A résumé is a glimpse into your academic as well as professional history. It’s a short account of your achievements that provides the first glimpse into you as a person worthy of a job. The difference between a CV and résumé is only that a CV is a longer, more detailed history of your academic and work experience whereas a résumé is a shorter version of the same. A résumé means the condensed version of your CV.
It’s extremely important to have a striking résumé if you want to stand out among the crowd and land that job of your dreams. Résumé formats for jobs can make or break your application.
Here are some tips to make that perfect résumé or CV.
- Keep it short. No one has the time to read through your detailed life history, so limit it to 2 pages unless you have been working for over 20 years or so. It’s good to have a detailed history of your life for your CV, but your résumé should be short and to the point. Résumés for freshers will be different from a résumé for seasoned professionals.
- Put your name, contact details, educational history, work experience, skills, articles written, conferences attended (if any) and any other achievements.
- Do away with the objective section or summary. Utilize that space for something more relevant.
- Name your résumé with just the ‘first name’ and ‘last name’, no additions.
- Here’s a nifty tip for freshers for your résumés. You can put your extra interests, especially if they are eye-catching. For example, I can easily finish a 400-page book in 2 days, and you bet that goes in there.
- No grammatical or spelling mistakes! They can reflect badly on you so make sure to proofread the entire document after writing it.
- Keep the interface clean and minimal. Your résumé needs to be easily readable, so make sure the font type and font size are not hurting the eye. When in doubt, go with Times New Roman, 12 size with double space. It can be increased or decreased according to alignment and spacing.
- There are lots of websites which offer CV or résumé templates, some of them being MS Word, Google Docs, Canva, Overleaf. You can pick and choose whichever you like.
- Tailor your résumé according to the job description. This is probably the most important tip. Pick up words from the job description, and add them to your résumé. Most companies these days have softwares to sift through thousands of applications they receive, so putting in a few keywords can be really helpful. Remember, a résumé for a communications job will be different from that of an editor’s job, so edit your resume accordingly.
- Lastly, always send your résumé as a pdf, unless stated otherwise. It keeps the formatting and illustrations in place. However, word docs can be more accessible, so it’s always a good idea to ask.
Sounds easy right? Trust me, you need to keep it simple. If you need more tips, or want some editorial feedback for your own résumé, drop a comment below and the community will be sure to help you out!