Building Resume: The Structure & The Process

“Do not hire a man who does your work for money,
 but him who does it for love of it.”

In the previous articles I discussed a competitive resume, how to write objectives, professional experience and this article will focus on the education, professional & community affiliations, publications, personal information and other sections of the resume.

Education

In this section you should include all your studies starting from school, college to universities. A reverse chronological order is always preferred; it helps reader in knowing your latest education. Remember to mention ‘dates’ of all your degrees unless they were received 30 years ago. Don’t give someone a reason to exclude/ disqualify you without paying any heed to your achievements and your value.

It is not necessary to include all colleges you attended, only include those from which you received a degree. Resume for continuing professional education should include a good sampling of course titles, universities. Don’t include all of them, highlight the most relevant information.

PROFESSIONAL & COMMUNITY AFFILIATIONS

Include your social and professional activities or any volunteer experience you feel is relevant to your career objectives and is worth mentioning such as leadership roles, committee memberships, your belonging to any organization or accomplishments. Don’t overdo it - people will wonder how you have the time to work!

TECHNOLOGY SKILLS

If you belong to Information Technology industry or you are an Engineering student this section should be much more detailed. Include your knowledge and technical qualifications – hardware, software, developing tools, programming skills, networking, operating systems etc. If you don’t belong to IT industry such as medical doctor and/or a student a brief mention in your career summary may be appropriate.

HONORS & AWARDS

You can include it under Education or make a separate category. It includes your honors, achievements and awards. Achievements distinguish you from other candidates applying for the same positions.

PUBLICATIONS

Publications are the most important factor to validate your expertise. You can include your publications under Career Summary or in a separate category.

PUBLIC SPEAKING

You may also like to include the public speaking engagements including title of presentation/debate/speech, audience, location and date.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE AND TRAVEL

We are all becoming global - in our businesses and often in our private lives. Be sure to include your foreign language skills and travel experience either in your Career Summary or at the end of your resume.

PERSONAL INFORMATION

I would never suggest you to include personal information such as date of birth, marital status etc. or hobbies and interest. I only suggest that you include this information if – required by the employer – you want to tell your reader that you are not too young or too old to be shortlisted. – You have unusual interests that will grab someone’s attention. I know executives who were past Olympians, have ascended mountains on all seven continents, have trekked through “un-trekkable” places, are competitive tri-athletes and more. This type of information really sells. Include it.

NOTE: Consolidate all of the “extras” - Affiliations, Publications, Languages, etc. is under one heading titled “Professional Profile. Sample format:

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE

Affiliations [Your Affiliations here]

Publications [Your Publications here]

Languages [Your Languages here i.e. German, Spanish etc.]

PC Software [Your PC Software here i.e. MS office, Open Office, Latex etc.]