Resume Writing For the Fresh Graduates

2014

Resume Writing For the Fresh Graduates

Azli Nawawi

Resume Writing for the Fresh Graduates 2014

Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) |

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Contents

Preface........................................................................................................................................ 3

Introduction to Resume ............................................................................................................. 4

Why a Resume is Important? ................................................................................................. 4

Differences between Resume and CV .................................................................................... 5

Writing a Good Resume ............................................................................................................. 5

Resume Structure ................................................................................................................... 5

Useful Tips for Writing a Resume ........................................................................................... 7

Do’s and Don’ts in Resume Writing ........................................................................................... 9

Do’s ......................................................................................................................................... 9

Don’ts .................................................................................................................................... 10

Writing Cover Letters ............................................................................................................... 11

Concluding Remarks ................................................................................................................. 12

References ................................................................................................................................ 13

Appendix................................................................................................................................... 14



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Preface

This module is developed for the fresh graduates in mind. It will outline the beginners guide

for writing a good and competitive resume. As far as the author’s concern, fresh graduates

do not have an extensive amount of working experience. There are however, some students

who previously worked as a technician before entering this university because they own a

diploma. As for the case, the author assumed that the working experience as a technician

can be a plus point for the students.

In this module, the students will be shown the ways to highlight their skills and

accomplishment. This is crucial for the students in order to “market” themselves in a unique

way. They should not be a stereotype kind of person in order to approach the prospective

employers. This module will also provide some useful tips for the students in developing

their resumes. The do’s and don’ts that are listed in this module might also be a good guide.

Finally, in order to strengthen the job searching process, this module also shows the correct

ways for writing cover letters. So, hang on and enjoy the module. May God bless us all!



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Introduction to Resume

An excellent and outstanding resume will attract prospective employers and assist the

owner to get a job. Additionally, in order to get there, the resume should be outstanding

and has the qualities to stand out from the crowd.

In a passive job search, it is the resume that does the talking and to grab some

attention, the resume should be spectacular [1]. Unlike a CV, a resume should be brief and

“strong”. Moreover, a resume is also considered as a platform to provide a “snapshot” of

your career. It must support your current objectives and goals [2]. On the other hand, a

resume is not your life history or autobiography but it is a summary of your qualifications

and achievements [3].

A resume can also be considered as a persuasive advertisement of yourself. It will

promote you to the prospective employers. For that reason, it is good to make sure that

your resume is brief and hard hitting. Employers will use your resume to rapidly review your

current qualifications [3]. From here, it can be seen that a resume should not be a boring

piece of document. It should be attractive and punchy.

The job market for nowadays is considered very challenging and it is not like it used

to be. To grab a fair opportunity, you will need some tactics to “lift” you from the crowd and

a spectacular resume is one of them [2].

Why a Resume is Important?

A resume is very important in a challenging job hunting process. As we all know, most

people have the education levels to do the job and their number are thousands! So, in order

to lift yourself from the crowd and gain the attention of employers and bosses, you will

definitely need an excellent and strong resume. Additionally, resume is very important

because [4]:

a. Resumes act as the first layer of your first impression. In other words, to look good

and professional, an outstanding resume is one of the key.

b. A bad resume will bring you down and that is a fact!

c. Your resume is the first step to attract your prospective employer (future boss). It is

also a kind of mechanism to “lock” the attention of the employer towards you.

d. If your resume manages to impress the employer, he/she will be interested to meet

you in the interview!

this one is good for my career









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Differences between Resume and CV

Resumes are much shorter than CVs. Most people mention that resumes should not be more

than 2 pages. It will only highlight your skills and accomplishments and there is no actual

format for a resume. On the other hand, a CV is suitable for providing more details about

you and it usually used by professionals in the field of education, medicine, research and

science. In other words, a resume is a brief and strong document with the purpose to “sell”

yourself while a CV is good for listing all the worthy details about your career [2, 4].

However, one cannot deny the attraction of an excellent and interactive one page

resume. Moreover, a one page “catchy” resume depicts your superior document managing

skill and it is definitely a plus point.

Writing a Good Resume

A good resume is crucial for attracting readers. In order to write a good resume, this section

will discuss the general structure of a resume and some useful tips for beginners.

Resume Structure

In order to write a resume, the general structure is as follows [2]:

a. Resume objective

b. Career summary

c. Professional experience (include achievements)

d. Education

e. Affiliations (professional & community)

f. Technology skills

g. Honors and awards

h. Publications

i. Public speaking

j. Teaching experience

k. Foreign language and travel

l. Personal information



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The resume structure presented above will take more than one page. In order to construct a

one page resume, you can use a format suggested by [4] (refer Figure 1).

Figure 1: A one page resume format [4]. Since most of the readers are fresh graduates, the professional experiences can be subtituted with your experiences in industrial training and final year

project (FYP)



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From Figure 1, the Job Objective section should provide more focus and strength.

This section should be brief because less is better. For the Summary of Qualifications, you

can include the points below [4]:

a. Related experience.

b. Expertises those are relevant to the job.

c. Personal values.

d. Work ethics.

e. Relevant background.

f. Positive personality.

To add some spice to the Summary of Qualifications, you can try some creative ways. This

might be fun because you may include your achievement of never being absent to work for a

couple of months! Additionally, you can put any testimonial from your previous supervisors,

bosses or customers. That is a big plus point.

Useful Tips for Writing a Resume

As mentioned earlier, a resume do not have a specific format. This is good for people who

are eager to look for good jobs. They are trying their best to be creative in order to grab

some attention. However, some good tips might be useful for beginners [4]:

a. A resume should be tailored to the type of job you are seeking. For that reason,

before writing a resume, you need to justify the type of job that you want to do (for

example: engineers, academicians, retails, entrepreneurs and others).

b. In the qualification section, only highlight the qualifications of yours which seem

relevant to the job.

c. Describe about your experience that will add value to the job you are looking for.

d. To increase your chance for getting a job, a networking card strategy can be used

(refer Figure 2 and Figure 3).



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Figure 2: An example of a networking card [4]. You can see that the format is very simple and it only highlights the best qualities of the owner

Figure 3 : Another example of a networking card [4]. An objective is included in this card for showing the objective of your job searching. Before that, you should have a good career plan

e. A networking card is very excellent for capturing the attention of employers. It will

act as a mini resume and if anyone is interested with your offerings, you can handle

them your resume for some further details. That is already a half way for getting a

job!

f. Relate your experiences to the job that you wanted to apply. This will show your

understandings about the job and it will impress the employers.

g. Use any document editing skills that you have in order to develop a “catchy” and

easily readable one page resume. If it showcases your accomplishments at a glance,

then it is perfect for grabbing rapid attention.



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h. If your resume has a second page, you should write your name and page number on

the second page. This might be useful in the second page get separated from the first

one.

Do’s and Don’ts in Resume Writing

As mentioned before, your resume depicts your professionalism level. For that reason, it is

crucial to write an outstanding resume.

Do’s

In order to have a good resume, these characteristics are important [2, 4]:

a. To write a resume, perfection is mandatory.

b. A resume should be unique. No two resumes are equal.

c. You should not write too much about your past. It is better to write a little bit more

about your future (your career plan). Develop your resume for your dream job and

not really focuses on your previous job. From here, an employer might visualize that

you are already working for him/her.

d. The less is more! Remember that your prospective bosses are very busy and they

might not have the interest to read a long document. Do write less but “punchy”!

e. Include the information that is relevant to the job such as your degree, attended

courses and seminars, classes, workshops and certificates.

f. The list of references should be written in a separate page. Do not forget to put your

name at the top of the page.

g. Use the suitable font when writing your resume. You can use some font with the size

of 11 or 12. Avoid using size 10 because it will be hard to read for some people

especially the elderly (Keep in mind that most bosses are seniors and elderly!).

h. A good quality paper is a must as it shows the level of your professionalism.



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Don’ts

There are also some things to avoid during writing a resume [4]:

a. Do not confess everything in your resume. It is not a court room. You need to be

selective of all your information and details. Only include the relevant information.

b. Do not write a general resume that you tend to send to all employers. This is a good

recipe for not being selected to an interview. A general resume will make you look

like everyone else and you will definitely not attracting the good attention.

c. Do not write the description of your previous jobs but focuses more on the

achievements.

d. Do not write about the descriptions that you do not like to do from the previous job

(for example managing co-workers, auditing, customer services and others). If you

include those points, you will end up doing the job that you don’t love.

e. Do not write in paragraph. It will make your reader feeling kind of sleepy. Do use

bullet points. To make this argument more obvious, do compare Figure 4 (paragraph

formatting) and Figure 5 (bullet points formatting). It can be seen that the bullet

points formatting is easier on the eyes.

f. Do not include private information such as the salary history, personal and family

information, your account number and others.

Figure 4: A resume with paragraph formatting [4]



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Figure 5: A resume with bullet points formatting [4]

g. One of the most important things to avoid is lying in your resume. It will jeopardize

your chance to get a good job that you love.

Writing Cover Letters

A cover letter is crucial for describing the reasons for you to send the resume. It also

highlights some brief and value-added points about you. In the same way as the resume, the

cover letter should be brief and “punchy”. Another friendly “tone” of your writing in the

cover letter is also desirable by some employers. It will not make your letter looks like a

computer generated message.

Tips to Write a Cover Letter

A cover letter should be a good companion for the resume. The words used in the letter

should be friendly, warmth and not too formal. Additionally, the tips to write an excellent

cover letter are as follows [4]:

a. Do not be too formal with your words. You might bore the prospective employer.



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b. You should use your own friendly words. This is crucial in order to make the

employer feeling comfortable when reading your cover letter.

c. Do not go overboard with your words. Remember that the employer is not your

housemates or classmates. Be friendly and warmth but make sure you show that you

still have some respect towards the employer.

d. Use words that show your confidence and sincerity.

e. Make sure that your grammar, spelling and sentence structure is perfect before

sending your letter. For some employer, fail to do so might be a big “turn off” for

them.

f. Upon finished writing the cover letter, send it to a proofreader or to a friend who is

good in English. You might be grateful with the result!

The Format of a Cover Letter

A cover letter can be written in the following format (refer Appendix A).

Concluding Remarks

From this module, one should get the point that a unique and job-specific resume is an

important tool for job hunters. A resume is a tool that will do the talking when you are not

there. It carries your image and level of professionalism at a glance. It should be excellent

because it is needed for grabbing the attention of prospective employers. In other words, an

excellent resume is the one that is brief and “punchy”.

Additionally, a good cover letter is crucial because it is the companion to your

resume. It should be properly written and highlights the reason for you to apply for the job.

Moreover, you can also highlights some of your accomplishments in order to grab some

attention and make the prospective employer thinks that you’re the one who fits for the job!



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References

[1] D. F. Noble, Gallery of best resumes: a collection of quality resumes by professional resume writers, 4th ed. Indianapolis: Jist, 2007.

[2] W. S. Enelow, 100 Winning Resumes for $100,000+ Jobs: Resumes that Can Change Your Life: Impact Publications, 1997.

[3] P. Kolin, Successful writing at work: Cengage Learning, 2012. [4] S. Ireland, The Complete Idiot's Guide to The Perfect Resume, 2nd Ed. ed. Indianapolis:

Macmillan USA, Inc., 2000.



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Appendix

Appendix A: Format of a cover letter [4]

Resume Writing For the Fresh Graduates

Documents

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