Date:31/01/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/01/31/stories/2005013101990300.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Making your CV fetch you better jobs

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, JAN. 30. Your resume can get you that job interview or get trashed soon after it is read. That is the advice from one of the executives of a head-hunting firm.

Does it still holds good in this age of online job searches and capsule CVs? "Yes," says Rajan P., who got his first job on the basis of an online resume after being turned down in a campus interview the last year in a B-school. All he did was to prepare a resume that was credible and realistic and stressed his academic and co-curricular record without dwelling too much on his lack of work experience.

Credible resume

"A good resume has to be credible and honest enough to be verifiable... employers often check on references," says M.K. Rao who retired after heading the human resources department in a major company to start his own consultancy.

"Job applicants who stretch the truth to make a three-month project work appear like a long stint at work are often caught out. The news may spread along the HR grapevine and he may never get a second chance," he cautions. On the flipside, naming for reference a person who knows you well and has a favourable impression can take you far.

In this era of cutting costs to improve the bottomline, many companies have resorted to headcount slashing and the number of support staff in the HR department may have been a casualty. Activities such as short-listing job applicants may often be done in a cursory manner.

This means whatever is packed in a concise manner into that resume will count.

"Except, perhaps, in the information technology-enabled services right now, there are bound to be more applicants than jobs. Yours will be among 30 or 40 other resumes and it really has to stand out," advises Mr. Rao.

What Mr. Rajan did could be a hint. "I read as much as I could about the company from its website and from business journals and even studied the stock position in the newspapers. I could relate the job profile advertised to the company's specific needs and try to match them with my qualification," he explains.

Veterans such as Mr. Rao also suggest this because HR managers react favourably to such CVs. Also, if it is for your first job, refer to any additional training you may have gone through and about your being ready for any suitable pre-induction training, if selected for that job, he says.

The resume need not start at the beginning, say from your class 10 grades; merely mentioning SSLC First Class will do. If it was a reputable school, mention that. Also, your college or PG grades, if suitable and all co-curricular activities such as sports and NCC. Most organisations look for good team players and your having been on the college cricket or hockey team may indicate that.