The Importance of a Resume

The resume acts as a bridge between you and the prospective recruiter. Hence the importance of a resume can never be underestimated. So, to make the first impression, it is imperative that your resume stands out from the crowd first. It is up to you how do you want to be remembered by the hiring manager? Since companies do not have that much amount of time to interview each and every candidate, they require resumes from candidate to select the best ones to work with them.

Rejection happens, and it goes on and on until they find something interesting in one particular resume. This is the time when a well-structured, clean and precise resume plays its part. You might be thinking why is it so important to have a resume? Let’s find out:

Resume reaches the recruiter’s table much before than you do:Yes, before you reach recruiter’s office, your resume does so. Generally, every company asks for your resume first, they go through the work that you have done so far and if it matches their requirement, thumbs up! So, a well-written resume does half of the work for you here only. Hence it is very much important to have a structured and concise resume to make the first impression work for you.
Resume tells about you: A resume speaks a great deal about you as a professional. It says what you have done in the past. What are you doing currently and where exactly you are heading towards? Just imagine a small piece of paper talks so much about you including past, present, and future. Doesn’t that sound amazing? But remember this story of past, present and future needs to be conveyed quickly, else they will lose interest. So, this job of telling a short story can be little tricky. Hence you might need help in drafting your resume by professionals.
To convince that you are the one: You must be thinking that it is easy for you to convince the recruiter that you are the most suitable candidate for the vacant position. But that will only be possible when you are there for face to face round. Before you appear for the face to face interview, your resume would convince them first that you are the most eligible candidate for the position offered or not. Now you must have understood what important role does a resume play for you.
To sell your skills: Through a well-written resume, you can sell the skills which you have accumulated over these years. You can let the recruiter know what all skills that you have acquired through different jobs and how you are going to utilize them for the betterment of the prospective organization. This is exactly what recruiter need to know now-a-days. They want to know in which way your skills will prove beneficial for their organization. And if your resume is successful in telling them so, the purpose is served.
To grab an interview: Unless and until your Dad or a very close relative owns a company, where you can easily join without much ado, you are surely going to need a good resume. And ultimately the purpose of the resume is to get an interview. And writing a resume is the first step towards that direction. So, do not ignore the importance of writing a good resume.
To Brand Yourself: It is very essential to create your own brand in this professional world and this journey starts right after your college and studies. When you enter a professional world to work, it is essential that from the very first day you have to set things right. To showcase your knowledge, your skills, experience, expertise, and accomplishments, it is necessary to have a perfectly written resume which can portray you as a good professional or a budding professional who is ready to face this challenging world.
Quick but lasting first impression: You must have heard of the saying that the first impression is the last impression. It goes well with the resume as well. In the bulk of the resumes, if one resume stands out and it gives a feeling that yes, this is the one, then working hard on your resume is worth it. The recruiter would likely ignore the resume which is text heavy and difficult to read. So, you now get the point what your resume should NOT look like. Try to keep it simple, easy to read and easy to understand.
Summarize your career aspiration: A good resume recapitulates your career so well that recruiters do not need to put in the hard effort just to scan and go through your resume in details to understand your profile. So, make sure that the summary section of your resume is robust enough to give a good glimpse of your whole career in short. For those who have no work experience so far and applying as a fresher, it is suggested that they talk about their projects, internships, industrial visits, trainings and additional value-added course in the summary section, so that even if a recruiter chooses not to go through the entire detailed resume, at least the summary section will be good enough for him to understand and gauge your worth as a candidate.
To show your achievements: You cannot wait for the recruiter to call you to know about your career history and accomplishments so far. That sound something like you have not written and posted the letter to your friend, and you are expecting him/her to understand your feeling/situation. So, it is imperative to write a good resume to showcase your achievements to tell your success story so far.
Just resume: While looking for a job, it is essential to have a good resume but make sure it is just the resume. Do not make it so fancy or full of jargons to make it cumbersome for a recruiter to read. And also one thing you need to keep in mind that when you are sending your resume to a recruiter, send the resume only or at the most attach the cover letter. Do not include or attach a letter of recommendations, copies of your education mark sheets, reference letter or anything else unless this is asked for.
Your are sure of your work: Many a time it happens that we plan and execute something, even be successful in our endeavor, but after sometime, may be a year or so, we tend to forget those. We see the current challenges and try to cope up with them. So, if you have a good resume, you will remember each and everything you have done and achieved in your professional career. It will happen if you keep updating your resume whenever you change a job and join a new company, whenever you get a new role, a new project, a new team to handle. Take a note when the company is rewarding you for your work. That does not mean that you make your resume, a daily diary, just keep note of the important happenings in your professional front. And you can always edit your resume keeping the master copy with you. And remember even the greatest writer in the literary world need the help of the editor. You can read it, re-read it, proofread it ten times, but it is always good to take a second opinion.

A professional writer would understand your requirement, evaluate your work history, validate your educational background and articulate it in a better manner. So, there is no harm in taking professional help in making your resume a perfect one.

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The article is Written By “Prachi Juneja” and Reviewed By Management Study Guide Content Team. MSG Content Team comprises experienced Faculty Member, Professionals and Subject Matter Experts. To Know more, click on About Us. The use of this material is free for learning and education purpose. Please reference authorship of content used, including link(s) to ManagementStudyGuide.com and the content page url.

How to Write an Impressive Resume

By this time we all are convinced that resume plays a very important role when it comes to putting your steps into a professional world. Irrespective of the fact that you are a fresher or a seasoned professional at some point or the other you surely need a good, well-written resume which portrays you well. Now that we know and understand what a resume is and why it is so important, it’s time to move on to some tips and tricks to write an impressive resume which works:

First Things First: Before you sit to work on your resume (if you are preparing it on your own), prioritize things in your mind. What is that one thing which is prime important? If a recruiter likes your resume, what is that one information which he/ she will rush to find out? Yes, you are right! It is your contact information which a hiring manager will look for if he/she really find your resume interesting! So, make sure there is no ambiguity in this section.

Write clearly your Name, contact number, alternate contact number, if any and your email id. Here mentioning residence address is not mandatory as chances are less that a hiring manager will send you a hand written letter and post it to your mailbox. But yes, they do like to know how much far do you stay from your prospective organization. This matters a lot and recruiters know it well.

An Objective or an Opening Statement: An excellent, concise and definite objective statements should have 3 important things � What level of work are you looking for � is it the entry level, middle or senior level opportunities that you are aspiring for? The Second section should clearly state 2-3 functional areas that you want to work in. For example, if you have been working on a sale, marketing profile, the objective line should say 2-3 clear cut areas of work like, “looking for middle-level assignments in Sales/Marketing/Customer Service”. Now the 3rd part is essential if you have any industry preference. Let’s say you want to work in FMCG / Consumer Durables industry, the third segment of your objective line should say your industry preference if there are any. Though for junior or entry level profiles, we suggest that you should keep the options open without restricting it to any particular industry segment. So, an example for this would be, “looking for middle level opportunities in Sales & Marketing/Customer Service with an organization of repute; preferably in FMCG/Consumer Durable industry”. One thing you need to keep in mind while writing objective statements is that do not state many preferences, else it will be too narrowed down and can give a negative impact to the recruiter as well.
Gist of the Profile/Profile Summary: Though all the sections are important in a resume, but this particular section needs to be specially taken care of. Since this is the first major section of your resume, it should be impressive. Recruiters should have a broad idea of your profile by going through this section. Even if a recruiter does not go through the whole resume, at least this section will give him a fair idea of why you should be hired? This section should include the number of years of overall work experience, current association, highest education if it is relevant to your profile and the target profile, some key skills and few significant accomplishments. Remember, if you are writing something in your summary part, your resume below should somehow justify the same. It should be connected, and the flow of information should be maintained.
Skills Section: Right after summary part talk about 8-9 core skills which you want the recruiter to focus on. Do not over fill this section as a person cannot be expert at 10-15 things. There might be 6-7 skills which you are proficient at. So, focus on those skills which are transferable and can be utilized in the prospective company as well. Do not go overboard. Think before you mention any skills and once you mention something, the rest of your resume should back it up well. If you do not want to list out your skills in a separate section, there is another way you can highlight them. Your skills can be merged with your work experience section.

For example, in the work experience section, you can start the heading as Financial Accounting, and under this, you can give 3-4 bullet points that you have done related to accounting. Next heading can be Budgeting / Taxation. All your responsibilities can be categorized under this header. Next could be Human Resource Management, under which you can elaborate few points on the size of team you might have handled, the trainings that were imparted, etc. This is another way of showing your skills, and at the same time, this justifies the skills right then and there.

Work Experience: This section should contain your work history. You can list out the organizations that you have worked so far. Roles and achievements can be elaborated here. Talk about the projects that you might have undertaken. What were the challenges faced and how did you overcome them? Elucidate your achievements as well and quantify them to substantiate your statements. But remember that this section should not be just some bulleted list of a merely job description. It will be monotonous to read lifeless bullet points. So, you need to be cautious while writing this section.
Education: You do not have to work hard for this section as everything is factual here. So, just mention your educational background, your highest qualification, the name of the institute and the year of passing. You can also mention your academic award and recognition if you have received any. Mention the marks or GPA/CGPA only when it is above and beyond 60-65% score.
Volunteer Assignments: Do not shy away if you have any voluntary experience. Some people might think that there is no relevance mentioning them. But if you have volunteered, it is worth mentioning. Explain how you added value.

So, these are some short tips and tricks on how to write an effective resume. You can share some more tips if you have practical experience of writing an impressive resume.

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Resume Mistakes to Avoid

In your personal life or everyday life, you may get a second chance to rectify something. But if your resume is rejected for silly but glaring mistakes, you may or may not get a second chance to convince the recruiter to hire you. Your aim to write a resume should be getting a good job interview and keeping your resume away from trash box. This articles talks about some of the mistakes which can be avoided in order to make a great resume. Some of them are as follows:

A Cluttered One: Make the resume as simple as it is possible. Be it in respect to the font, font size, formatting or anything, create the resume in such a manner, so that it becomes readable even at a once hasty glance. Make the headings bold, give proper spacing between the headings, justify the text and segregate sections correctly. De-clutter the resume as much as possible. Hit a perfect balance between white space and text so that it looks nice and comprehensible. Do not put too narrow margin. When you try to take a printout, it may look little distorted.
No Mention of Achievements: The resume is your golden chance to convey a recruiter about your candidature to the prospective company. Do not miss this chance. Take time to talk about your achievements along with your roles and responsibilities.

Roles are more or less the same but achievements are something which sets your resume apart from others. Mentioning them would generate interest in recruiter�s mind and can compel him/her to think that you have not just been stuck to your 8-9 hours duty but went beyond to prove your worth.

Not so relevant experience: It is quite possible that during college you might have worked in McDonald’s or any other restaurants to earn your pocket money. But that should not be necessarily mentioned in your resume. Include it when that experience is somewhat is in line with your future job outlook as well.

For example, in this case, if you are looking for an opportunity in Hospitality, Hotel Industry only, then you can mention your college part time job which should show that since college days, you understand the importance of a customer and know how to service them for achieving repeat and referral business.

Too much of Personal Information: I have seen some resumes wherein they have mentioned their own name (though it has already been mentioned on top, father�s name, mother�s name, their occupation, current address, permanent address and stuff like that. But believe me; a recruiter has nothing to do with this personal information. So, do not eat up the space of your resume with this information.
I, Me, Mine: In a professional resume, there should be no use of personal pronouns. It is an understood fact that your resume is about you only and all the information is related to you. So, do not specifically use the words like she, he, etc. Use present tense for the current organization and past tense for the previous organization. Do not use present tense for the previous company and vice-versa.
An unprofessional email id: This is one of the reasons your resume can become an object of laughing. I have seen resumes with email id like badshahno1@yahoo.com, cutiepie@rediffmail.com, loveuforever@gmail.com. Even if you have one similar to these, try not including it in your resume. Keep them for personal use and create a new one which can be used for professional use.
Length of the resume: Though they say that one-page resume is an ideal one, still the debate of what should be an ideal length of the resume, is eternal. There is no harm in making a 2 page resume, but make sure all the important content is mentioned and highlighted in the first page itself. I am not in favour of cluttering and forcefully fitting all the content on one page, so as to complete it within 1 page only. I think that is not a very good idea. If it creeps on to the next page, let it be, because giving proper spacing is also very important to make it readable.
Key Word Missing: Recruiters, nowadays, search resumes through keywords. Either they search resume through applicant tracking system or search in the database basis keywords relevant to the vacant position. So, make sure your resume has those relevant keywords suiting to your profile. But keywords should be relevant to your profile. If there are wrong keywords written on your resume, chances are there that your resume might not get shortlisted and even if it is shortlisted, it may not be for the position you are looking for.
Spelling/Grammatical Errors: These errors look very minor, but they have a deep impact on your future. So, it is better to carry out a spell check before you submit your resume to someone. Sometimes the auto spell check also does not catch the mistake. In that case, proofread the resume thoroughly from top to bottom and then get it checked by some family member or friends. Even typo errors are sometimes not spared by hiring managers. By the time we finish writing something, be it a letter, resume, cover letter, biography or story, we tend to become little attached with it and we just go with the flow of the mind. Hence it becomes very difficult to identify your own mistake. So, an unbiased eye and mind is very much required for proofreading the document that we have written.
Formatting errors: After the content part is done for the resume, the most important thing is the presentation which cannot be ignored completely. So, make sure your resume is readable, presentable and understandable. Do not use too small font, nor too big. Do not go below font size 10. Also give proper spacing between the sections and lines, so that a recruiter does not have to take too much pain to go through your resume. Make a bulleted list rather than long heavy paragraphs. A neat, clean and clutter-free format is appreciated and valued.
Too much of Creativity: Creativity is good, but too much of it can make the resume complicated. Recruiters do prefer short, precise, neat and simple resume which covers up all your organizational and educational background appropriately. So, do not go overboard with your creativity unless you are applying for a designer, decorator or artist profile.
Do not Lie: There should be no place of lying or bluffing in a professional resume as it might get caught by the recruiter eventually. And I am sure you don�t want to get into such trouble situation and embarrassment of being caught for something which is not real. Background check and cross checking will surely happen before you get the job. And faking things will have a negative impact on your interview ahead; the application itself may get rejected on the first hand.
Avoid Abbreviations: It happens in IT/Technology profiles. There are lot of short forms but try to avoid using them in your resume. The one who is reading your profile may not be aware of the terminologies or jargons. And even if you are using the acronym of any word, I would suggest elaborating it within bracket. For example, if you are writing something like, “Developed a GUI (Graphical User Interface)”. This is how you can elaborate GUI within the bracket. It will clear out the meaning and will be easy for a hiring manager to understand it.

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How to Make Your Resume Stand Out and a Winning One

In today’s competitive cut throat market, it is very important to stand out in the crowd to get noticed. Be it in person or on your resume. As we all know that recruiters spend very little time to scan through a resume, it becomes more important to make that 10-15 seconds count. There is no 1 set format or standard which should be followed to develop a resume. When your resume is being compared to all other resumes laid on the table, it is all about how your resume looks like in comparison to the piled up other resumes.

Actually, resume writing is not a science wherein the equations should match. Here, you have to follow the small tricks which practically work. Let’s see some of the ways you can keep in mind to make your resume stand out from others in the job world:

Get it Tailor Made: As there are different fittings required for various line of clothes, similarly, a resume should also be customized as per the job requirements. A simple but clever way to understand is to refer to the job description that has been published. Every job requires some specific skills and proficiency level. So, understand this and tailor your resume keeping in mind the job write-up. Pay attention to what is written and being repeated in the job description.
Relevant Keywords: Keywords are essential but do not choke the resume with jargons and keywords as the HR Manager who is supposed to shortlist your resume, may not be aware of the heavy jargons and keywords. Chances are there that due to difficulty in understanding, he might reject the resume. So, add keywords related to your profile, but do not go overboard. Once again look at the job description and make sure your resume is the answer to their requirement. But do not falsify while doing so. Recruiters will quickly gauge if you are faking information. Moreover, there is always the danger of being caught during the interview even if your resume passes the 15-20 second test.
Proper Format: Though content is the heart of your resume, but presentation also matters. So, judiciously choose a suitable, presentable format which showcases your skills and personality proficiently. While formatting your resume, make sure you give proper spacing to make it more readable. You can bold the headers to make it more prominent. Bullets should be clearly marked and points are easy to segregate. Visually your resume should be pleasing to the eye rather than a strain to an eye.
Error Free: even a typo error can spoil your chances of getting shortlisted for the interview. If required, proofread it 10 times before submitting it to the hiring manager. Do not be over confident that you have done everything right. Ask help from your friends, colleagues who can proofread it once for you.

It is quite natural that if you have done something or written something, you tend to get biased about it. You see no fault in them. But when someone else is seeing that they will come with a fresh eye as well as a new perspective. Even a single spelling error can be a glaring fault in recruiter’s eye. Besides this, spelling errors, sentence composition errors and other errors would demonstrate the lack of your attention towards your resume.

Remain Specific: Although details about your job roles, responsibilities and achievements play a vital role in your profile. But at the same time, it is essential to have a look before writing something. I have read a resume in which a person has written getting chocolates as a token of appreciation. Just think of it – how lame does that sound! I mean it is good that your company is distributing chocolates for your achievement, but put your mind to it. Is it worth mentioning in your resume? I guess not.

Remove any unnecessary details which can raise brows. Stay away from mentioning religion, marital status, or any other personal or political preferences which are not at all relevant to your profile. Some resume formats require these details. So, use them carefully and only when it is asked. You can also remove the work experience which is not relevant to the prospective position. Avoid mentioning anything which is more than 5 – 8 years ago. And if it is a senior profile, do not talk about college activities, extra-curricular activities.

Length of resume: Though there is no hard and fast rule for this, it is suggested that you should conclude a resume in not more than 2 pages. It is okay to have a resume which is more than 1 page. Do not forcibly fit your resume on one page. It will only make your resume cluttered leaving no space in between.

If someone has worked for 4 – 5 organizations in his entire career, of course, the resume would hardly fit into one page when you might have done various things in those organizations. But remember to keep important points in the first page itself. The keywords should be visible on the first page.

Keep it Professional: Just to grab the attention of a recruiter do not give your resume a jazzy-flashy format which looks superficial. This will grab the attention of a recruiter but in a negative way. Avoid mentioning negative things on your resume such as you left the last company because of an arrogant boss or stuff like that. Just stick to your career related factual details.
Liar…Liar… Pants on Fire: Do not let your well-built resume scream this phrase like children do when they find somebody from their group is telling a lie! A serious problem may occur even if you somehow skip by chance from the background check.

Sooner or later you might get caught. There will always be a fear of losing the job anytime, and that will not be great news if you lose job just because you faked a degree, education, work experience or skills. And of course, you do not want this to be a hurdle in your future jobs as well.

Follow these simple tips to make your resume stand out from the others. You never know you might win an interview and subsequently get a job which is the ultimate purpose of putting in all these efforts. And yes, to top it up write an equally good cover letter if you want to turn the first impression in your favour.

My Suggestion: Here my suggestion would be to structure the content first. Work hard on the content part. Decide what content to keep and what is not so relevant? And once you finalize the resume content part, choose a structured, neat and organized format which suits the profile the most. Content being the core, this should be paid great attention to but presentation and aesthetics part can also not be ignored.

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How to Address Career Gaps and Other Career Weaknesses in Your Resume

What is career break or career Gap? Career gap is a time period when you are no longer associated with any organization after leaving one. A gap of 2-3 months is not very astonishing but more than 6 months or year surely raises a red flag in recruiter’s view.

People often take a break either intentionally or because of some person reasons. But how to address this gap in your resume is a big question.

Other Activities: If you have taken a career break, think of things that you might have been involved during this time. Whether you were associated with any volunteer activities any social work, any project, consulting assignment or you might have continued further studies. In a typical case these details might not seem very relevant, but if you have a career gap, these reasons are good enough to fill this gap of time.
Make it Concise: Whatever might be the reason for taking a break from your professional career, convey it in a concise manner. It need not be elaborated much. Do not go into great detail. Some international format specifically requires a reason for leaving a job. Australian format resume is one of them which ask to mention your reason for leaving a particular job.
Do not include every job you have done: You need not mention each and every job you might have taken up. Some short term or part time jobs can be left out to avoid showing small stints and gaps in your career.
Prepare a functional resume: Functional resumes genially emphasize more on the functions that you have handled across the career rather than focusing on the chronological format of your work history. A chronological format directly focuses on your career history thus if any gap is there, it will be quite visible.
Only years not months: While preparing your resume, you can simply talk about the tenure in years and leave out the months. It will automatically hide the gap of your career, especially if the gap is of 3-4 months.
Time away from work: Many people take time away from work due to a family related problem, a serious illness in the family or taking care of elderly members. If any of these happened to you, address them appropriately in your resume. And along with that also make sure to clarify this that this kind of incident will not rise in near future so as to show that you are now ready to enter the job world with full vigor.
Be Truthful: It is better to remain truthful and professional in your resume. Else it may haunt you later. You might not remember the fake reasons and statements afterwards, and it may be a matter of concern. You should be able to address the gap truthfully rather than weaving a false story. If the reason was critical enough, hope the recruiter has the mind and openness to understand that.
Say it in Cover Letter: When you have a career gap, it is better to explain it in your cover letter instead of a resume. Whether you have taken a break to raise your kids, take care of your elderly parents, in-laws or to study full time further, explain it in your cover letter in a line or two.
Put more emphasis on Skills: If you have taken a career break, it is no use hiding them, because ultimately you cannot hide the gap. In this scenario, all you can do is, shift the focus from your career gap to the skills that you might have earned while you were working. Your skills are very important. So highlight your skills and areas of expertise to drag the attention of a recruiter.
Clarify the Gap: No matter how awkward you feel about the gap in your career, it is better to explain them in the resume rather than leaving it out to the sole discretion and imagination of a hiring manager.
Highlight Achievements: During your work tenure, if you have many more achievements to talk about, mention all of them without a second thought. List out all the accomplishments which are meaningful and relevant. Ensure to mention the achievements in the first page itself which will attune the mind of a recruiter posing you as a high achiever. The focus during the interview might shift from career gap to career highlights.
Stay Up to Date: Career gaps, somehow become the reason of raising eyebrows for the hiring manager. No matter how hard you try to hide the gap or want to turn away the attention of a hiring manager from your career gap, it is quite natural that at the end of the interview, they will ask you about your career gap if it is significant.

But at the same time, a recruiter would still like to know whether you remained updated about the latest industry trends or techniques even having a gap or not. If somehow you can demonstrate that even after a career break you are still not out of touch with the professional world and have been able to remain up to date, this will have a positive impression on the hiring manager. Any day a recruiter would like to know whether they have to spend a good amount of time training you or you are almost ready to dive in once again in a job world after a career break.

Your Approach: If you are not confident enough and having a low self-esteem while talking about your career gap, chances are there that recruiter might also not take it in a right spirit. So, be positive and confident while explaining your career gap.
Utilize the Gap: At the end of the day, you cannot vanish the gap through any magic. So think of the ways when you can utilize this time off from your professional work. Take a course, attend seminars, conferences, and network with people if possible. Take some training or take up a freelance or part time work to make the best use of the time off.

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Writing a Resume in the Absence of Strong Work Experience

A good quality resume is a prime tool to apply for a job and what to do when you have no work experience to show? You don’t have to panic as everyone has to start from somewhere. A fresh college graduate out of college and looking for a suitable job will of course not have a perfect resume to pitch. But that does not mean that you cannot make your resume impressive. Here are some tips and tricks to make your resume remarkable even if you lack work experience:

Start with a Good Objective: A resume should start with a crisp objective statement. While writing an objective line for your resume, keep in mind that you do not have to talk about what you are expecting out of the company, rather write how your skills and abilities are a perfect match to the required position and how they can contribute to fulfilling the responsibilities which will be assigned to you. The objective statement must reveal your key career focus and how effectively can you visualize your long term and short term career aspirations and articulate the same impressively. The objective statement must follow the SMART acronym: S-Specific, M-Measurable, A-Achievable, R-Realistic and T-Time Bound.
Your Academic Background: when you have no experience to show, expand your educational background. Write your marks (if it is more than 60%) and the name of institute and year of passing. If you have done any other vocational course, you can include them in this section. During Academics, if you have won any award/accolade, do not hesitate to mention them. Focus more on the academic achievements and meritorious recognition as this would play a crucial role in providing you a competitive advantage.
Talk about Internship/Trainings: Internships and training are the best way to tell a recruiter that you have not only earned your degree but have also applied them in practical life. Experiential learning in the form of internships or industrial training is always advantageous as you get an opportunity to apply your learning into practice and you experience the complexities as well as the challenges of an actual work environment. During internships, you also get a chance to get along with other people who are also budding professionals willing to carve their way forward. You get to meet with like-minded people, and this is the good time to network with other people. Even if you have done a part-time job or freelance job to earn your pocket money, you can mention them. It will show that you have worked and have some experience of outside world.

Recruiters look for your quick learning capabilities and how proactively can you apply the theoretical learning at work, how much flexible and adaptable you are in coping up with the work related pressures and contributing as high-performance leaders.

Projects that You Have Done: You can also talk about the projects that you might have undertaken during your academics. This could be a mini project or a major project. Talk about how you have worked within a team, show your research skills, your coordination skills, your ability to gel well with the team and act as a part of the team. These are some of the skills which is very much required and sought after skills. Elaborating them in your resume will be an add on to whatever you have mentioned in your profile.
Knowledge Purview Section: Thought you might not have long work experience to show, but you might have gained significant knowledge while undertaking an academic project, or undergoing and industrial training. You might have done an industrial visit or did an internship after college. During these times, you must have learned something which might be useful. So, think of ways that you can elaborate them a bit. You can dedicate a separate section in your resume regarding your knowledge purview or areas of exposure. If you have done a technical course or computer course, write the languages that you have hands on. Write the operating system you can work upon. Make this section rich, as it can act as a catch area for the recruiter.
Add Extra-Curricular: For a senior professional it might be irrelevant details that he has played a Captain role in his college Football team. But for a person who is having no or very limited work experience, these details can show his/her leadership qualities. If you have organized a college fest or any other college event, make sure to mention them in your resume. These points will make a hiring manager understand about your ability to organize, coordinate and lead.

So, add a little bit of your extra-curricular activities, but do not detail out each and everything as it might make the resume lengthier than required.

Volunteer Work: Generally in a professional resume, we suggest not to elaborate much on volunteer experience. But when it comes to writing a person’s resume with less experience, it is important to mark these points as well. So, think of the events when you have volunteered a campaign, or if you are associated with any NGO, mention them. You never know which skills would match a recruiter’s job posting. So, do not hesitate from showing off your volunteer experience. It talks a lot about you and your personality.
Temporary Job: Some people do shy away from mentioning a temporary job which he/she might have taken up during summer holiday or may be between the jobs if any. But according to me even if you have done a part-time job, you can mention them in the profile. If you look at it from the other angle, this might show that you were not sitting idle during the period but have taken a wise decision to exercise your skills and polished them meanwhile. People have different views, though.
Family Business: of my friend was involved in her family business of handling a boutique but was not at all willing to show this experience in her resume. Now she wants to get into a corporate world and want to work in the field of client servicing. If we take it as a case, what do you think? Should she mention this experience or not? Think about it.

As far as I could, I was in favour of mentioning this experience in her resume as I could found a unique similarity of her boutique family business and her prospective field of work. Since this friend of mine wanted to work in a client servicing field, her background of dealing with different clients day in and day out could be of much help. This somehow shows that she is not entirely new to this field and does not have to learn client servicing skills from scratch.

Then I came to the conclusion that she should mention this family business of her as an entrepreneurial experience separately in her resume. This not only talked about her familiarity with the chosen field but also shows an entrepreneurial drive within her own self. This experience shows her ability to complete a task independently, dealing with client, understanding their requirements, handling their queries and complaints and resolving them in a timely manner.

After all, these skills are quite in demand these days. Don’t you think so ?