P: Profession Pod Series: Buckets of an Impactful Profile

Buckets of an impactful profile....

The most crucial part of your career journey is the start point, Your Profile. We may feel its  just one or two sheets of paper.

But NO! Here is the thing:

The journey of your resume actually starts very early in life. Over and above the routine academic and cultural activities during undergraduate college tenure, teenagers must be encouraged to use the vacation time constructively by doing short internships, taking additional training in utility functions like writing, public speaking, office automation and presentation software like advanced excel, PowerPoint and keynote amongst others.

This is an add-on to the resume in terms of experience, knowledge, and certificate value and also a support system to a freshers resume which would otherwise consist of nothing other than personal and educational details or probably a standard four-banana race prize.

Using the undergraduate-level vacation constructively also brings along a lot of maturity, accountability and clarity of thought in a teenager as to what he or she wants to pursue after graduation.

Which stream to adapt, whether to move to post-graduation directly or work for a year and then take up higher studies and so on. Whatever the decision be, it must be taking into consideration the top five skills the candidate possesses.

Now, how do we do that?

The best way is to create a brag sheet:

A brag sheet talks about your achievements & skills with supporting factual examples which you not only speak about during your interview but also add to your resume.

Most important is that those skills and achievements prove of great help in selecting your area of function.

For entry-level candidates, your friends, teachers and well-wishers could help remind you of various instances and situations where you proved your skills and scored a brownie.

For experienced candidates, a professional network (current or ex-colleagues whom you share a healthy equation with) will be of the best help in building up your brag sheet. Getting your SWOC analysis done with professional support also helps big time !

It's very necessary to understand that an arranged marriage with your profession will always have a higher chance of success and reduce the tendency of divorce.

When you are in the process of selecting your work area, consider your professionally relevant skill sets and the ground realities. business scenarios of the chosen industry.

Most of the entry level candidates tend to look at what they are interested in, frame a work area for themselves in their minds & then land up in a situation where they are unable to cope up.

That's when the interest levels or the so-called passion seem to fade away like a 1st teenage crush!

The reason being that ‘The Real is Different’. This often leaves a bad patch on the candidature and the mind of the individual as well.

Moving to the Resume - It is one of the most important marketing tools of the 'Brand You' when it comes to recruitment.

There are several formats available online and recommended by experts as well. Choose what suits you best but do consider its ATS compatability. 

We will understand more about ATS going forward. Lets discuss the eight crucial buckets to create an impactful profile. 

A robust profile is not solely defined by academic accolades but also by a well-rounded set of attributes that distinguish one as exceptional.

Craft a concise yet compelling profile summary including your academics, professional aspirations. If you are uncertain with the domain, maintain a broader outlook at initially. For experienced individuals this will be an amalgamation for past , current and the futuristic mapped with key skillsets. 

A compelling one to hold the interest of the hiring manager. 

For an experienced professional, the next sub head will be the Key Highlights which include the major achievements or game changing moments of your journey. Awards, promotions , performance metrix should be added in. 

A fresher can add the academic or internship related highlights.

Next is your skills , these are divided in three segments. For example,

* Hard Skills : Marketing, Finance, Content Creation , ie domain related 

* Soft Skills: Communication, Networking, Presentation, Collaborative team skills and the like.

* Technical Know how: Canva, Advance Excel, Slides, AI,  Chat GPT, Google forms, SPSS  &  other relevant tools.

If your experience is beyond two business cycles, you can term it as 'Key Competencies'

Back your skills with certifications, projects , job simulations and internships if you are an entry level candidate. Remember, if your profile is for your upcoming MBA journey , soft skills come first in the evaluation,  next is the hygiene check i.e hard skills & third is your potential.

By potential I mean, given your present state, how best will you adapt to the B school learning environment to shape your self to corporate readiness. 

Next in line is your academics, a chronological overview of  academics, starting with recent most. Include supplementary diploma courses undertaken to enrich your academic repertoire

There are ample no cost certifications available on platforms like Management Study Guide, Coursera, Google, Hubspot, Amity Open Learn, LinkedIn & more.

Whether your a fresher or an experienced professional, relevant upskills are non - negotiable. 

If you are working or on a sabatical and can manage the funding, do consider a mid career change in your academic graph.

For entry level candidates case studies & competitions prove as  big time supportives to your skills. Check Olampiyads, Unstop & similar portals. This helps hone problem-solving acumen & foster a competitive edge. 

For projects, job simulations and internships, you pick 2 -3 best academic projects. Check Forage for job simulations, they prove a great profile amplifier & aid domain descion making even before you apply for your first internship. 

For MBA evaluation an internship between your  TY  final exams and the B school commencement is considered by majority  B-Schools for selections.

Positions of Responsibility for entrants highlight notable team & leadership role pursued during college events or committee memberships. Engage in NGO projects, to demonstrate versatility and commitment.

Conclude with pertinent personal information encompassing contact details, date of birth, linguistics, and your updated LinkedIn profile link.

Now that we have got the resume buckets consider few important tips to while you craft your profile.

Client is the king :  At this junction, the organisation with an opportunity is your client. Customise the contents of your resume on the basis the role and the organisation you are applying for. 

Freshers often have very little to customise on, here is when the internships, brag sheets, additional training are taken come into the picture. 

In summary, your resume needs to maintain the curiosity of the recruitment team till they pick up the phone to call you.

KeyWords are the Keys....

Most organizations follow the Applicant Tracking Systems ( ATS), a tool used to screen relevant profile for the hiring managaer to carry out next steps. ATS is used majorly when there is a huge count of resumes for a role or then recruitment for multiple roles at a junction.

ATS works on mapping keywords in the resume with keywords in the opportunity description to indentify apt profiles.

There are ample ATS formats avaliable online or you can check your resumes ATS score on online tools like jobscan or resume reworded. It will also suggest you the needful changes along with giving you the score.

Keywords are nothing but specific words that match the opportunity requirement and align with the skill set you possess. The use of these makes it easier for the recruiter to shortlist a resume for a particular role.

Being precise: Your resume should be able to tell your work story depending on the nature of the job you have applied for and your candidature (whether you are applying for an entry-level position or a high-profile role).

For instance, If you mention 'presentation skills' as one of your attributes, let the content of your resume demonstrate the mentioned skill at least once. If you have a year or more of experience you can add up the competencies you have developed spanning the experience. 

Be Creative, Consistent, Resourceful & De-Clutter: Use of standard resume heading sections without infographic also supports ATS. At the same time, using Header and Footer & Tabular formats doesn't. It's important to have a font type, size, and paragraph spacing that is legible, consistent & distinct. Control on Bolds and Italics to ensure maximum impact.

Softwares like MS Word have a lot of tools which helps in formatting content properly.

Start with lastest, be it experience, education or any other elements of your resume. It means adapting a reverse chronological resume format. 

Present what you can bring to the table: Needless to say, a good portfolio is equally important as a crisp resume.

Always try to quantify your achievements as much possible.It makes your profile feel authentic.

"What can the candidate bring to the table?" is any and every recruiter's first plug point with the increasing dynamics of any business today.

This definitely calls for an impactful demonstration of skill sets by presenting what you have created or strategised. 

For example, a scriptwriter's portfolio will need to have at least a dozen short-format and long-format scripts across content genres.

A well-rounded portfolio is of prime importance for every entry-level position. It should ideally contain the best and most relevant academic projects done across graduation and post-graduation as applicable.

Moreover, it should also have a self-learning element, meaning your own creations over and above academics or routines. 

They could be films, pitch presentations, creative strategies for a brand, re-launch campaigns, trans medial news bulletins or anything such which is applicable to the work area you are looking at.

For experienced candidates, they would obviously have their past work credentials as well.

Also, note that adding hobbies doesn't really help unless the job role needs it. If I am applying for a marketing role and I add a hobby of watching movies has no relevance unless I apply for a movie marketing role or I am looking at a production house role.

Hobbies should be planned and put down, sometimes they could be cultivated one's basis of the work you wish to pursue.

But never say, I like reading if you actually don't mean it!

Use simple, error-free language and avoid jargon, prolonged statements or words that are redundant.

Yes, repetitions are not an effective way of stressing your point, especially for experienced candidates who have had similar job functions across stints. So avoid repeats. Instead use  keywords.

To summarise, Be the hero of your own story:

Your resume needs to speak about your functional candidature, skills with portfolios to demonstrate them, achievements, qualifications and experience as applicable.

A one-pager is most effective for up to five years of experience. A maximum of a two-page resume is good to go if you have that kind of content to plug in.

Remember that the human attention span is diminishing by the day!

There is no perfect way to write your resume but these tips do work well in hand holding through your profile creation journey.

Finally, The  KISS policy - Keep It Short and Simple....