1. careers
2. resume writing and advice

“Resume Etiquettes”
The handbook of resume writing guidelines
Ideal for both freshers and experienced professionals of almost any industry.
1st Edition, Jan-2015
by
KA32.in
Non-profit website of Kalaburagi
www.ka32.in/careerguidance
Resume Etiquettes
…. A resume writing guidelines
Disclaimer: The resume writing guidelines provided herewith are written as per IT industry
standards. However, most of the points here are generic and applicable to all industries, but
not limited to IT. The names taken in the resume template are for example purposes only and
do not relate to any individuals.
In aid towards helping the people of Hyderabad-Karnataka region, the author of this article also
aims every fresher to formulate and build up resume writing skills and ease their job hunt. The
tips composed here are as per the observations and learnings by the author during his
experience so far.
About Author: Pursued B.E. graduation from PDA college of Engg. Kalaburagi. With 6+ years
Software Engineering experience in IT industry, he is passionate about programming and loves
to share his knowledge with the needful. Teamed with his brothers, developed a web portal
www.ka32.in (a non-profit website) which aims to facilitate people (especially of
Hyderabad-Karnataka) to get the most out of today’s online trend.
Acknowledgement: Thanks to brothers Vinod Andani and Prashant Andani for their support,
motivation and review of this document.
Written by
Nagesh Andani
KA32.in
A non-profit website of Kalaburagi
Contents
Sl.No
Topic
Page No.
I Terminology
1
II Resume screening - An eagle eye’s view by recruiters
2
III Do’s and Don’ts
3
IV Resume contents
5
V Emailing the resume
9
VI Standard resume template
10
Sample resume of experience candidate
Sample resume of a fresher candidate
I. Terminology
❖ Resume - The document that showcases the job seeker’s profile. Also referred as “Curriculum Vitae",
“CV”, or “Profile” but NOT “Bio-data”. Resume is pronounced as “Resyu May” -
ಸು
❖ Employer: The company or organization - One who hires
❖ Employee: An individual - one who works for a company or organization
❖ CTC: Cost To Company - the annual salary - the total cost the company spends on an employee
❖ Current CTC: The salary that an employee is being paid by his/her present employer
❖ Expected CTC: The salary that an employee expects for the new job role
❖ Probation period: The initial period of your employment, varies 3-6 months. During this period, your
manager closely evaluates your progress and skills, determines appropriate assignments, and monitors
other aspects such as honesty, reliability, and interactions with co-workers or customers. An employer
reserves the rights to decline your employment in case of unsatisfactory results of your probation
period.
❖ Notice period: Denotes how soon you can join the new company. This is decided by you as per your
availability. It is the time period between the date of the offer and the actual date of joining the
company. Usually, the employer would be willing to have you on board as soon as possible.
For freshers: It could be immediate or around 15 days
For working employees: Usually 1 to 3 months as per your current employer’s policies. This is the time
period you need to serve to your current employer before you actually quit the company. During this
period, your employer finds the resource to replace your role, and you are required to involve in KT
(Knowledge Transition).
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“Resume Etiquettes” - Page 1/10
II. Resume Screening - Recruiters’ view at your resume
❖ Resume screening - A process of shortlisting resume by quickly looking into it for required keywords, skill
set and other various requirement criteria.
❖ For freshers job opening, the recruiter gets thousands of resumes. Recruiter might need to do resume
screening within a very short time.
❖ Recruiter looks out for relevant keywords in your resume to quickly filter out irrelevant resume. He often
uses "Find" feature of a text editor.
❖ For experienced job roles, recruiter might review resume closely
❖ Recruiter looks for any achievements in current or previous jobs
❖ Recruiter assumes to collect more details about you in the Face-to-Face rounds of interview
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III. Do’s and Don’ts for your resume preparation
Don’ts
Do’s
❖ Inconsistent page layouts
❖ Use A4 paper size with standard margins:
left: 0.5", right: 0.5", top: 0.5", bottom: 0.5"
❖ No fancy colors
❖ Use only black colored text
❖ No stylish fonts
❖ Use standard fonts like "Calibri" or "Arial"
❖ No too many font styles
❖ Use only one font style throughout the resume
❖ No Inconsistent font of text (size, bold, italic)
❖ Use consistent font size, bold throughout the
resume
Calibri
Arial
Heading: size: 12, Bold
Heading: size: 11, Bold Detailed text: size: 11
Detailed text: size: 10 ❖ Don't write lengthy resume spreading too many
pages
❖ Keep the resume brief to 1-2 pages. Use brief
sentences, or points with bullets.
❖ Don't rush in last minute to write your resume
❖ Take time well in advance. It might take upto 2
days to write and fine tune your resume.
❖ Don't use funny, childish email id in your
resume. Though it doesn’t really matter, it’s
always good to use a professional looking email
id.
Example:
raj_prince@gmail.com
angel_priya@yahoo.com
cool_kalyani@gmail.com
smile_pooja@gmail.com
❖ Don't use images, logos
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❖ Create a good, professional email id, that
represents you uniquely with your first name
and last name.
Example:
raj.kapoor@gmail.com,
rohit.patil@gmail.com
If desired email id is not available, you can use
number suffix.
Example:
raj.kapoor1@gmail.com
❖ Use text-only contents. The recruiter might use
a simple text editor to view your resume and
may miss out the image details.
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“Resume Etiquettes” - Page 3/10
Don’ts
Do’s
❖ Don't leave spellings and grammatical
mistakes unattended in your resume. This
creates a bad impression that you don't care
about written communication.
❖ Use spell checker of your editor, review the
document thoroughly for faults, or ask your
friend to review it.
❖ No need to specify personal details like:
residence address, father's name, mother's
name, or siblings details.
❖ Most of the private job communications are
happening through email and telephone.
❖ Exception in government recruitment where
it requires your residential address for postal
communication.
❖ Specifying your hobbies may or may not be
an interesting point to the employer. Hobbies
with no relativity with the job role has no
meaning.
❖ At the point of resume screening, the
recruiter might not be interested in your
personal details.
❖ Since most of the MNC companies are an
equal opportunity employer, your personal
details like age, sex, religion, native place do
not really matter to them. Hence, such
details can be skipped.
❖ Government jobs have criteria such as age
range, caste reservations, and native place.
Include these details in your resume when
applying for such job roles.
❖ Don’t ignore to properly name your resume
file.
Example of a bad file name:
“My resume.docx”
“resume.docx”
“new document 1.docx”
“file 1.docx”
Remember, recruiters get thousands of resume.
It would be difficult for him/her to identify
specific resume file out of thousands.
❖ Provide a proper file name to your resume
file. i.e, <your first name> <last name> <resume>
Example of a good file name:
“Ashok Patil - Resume.docx”
This kind of naming helps the HR to easily pick
the file out of thousands.
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“Resume Etiquettes” - Page 4/10
IV. Resume contents:
❖ Put only those relevant details that the recruiter is interested to know
❖ Be honest, specify accurate details
❖ Title: No need to mention the title as "Resume" or "Curriculum Vitae" or "Profile"
The contents itself implies that this document is a resume. However, you can utilize the footer of the
resume to put this. Along with page number, total pages.
Example:
❖ Mention your name (in First Name Last Name format), email id, contact number at the top of the resume
Example:
or
❖ Summary: Include 1-2 lines of summary of your profile as a resume headline
Example:
B.E. (Comp. Sc.), Fresher – 76% Agg. - PDA College of Engg. Kalaburagi
B.E. (Info. Sc.), 6 months Internship in Novell – 76% Agg.
B.E. (Computers), 2 yrs. exp. Development in C#.NET, SQL Server, Agile methodology
M.B.A (Finance), 6 months internship in Reliance Finance – 65% Agg.
❖ Career objectives: describe your long-term goals and milestones in 1-2 lines
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❖ Academic: Mention your academic qualification details in descending order (highest qualification first)
Put accurate details – cross check aggregate, pass out year details against marks cards or certificates
No need to specify your pre-SSLC or primary school details.
Example:
❖ Skill set: Include all of the areas you are familiar with
Example: If you are from a computer science stream, mention the programming languages you know.
Include Linux operating system if you are familiar with. Though the recruiter may not require Linux skill
set for the current job role, this might become a plus point for future roles. It is always good to know
many technologies to out stand you to be a dynamic professional.
❖ Experience: If you have prior work experience, mention the most recent job first followed by the older.
Briefly describe the project, technologies, roles and responsibilities, recognitions gained etc. While respect
the confidential details or trade secrets of your previous employer.
❖ Academic project work: Mention summary of your academic project, technologies used, the role you
played in a team, knowledge gained throughout the project life-cycle.
❖ Extras: Showcase the outstanding work done by you
Example:
➔ If you have contributed as a developer in any open source software, developed some tools or
website.
➔ If you have presented a technical paper to your classmates or juniors in your student life.
➔ Highlight your passion in your domain – This might be a point of discussion in your face-to-face
round of interview.
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❖ Group relevant details:
Create sections, name them as "Academic", "Career", "Personal", "Achievements"
Categorize details and include in the relevant section. Do not mix.
➔ No need to mention that you have a "Good communication skills". If the recruiter has reached till 3rd
paragraph of your resume, he already knows that you are good communicator.
➔ Do not use words like: I, he, we, they, and any individual’s name
Example:
Wrong:
I got best project award in our college
I have participated in inter-college technical fest
Correct:
Awarded “Best project of the year” by PDA College
Participated in inter-college technical fest
❖ Include awards which are relevant and showcase your personality
For example: "Got awarded 1st prize in Rangoli competition" – This may be a point of interest if you are
applying for a drawing teacher job but not be relevant for technical jobs.
❖ Strengths like "Good team player", "Self-starter" are very common and every candidate is expected to
have these. Hence, no need to specify. Specify strengths that you truly have, and might have something to
do with this job role.
❖ Do not mention current or expected CTC or salary details in your resume. This should be communicated
later in telephonic, email or face to face discussions.
❖ Avoid repetitive words
❖ Your resume needs to showcase the best of you
❖ Mention additional relevant courses you have studied if any
❖ Resume in F2F: While in face-to-face round of interview, the interviewer might discuss with you on the
interesting points he finds in your resume. For example, he might ask you to explain about your
development contribution to the open source software, or the technical paper presented by you. By this,
he will understand your passion, presentation skills, verbal communication skills, and your ability to make
others understand the ideas and concepts.
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❖ Languages: Mention the languages you know only if the job role requires you to communicate in various
languages. For example: Call center representative job roles.
❖ Update periodically: Polish your resume by updating it every month or a two. It's a work in progress. You
never know when you will be asked for it.
❖ Review: Carefully look for the spelling or grammar mistakes, get it reviewed by someone
❖ Print out: Use a good quality printer to take hard copies of your resume (no photocopies). Pages should be
printed single-sided. Keep the resume in a tidy state. Do not fold it.
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V. Emailing the resume
The first step in applying for a job is to email your resume to the HR of the company or consultants. You need
to make sure that your email communication is professional.
- Email id: Email the resume with your own email id. Recall from Do’s and Don’ts, use a professional
email id.
- No Multiple receivers: If you send a mail to multiple email id in a single go, the receiver will be able to
know this. Don’t even use CC or BCC. Always include only one sender at a time in a “To” field.
- Subject: Mention a proper email subject to denote that you are applying for a specific opening in a
company.
Few companies might ask you to specify a subject as described by them in their ad. This is because,
they have a program to automatically filter thousands of emails from their inbox based on the subject
line (your email might be ignored if your subject line doesn’t match).
Example:
“Resume - for C#.NET opening - Freshers.”
“Resume - for SQL Server DBA, 4 yrs exp.”
“Resume - for Marketing manager, 6 yrs exp.”
- Body: The email body content should be short & simple
Example:
Hi,
PFA resume.
Thanks and Regards,
<your name>
- Attachment: Do not forget to attach your resume file. The resume can be in a MS-Word (.doc/.docx)
or in a PDF format. Recall from Do’s and Don’ts that a proper resume filename makes the HR’s job
easier.
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VI. Standard template of a resume
1. Title: Include your name, email id, mobile number
2. Headline: summary of your profile in 1-2 lines
3. Career objective: This is optional. However, if included, write your own dream objective of career, where do
you want see yourself in a long-term.
[If you are a fresher, skip section 4]
4. Industry experience summary: In a descending order (recent job first)
5. Academic summary: Your education details (highest degree first)
6. Academic projects: If you have done any projects as part of your studies
7. Awards/Achievements: If you have achieved something, got any awards/recognitions, or participated in any
curricular activities in your college/school/industry, include those here
8. Personal: Date of birth, native place, country
9. Use document footer to display details like page number, total pages
For downloadable sample resume formats, and more about career guidance, visit
www.ka32.in/careerguidance
Wishing you a good luck
KA32.in
© 2015 KA32.in - All rights reserved.
www.ka32.in/careerguidance
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“Resume Etiquettes” - Page 10/10
ASHOK PATIL Mobile: 9XXXX XXXXX e­mail: ashok.patil@gmail.com B.E. (Info. Sc.), 6+ years exp. ­ Development ­ C#.NET, SQL Server, Product Development, Agile Technical Summary: ● C#.NET, WinForms, WCF, ADO.NET ● OOPs concepts, Design Patterns ● RDBMS concepts, stored procedures, MS SQL Server ● Web UI Development ­ HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, JQuery ● Product development: End­Point Management, CRM, HealthCare and Public sector ● User Experience and Industry standard programming best practices ● Agile Methodology ­ Scrum Professional Timeline Period Duration Organization Technologies Jun 2012 ­ Present 2+ years Novell, Bengaluru C#.NET, HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript Jun 2008 ­ May 2012 4 years IBM, Bengaluru C#.NET, SQL Server Work Experience Organization: Novell Software Development Designation: Sr. Software Engineer Product: ZENworks Appliance as a blackbox ­ The ZENworks End­Point Management suite that comes embedded on top of the minimal SUSE Linux OS. IT Admin is provided a web based UI to configure ZENworks and use the blackbox with various features such as File Explorer, Terminal, Log Viewer, Server Configuration. Contribution: ● Key developer ­ Web UI development of various modules of blackbox ­ File Explorer, Terminal, Server Configuration ● Provided innovative solutions through POCs to solve unknowns and making way for estimations ● Implemented features in a shorter time by extending open source web libraries Product: ZENworks Configuration Management ­ A bundle of integrated software that uses policy­based automation to configure, secure and track endpoints across their lifecycles. Includes components such as Policies, Bundles, Full Disk Encryption, Imaging. The policy management component allows users to set up various policies for the endpoint. Contribution: Involved in the maintenance of the product and helped fix various complex bugs Organization: IBM Designation: Software Engineer Product: Mario ­ Mario is an application that enables Service Master’s call center agents to handle the customer calls, respond to their queries with on­screen details, sell services online, and keep track of customer’s purchase details. Roles and responsibilities: ● Design, implement and maintain various modules ● Interaction with customer for requirements collection and incident solutions Academic Course Year Institution Percentage B.E. (Info. Sc.) 2008 PDA College of Engg. Kalaburagi (Affiliated to VTU, Belgaum) 61% Diploma (Info. Sc.) 2005 Government Polytechnic, Kalaburagi 67% SSLC 2002 S.B. High School, Kalaburagi 67% Extras, Achievements, Recognitions ●
●
●
●
●
At Novell, recognized and awarded by Distinguished Engineer for "Being Passionate" At IBM, researched and presented an idea on new product in education domain Participated in IBM’s “The Great Mind Challenge 2009 ” Coding Contest Polling”, showcased outstanding programming skills and awarded “Best Academic Project of the year ­ 2008” by P.D.A. College of Engg. Gulbarga. Actively involved in the development of an open source product LibreOffice. Ashok Patil
Mobile: 9XX-XXX-XXXX
e-mail: ashok.patil@gmail.com
________________________________________________________________________________________________
B.E. (Comp.Sc.), Fresher, 2012 pass out with 68 % agg., Appa Inst. of Technology, Gulbarga
Technical skill set
Good technical knowledge in:
●
C, C++, Java, SQL, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP
●
OOPs and RDBMS concepts
●
Linux
Good exposure:
●
User Experience standards
●
Industry standard programming best practices Career objective
To practice innovation as an integral part of work, to grow along with the organization, with the passion of
creativity in the software development industry.
Academic
Course
Year
Institution
Percentage
B.E (Comp. Sc)
2012
Appa Institute of Technology, Gulbarga. (Affiliated to VTU, Belgaum)
68 %
PUC (12th)
2008
Shree Guru PU College, Gulbarga
75 %
SSLC
2006
S.B. Residential, Gulbarga
65 %
Academic Project Work
Steganography with RSA based cryptography: Developed a module to implement steganography
specializing in hiding secret message into the static image. The solution enhances the existing steganography
techniques by further encrypting the raw message using RSA cryptographic algorithm.
Created a standard technique and a tool to achieve steganography with static images, which would be helpful
for anyone who is looking to exchange messages between parties in a secured and confidential way.
Tools/Technologies used: C#.NET
Responsibilities: Lead team, govern SDLC of the project and individually develop modules.
Achievements: Team collaboration, Industry-level programming practices and good knowledge development
life-cycle.
CV of Mr. Ashok Patil - 1 of 2
Extras, Strengths
●
Passionate about programming
●
Wrote few small programs as a hobby
●
Actively participated in various technical fests
●
Periodically presented technical papers on latest technologies in college
●
Hosted paper presentation event in the college
●
Been awarded “Best paper presentation of the year” 2012 by PDA College of Engg. Gulbarga
CV of Mr. Ashok Patil - 2 of 2