Do's and Dont's while emailing a resume!!

Emailing your resume to an employer or recruitment consultant is fast, inexpensive and shows your ability to handle this form of technology, so use it as often as you can.

But there are do's and don’ts that apply specifically when sending your resume electronically:

Do keep it simple
Your resume should always only be a summary of your relevant skills, abilities and qualifications, and this is particularly true when emailing your resume. The person reading your resume may have less time, patience and computer power to read reams of information on their screen.

Don’t use fancy font styles
The recipients’ computer may not have the decorative fonts installed or the large and colourful screen that you're used to. As a result, your resume may look quite different when it is received. The fancy fonts you have spent time creating may be removed or even worse become distorted, giving your resume a very unprofessional look.

Do use simple margins and proper page breaks
With systems and printers varying from one workplace to another, your resume may not appear as it is supposed to when printed. To reduce the chances of this, keep tabs and margin changes to a minimum and insert proper page breaks.

Don’t cut and paste your resume into the email message
Unless requested, only include your resume as an attachment. A cut and pasted resume often looks distorted, is unformatted and can be difficult to read.

Do include all relevant information in one attachment
Many email addresses displayed in job advertisements belong to support staff who print your resume and pass it on to the person who has the power to put you on the shortlist. Your actual email and other attachments such as covering letters may not be passed on and simply deleted.

So make it easy for them and increase your chances of success by including your covering letter, your resume and any other relevant information in the one attachment.

Do check your attachments for computer viruses
If your resume is found to contain a computer virus, the recipients’ virus checking system may delete your entire resume, or worse, you may be remembered as the candidate who corrupted the organisations’ computer system.

Tradition
Many employers and recruitment consultants will print your resume and still use it in the traditional sense. It is important that your emailed version contains the same factual rather than subjective information and includes positive language in a succinct and concise manner, just as your traditional resume. Be careful with spelling and present it professionally within the guidelines set above.

How to write a good job objective!!

1.Avoid job titles.
Job titles such as "Secretary" or "Marketing Analyst" can involve very different activities in different organisations. The same job can often have different titles in different organisations and using such a title may very well limit your being considered for such jobs as "Office Manager" or "Marketing Assistant." It is best to use broad categories of jobs rather than specific titles, so that you can be considered for a wide variety of jobs related to the skills you have. For example, instead of "Secretary" you could say "Responsible Office Management or Clerical Position" if that is what you would really consider - and qualify for.

2. Define a "bracket of responsibility" to include the possibility of upward mobility.
While you may be willing to accept a variety of jobs related to your skills, you should include those that require higher levels of responsibility and pay. In the example above, it keeps open the option to be considered for an office management position as well as clerical jobs.

In effect, you should define a 'bracket of responsibility' in your objective that includes the range of jobs that you are willing to accept. This bracket should include the lower range of jobs that you would consider as well as those requiring higher levels of responsibility, up to and including those that you think you could handle. Even if you have not handled those higher levels of responsibility in the past, many employers may consider you for them if you have the skills to support the objective.

3. Include your most important skills.
What are the most important skills needed for the job you want? Consider including one or more of these as being required in the job that you seek. The implication here is that if you are looking for a job that requires 'Organisational Skills,' then you have those skills. Of course, your interview (and resume) should support those skills with specific examples.

4. Include specifics if these are important to you.
If you have substantial experience in a particular industry (such as 'Computer Controlled Machine Tools') or have a narrow and specific objective that you really want (such as 'Art Therapist with the Mentally Handicapped'), then it is OK to state this. But, in so doing, realise that by narrowing your alternatives down you will often not be considered for other jobs for which you might qualify. Still, if that is what you want, it just may be worth pursuing (though I would still encourage you to have a second, more general objective just in case).

5. Finalise your job objective statement.
The most important part here is that you can clearly state what sort of a job you want and know what kinds of skills and experiences are needed to do well in that job. Even if you decide to change your job objective later, it is very important that you decide on a temporary one now.

Make your resume easy to read!!

Don't put too much emphasis on work experience gained a very long time ago
Don't try and squash all your information onto one page.
Only include factual information.

A quick glance over your resume can make or break your application.

All your hard work in selling yourself will be for nothing if your skills, qualifications and achievements do not stand out and aren't easy to get to when an employer or consultant skims over it.

So how do you make your resume easy to read, whether it is online or on paper?

First consider the relevance of information.
Only include information that is factual, shows you have the skills to do the job and is relevant to the role you are applying for. If you don’t think it will help you secure an interview, leave it out. There is no benefit in stating you own and drive a sports car when applying for a sales position with a retail clothes store.

Present your details in a brief yet precise manner.
As much as possible use summary words, brief points or titles instead of detailed, lengthy sentences - especially for personal, education/training and membership information. Your work history should be summarised in simple detail. Large blocks of text should be avoided, as they can be difficult to read.

How much relevant information is too much?
Think about when the information relates to. The further back in time you go, the less information you should provide - employers are more interested in what you have done recently or are currently doing. Time itself can make information that you think is important, irrelevant. For example, job descriptions over 10 years ago (or approximately five jobs ago) do not need to be included at all. Simply state that details relating to this time can be provided on request.

Include plenty of white space
Don’t be afraid to use generous spacing and wider than usual margins if possible. With a brief and precise resume you can afford to add plenty of space and still keep your resume at a reasonable length.

Unless specifically requested by the employer, do not include written references in your resume. They are generally not of interest to the reader at an early stage, instead indicate these can be provided on request. You can even do without any reference to referees - a simple statement that these will be provided on request will suffice.

Do not get carried away with the number of pages
Generally, three to five pages is a decent resume length - however, shorter or longer resumes may work just as well depending upon the position. More important than page number, detailing relevant information and then presenting it in a succinct, user friendly way is your best chance for securing an interview. Review your layout, space it out evenly and produce a resume that will work for you.

Top 10 achievements to include on your resume!!

Here are ten achievement topics employers like to see in an applicant. Each has an example of the achievement and you can use this as a guide to developing your own.

Saving money or reducing costs
Initiated and implemented the recycling of spare parts, resulting in a cost saving of Rs 20,000 per annum.

Taking on extra responsibility
Successfully undertook the additional duty of coordinating travel arrangements for the Managing Director during periods of annual leave.

Introducing a new system or process
Initiated, developed and administered an induction program to ensure new employees were familiar with the workplace.

Improving an existing system or process
Replaced the paper-based stationery ordering system with an emailed spreadsheet, which resulted in less order errors.

Exceeding targets or objectives
Exceeded the annual sales target by 10% in the first year and by 15% in the second year.

Exceeding customer expectations
Received three written commendations from customers for excellent customer service, friendliness and product knowledge.

Solving problems
Successfully recovered critical information from the network file-server after it had been infected with a virus.

Generating income
Designed and created promotional flyers with discount vouchers, resulting in 10% increase in sales during the month.

Improving employee moral
Suggested and organised a social committee to arrange after work social activities for all employees, allowing employees to get to know each other in a relaxed atmosphere.

Developing staff
Successfully managed a poor performing employee into a competent employee through counseling and the introduction of key performance indicators.

To add these into your resume, clearly describe what you did, what the result was and why it made things better. Use numbers, dollar figures and percentages as much as possible - they are easier to understand. And remember, what you did is not as important as the improvement you have made to your workplace.

Some VERBS for your resume!!

Verbs, or "doing" words are an integral part of the resume
When describing your skills, use verbs
Check out the suggested list of verbs below

Some what? I don’t know whether you are a member of a generation that missed out on being taught grammar, parts of speech and so on, in primary school. Being of a (slightly!) older generation myself, I can still remember Miss Pennington intoning to Class 3A "a verb is a being, having, or doing word". We of course would have to memorise this and endless other definitions and rules, on penalty of a sharp rap over the knuckles from a ruler that seemed almost as large as Miss Pennington.

Perhaps you missed out on the joy of that, but verbs are still being and having and doing words (some things don’t change) and thinking about appropriate verbs to use can be a very useful part of preparing a résumé (and a covering letter, for that matter).

What you are trying to do in an application is to tell prospective employers who you are, what you have by way of qualifications and experience, and what you believe you can do. I will concentrate here on the last of these - your "doing" verbs. All I am talking about here is a way of concentrating your thinking on the actual skills and experiences that might be relevant to employers, and ways of describing them that draw on what you have actually done. Many university careers services will have copies of a long list of these. Here are just a few:

Adapted, analysed, applied, built, calculated, coached, compiled, conducted, controlled, co-ordinated, delivered, developed, distributed, edited, established, formulated, gathered, generated, helped, identifies, implemented, initiated, investigated, led, made, maintained, operated, organised, prepared, produced, programmed, promoted, reported, researched, sold, supervised, taught, tested, trained, tutored, typed, used.

I think you will get the idea - drawing in an active way on all the things in your background that are worth telling an employer about. And it is important to note that they can be things from any part of that background, not just your academic studies. In fact, talking about verbs is just another way of reminding you of the "generic skills" that careers advisers and others are so fond of talking about these days.

You might have led on the sporting field, planned a concert or a group trip, helped people during a summer job. All of these are skills that can mean quite a lot to employers, and they are not things that an employer can necessarily assume you have acquired during your courses.

It is your job to look for the verbs that will really convey what you have done and what you believe you can do. No one else will do it for you.