Essential Elements of a Resume

There are a few key points that should not be overlooked in a Resume. Designing and formulating a resume around these essential points is crucial. It not only helps in providing an edge to your application but also puts you a step ahead of other applicants.

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Essential Elements of a Resume

 

Heading of a Resume

It occupies the topmost portion of your resume where the applicant must give his/her Name. After that the contact details and then, the professional title. A professional title gives a clear idea about the post you are looking for or have already been at and are therefore capable of working at. Contact details should mainly include:

• Phone number
• Email address
• Correspondence address (which can be omitted for online applications but the current city must be mentioned).

In this age of online world including your relevant social media links (relevant, such as URL to your LinkedIn handle) your personal website or blog details also helps.

Summary

This is nothing but your career narrative, a small paragraph to highlight those skills and career achievements that can immediately attract the employer’s attention. It should be a very brief paragraph, three sentences on an average but must not exceed the limit of five sentences.

One may even use a headline to focus on what can be expected from them. For a fresh graduate, this becomes a career objective. A career objective should be a one-liner where you define what you have to offer and what you expect in return.

Professional Experience

Mentioning the details of the prior experience is necessary. But, to make the mention of your previous job title worth always quantify your work.

Giving the outcomes of the projects and assignments handed by you in numbers and percentage testifies your experience. In the case of a fresher, this section is omitted unless there is a legitimate internship experience present.

Education

No matter how much of the work experience you have mentioning the academic qualification is mandatory. For employers ease of scanning, we make a separate section for this.

For a fresh Graduate, this section succeeds in the career objective section. In the case of an excellent record, mentioning your GPA or percentage is a good idea!

Skills

Whether hard skills (Technical) or soft skills (e.g.Communication) are the main interest of the people hiring you. In fact,  including the maximum number of skills based on the job description considerably increase the chances of getting.

Awards and Certificates

There are always some commendable things to tell about that don’t fit into any of the above categories. You can use up the little extra space to mention the accolades that you earned.

Mention of Certificates non-related to your career choice is acceptable until it focuses on the dynamo of your personality. List only those awards in your resume that will surely impress your employer.

Few points to look after:

• Depending on different Resume Formats the order of the aforementioned sections changes.
• Applicants status i.e., whether a fresher or experienced also alters the format a little.
• The tone of the resume should be formal.
• No spelling mistakes.
• The inclusion of keywords from the job description.
• Efficient use of space.
• Never lie! Each and every detail you provide must be legitimate.

The key-point around which your whole resume should be woven is the job you applied for. So, you must take care that most of the things should be relevant. Relevant to the nature of the post, company, and career.

For example, if you are applying for the post of marketing then mention of a project done on robotics is completely insignificant. We should avoid mentioning such irrelevant stuff as much as possible. Because only a relevant resume is a meaningful one.

Solved Question on Resume Writing

Question: What is the major difference between a fresher’s resume and the resume of an applicant with previous job experience?

Answer: In a fresher’s resume, the heading is followed by ‘academic details’ whereas for an experienced person ‘work experience’ must be mentioned right after the heading.