12 Best Resume Do’s and Don’ts Tips in 2022 – GeeksforGeeks

Indeed, a worthwhile and impactful resume is a must for all individuals while looking out for a job opportunity. Your resume acts as a marketing tool for you that showcase your skills & learnings to the recruiters and helps you to land an interview opportunity. Though, in today’s competitive world, you’ll find thousands of candidates (or even more) running behind a single job opportunity. Meanwhile, as the recruiters get such a large amount of job applications, it becomes quite daunting for them as well to pick out the relevant ones. And here comes the role of a well-created professional resume. Yes, an enriching and effective resume can give you an edge over other candidates and help you to get some good career opportunities that you usually don’t get with a poorly-made resume. 

Resume Do’s and Don’ts Tips

Building a resume has become easier than before. No more writing a Resume and CV on blank paper with a pen and racking your brain to think what to include and what not to. With GeeksforGeeks Resume Builder, you can create an ATS proof resume within 5 mins or less. GFG Resume Builder provides various prominent features like different templates, easy customization, download & sharing option, etc. increasing your chances of securing an interview. However, apart from these provided features, there is much more to consider while creating a resume to grab the attention of the recruiters and enhance your chances of getting an interview opportunity.  

Here, in this article, we’ll let you know about those several most recommended do’s and don’ts tips to create a professional resume in 2022 that will bag you your dream job:

1. Do Write a Concise Resume

The first and foremost thing you need to keep in mind while creating a resume is – Keep it short and concise! Recruiters usually don’t want to spend much time assessing your resume and prefer to look over a concise resume. Meanwhile, you’re recommended to create a one-page resume as it is most preferred by the interviewers. Furthermore, if you have relatively more work experience and you need to go for a two-page resume or more then you must try to make it relevant and epigrammatic.

2. Do Customize Your Resume Accordingly

Indeed, you’re required to customize your resume regularly according to the particular job descriptions. The recruiters usually do the screening process of picking out the relevant and worthwhile resume by searching for the specific keywords related to the required skills, qualifications, experience, etc. for the job. Hence, you’re required to update your resume insights regularly and showcase the skills on your resume relevant to the particular job profile. Moreover, the process of regular customization of the resume is also necessary for situations like the change of contact information, skill up-gradation, etc.  

3. Do Mention a Summary Statement

A summary statement is used at the beginning part of the resume that usually gives an idea about how you can be beneficial to a particular organization. In general, the summary statement emphasizes your skills and relevant experience to the recruiter. Moreover, try to avoid too long and objective statements in the summary section. Meanwhile, you’re strongly recommended to not directly copy the summary statement from any other resources (though you can get an idea about the same) and try to write a unique & enriching summary statement.

4. Do Highlight Your Achievements  

Indeed, highlighting your achievements (whether it be relevant experience, accomplishments, or any other) gives a clear idea to the recruiters about your relevance to the job opportunity. Meanwhile, you’re recommended to mention and highlight the more important & relevant achievements first. Though you’re not required to mention these achievements in detail and can include them in a concise way such as Implemented New Processes or Worked on Particular Projects, etc. Moreover, you are also recommended to not highlight any obvious or unnecessary skills as it can create a negative impact on the interviewer. 

5. Do Include Your Contact Details

It is one of the basic, yet most underrated aspect by the candidates while writing a resume. You’re recommended to include your valid contact details such as email address, phone number, etc. on your resume so that recruiters can easily reach out to you for the interviews. Moreover, you can also include your LinkedIn ID or any other professional networking platform address. Meanwhile, you’re not required to mention unnecessary personal details such as religion, marital status, etc. on your resume and can avoid including unusual social media accounts’ links.  

6. Do Mention Relevant Soft Skills

One of the major mistakes that most candidates commit while creating a professional resume is they include all the technical skills, certifications, etc. but they don’t focus on mentioning relevant soft skills. Indeed, recruiters expect you to have relevant soft & analytical skills such as time management, leadership, team spirit, etc. along with the required technical skillset. Though you’re strongly recommended to not mention unnecessary or irrelevant soft skills instead include those skills in which you are proficient and that are relevant to the particular job profile.

7. Don’t Use a Complicated Resume Template  

As mentioned above, you’re expected to come up with a resume that is easily readable and less time-consuming to grab the attention of the recruiter. Hence, you’re recommended to pick out a simple and basic resume template for better results. However, you can prefer several creative resume templates as well to stand out from the crowd but keep the flow of the content simple and concise. Further, you’re also recommended to not do that many experiments with font styling, infographics, etc. 

GeeksforGeeks Resume Builder offers the most sought-after resume templates that are designed to cater to students and professionals and are easy to read and look simple and basic to the eyes. 

Free Online Resume Builder - GeeksforGeeks

8. Don’t Use Passive Voice on Your Resumes

Furthermore, you’re also advised to not use passive voice sentences on your resume as it not only increases the content length but also makes it unclear to the recruiters. 

For example – instead of writing ‘the particular project was managed by me’, you should write ‘Managed particular project’ or ‘Implemented new processes’ over ‘the new processes were implemented by me’, etc. As you can see in the given examples that the active voice phrases are quite concise and easy to understand for the recruiters.

9. Don’t Include Irrelevant Hobbies or Interests

Indeed, no interviewer wants to see any irrelevant hobbies or interests on your resume, e.g. your favorite cartoon character, etc. Though you’re recommended to put those interests of yours that are professionally relevant to the particular job for example – if you’re applying your resume for a writer’s profile then you can mention reading novels and blogs as your hobby or if you’re applying for a UX/UI Designer, you can include sketching or photography. Moreover, you need to prepare an appropriate justification in your mind for the mentioned interests or hobbies for future interview processes.

10. Don’t Write Negative Things

Meanwhile, while creating a resume, you’re required to be more concerned to avoid mentioning any negative thing or phrase whether it be about your previous company, work profile, or any other. You need to create a positive impact on the interviewer through your resume. You are required to focus on your strengths and skills instead of discussing your previous failures or mistakes in your resume. Moreover, you’re also recommended to not use such content in your resume that leads to any kind of biases or discrimination.  

11. Don’t Include Highly Personal Information

Furthermore, you’re recommended to not provide highly personal or confidential details in your resume as neither it would be beneficial for the interviewer to assess your skills nor it will be a good move to share such details with anyone. Moreover, the practice of mentioning extremely personal details in the resume is also not preferred by the interviewers to avoid any kind of partiality or discrimination in the recruitment process.  

12. Don’t Forget to Check Grammatical or Other Related Errors

Last but not least, you’re strongly recommended to proofread your resume multiple times to check for any grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, etc. Indeed, these small mistakes on your resume can make a negative impression of yours on the recruiters. You can use various online tools to check for grammatical or other related errors. Moreover, you can also ask your friends, mentors, etc. to look over your resume and give you some suggestions or feedback regarding the same. 

Bonus Tips:

  • Do Use Bullet Points In Your Resume – Do not write any information in the form of long paragraphs in the resume. Use Bullet Points to write any information Instead. Because the recruiter reads your resume for just a few seconds. So they do not have enough time to read all the things, and they will see some major points or words in it and if those points and words are looking good to them, then chances are more that they will select your resume.
  • Make Your Resume Classic and Professional – Though it is not something necessary – still, you can opt to make your resume classic and professional and use only two colors in the resume. For a better format, you should always use black and blue colors in your resume. Also, always save your resume in pdf format and send resume in pdf format to companies.
  • Page Count – Keep your resume to just 1 page. Only make it 2-3 pages if you’re a mid- or late-career professional.

So these are several most recommended do’s and don’ts tips that can be taken into consideration to create a professional resume. Now, what are you waiting for? Follow the above-mentioned tips, build a worthwhile resume, and get prepared for your upcoming interviews!!

My Personal Notes

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