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.
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 |
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.
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