We get lot of queries related to structure of resume
or format for biodata or for samples for best CV. We will provide
some general guidelines on the key elements in a resume. The basic
structure of a resume consist of the following:
Header & Footer
Your resume starts with the header and the footer
section. You should also have the appropriate left and right margin.
The header section have your name, current designation, email and
phone number. Some people also put their social media contact up
there as now a days, many hiring organizations would check your
social profile as well. You can also have your photograph placed
around this section or the next section.
Professional goal
In this section, you write down your professional
goals. This section should lay down your aspiration OR what you can
contribute or offering to the hiring organization. Here are some
examples of professional goals: “Seeking a challenging position
through which my complete skills and passion for excellence will be
utilized. Together, great exploits will not just be a dream but a
lifestyle.” “I am currently looking for a full time position in an
environment that offers a greater challenge, increased benefits for
my family, and the opportunity to help the company advance
efficiently and productively.” “To work for a progressive
organization in a highly motivating and challenging environment that
provides the best opportunities to grow and utilize my potential to
the fullest to achieve the organization’s goal while achieving my
personal goals.”
Education
You can place either Education before Experience or
vice-versa. Typically if you have many years of experience, say,
more than 10 years, you would put your Education section after
Experience section. For beginners, Education section is recommended
to be placed before Experience section. In some cases, if you have a
degree from a top university, you would like to put your Education
upfront. Also, have your highest degree first followed by the next.
Typically, your last two degrees should be sufficient. If you have
scored well, you should put down your score as well. But make sure
if you are putting down the score for one degree, you do put for the
other(s) as well to be consistent. Else, add this high score in a
given degree as an achievement in the Achievement section below. For
students and graduates who are fresh out of college, you can add
another section here: Courses and put down the relevant courses
undertaken to show you have the basic knowledge around the topic /
industry you are applying for the job.
Skills
Put down the key skills here to quickly help your
hiring manager to gauge the job fitment. Eg., if you are in software
industry, you can put skills like C/C++, Java, design patterns, etc.
Experience
If you have prior experience, you should put down in
chronological order starting with current or latest job details. Key
information here include company name, period you worked for (from –
to), last position in the organization and a small paragraph on your
role there. You can highlight your achievement at each of the roles
by clearly stating your achievement against a goal. Eg., if you are
in sales, you can mention – Over achieved revenue target by 15% for
the year OR for marketing professional, you can state – Increased
website traffic from 50 visitors per day to 5000 visitors per day
within a period of 3 months.
Special Projects
This an important section where you can showcase some
of the work you have done demonstrating your mastery over the skills
you mentioned above. If these are open projects or available through
a website / youtube, you can add the link as a reference here. This
is useful for graduates and interns to stand out from the rest.
Achievements / Honors / Awards / Certifications /
Patents
Put down you key Achievements, Honors and Awards worth
mentioning. Avoid putting down irrelevant details up here. If you
have certifications, mention the title, license number if available,
certification body, grant date and a link to the certification body.
Similarly, for patents, provide the title, grant date and a link to
the patent.
Recommendations
Add a few recommendations from your seniors and peers.
For students / grads, you can get recommendations from your
professors. In case you have been an intern, insure to get
recommendation from your mentor at the organization where you did
your internship. Overall, the length of your resume should be 1-2
pages. Arial and Times New Roman are recommended fonts for resumes.
Avoid font sizes below 10 though 11 or 12 is recommended. If you
have experience of less than 5 years, you should be able to fit in 1
page. Avoid any grammatical and spelling errors. Get it reviewed
from someone you trust. Most important, never put false information
in your CV. And check your resume for print quality through print
preview. Below are some of the sample resumes from PaanGO’s resume
builder. It provides well designed resume templates. All you need to
do is fill out the various sections and follow the guidance provided
by PaanGO. PaanGO has built in professional goals and job
descriptions for a given profession and job role for many common
professions. You just need to select from the drop down list all
line items relevant for you and push the “Add” button to insert it
in your resume. You can edit these to represent your information
accurately. Once you have put in the details, you can select any
template and download it. All templates provided at PaanGO are
tested to print correctly. However, we suggest to check it once
again after you have downloaded your resume through the print
preview function.
