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Daddy may be a Movie Star

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DQI Bureau
New Update

It could have been mistaken for a wedding card. One of the soft copies of the

fancy real thing on paper that land into your mailbox. The document had been

sent across in three different file formats: A word document for quick and easy

reading, an rtf (rich text format) and one more cut-paste job in a text file.

During this business of cutting from tables created in word, the formatting and

thus, the readability had gone for a toss. But why analyze a wedding card in

such tech-detail? After all, as long as you figure out who is tying the knot,

you just turn up at the venue or else, hit the ‘reply’ button and mail

across your good wishes.

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But the bottomline is, the document in question was not a

wedding card. It was an application for a job, with the resume attached. So why

was I dumb enough to mistake strictly professional correspondence for holy

matrimony? Well, the rtf had a floral design all around the text and it read

somewhat like this:

Whew! By the time a prospective employer has waded through

the noble intentions of the aspirant, he has already formed an opinion about the

professional…and not a very positive one. Consider another example of what a

resume should never contain:

Family

Background
Father

Service

in Private sector
Mother

Housewife
Brother

Officer

in State Bank of India
Sister

B

Com
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The bad news first – even if the IT skills mentioned in

this kind of resume match the requirement, the employer is not very likely to

call this person over for an interview. Why, because, irrespective of his

technical qualifications and skills, the professional has displayed that he is

want of an attribute that is an absolute must for any job - common sense.

The good news – some employers do realize that a badly

drafted resume does not necessarily mean that the applicant is not good at his

work. Besides, considering that there are a lot of resumes sprinkled with

irrelevant details floating around and of course, depending on how desperate he

is to fill the vacancy, there is a chance that an employer would call the

applicant for an interview. But why cut your chances in Stage 1 of the

recruitment process? So what should your resume not contain?

Your family background for one. If the intention is to

impress the prospective employer, it does just the opposite. You must realize

that your educational qualifications and IT skills alone can land you a good

job. Details about your family should be offered to employers probably during

the interview and only if they are asked for. It is the same with your marital

status. Itshould not make a difference to your likelihood of getting a job.

However, given that several IT companies offer bachelor/family accommodation and

travel facilities especially for overseas projects, such details could be a

consideration. In any case, you have all the right to hold back such information

until the interview stage.

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The applicant’s height and weight are other irritants that

regularly pop up in resumes. These make sense if you are applying for the job of

a model or any other position where your appearance is of prime concern.

You may have won five awards for playing the guitar or been

in the winning basketball team at junior college, the description of your

hobbies should be wrapped up just two or three lines.

Whether they are given to artistic pursuits or not, IT

professionals are certainly very poetic while stating their professional

objectives. The objective should simply state the applicant’s area of IT

specialization.

So next time you apply for a job, first hit Control F- find

all occurrences of ‘ Achieving the pinnacle of success in your esteemed

organization, Please find herewith, my resume for your perusal…’ and replace

it with a simple two-line note: "I wish to apply for the position of ….in

your organization. I have enclosed my resume". Thank you.

Manjiri Kalghatgi in

New Delhi

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