Resume Preparation Tips

[Vasu]

Hi friends,

I am getting some emails and phone calls, in which the people are asking questions like :
1)can you provide some tips for resume preparation ?
2)whether can we put experience in resume. It will create any problem for us?
3)why we are not getting any interview calls even if we put some experience in our resume?

So i came up with this thread, which might be helpful for students/experienced professionals who were looking for job/change in job.

When coming to resume preparation,
Our(Job seeker) target is :-
1)Resume has to reach the client.(Once it crossed all the middle layers, then only it will reach)
2)Resume has to shortlist at the client place.
3)Resume has to be impressive. Once client looks at ur resume, then he/she has to get the feeling that \"Why cant we interview this candidate?\"

To make the resume impressive, i will give some suggestions.
Resume outlook:-
1)Summary
2)Technical Skills
3)Certifications and Education
4)Projects

When the client sees your resume, He will read the summary of ur resume, so that he/she will get complete idea about your work.
I suggest to include around 10 to 15 points in summary. So the first page(full page or 75% page) tells about your summary.
Next section is skills :- Put all the skills you know.
Third section is certifications and education :- Even you dont have certiciations, you can put. They may ask when you wrote? what version? how much percentage you got.
Projects : This plays another main role in selecting ur resume.

I will give one example for this section.

Duration : <<May 2004 - Present>>
Project : <<project name>>
Client: <<client name>>
Senior J2EE Developer

Description : << You can tell in detail when they ask about the project in the interview. >>

Responsibilities:
.Involved in gathering business requirements from the client.
.Involved in preparing detail design document for the <<some>> module.
.Created class diagrams and sequence diagrams using Eclipse
.Created action classes, form classes for module <<some>> using struts framework.
.Created jsps for <<some>> module and tested those pages by deploying them in wsad.
.Used design patterns like MVC, Singleton, Business delegate
.Used ANT as build tool.
.Used Hibernate for mapping objects to the relational database.
. etc.. it is good to have around 10 points atleast for each project.

Environment: Java, J2EE, JSP, STRUTS, EJB, WEBSPHERE, WSAD, ORACLE, Hibernate, ANT.

note: make sure that , you will not repeat the responsibility points in all projects.

The client will concentrate on last 3 projects.

Summary and Project responsibilities plays key role in selecting your resume.

What client expects from job seeker\'s resume?
The client will see whether the candidate(client is going to interview..) has done the same type of job before or not. So the client is more specific in seeing your summary and responsibilities in your last few projects. <<If the client thinks that you did the same type of job in your previous projects then your resume will definetly select for the interview>>

What client expects from Jobseeker(while interviewing..)?
The client want to check with you, exactly regarding your work in ur previous projects.
So, in the interview, the most general questions are ,
1)tell about u
2)tell ur responsibilities in ur last project.
Once you answer these questions properly(and promptly), then the client will ask few tech. questions related to your work.

Other point, i forgot to highlight till now is:
Communication skills and Management skills.

These two are very important for a job seeker.

If your communication skills are good, then you are 50% selected.

Once you got the project and joined in the company, then Management skills concept will come into picture.
You need to show your management skills while u r at work.
I will give some examples.
1)Always make sure that you need to behave like experienced professional. You need to manage like that.
Dont tell to your colleagues also, even they became friends.
2)Even some guys ask some tech. questions, tell them that you are not sure. dont tell \"NO\"/\"Dont know\" answer to any question.
3)Easy going with all colleagues. Maintain good relationship with all team members, instead of doing ur work simply.
4)Update ur senior member(lead/manager) with ur work status.
5)sometimes ur colleagues may ask q\'s like when u came to usa? etc.. you have to be very careful .. because u put some exp. in the resume.
6)Dont get tensed at any time. Always behave like a experienced professional.

Finally i can say like this : you need to manage the work with ur communication skills.
So Communication and Management skills are very important.

I came across some situations, I am giving a few here.

Situation #1
In September 2003, I came across one student who waste his lot of time(around 9 months) by applying for jobs as fresher.
He know basic java, jdbc, servlets, jsp. I prepared his resume for 7 yrs experience. And also i prepared him for interview.
And i directed to some company. He got 3 offers in 2 weeks, which is very good break for him.

Situation #2
Just 2 hrs back, i came to know that, one student faced some bad experience at the client place.
That student learned some technology and put some exp. in resume and got selected and joined yesterday.
On the first day, the student is tensed, so the colleagues asked q\'s like?
1)r u fresher?
2)when u came to usa?

So, please dont get tensed in the client place. Always assume that you have real experience.

\"SATISFY the CLIENT by MANAGING your WORK with your COMMUNICATION skills.\"

Everyone will be HAPPY.

Best of LUCK.

[pradeep]

Hi Vasu,

Thanks for the tips.

Do u have any e-books on communication skills?

Thanks & Regards
Pradeep

[Vasu]

Pradeep,

See the link here:-
http://www.coopcomm.org/downloadwkbk.htm#step4

This link contains pdf download which talks about how to communicate more cooperatively.

It talks about seven challenges given below:

Challenge one : Listening more carefully and responsively.
Challenge two : Explaining your conversational intent and inviting consent.
Challenge three : Express yourself more clearly and completely.
Challenge four : Translating complaints and criticisms into requests.
Challenge five : Asking questions more \"Open-endedly\" and more creatively.
Challenge six : Expressing more appreciation.
Challenge seven : Make responding to the first six challenges an important part of your everyday living.

I went thru this book. It looks good for me.
Just read it in your relax time.

Post edited by: vasu, at: 2004/07/21 04:29

[pradeep]

ThanQ vasu.

[kavitharaod]

Hello,

I need a clarification regarding an example about a fresher you quoted in this thread. I do not have any develoment experience and has been continuously applying for jobs as a fresher and could not get call letters. Can you please guide me on how to put experience, which I do not have and how to prepare for the interview.

Thanks,
Kavitha.

you can get job by deceiving ppl...but it\'s gonna tough to hold it

[Vasu]

yes it is tough to hold it.
as i told,
\"SATISFY the CLIENT by MANAGING your WORK with your COMMUNICATION skills.\"

Because there are so many people who are not that much technical are surviving just with their communication and management skills.
I am not saying they dont have technical knowledge.

And also you need to do hardwork for first project. From second project it is easy and llely you need to update new stuff.

Thanks Vasu, but what if your project ppl come to know that you are just talking and not working..what do u do in that case.

Then its the individual\'s fault that he/she ain\'t working! A word of caution! While interviewing always find out if the project you are interviewing for is in the infancy/planning/design stage. Design is fully theoretical. Plus you can also use the time to learn some core programming stuff too.. If you have never ever done programming, I would highly recommend that you give it a lot of thought before jumping into a hardcore programming job..

Its very risky for you and the consulting company you represent

Design is fully theoretical????????