As soon as you complete your education, you start looking for a job. For this, you need a resume. Being a fresher, you hardly have any idea of writing a resume, and you thus look for help for the same. A fresher’s resume is even more difficult to draft, because you do not have anything in terms of job experience to mention in your resume. You thus have to make the prospective employer believe that the qualities and skills you possess will actually be helpful in the job, and moreover you will have to make him/her believe that you possess those particular skills and qualities. Read the instructions given below that will help you write your resume.
- Using the Microsoft Word application, draft your resume. Set the margins to ‘one inch’ using the ‘Page Set-up’ options. Use only ‘Times New Roman’ or ‘Arial’ font, and the font size should be 12.
- The resume heading should include your name. Never write ‘resume’ or ‘ curriculum
vitae (CV)’ as the resume heading. It is visible that it is your resume. You can write your name at the center position, followed by your contact information. Provide you email address, phone number and postal mailing address as well. Keep this at the center, or towards the top left of the page. - Since you do not have any work experience, you can use the ‘Chronological resume’ style. In this style, you mention your qualification and internship details in a chronological order, beginning with the latest.
- After jotting down the qualification and certifications, stress on your skills and personality traits. Keep a section in your resume titled ‘key skills’, and under this, mention your skills and abilities in your field. The other section will be ‘strengths and weaknesses’, which will help you portray your personality traits. While mentioning weaknesses, mention it in a way that it shows how you have been trying to overcome your weaknesses, and present it as an underlying strength. For example, not meeting deadlines can be smartly presented as ‘Some times difficult to meet deadlines because I seek perfection in everything’.
- Even at the academic level, you can show your achievements. If you have been good at academics, extra curricular, taken some initiatives while at school or college, etc. you need to highlight these points. The reader will analyze these and try to determine your skills and abilities.
- Keep a list of references (maximum 2 – academic and corporate reference, if any), and at the end of your resume, mention that the reference will be made available on request.
Using these instructions, write your resume. While sending a hard copy of your resume, always get it printed on good quality plain white paper. Do not use any fancy borders, or colorful paper background. A resume has to be very formal, so never use fancy borders or fonts in your resume. Go ahead and write a resume that will help you get the interview call you were waiting for.