Is My Resume ‘Unprofessional’?

You have the right skills and experience and now you are eager to move ahead with your career. But, if your resume fails to convince your prospective employer, you will have a hard time getting a new job. Resumes need to be used as a personal marketing tool. You need to focus on its style as well as contents. Prioritizing your accomplishments in the right order is very crucial.

Here are the issues which could hurt your resume and make it look ‘unprofessional’.

• Formatting – If your resume ends at the middle of the page or above, leaving more than half of blank page creates wrong impression on employer’s mind. He/she may infer that this candidate does not have much to say about his education or experience. This doesn't mean you have to stuff your resume with fluff. Describe more about what you have done, what you know, and how you can contribute to this job. Fill that white space with meaningful information that can set you apart.
• Fonts – Your prospective employer should notice the actual text or words in your resume and not the font! No Comic Sans font for resumes. Do not use colors, curly-cue fonts, and clip art. Keep your total font styles—including different points/sizes, bold text, and italics—limited to four.
• Keep personal life out of your resume - Try to keep references to your children, marital status, age, lifestyle, and religion out of your resume. If you have worked for any religious organization etc., let only its name talk about it. Don’t add additional details on your own.  
• Grammatical errors and spelling mistakes - All grammatical errors and spelling mistakes are a problem in a resume, but some may cause a proportionally higher level of damage than others. 
• Negative statements – Watch out for negative tone of the resume and edit it immediately. For example, statements like “I was not happy with my last job profile” sound negative. Instead, you can write “I learned a lot during my last job and now ready to move on”. 
• Sending unprofessional photo - If a photo isn't specifically asked for in the job application process, don’t send one.  If it is asked for, make sure that it portrays you as professional and personable.  Send a photo where you are dressed nicely and smiling.  Use your judgment. 
• Sending blank email with resume attachment – In your email, you should type a simple greeting, explanation of who you are and what you are sending. Sending blank email is not at all professional.
• Sending resume to multiple employers in the same email – If you do this, your email will most likely get deleted! 

Avoiding these mistakes is as easy as stepping back for a minute, proofreading, and engaging your common sense.

Invest enough time in writing your resume and when you are ready to apply for a job, register on TheGongzuo.com for free. Top IT companies are eager to hire professional employees. They will call you for an interview only if your resume reveals your professionalism!

Make A Great Impression, Win The Job At An Interview

Do you have an important interview for a dream job round the corner? As you’re battling butterflies in your stomach, also prepare to put your best foot forward to ace the interview. As they say, the first impression is always the best impression so here we have a few tips to make a great impression in an interview. Just remember interviews are meant to help employers assess your abilities against a few parameters they feel are important with respect to their organizational goals. Interviews help employers gauge your personality and the way you handle situations and analyze whether you are fit for the role. So, how can you be your best in an interview?

1. Know the company: Go through the company website and learn as much as you can about this organization. If you need extra literature about the company, go ahead and ask them without hesitation. Do your homework about the company before the interview.

2. Have information on your finger tips: Keep your documents ready and neatly arranged in a folder. Keep additional copies of your resume and list of references. You should know who your interviewer is. Write down questions you would like to ask and rehearse in your mind about your experience and the information you would like to tell your interviewer. Your response should be crisp, specific and detailed, as the situation demands. All through the interview, your interviewer is assessing your fitment with the skill set as well as assessing your behavioral patterns.

3. Be well groomed and dress suitably: Dress smartly in professional attire also keeping the company dress code in mind. It is important to look well-groomed from head to toe, not necessarily sporting great brands, but neat and decent ones.

4. Be punctual: Arrive at least 15 minutes before the interview schedule and take the trouble to find the route to the interview venue before the day of the interview.

5. Keep the discussion relevant: Make sure your communication is focused and relevant to the company and the question asked. Give as much information as possible about the question asked but make sure you do not go off tangent. Do not discuss compensation and perks in the first discussion itself.

8. Do not say anything negative about your present or previous employers: Talking negatively about your former /present employer does not leave a great opinion about you. Try to be as much positive as you can. Ultimately what you say reveals a lot about your personality.

9. Good body language, confidence and eye contact: Even though you may be a bundle of nerves, be calm and stay focused on your body language. Let it exude confidence. Smile and stay calm. Make eye contact, and speak clearly.