The Ultimate Guide to Job-Ready Resumes: Tips and Strategies!

“First impression is the last impression,” as rightly said, especially in the job market. A resume is a single piece of paper that represents you as a candidate. If made right, it can grab the attention of any HR and land you a job! However, is it that easy? Let’s see.

For a single position, there are at least hundreds of resumes on one hiring portal. The same is true for other portals like LinkedIn, Hirist, IIM jobs, etc. So, in total, there are at least 400–500 resumes. An HR is expected to shortlist the 10–15 best resumes out of this huge pool and pass them to the hiring manager of that position. Now, the fight is how to outshine your resume among others. Someone may have more experience than you or some might have a better project than yours. If your resume stands out among these many resumes and somehow you get shortlisted, these resumes go to the hiring manager, and he takes the final call. That’s a long process.

First, your resume has to stand out in front of HR. Second, your resume should be technically sound for the hiring manager to select it. Once these two hurdles are passed, only then your resume’s work is done. After that, it’s all you. So, your resume better be exceptional to land you that dream job that you’ve been looking for.

Let’s find out how to make an awesome resume with the following must-haves:

Format:

There are tons of resume making sites on the internet, but not all of them are useful. Use a site called Novo resume to make crisp and attractive resumes. The modern templates on this site will give an overall professional look to your resume. Build your resume now! Refer to the link: https://novoresume.com/

Education:

This section is important as an interviewer wants to see where you are coming from and what your background is. Some tips to follow while filling this section are:

a. If your CGPA is lower than 7, then don’t mention it. It’s not a good idea to highlight your weak points on your CV.

b. If you are not from tier 1 or 2 colleges, make sure your education section is on the lower end, and your project section is placed upwards. This will highlight your strengths.

Skills:

Every HR shortlists resumes based on this section. The problem that comes up in filling this easy and clear-cut section is that in order to get that one call from companies, candidates mention skills that they are not profound in. This condition mostly happens with freshers who are trying to oversell. Don’t do this. Whatever you have is enough for now. You don’t have to do everything. You have to know a few things with deep knowledge, and that’s enough for now.

Current location:

If you are from a metropolitan city, you are set. But tier 2 & tier 3 city people should mention their nearest metropolitan city where there are tons of employment opportunities for you. If you are from a rural area, then there is a high probability you won’t fit in the location filter that HRs set at the time of hiring.

Courses/Certifications:

Put any course that you have either done from YouTube, Udemy, or Coursera. Even if you think it’s pretty basic, mention it. It will definitely add to your skill. Most of you won’t have a certificate for these courses. Don’t worry. You can still mention them, provided you have end-to-end knowledge in that topic.

LinkedIn:

LinkedIn is the Instagram of the corporate world. In this digitally transforming world, your personality is perceived from your LinkedIn account. Check out this article for end to end knowledge on how to optimise your linkedIn — https://medium.com/acciojob/10-tips-to-optimize-your-linkedin-profile-and-attract-recruiters-511185b61d3c

Projects:

Projects are key to landing your dream job, especially for tech applicants. Hiring managers focus mainly on your projects, with unique ones getting priority over others. Therefore, having unique projects increases your chances of getting a call. Your projects showcase your actual skills, so make sure they check the following boxes:

a. Design: Attention to detail is extremely important, particularly for web developers. Unique details in your designs demonstrate your refined skills, so ensure your project stands out in this regard.

b. Responsiveness: Especially in web development, the quote “With great design comes great responsibility of making these designs responsive” holds true. Every component mentioned in your project should be functional, and you should understand the logic behind every functionality. Although it may seem obvious, candidates are not always able to justify their great projects during the interview. So, no more copy-pasting.

c. Deployed Link: Make sure you hyperlink your project to the project’s name in your resume. That’s a clear-cut way to put your deployed link instead of expecting companies to go through your GitHub profile, checking out every project you’ve made, and then finding the deployed link of the mentioned project. This is not an efficient way to showcase your project, so make sure it’s easily accessible to everyone.

d. GitHub Repo: Finally, the hiring manager gets to see your code and makes a final call on shortlisting your resume based on how optimized your code is. And if everything goes well, TA DAAA…… you’ll receive a call from HR.

Want to start with your Tech Journey? Start here: