Your Resume is Your Commercial

These are tough times and most employers are not even hiring. Wrong. The demand for talented people never drops. Even during recession, the demand for high calibre talent never wavers. During boom times, the good, the bad and the mediocre all get wooed by the employers to counterbalance those leaving the company through the revolving door. In economies which are growing, there is always a need to upgrade talent and the talent scouts are always on the prowl. When the times are demanding, all that changes is that the need to differentiate talent also rises. It is in times like this how you get your foot in the door matters. If a business card summarizes your contact details then your resume is like a print advertisement for your career. So treat your resume as your chance at creating the one page commercial that gives you a high share of the hiring manager’s mind. The resume becomes a framework that can be used to steer the conversation during the face to face interview. Besides a resume that shows a good match between the candidate and the role can increase the chances of being called for an interview.

Resume or CV? What is the difference between a resume and a Currculum Vitae or CV? A CV is a write up about your educational and academic background. It also has details of research papers, awards, dissertation etc written out in 3 pages or more and is usually more relevant if you are applying for positions in research or academia. In business scenarios a resume is what you need to send in. It is NEVER more than 2 pages – no matter how accomplished you are. A resume is not meant to be a mini autobiography. Even if you have had a career spanning 30 years and 12 continents (OK make that six continents) just focus on skills, key achievements and work experiences especially in the last few years. Stuff that you did 30 years back may have limited applicability because the world has changed and moved on since then. So just take it easy. Be brief.

Which came first the chicken or the egg now has a new twist – which came first the resume or the vacancy? Should you have a generic resume that you mail to the hiring organization? Or should you apply in response to a vacancy that is advertised? The resume has some static elements that are to be mentioned regardless of the vacancy eg your name, contact details, educational qualificatons etc. It is the rest of the information that needs to be written to identify areas where there is a good match between the role and you. For instance if you have been working for a startup and that is what the job opportunity is about, then that will show a potential match especially if the experience gained in the previous assignment can be leveraged in the new role.

Before you write the resume, read up the Job Description. It also pays to read about the organizations history, product lines, turnover, etc. All these can be great pointers to what the organization is all about. This is information that will help you write the resume that is tailor made for the organization. A well written job description will tell you the key expectations for the role, the reporting relationships and key stakeholders who may influence the role, the competencies and the organization’s values.

It is a good idea to add a cover letter to go along with your resume. The cover letter should be addressed to the hiring manager or the contact person who is listed in the adverstisement. If you are recycling a cover letter that you have used before, please check that it is now addressed to the current organization you are applying to and the date and contact details are updated. I have received covering letters that are addressed to the Staffing department of another organization with a date that is six months old. The applicant missed updating the letter before mailing it. Finally when you save the document, use just your name as the file name. Having your resume saved as yourname ver11.doc or yourname marketing job resume.doc is a give-away you would rather avoid. So happy resume writing.

Corporate Novels

Career stories are in, and a new set of part-time authors is cashing in on the trend. Bankers, admen, scientists , hoteliers, HR professionals, are all drawing on their experiences to produce ‘corporate novels’ where the careers of the protagonists take up just as much space as their love affairs. And a new generation of readers is lapping it up, says Dibeyendu Ganguly in Corporate Dossier section of Economic Times dated 27 February 2009
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Who Wants a Piece of SlumdogM

The euphoria of Oscars in India is still there as a lingering hangover. Everyone is basking in reflected glory – even me. I had predicted two Oscars for AR Rahman in my review of Slumdog Millionaire (see comment dated 8th Feb 09). So there… but the one that takes the cake is the ruling party in India taking credit for the Oscars. I kind of partly support their claim to fame. They are certainly responsible for our slums and the millionaire politicians. Read more

DevD

When Saratchandra Chatterjee the Bengali novelist (15 September 1876 – 16 January 1938) wrote the novel Devdas in 1901 (published in 1917) little did he know that 108 years later it would morph into DevD. That is the hallmark of a great story. Well this one is written by Anurag Kashyap who wrote the story for Satya (’98) and some fab dialog for movies like Guru, Yuva, Honeymoon Travels, Shool  etc. I loved Shool because even Ravina Tandon could act in that film! Read more

Jahnavi Barua – the girl Next Door

 I just finished reading Next Door a collection of short stories by Jahnavi Barua. This petite medico was my neighbor many moons ago. She would keenly listen to the ongoing conversation and then jump in, speaking rapidly (with more words per second than anyone else I know!!) to put across a point of view. 

She is a full time writer, reader, mom and wife but “not necessarily in that order”, Jahnavi adds briskly. Read more

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