What is Resume – Characteristics of a Good Resume

A resume is a summary of one’s identification, qualification and intended career path. It is a formal arrangement of one’s personal inventory. In other words, resume can be defined as a written statement that includes a person’s personal data, education and employment background, etc. it is also known as “curriculum vitae”, “CV” “qualifications document”, or “qualification brief”. It acts as an advertisement for a person’s qualifications and stimulates the potential employers to call the person to the interview.

Murphy and Hildebrandt defined, “Curriculum Vitiate is a document labeling one’s qualifications and career path.”

In the opinion of Bovee, Thill and Schantznan, “A resume is a structured, written summary of a person’s educations, employment background and job qualification.”

According to Kitty O. Locker, “A resume is a persuasive summary of one’s qualifications for employment”

Thus, it is clear that resume is a factual statement that describes a person’s personal, educational and employment information. A job applicant prepares resume and submits it along with his application for a job. A customary resume usually includes name and address, education background, work experience, achievements and awards, personal data like nationality, gender, religion, age, hobby, etc and reference.

Characteristics of a Good Resume

Resume describes one’s education, employment experience, and other personal data. A successful resume inspires a prospective employer to employ the resume holder. An ideal resume should possess the following features or qualities:

1. Honesty: An effective resume should always include accurate information. It should be free from exaggeration and false information.
2. Cleanliness: Employer gets a primary impression about the job application form the appearance of the resume. It indicates the carefulness and eagerness of the application towards the job. Therefore, the resume should be neat, clean and attractive. Its attractiveness depends on clear typing or writing, layout of the writing, quality of papers, necessary margin etc.
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3. Full disclosure: An accurate and effective resume gives detailed information about the applicant. The related information includes identifying information, career or job objective, educational background, work experience, references, etc. without full disclosure of these facts, an employer cannot evaluate a resume.
4. Brevity: Resume should be concise in nature. Inclusion of unnecessary information or repetition of information may irritate the employer.
5. Appropriate format: Resume can be drafted in three different formats such as chronological format, functional format, and combination of chronological and functional format. Selection of format depends on nature of information to be included in the resume; selection of an appropriate format for particular information will obviously enhance its acceptability and appeal.
6. Updated information: A good resume always conations updated information. Resume is the only information sheet that an employer has in determining whether to call the application in the interview. Therefore, the resume should be updated including new skills, experiences, and abilities.