In the earlier articles, we discussed introduction to resume writing as well as what is part of a recent graduate resume.  If you have not read them, I suggest going through them to have a thorough understanding of the topic.

In this section, we will focus on what to include in each section. 

·        Header –  Include your name, email, phone number, address 

·        Summary – Highlight what is your passion, what have you done so far.  These can highlight your technical passion or accomplishments or your personal traits with examples e.g.

 “Always fascinated with new technologies, I developed an IoT project to enable communication between x&y, It is implemented as a pilot in our college and used by 9 departments.  During internship with AAA technology, I contributed to their flagship product “..”, liaised with QA and security team and participated in certification process, which not only enhanced my technical skills, it also enabled me to gain valuable understanding of security, quality and inter-team communication”

 Tip – You can also fill this information in the profile section on this site.  It will help potential recruiters to know you better. 

·        Education – Should include relevant details from 10^th onwards e.g. 10^th, 12^th, B.E, M.E (as applicable) with latest qualification on top.  Each course should have School/College Name, Board/University Name, Year of Study, Stream/Specialization, and Marks/CGPA. 

·        Projects Undertaken – Most important section of any resume – this is where you can differentiate against other candidates. Includes projects you have done, trainings attended, internship etc.   The entries in this section should be in reverse chronological order (latest at top).  For each project/entry,  include the following 

Title of the project, If it is academic project/internship/ training, Time Period e.g. Intern Field Engineer,  HHH Automobiles Ltd,  Aug 2017 – Jan 2018 (6 months)

Project Description – Describe the project at high level in 2-3 lines

Your Role and contribution – What was your role and contribution in the project – highlight targets/ tangible outcome or specific numbers which are important e.g. 

• Audited 18 quality processes on assembly line, which led to 30% reduction in defects (From 0.3% to 0.2%)
• Automated the manual order processing, improving daily throughput from 10 orders to 320 orders.
• XYZ actions resulted in 300% increase in visitor traffic on company website www. abc.com
• Acquired 200 recommendations from existing customers (target being 120) leading to….

Current state of project - Where it is implemented in real life. If it was an academic project and not implemented yet, you should mention if you have a running pilot or what are the plans to take it forward.

Note - Please do not use headings verbatim (e.g. current state of project etc). 

Tip – Please update full profile on this website.  It has fields designed to specifically help you in creating your resume.  Additionally It will help potential recruiters to know you better.

·        Skills - This is to showcase what you have learnt.  You can create multiple headings / categories under this section to highlight soft skills, technical skills, any other skills.  Few Points to note 

Pick 3-4 soft skills that describe you the best

Merely listing the skills is not enough - for every skill, add a point which supports your skill e.g. 

• Communication -  Coordinated technical papers with participants from 32 colleges across India for the technical event “Viva-2017” 
• Leadership – Led college basketball team to semi-final in the north zonal universities competition in Delhi 

·      Interests – The interests frequently come up in discussion during interviews, so carefully and wisely choose what you want to display. For each interest, provide a supporting point e.g. 

• Passionate about running, active member of “High Five Runners”, participated in Delhi Half Marathon in 2016, 2017.
• Rock Music, guitarist at college rock band “We Rock”, performed at 5 events. 

Tip - Do not put random interests e.g. reading, gardening, music.  If you don’t have anything meaningful to write, don’t include in resume. (and it’s a good idea to start thinking about developing some interest)

·        Awards – Highlight any awards you have received during your professional course (awards could be due to technical activities or non technical activities, however they shouldn’t date back to 10^th/school).

For each award – articulate 1 line about what did u learn from the experience.

·        Others – Anything you consider of significant important to highlight (e.g. books you read, your inspiration etc) including co-curricular and extra-curricular activities.

Now, you are ready with the first draft of your resume.   

I have specifically not focused on the layout / design of the resume – you can choose any format which you like. Just cross check that you follow guidelines discussed in “8 guidelines for making resume”.

In the next article, we will detail steps to finalize your resume.