How to write a Resume

1. SUIT UP
Dr A.N. Brijesh Nair
&
Deepa Madathil

2. My Disclaimer
• Not a professional resume/SOP writer
• I am talking from my experience
– Applying for jobs
– Interviewing
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3. My Disclaimer
• These rules
– Not applicable
• To Mass Recruiters
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4. Outline
• Resume
– Journey of a resume
– Writing a resume
– Do’s and Don’ts
• Interviews
– Do’s and Don’ts
• SOP
– Definition
– How to write it
• Questions
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5. How many of you know the differences
between……
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6. Resumes
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7. Biodata
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9. Resumes
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10. Word “Resume” originated from
• French Word
– Summary
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11. If “Resume” is “Summary”
• Ideally
– 1 page
– Cannot exceed 2 pages
• Resume
– Summary
• Employment
• Education Relevant to the job
• Other skills
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12. Resume
• Never list out
– All your qualifications/education
• But
– Only those relevant to job advertised
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13. Resume
• Written in third person
– To be objective and formal
• Use bulleted points
• Starts with
– Summary of Qualifications/Objective
• Reverse chronological order
– Focus on the most recent one
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15. Curriculum Vitae originated from
• Latin Word
– Course of Life
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16. Curriculum Vitae (C.V)
• C.V
– More detailed than Resume
– Usually 2 to 3 pages
• Can be even longer
– List every
• Skill
• Job
Chronological Order
• Degree
• Professional Affiliations
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17. Curriculum Vitae (C.V)
• C.V
– General Talent
– Not the specific skill
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18. Biodata
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19. Bio-Data
• Short form for
– Biographical data
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20. Typical Biodata
• Personal particulars
– Date of Birth
– Religion
– Sex
– Race
– Nationality
– Residence
– Marital Status
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21. Typical Bio-data
• Chronological listing of
– Education
– Experience
• Can be more than 10 pages
• Example of a bio-data
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22. So what do you have to make?
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23. So what do you have to make?
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24. So what do you have to make?
• Resume??
• Bio-data??
• Curriculum Vitae??
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26. Majority of the time
• Resume…
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27. So you send your resume for…
• Job
• Internship
• To professors
– To get scholarships
• To do MS
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28. You apply via…
• Email
• Snail Mail
• Job sites like
– www.monster.com
– www.naukri.com
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29. It is good to understand what
happens to your resume after you
send that
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30. Assume…
• Opening in VIT University
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32. Journey of a Resume
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33. Journey of a Resume
• Assume 100 people applied
– For the post of
• Assistant Professor
• One opening
– Now HR dept
• Hands over the resume
– To Director of SMBS
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34. Journey of a Resume
• Director of School
– busy person
– Glance through each resume
• Maximum for a minute
• Short lists 10 from that
• Others go to dust-bin
– Comes back later
• Goes in detail
– Through the 10 short listed resumes
• Selects five
– To call for final interview
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35. Journey of a Resume
• What happened here?
– Ninety resumes were not even read properly
– Rejected
– Why?
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36. Journey of a Resume
• It failed to create
“that” first impression
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37. Journey of a Resume
• It is very necessary to
– Create that first impression
• If you need to be selected for Interview
• How can you do that
– Making your resume
• Short and sweet
• Being very specific
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38. What happens when you send your
resume to the professor abroad for
MS admission?
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40. Assume a situation
• You are a final year student in VIT
University
• One fine day you are getting a mail in your
inbox
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41. You are getting a mail…
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42. You are getting a mail…
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43. After reading this what will be your
reaction??
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44. Your reaction?
$%&@ You!
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45. Now a professor gets a mail
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46. Professor Opens the mail
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47. What will he do?
$%&@ You!
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48. What will he do?
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49. What do you understand?
• From job selection process in VIT
• Emails I showed you
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50. More than 95% of the time, your
resumes are not even read before it
is rejected
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51. Your resume should…
• Withstand filtering
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52. Resume
• Short and sweet
• Being very specific
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53. Resumes – Do’s and Don’ts
• For a B.Tech Student
– One page ideal
– Worst case
• 2 pages
– Font
• Arial
– Heading 12 pt
– Text 10-11pt
– Minimize the white space
• Ideally “ZERO” white space
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61. The new resume
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65. Another Example
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69. The transformation
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71. Food for thought
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72. What is this?
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73. A roadside book store…
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74. How do you select a book…
• Attracted by
– Author
– Cover
– Best seller
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75. So you should
• Make yourself well known
• Make your work well known
• As a fresher both are not possible
• What is possible
– Make your resume colorful
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76. How can you make it colorful?
• Adding all relevant stuff
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77. Sections in Resume
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78. Name and Address
Your email id
Your Name
• Give your permanent address
• Font
– Name
• Arial 14 pt
– Others
• Arial 10 pt
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79. Objective
• Should exactly match the job profile
• Objective should be
– Unique for the job
• Maximum 2 lines
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80. Education
• Latest degree first
• Format
– Degree-specialization-School-CGPA-Month &
Date of Graduation
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81. Academic Projects
• All relevant projects you did in class
– Last one first
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82. Publications
• Last publication first
• Include ONLY publications
– Relevant for the job
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83. Skills
• The various skills you possess
– In bulleted points
– Group similar skills together
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84. Honors
• The various outstanding achievements
– Relevant to position applied
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85. Relevant Courses
• Relevant courses
– Good for internship
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86. Additional Qualifications
• Any other qualification you have
– That makes you a better candidate
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87. Reference
• Optional
– You can always write
• “Reference will be provided on request”
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88. Internships
• If applying for industry job/internship
– This should come after “Education”
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89. Professional Experience
• If you already have a job
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90. Professional Affiliations
• The professional bodies you are affiliated to
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91. So titles…
• Name and address
• Objective
• Education
• Professional Experience
• Academic Projects
• Internships
• Publications
• Skills
• Honors
• Relevant Courses
• Additional Qualifications
• References
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92. Some thoughts on Resume
• Professional
Experience
• Academic Projects
• Internships Cannot develop these
skills overnight
• Publications
• Skills
• Honors
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93. Some thoughts on Resume
• Every month you do something
– Update your resume
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94. Some thoughts on Resume
• No two jobs can have same resume
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95. Some thoughts on Resume
• Never copy even a single
line of your resume
• My professor
– Shown me copied resumes
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96. Some thoughts on Resume
• Before you send the resume
– Make your resume
– Correct it
– Show it to your friends
– Correct it again
– Show it to someone who understands the job
profile
– Again correct it
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97. Suppose you are applying for this
job
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98. All titles should match these key
words
• Name and address
• Objective
• Education
• Professional Experience
• Academic Projects
• Internships
• Publications
• Skills
• Honors
• Relevant Courses
• Additional Qualifications
• References
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99. Uploading your resume in Web
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100. You upload your resume
• www.naukri.com
• www.monster.com
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101. How is this different from other
ways of applying?
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102. After you upload your resume
• Most of the time
– It is not for a specific job
– You register in that site
• Upload your resume
– Companies contact these websites
• Specifying key words
– “Structural Engineer”, “Network Engineer”
• Search engine picks up
– All resumes that match the key word
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103. If you are uploading your resume
• To a internet site
– It should be rich in technical terms
– so that it comes up in internal search
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104. Let us move on
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105. Interviews
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106. Now you are called for interview
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107. Types of interview
• HR Interview
– Group Discussion
– One to one interview
• Technical
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108. Interviews – some get through
some won’t
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109. Some HR interview questions
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110. Interviews
• These questions look very easy
• Answers are not easy
• If you haven’t prepared
– You easily contradict yourself
– Flow of words won’t be there
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111. Some HR interview questions
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112. Interviews
• Be prepared for such questions
• Lot of books out there
– Do’s and don’t’s
• HR Interview
– Read at least one of them
• Make your own stories
• Connect that story
– To all the questions
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113. Interview
• While going for an interview
– Read all that is available
• About that company
• At the end of the interview
– Ask one question (already prepared)
• That proves your knowledge about the company
– It can really help
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114. Interview
• Once you are done
with the interview
– Send a “THANK YOU”
mail
– It makes a lot of
difference
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115. Statement of Purpose (SOP)
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116. Why did you join VIT for doing
engineering?
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117. Why did you join VIT University?
• Has to “some how” do engineering
• Pressure from
– Parents
– Friends
• You have been told from childhood
– Your are worth only if you do engineering
• Majority of us
– Never had any life changing event
• That made us to decide “I am going to do engineering”
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118. It is different in US
• No one is forced to do any courses
• You join college/select the subject based
– On your own interest
– Example of my friend
• BS in Arts (movie making)
• MS in Engineering
– Learning the working principle of cameras
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119. What is SOP?
• It should answer 3 questions
– What motivated you to do what you are doing now?
– What are you doing now?
– Why you want to do what you want to do for your
graduate studies?
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120. Taking example of my friend
• What motivated you to do what you are
doing now?
– A camera I got as gift
• I took around taking photos/videos
• Arouse interest in me to know more about
– Lighting
– Shades
• So took up Bachelors in Arts (specializing in movie
making)
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121. Taking example of my friend
• What are you doing now?
– Making movies using what I learned in school
– Types of movies I make
– Challenges I face
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122. Taking example of my friend
• Why you want to do what you want to do
for your graduate studies?
– I am making so many movies
– Feels like I don’t have control over the
cameras
– Need to learn more about the working of
camera
– Decided to do MS
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123. More about SOP
• For an American
– Making a story is easy
– A typical American in B.Tech class
• For an Indian student
– Most of the time
• You may have to make up the story
– To answer the 3 questions
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124. Importance of SOP
• SoP is the only part of your application
packet over which you have full control!
• Chance to talk directly to the admissions
committee
• Make yourself stand out from among a
multitude of similarly qualified candidates
• Convince the committee that you have the
spark, the thirst for knowledge that could add
value to your class
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125. SOP
• Should be
– 400 to 600 words
– 3 to 4 paragraphs long
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126. Teachers talking about SOP
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127. Conclude
• Resume
– No two resumes can be same
– Make resumes based on job requirement
– Limit it to one page
• Interviews
– Prepare well
• SOP
– You chance to impress the admission panel
– Answer three questions making up your own stories
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128. More about jobs/resumes
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130. Feedback
brijeshnairan@gmail.com
Brijesh Nair
brijeshnairan
Scaling New Heights
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