HR Nuggets

Resume/Curriculum Vitae is usually one of the major requirements when applying for white collar jobs. Resume simply means "biographical summary of a person's career”. It is usually used to highlight applicant’s skills, achievements and areas of specialty. Good resumes should not just have an applicant’s day to day activities.
On the contrary some or most of the resumes been sent out for job applications seem not to act in accordance to its definition hence loses its purpose of selling the applicant to recruiters for interviews and NOT job, as there will be no job offer without an interview. The importance of a good resume cannot be over emphasized. If one’s resumes fails to attract the applicant to a prospective recruiter, then it’s time to have ones resume rebuilt to suit its purpose.
Human Resources professionals are either caught in the middle of educating or arguing about:

Correct/Acceptable Resume Format:
There are various resume formats like chronological, functional, targeted, combination formats etc.

Chronological- Lists applicants work experiences with the most recent appearing first and this format is advisable for applicants with very strong work history.
Functional- focuses on your skills and expertise as against your work history (chronological)
Combination- Lists your skills and expertise (functional) first followed by your work history (chronological).
Targeted- Specifically written to highlight the skills and experiences suitable for the job position one is applying.
Amidst the numerous resume formats, the chronological format seem to be widely used and greatly easier to read by recruiters. More so, because recruiters have seen “the good, the bad and the ugly” resumes, there are high tendencies that they would rather lean towards the very easy to read format to avoid time wasting. While this is very practical, it is however difficult to out rightly claim that one format is better than the other as recruiters look beyond just the format of your resume, therefore which ever format applicants chooses, kindly ensure that your resume tells the right professional story that it intends to tell.

The acceptable number of resume pages:
 Although there seem not to be a law on the number of pages one’s resume should be, but except you are writing a political manifesto then it is better to be kept short and direct  between two to three pages rather than lengthy and pointless. The number of pages does not endear you to recruiters except a recruiter who is less busy, and trust me, you hardly get such.

Presentation of your resume:
Presentation of your resume  should equally be of great importance, the font size should range between 10 and 12 with Arial or Times New Roman. The resume is a strong marketing tool and should depict same. I personally would not invite an applicant whose resume has Arial, Cambria, Agency Fb fonts with various sizes, except you are applying for an entertainment position. Every single space on your resume matters, so use them wisely and professionally.
Lastly, it is very entertaining to see applicants with email addresses as lovelygirl@...com, sweetangel@...com, badboy@...com  .

  Quite interesting but lovely, sweet or bad aren’t what recruiters require. Recruiters crave professionalism and a demonstration that your skills are of paramount importance to the vacancies been published. Simply use email addresses that has your name like stellasmith@...com  and strive towards getting that long awaited text or mail” You are invited for an interview at….”

I like to hear from you, kindly leave your feedbacks on the comment section and suggest possible areas you will like to read about subsequently.

Stella Harachi Jelugbo
Human Resource Professional
MA HRM, ACIPD, ACIPM.