Hi Aastha

Writing a resume, is intimidating for everyone, so don’t worry, you are not alone. Ten to twenty seconds is all the time you have to persuade a prospective employer to read further. A quick screening through your resume should impress the reader and convince them of your qualifications. Your resume is like an ad. You need to know where to start, what to include, what not to include and how to conclude. Attract more interview offers by following these key tips: 

1. Determine your objective: It is essential to start your resume with a clear and targeted objective. If you write your resume without having a clear objective in mind, it is likely to come across as unfocussed to those that read it. Take your time to form a clear objective.
2. Identify accomplishments not just job descriptions: Hiring managers, especially in technical fields like engineering, seek candidates that can help them solve a problem or satisfy a need within their company.  Consequently, you can't be a solution to their problems without stating how you solved similar problems in other companies and situations.
    
   1. Focus on what you did in the job, NOT what your job was – there’s a difference
   2. Include a one or two top line job description first, then list your accomplishments
   3. For each point ask yourself, “What was the benefit of having done what I did?”
   4. Accomplishments should be unique to you, not just a list of what someone else did
   5. Avoid using the generic descriptions of the jobs you originally applied for or held
3. Experience before education: experience sections should come first, before your education, in most of the cases. Exceptions being freshers and people whose past job is irrelevant to the present one you are applying for. List your qualifications in order of relevance, from most to least. If you have already done what you want your new job, by all means, list it first, even if it was not your most recent job. Abandon any strict adherence to a chronological ordering of your experience.
4. Shorter is usually better: most of the resume experts say that a resume should not exceed more than 2 pages. Your resume can be 500 pages long if you can keep the reader’s interest that long and create an impression that leads them to pick you. But remember, not to bore them with details. Leave them wanting more. This is an ad to market you, and not your autobiography.
5. Use action verbs and buzzwords: add life to your resume by using action verbs (like presented, monitored, and evaluated) at the beginning of every sentence and avoid repetitious usage. Also, use buzzwords that show your competence in particular fields. Like competitive analysis, reconciled accounts, mastered java etc.
6. Accent the positive: Leave off negatives and irrelevant points. If you feel your date of graduation will subject you to age discrimination, leave the date off your resume. If you do some duties in your current job that don't support your job search objective, leave them off your resume. Focus on the duties that do support your objective. Leave off irrelevant personal information like your height and weight. Also remember to highlight your strengths and de-emphasize your weaknesses.
7. Show you are result oriented: Wherever possible, prove that you have the desired qualifications through clear strong statement of accomplishments, rather than a statement of potentials, talents, or responsibilities. Indicate results of work done, and quantify these accomplishments whenever appropriate. For example: "Initiated and directed complete automation of the Personnel Department, resulting in time-cost savings of over 25%." Additionally, preface skill and experience statements with the adjectives "proven" and "demonstrated" to create this results-orientation.
8. Careless writing can hurt your job search: ensure that your resume is error-free. Again and again and again check for grammatical errors, typos and spelling mistakes. These kinds of mistakes give an impression of you being careless.
9. Make your resume look great: Scanning your resume become increasingly difficult if it is not well organized and neatly presented.

• Leave white spaces.
• Use a 10 or 12 point font size.
• Use bullets to call attention to important points.
• Laser print it on plain white paper.

10. Proofread, proofread, and proofread: ask few of your friends to proofread it             and get an outsider’s opinion. Observe their expressions and note how others view your   marketing material. Did your resume impress them? If not, why? Don’t settle for – “it’s good”. Encourage them to ask questions and give a proper feedback.