By Srabon Nath
Writing a resume is an extremely important skill to have. You might have worked at
renowned establishments for many years, possess many unique skills, have had projects that you
worked on, and have many more qualities. However, no one else knows about this information
and especially not the hiring manager whom you submitted your application to. The job of a
resume is to showcase all your skills, talents, and experience as best as possible but also in a
concise way.
Something to keep in mind is to never use the same resume for everything. You might have one general resume, but don’t use it for all the positions and opportunities that you apply to. Why? You want your resume to cater best to what the job you're applying to wants. For example, a certain opening might want an employee who has had a lot of experience managing a team. Therefore, you want your resume to be centered around all the projects where you led a team or all your previous jobs where you had a leadership role. But, can’t I just put everything on my resume? No, because, again, you want your resume to be as easy to read as possible. Most hiring managers go through resumes extremely quickly, especially if it is an in-demand position. So, you want people to get a general idea of what you did and are capable of just by skimming through your resume. You don’t want your resume to be cluttered with information that the hiring manager doesn’t care about. So, going back to the main point, make sure to have separate resumes for everything.
Relating to the point about making your resume as personalized to the position as
possible, also make sure that all the information in your resume makes sense to the people
reading it. While you might understand it, that doesn’t mean everyone else will. Adequately
describe anything you list as your skills, projects, and extracurriculars. While there may be some
terms that don't need to be explained (all depending on where you’re applying to), explain
anything that the normal person wouldn’t know what it means. Remember, complicated doesn’t
mean better. Just because you put in a lot of technical vocabulary to describe your skills, doesn’t
mean anything if the hiring manager doesn’t know what it means.
While the main thing to take away from this is that your resume needs to be made with
intention of a certain position, you still have to have a format for writing a resume. Unless your
employer says so, you don’t have certain restrictions in making your resume. Optimally, your
resume should be about a page. Just make sure that your resume is well-spaced out with specific
sections devoted to your skills, experience, projects, education, etc. It really doesn’t matter how
you write it out. The most important thing is that it is concise but also highlights your qualities.