimes it’s hard to catch our own mistakes.

Finally, let the employer know how you plan to follow-up. Be direct and indicate that you will call to set up an appointment at a mutually convenient time. If the job ad specifically says not to call, thank the employer for his or her consideration and let them know you look forward to hearing from them.

Looking Good

Once you have written the letter, then you will need to make it look good. The visual appearance of your cover letter is just as important as that of your resume.

* Consider using bullets or bold fonts to draw attention to the skills you wish to highlight.

* Print your cover letter on standard size laser bond paper that matches your resume paper. Use conservative colors like white or beige. Brightly colored paper will not get you the type of attention you want. Use one-inch margins and balance your paragraphs on the page. Most importantly, don’t forget to sign your letter. If you are sending a cover letter via email, cut and paste it into the body of an email message since many people are leery of opening attachments.

A well-written cover letter is worth the time investment. It’s the first tool an employer will use to decide whether to interview you or not. So, make your cover letters count!

Appropriate and well positioned cover letter is one important thing you need to get that job. You see, the point of a good cover letter and résumé is to secure the interview. Now here’s the thing — if you get an interview, the job is as good as yours. The employer knows you have the skills to do the job… they wouldn’t call you in if they thought you couldn’t do the job. So now you need marketing tools like the cover letter…

has made pioneering contributions in the field of Resume Writing and Resume Management.

By Anil Mahajan, MBA PGDIT (IIFT)

He has made pioneering contributions in the field of Resume Writing and Resume Management.

Courtesy Jobnet Magazine

Posted under Resume Writing tips