It was the year 1482. Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan, sat down at his desk one day to find a handwritten letter from an unknown armorer by the name of Leonardo Da Vinci. “I have kinds of mortars; most convenient and easy to carry; and with these, I can fling small stones almost resembling a storm; and with the smoke of these cause great terror to the enemy, to his great detriment and confusion” the letter read, along with a formidable list of the applicant’s achievements. The astonished duke hired this young man by the very next day, and the rest, of course, is history. The world had seen the first-ever curriculum vitae, also known today as the resume.
Resumes, derived from the French word for “summary”, changed very little over the next 450 years, but the globalization of the 20th century brought about a few modifications to its style and content. In the digital age we live in today, where degrees and qualifications flow galore, a well-worded resume has often become the decisive factor that filters through the best of the applicant pool.
Resumes take on many different forms according to the position applied for. Despite this variability, there are several essential components in a well-written resume that make it stand out among the rest and take you one step closer to your dream job.
Identification is a critical part of any resume; your future boss needs to know who they are being impressed by. Your name, address, telephone number, and email address belong at the top of the resume under the identification section. Make sure that a professional/work email address is provided.
Education is the next on the list (or rather, the resume). The degrees you have received must be listed in reverse chronological order, which means that the degrees should be ordered backward in time with the most recent one listed first. Do not forget to include the university/institute from which the degree was obtained along with the title of the degree and a short description of the honors received. For example,
University of UtopiaMay 2040Bachelor of Arts, Department in Philosophy (Honors)3.8 GPA
A good resume should also include a section on your career progression with all posts previously held and internship experiences received. As with education, these should be listed in reverse chronological order with the name of the company, the post held, and dates of employment mentioned with each entry. A summary of the tasks accomplished and responsibilities held may be included under each entry. It is best to write this in an active voice. For example, “I directly managed three interns in my department” would be preferable to “My duties included the direct management of three interns in my department”. High school students applying for their first job may include sports and clubs under this section whereas this would be out of place in the resume of a senior manager applying for the C-suite of a company.
An optional but recommended component of a resume is a section on skills. Details of programming languages you are fluent in would be highly relevant in a modern resume irrespective of the position you apply for. Other skills you may include are foreign language abilities (with your proficiency level listed as basic, intermediate, proficient, or fluent) and special skills applicable to the job which is not listed elsewhere in the resume.
Another section that would look good on your resume is a section on volunteer work. This can help to highlight your leadership abilities and your willingness to give back to society, both of which are important attributes in most work environments. Furthermore, you can also include any hobbies or interests that are relevant to the position you apply for. A typical example would be mentioning your passion for cricket if you apply for a position in a sporting goods store. This is an additional touch on your resume which can have a pleasant effect on your potential employer.
Special attention should be paid to the font of your resume.
The HOLY Font
The impression that a viewer can get about you, within the first few seconds of opening your resume is known as the ‘First Impression’. This impression not only defines your personality but also affects the decision of the viewer to continue looking through your CV or not. One of the major aspects that can influence this First Impression is your HOLY fonts. As the reader-friendly adjective describes, the fonts play a major role in describing you through your CV, and there are three different categories in fonts that you can improve on. They are:
- The type of font you intend to use,
- How the font styles are being implemented throughout the CV,
- The Golden Font sizes.
Let us look into these three in brief:
The Font Type
The type of font you use in the Curriculum Vitae can give out Sherlock Holmes type description about your personality to the reader. Let us look at some of the most used fonts on resumes.
1.
Times New Roman
The God of all fonts, whatever assignment or report you have to submit, this font is surely mentioned in the guidelines. Most recruiters tend to show less preference for this font as it is commonly used and outdated. Therefore, I would recommend you go for some other font unless it’s a requirement.
2.
Arial
This font can be cited as a favorite as per many recruiters due to its clean-cut and readable letters. Therefore, this font is much favored on resumes when compared to the traditional Times New Roman Font.
3.
Garamond
Although this font was introduced a long time ago, it is still a newcomer for its usage in resumes. Therefore, as it is rarely seen, readable, and clean, this font will make your resume stand out among the others, to the recruiters’ eyes.
Font Style
The three main font styles Bold, Italics and Underlined must be implemented in such a way, to emphasize headings and names.
The Font Size
The Golden size that you should use for normal text in your resume is 12pts. While this size can be increased by one or two points to represent headings, it must be noted that text size should never be less than this size.
Finally, it should be noted that the visual presentation of your resume, although less important than the factors listed above, can also be fine-tuned to perfection. Many professional websites such as LinkedIn offer several sections under which your qualifications can be listed and then convert the information to an appealingly formatted pdf document. However, if you prefer it the old-school way, a simple web search would show you several customizable templates that can be downloaded free of charge.
Here’s a summary of what we’ve covered so far.
The Format
There are different formats followed depending on vacancies that a certain individual applies to, but the following basics should always be followed.
The header of your resume must include all your important contact details, i.e., your Full name, address, and other contact information. The inclusion of your passport size photograph also must be placed inside this header.
The following details must always be included in your resume:
- The statement about the vacancy you will be applying for, and what value you would bring to the company if the vacancy is filled by you.
- The core strengths you possess to be qualified to apply for the required vacancy.
- The experience in a relevant field.
- Educational Qualifications.
- Awards and Honors acquired throughout your life.
The resume must always end with the contact details of a referee, which will be used by the recruiters to ensure that you are as good as the resume says.
Good luck with your first resume!
Written by: Ruwimal Pathiraja, Nadun Ranasinghe
Sinhala Translator — Rumeshika Pallewela
Tamil Translator — Mohamed Izad
