Build Resume for your First Job How to write that Winning Resume for your Dream job

If you are a new entrant in the job market, you need to perfect your resume before applying for your 1st job Since you are fresh out of college, use your education as your strong point. Aggregate %, CGPA, accolades, club participation, etc. will be your focus. "Do I really need a resume? What should I write in my resume?" These are questions which worry every college graduate looking for his/her first job. Welcome to the real world! Yes you really need to make your resume and how you present yourself in that resume will go a long way towards getting you your first job. It's a myth that resumes of entry-level graduates are unimportant because they lack the 'pull' of experience. Nothing could be further from the truth. Not only is a well-made resume important for every job seeker, it is more critical for entry level graduates. A resume is a mirror of your professional identity. A well-defined resume impresses a recruiter.

A sloppy resume immediately candidate to be sloppy.

proclaims

the

Here are some do's and don'ts on what makes a great resume for graduates seeking entry-level positions in industry. OBJECTIVE One of the most frequently heard complaints made by recruiters about entry-level resumes is that they lack a specific objective. Resumes of fresh graduates have fuzzy, general objectives or no objective at all. Mentioning a specific objective is by far the most important feature of an entry- level resume. Without goal clarity you are bound to drown in the sea of mediocrity. The only thing worse than the absence of an objective is a vague objective. Something like "My objective is to work with a dynamic company which will fully utilise my talents" is a complete no-no! This objective is worthless because it gives the potential employer no idea about your goals or your direction. Your objective should be clear, well-defined and short-not more than 10-12 words.. It should be aimed towards getting a particular position in a specific industry. Thus your objective should talk about the

following: 1. Position wanted 2. Functional area 3. Industry wanted Examples of good objectives: Example 1: "Junior management position wanted in PROGRAMMING/ engineering field in IT industry.' Example 2: GET in position in the manufacturing field. Example 3: Entry level programmer in a software development company. Example 4: Marketing position in the FMCG segment of a Multinational Company. Example 5: Multimedia software development position. Open to Relocation. Example 6: "A position as a Production supervisor with a petro-chemical company." SUMMARY Summary is the second most important factor that is conspicuous by its absence in resumes of entry-level graduates. It is a good idea to include a summary of

your resume after having mentioned your objective. This sums up your resume in a nutshell and gives you an opportunity to highlight your strengths. It invites the recruiter to read your detailed resume. The summary should consist of 4-5 specific points-either bulleted or in one paragraph. Sample Summary 1:

B.E (Computer Science) from IIT-Delhi, in 2000. Course in Computers Database programmes Oracle 8I & VB6 from PENTASOFT in 2005. Consistently good academic record. Good analytical and communication skills. Have worked on a curriculum project "XXX XXXXX XXXX"

Sample Summary 2: "Masters in Computer Application with specialisation in J2EE/Web Technologies. Great operational, communication and computer skills. Good academic record throughout. Among the top three students out of a batch of 120 students. Undergone Industrial training in a top petrochemical Company. EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS

Most fresher resume doesn't suffer from space constraint . However it is a good idea to include only those educational and professionals qualifications which are relevant. Put your qualifications in a reverse chronological order. i.e. the recent ones first followed by earlier ones. Entry level resume should also mention the names of their school and college, years in which they passed their board examinations. However, include your marks only you have shown a good academic performance. WORK EXPERIENCE An entry- level resume cannot compete with resumes of experienced workers in the area of work experience. But don't forget to list internships, voluntary work and summer training that you have undertaken. How you present these is very important. Make sure you clearly define your duty and responsibilities during this training. E.g.: "Worked as a summer trainee in India's largest Oil Refinery. I was working for the system control department. Wrote quality reports as well as ISO features for the company." Any projects done for your school or your college should also be mentioned. DESIGN

Follow a simple design, which gives maximum information in the minimum number of pages. Use an easy to read and commonly used font like 'Times New Roman' or 'Verdana.' Limit your font size to 1011. Do not underline heavily. WORD USAGE Simple language, lucid expression with good grammar is the thumb rule. Watch your tenses carefully. Use short and simple sentences. And neverever make the mistake of using long words just to impress the recruiter. Flowery words are for speeches; keep them away from your resume. OUCH! THE TRUTH HURTS There are many things we would rather not write in our resumes. And while writing a resume the strong temptation to stretch the truth (or simply lie through our teeth) can be quite overpowering. But just stomp on the temptation. Most companies opt for a reference check during recruitment. Your resume is considered a legal document and fudging up small details may cause you great embarrassment in your career. All right! so you've made yor resume. But this is not the time to sit back and relax. There are some important post-resume do's left.

CHECK, AND RE-CHECK! The most important post resume step: Read and reread your resume for any mistakes. Check the facts, the grammar, the spellings. After you have checked it, get you parents, friends, teachers to check it for you. One small mistake may cost you your job. And finally...mom is right you know! Do not procrastinate over anything, specially making your resume. Most fresh graduates prefer to leave the unappealing task of resume making till the last minute i.e the day before their first interview. However, remember that making great resumes take time and effort. And the rewards will last you a lifetime Check out these sample resumes* to understand the kind of resumes employers are looking for

Exceptional B.Tech Sanjay Dixit 282 HSR Layout, Koramangala, Bangalore 560012, India Email: sanjay_dix@userhome.com Phone: 91-80-1234-5678 EDUCATION B.Tech. Computer Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai (20012005) Thesis Title: Efficient Algorithm for Terrain Simplification for Fast Rendering

Advisor: Janaki Rajagopalan Summary: Improves the state of the art in occlusion plane detection given terrain data. My implementation showed a user controlled drivethrough of a complex scene with real-time rendering of 3 million polygons using a 16 node Beowulf cluster. A paper was published in Graphics Interface '04. St. Xavier's School, New Delhi (Graduated 2000) Ranked 1st in school in 12th C.B.S.E. Board Examination. PROJECT WORK (B. Tech)

Built an optimizing compiler for mC++, a C++ subset with support for dynamic object migration over the network between compatible typespaces. Built a user-level distributed file system based on NFS with write-through caching, fault tolerance and consistency guarantees.

WORK EXPERIENCE

Research Assistant, TIFR, Mumbai (Aug Dec 2004): Implemented a library of image processing functions for edge detection and deskewing on scanned images. Adapted an off-theshelf OCR package to operate on scanned mail

images with 99% address recognition accuracy at the city/pin-code level and 85% at the street level. Project Trainee, Kreativ Networks, Bangalore: (Jan 2005-present): Joined a 7 person startup implementing campus-wide video-on-demand system for corporate training. Implemented the streaming video component with buffering for jitter reduction. Also, bit-rate reduction in the event of congestion to meet frame-rate guarantees. Extensive performance testing was conducted.

COMPUTER SKILLS

Software: SQL Server, Apache, CVS, Mathematica, Latex. Also, audio/video formats and codecs. Languages: C/C++, STL, Python, Javascript/C# Platforms: Linux, FreeBSD, Windows 98, NT 4.0, 2000.

PUBLICATIONS Occlusion Culling using Hyperplane Projection and Frequency Domain Splicing. Pavan Pleasant, Amit Ganguly, and Janaki Rajagopalan. Graphics Interface '01(2004) pp. 323-333.

AWARDS

Best B.Tech thesis - 2004. Dept of Computer Science. IIT Chennai Silver Medalist at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), 2003. Seoul, S. Korea. Ranked 18th in IIT Joint Entrance Examination 2001.

REFERENCES Prof. R. K. Ravindranath, Dept. of Computer Science, IIT Chennai Prof. Janaki Rajagopalan, Dept. of Computer Science, IIT Chennai Fresher aspiring for IT career CURRICULUM VITAE Sanjay Dixit # 512/B, 16th Main, 26th B-Cross, 6th Block, 9thblock,Jayanagar, sanjay_dixit@yahoo.com Banglore-69. +91-9881234567

Email Contact no :

CAREER OBJECTIVE: Seeking a position to utilize my skills and abilities in the Information Technology Industry that offers professional growth while being resourceful, innovative and flexible. EDUCATION QUALIFICATION:

B.TECH in Electronics and communication engineering (2001-2005) from B.M.S.C.E. with 78% aggregate. Intermediate:Board of Intermediate Education 73.4% aggregate. A.I.S.S.E from CBSE board with 76% aggregate. SOFTWARE PROFICIENCY:

Languages : C, C++ DBMS Packages : Oracle 8i Front End : VB 6.0 Operating Systems : MS DOS,Windows98,NT,2000,XP Web Designing : JAVA,HTML,XML

Fresher for technical jobs CURRICULUM VITAE SANJAY DIXIT Main, Sanjay_dix@yahoo.com Cross, 6th Block, Bangalore-69. 91-80-1234567 (R) 09845412345 (M) Career Objective: # 512/B, 16th 26th BIndiranagar,

To secure a challenging position where I can effectively contribute my skills as Software Professional, possessing competent Technical Skills. Educational Qualifications: Discipline Examin / ation Specializa tion B.Tech Compute r Engineeri ng Interm Science + ediate Maths Stream Board/ School/col Universi lege ty Year % of Passin g 83%

S. S. C

S.S.C

Bangalo 2005 RVG re College, Univers Bangalore ity Navodaya Vidyalaya C.B.S.E 2001 , . Bangalore Navodaya Vidyalaya C.B.S.E 1999 , . Bangalore

83%

79%

Computer Skills: Languages : C, C++. Database : SQL, ORACLE.

Operating Systems 6.0.

: Windows 9X/2000/XP, DOS

Achievements: Participated in National Level Annual NCC Republic day Camp and the Prime Ministers Rally held at New Delhi and received NCC A certificate.

Received best cadet award in NCC from Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. Got best student award in SSC.

Academic Project Project1: Portable Compiler C

Language of Implementation: Operating System: Windows95/98.

DESCRIPTION: In this project p-compiler (Portable Complier) reads the Pascal program and produces the Abstract stack machine code. It is one pass complier i.e. source program reads only once and front end of compiler. Because of intermediate program we port

the compiler easily, it only requires the chance the back end of the compiler to port different machines. The P-compiler consists of the following different phases: - Lexical Analysis, Parsing, Semantic checking and Code generation. Project2: interface Code generator for menu based C

Language of Implementation: Operating System: Windows95/98.

DESCRIPTION: The objective of this project is to generate the required code in C, needed to create menu-based interfaces. It automates the code generation. The project accepts the input from the user in the prescribed format and generates the required output code. The project is useful to develop menu-based interfaces in the text mode. Personal Profile: Name : Fathers Name : Sex : Male Marital Status :

Sanjay Dixit A.N. Dixit Single

Nationality : Indian Hobbies : Swimming, Cooking, Reading Permanent Address : House No:- 12/318, Hudson Street, Malgudi 216769(M.P) Phone No : 91-80 -1234567 Date of Birth : 21-10-1984 Declaration: I hereby declare that the abovementioned information is correct up to my knowledge and I bear the responsibility for the correctness of the above-mentioned particulars. Place: Bangalore (Sanjay Dixit)