Steps to write a good resume

Hi! First of all, sorry for the long snooze period but I've come up with something interesting, or so i hope. :)

Was helping a friend out with his resume when it struck me. I've applied for a job and have recruited people through those endless job sites. Working with all this, I figured a lot of things. Being on the other side of the fence, I could figure out what recruiters look for and so how I can shape my resume to get more visibility on those job sites and win over a recruiter right there. The result? I started getting almost two calls every week. All relevant jobs and some awesome offers. That's how I landed the job I currently do.

Below, I've mentioned some of the tips n tricks I figured. I'll keep on adding more as and when I remember any.

• If you're posting your resume on one of those job sites, it is very important to do some keyword research before you post your resume. After all, these portals are nothing but resume search engines that show you results according to the keywords searched for. You need to find out the right keywords that HR ppl are looking at and then place them in your resume. The result? Voila, the resume shows up more when they search. 

Keyword Research: Now how do you do your keyword research? 

Go to any of those sites and type a word in search and notice the words that show in the auto-suggestion. Those indicate the popular searches done on the website to find candidates and jobs.

Example: For my profile, if I type 'Internet', I get a suggestion 'Internet Marketing' but if I type 'Web', I get web design, web architecture but do not get 'Web Marketing' so I need to add 'Internet Marketing' and not 'Web Marketing' as a keyword in my resume.

Also look at the 'Search by Category' page. This gives you an idea of the kind of classification they've given to resumes on their site. So when I add my resume, it should have the Keyword 'Online Sales' than 'AdWords' 

• Resume Summary: Most of these job sites ask you to add a Resume Summary/Resume Headline (a line with a few words describing your skill set and yr past experience). Your resume summary is your most important piece of text. It's your ticket to fame. I used to search for candidates on Naukri.com n Monster.com for my team in my previous company. The easiest way to look for the right candidate is by looking at their resume summary which outlines what they've done in the past. So when you apply, it's very important to write a crisp, shiny resume summary. Add yr company name, the more good looking designation the better, yrs of exp. and skills (if there's space)

Example: This is what my resume summary looks like: 

"Online Marketing and Product Manager at Connectfilms Media Pvt. Ltd. with 3 yrs experience at Google and YouTube" 

• Use more action verbs, timelines, numbers: Make your resume sound more action oriented. If you want to write about the fact that you were a part of the team of 3 that launched a particular tool, you should write "Launched 'The tool' along with 3 team mates and made it functional within 2 months. The tool reduced employee efficiency by 30% . When companies look for a candidate, they want to see upfront in the resume what a candidate can bring to the company. That should clearly show from your resume.

• Spelling and Grammar: This is more of a personal opinion since I used to ding resumes that had bad grammar and spelling mistakes. If a candidate can't sell themselves well, what else can they sell then? (Works bad for a sales or marketing job. Again, just my opinion)

Hope these help you to land that awesome job you've been looking for. If it does, do let me know. 

Know your team

I can't stress on this enough. I've recently changed jobs and moved from a people management role to an individual contributor's role. I'm still a manager though, but I haven't got my team yet. I still may, in the future, get a set of people to work with. However, I've got a new manager. And a gem at that. He spends most of the time with us, his reportees and tries to understand what we are all about. And I really admire him for that. He guides us but at the same time lets us be. It's best to understand each and every person characteristics in the team and the delegate work to them according to their skill set. As the word goes, you can't get an artist to write about sports. The same applies to your team. You give a person what they're best at, and voila, you've got the best results right there. I know that in some organizations, due to work pressure and the load, there might not be enough time for this exercise but I really urge all the managers out there to give some extra time for this. Take your team out for a walk, a drink or whatever you're comfortable doing. An out-of-work-realm activity won't harm and might just help in getting to know your subordinates better.