What I’m about to write is something that is essentially present inside all of us. It’s just that we have stopped looking deep into ourselves in order to come across such ‘divine’ revelations!
Resume writing as perceived by most of us is merely a list of our qualifications and achievements placed in a random order, and thus the lack of coherence it displays mars the interest if the employer when presented with such thought-free ( a more polite way to put it than ‘mindless’) set of information.
Where do we lack in this perception? Isn’t resume merely a list of what we’ve done since we were born up until now? Well if you think that’s the case, you’re sadly mistaken.
The first step towards such thoughtful resume writing is honesty. You cannot cook up whatever comes to your mind when it comes to your resume. Things have to be genuine. The experiences of past or the skills and abilities you’ve boasted about have to be part of your actual life and not just the things you fancy or probably what you thing will improve the chances of you getting that job!
One has to constantly keep in mind that the way you present yourself in that page-long-or-two piece of document becomes a deciding factor in your professional career and to a large extent how your overall experiences in life will be moulded. The job you’re about to get will be based on a close analysis of this document, and sometimes just it. One of the major reasons why people are not satisfied with the work they do is because of what they present themselves initially, or at least what their resume makes them appear to be, is completely contradictory to whom they actually are. This leads to performance activities which you don’t really like or aren’t passionate about at all. To set this right, one needs to conduct a thorough self-examination, a close recounting of the past, analysis of your finest skills, interests and abilities, bringing in a sense of purpose and a goal in the impending job pursuit, and finally an articulation of the ‘core’ of such in-depth analysis into a fine written document which we usually call a resume!
Resume is one thing in the corporate world that gives you space to express yourself, of who you actually are, and how you want your life to be shaped. If you don’t make use of this space seriously, somebody else will. They’ll decide on your behalf and you’ll sit back there moaning because under the present demand for jobs, your dream-job might just not remain there forever. Therefore you need to first know what exactly are you meant for and then pursue for it with all your heart, soul and mind.
Knowing that how much preachy it all sounds, I still insist that you try and put it to practice, I’m sure it will be of some (maybe much) benefit.
This post has been contributed by Gayas Eapen.
Photo Credit: scottkellum
