Resume & Career Resources

In today’s world, the biggest challenge facing organization is to get the right kind of personnel for the right job. Acquiring talent is as difficult as retaining it. All HR managers across industry keep striving for ways and means to better their recruitment procedure.  Following are the challenges that a HR manager faces when it comes to acquiring talent:

• Getting the required profile right:- Recruitment just does not mean receiving applications and short-listing for interview and selecting the suitable candidate. Recruitment starts when a position goes vacant or organizations make a new position. It starts with the correct description of the required candidate. Unless that is in place, it will be very difficult for interviewers to select an ideal candidate for a job. It takes a lot of precision and understanding to exactly note down the expectations from the new candidate for the job. Nevertheless, once this is carefully drafted, almost half the battle is won.

• Calling for candidates: The second challenge for a recruitment manager is to advertise the job opportunity Normally there are three or four ways a company advertises its positions, through newspapers, through recruitment consultants, through job portals and through their own website. Under normal circumstances, what has been seen is that all these options barring the newspaper have there own form of resume builders, therefore the company can receive the resumes in a set resume builder template. Larsen and Toubro for instance, normally upload there position requirement on their website. In addition, they also have an online resume builder for all applicants who randomly visit their website on a look out for career opportunity. These resume builder facilitates easy maintenance of candidate database for use in future. Through these four methods, once the applications have been received, the next step is to scrutinize the based on the job description and candidate requirement already prepared. Once the short listing is done, next step is to call the candidates for the interview.

• Conducting the interviews and preparing the panel: – Every organization has a predefined interview panel. The task of the recruitment manager is to explain thoroughly the job requirement and the candidate’s background well in advance. The challenge that the recruitment manager faces at this level is to think of ways to effective judge the candidate. For example, some organizations employ psychometric tests in addition to the skill tests to understand the behavior of the applicant. The ultimate aim is to get a candidate who is the closest match to the requirement of the job.

• Sealing the deal: – Once the candidate is selected, the recruitment manager has to issue an offer letter inviting the candidate to join the company.

The work of recruitment manager does not just end there. He or she is also responsible for inducting the new employee. Unless the employee receives a proper induction, no amount of planning can help in retaining the new employee. A thorough understanding of organization, its culture, rules and regulation and finally the job expectations are necessary for the new employee to work efficiently.

Job Portals or job sites as are commonly have proved to be one of the most effective recruitment tools being used by employers, recruitment consultant and job seekers in the recent years. Job portal today serve the same purpose as employment exchange in the past. In fact, it can be called exchange on net. It acts as a platform where employees and employers can meet each other.

A job portal provides many services to its customers. To start with,

• Resume Builder: – If an individual is on a lookout for a job, he or she can register himself or herself with the job portal through a readymade resume builder template. In addition they can attached there own version of resume. In case the job seeker wants to fine tune his CV, these job portal also have a resume builder facility. Resume builder facility provided by the job portal enables a job seeker to get his own CV prepared with the help of industry experts. For instance, the resume builder service provided by naukri.com also enables job seekers to avail the resume flash facility which maximizes the visibility of one’s resume.

• Extensive Database of job opportunities, companies, and job seekers: – All job portals have a huge database of both employers and job seekers. The third category that is also present is that of recruitment consultants. Job portals facilitate exchange of job opportunities related information between job seekers and prospective employers.

• In addition, a job portal can provide services like, alert on mobile, private chat, daily industry updates, etc.

There are a lot of job portals that provide their services. Some of the most commonly known are www.monster.com, www.naukri.com, www.timesjob.com, www.Clickjobs.com to name a few.  There are international sites as well like jobstreet.com.

Along with providing web services to its customer, sometimes job portals also liaison with educational institutions and corporations to increase the reach of their services to a wider circle. The idea is to get all parties proactively involved in the search for the ideal candidate. As with every other new service, this service also comes with its set of pros and cons.

The pros are endless. Easy access, timely results, a lot of convenience is the immediate positives that come to mind. A job seeker can access new jobs at any point using just his internet connection and as these sites are getting more and more user friendly, they provide alert on mobile which make it all the more easier for an individual to stay updated. He or she does not have to spent endless hours traveling from office to office submitting his resume. Just one click of mouse will do the work..

However as with everything, job portals are also not free from criticism. The foremost being the authenticity of the applicants. The resumes have to be taken on face value and do not provide any validation of the truth. Another side is that it is only accessible for people with access to net. In a country like India, where Internet still has a long way to go, these portals end up having limited reach.

In the world of online resume builders and resume builder software, resume consultant another service which provides similar benefits to job seekers is resume consultancy.  Resume consultancy is a service where a panel of recruitment experts writes the resume for the job seekers.  These experts belong to various backgrounds, both functionally and are from different levels. They understand what the demand of the market is, and hence the write the resume to suit the need of the hour.

How are resume consultants different from other resume writing method?

Writing with the help Resume consultants as compared to writing on own is always better as experts are more thorough with the job market as compared to the job seeker. They are aware of what points to highlight, what are the points that the HR manager looks at while scrutinizing the CV, how to make the resume more appealing, etc. In addition resume consultants can also guide a job seeker on how to present a CV. However it is a paid service, so all job seekers may not find it possible to afford this.

Resume consultants also fare better than the resume builder software or even the online resume builders available in the market. Resume Builders normally provide various templates and a detailed instruction guide (in case of resume builder software) but they can only work as a guideline. Resume consultancy is more about handholding. An internet site www.resumeconsultancy.com for instance provides a resume consultant to each individual. Also since in resume builders, the basic information is provided by the incumbent himself, the language content may or may not be ideal. However, because in case of a resume consultant, the experts write the CV or at least they play a big role in guiding on one to one basis, rest assured the language and the presentation are impeccable. In addition, there is definitely a personal touch to the resume consultancy service as there is fair amount of handholding and guidance. However, there is another side to this service. Though resume builder can be both paid and free service, resume consultancy is essentially a paid service making its accessibility limited to the number of people who can afford it. Resume consultancy is a time taking procedure and requires the candidate to devote time and effort. Resume builder on the other hand does not have any such demands from the candidates.

Why use a resume consultant?

Even Though some of the points have been mentioned in the previous paragraphs, to quickly review the following are the reasons for the same.

1. Puts a job seeker in touch directly with the expert where he or she can get one-on-one guidance
2. Enables one to build a customized resume as per requirement of the individuals.
3. Talking to the industry expert can help job seeker boost his confidence, when applying for a job.

Some sites providing this service are www.resumeconsultancy.com, www.bestsampleresume.com, etc. Resume consultancies are also sometimes used by the employers as they get vast amount of database at their discretion. This ends up benefiting both employer and job seeker.

In the year 2004, Greg Sturgeon undertook a study to assess the feasibility of using a resume builder by the students of upper level undergraduate students in electrical and mechanical aerospace engineering who participate in capstone project called Integrated product teams (IPT). These students were required to work on a developing a real product for a real client and an additional requirements was to develop a resume for the same because most of these students were next in line to join the work force. The resume was created by the students themselves with the help of template document in Microsoft word, created by Sinceree Gunn.

Greg sturgeon realized that the procedures to create and edit resume were decent but not fool proof. Therefore, the need had arisen to see how well the online resume builder worked in fulfilling the requirement of IPT project. The aim was to look at resume builder that enables a student make his or her own choice with regard the content and formatting. The purpose of this study was to look at a resume builder that is easy to use and maintain and offers real improvement to the editing process and not just a rewrite job. Therefore Greg chose the following selection and evaluation criteria, compatibility with Windows 2000 and XP; availability of a demo copy; editable document file output (e.g. Word, HTML, etc); and availability of backup support. Further on resume builders were evaluated on  how well it: allows multiple formats/ number of templates, allows user flexibility with a number of preset categories, has easy to use interface, helps him or her upload large amount of information, is secure and has a good editing process.

Greg evaluated three resume builders against the criteria listed above, Autoresume.com, resumeeasy.com and Resume Builder 3.15 by Sarm Software. On the study of the three resume builders, the following observations were made.

• Autoresume.com offered its users flexibility of format but there was a content limitation. The users were not allowed to enter as much information as was possible in IPT resume builder. In addition, it did not have a privacy policy.

• Resumeeasy.com though was better as compared to autoresume.com in terms of formatting and content, but the basic services were the same.

• The third resume builder i.e. Resume Builder 3.15 by Sarm software was a desktop application and offered much more flexibility in terms of both content and formats. It also was considered the most secure amongst all three. However, like the above two, despite the fact that it was easy to use, it did not have any feature that facilitated better editing.

Another alternative that was thought of was to build a customized resume builder according to the requirements of IPT project. This would have all the required features of formatting and content. However, it would also require tremendous outlay of resources at the project’s discretion and would be high maintenance.

The conclusion of this study as mentioned by Greg Sturgeon was that it was in the best interest of all to continue with the current system of resume writing and editing and in the meanwhile keep looking at the prospect of developing an in house resume builder.

Online resume builders and resume builder software both aim at collecting relevant details from job seekers to be filled in and presented in form of a ready-made resume for the candidate to be used for various employment opportunities. However, the work is not just limited to writing a resume but the art is to presenting it in a form that highlights the strengths, skills and competencies of the incumbent. This is where resume builder template comes in picture. Templates are different formats that aim at consolidating the information provided by the job seeker and presenting it in a pre defined format. A number of recruitment experts who ensure that the format encompasses all relevant details and has been depicted in the best possible manner, prepare these templates.

A resume builder template also works as guideline that can help if one’s resume needs writing or rewriting. The job seeker can take help of the resume builder template by reviewing the same before starting to work on his or her own CV so that he has a clear idea on how the CV can be presented. Keeping a resume builder template as a base, a job seeker can fill in his side of the information under the broad heads and then edit it to personalize so as to highlight his or her own skills and capabilities. For starters, a template can list the information one needs to include in a resume, based on which one can compile the information in form of the template to customize it according to the requirement of the job.

Broadly, all resume templates would have following sections:-

Contact Information that highlights one’s place of residence, contact number, email id, etc

Objective (optional): this section communicates in one or two sentence the employment goal.

Experience is a brief summary of past professional engagements.

Educational qualification includes both academic and professional qualifications of the candidate

Skills section would normally include the kind of abilities that a person may possess relevant to the job requirement, like computer proficiency, language skills, etc.

References: A candidate may or may not provide references in his resume. However the better option is that reference should only be provided when asked.

There are various kinds of resume templates; templates for entry-level candidates, high school resume template, Microsoft resume template, etc. Microsoft resume template for example  are made available by Microsoft as free downloads to its users to create a CV. Microsoft word resume option includes basic resumes, job specific resumes and career specific resume. In addition there are sample combination resume which present information in a combined form. It is more written as a detailed history of the work experience and not an individual engagement wise. Another kind of template is Chronological Resume where in an employee highlights his or her past engagement chronologically. This is the most common form of CV template used by jobs seekers. There are many more templates like functional resume template that highlight the kind  of responsibilities that the incumbent has been handling in his career, mini resume format which help an individual prepare shorter version of his or her CV and resume formats highlighting accomplishments and skills.

Resume template help the job seeker in visualizing his CV even before his resume is ready.

There are a number of companies that develop resume builder software.  Resume Builder software is a step ahead of online resume builder program. Let us look at the six questions that will help us understand Resume builder software better.

What is resume builder software?

Resume builder software is a tool that helps job seeker prepare his own version of his resume, based on the numerous templates provided in the software. For instance, www.easyjob.net provides resume builder software with 25000 templates in it. This facilitates customization of resume as per the requirement of the individual.

Where can we find resume builder software?

This software is available on internet as a paid product and can be purchased from companies which are into development of this product. Some sites from where one can purchase resume builder software are, www.easyjob.net, www.sarmsoft.com, www.tucows.com to name a few.

When should resume builder software be used?

Resume builder software can be used when there is a requirement of customized resumes as per need of the work profile. Normally this software does not limit themselves to a small number of templates and the vast number of options allows the customer to choose according to his or her need.

Why is resume builder software better than online resume builder?

Though the basic concept behind both resume builder software and online resume builder is the same, i.e. facilitating easy creation of resume by job seekers the accessibility for the both the products is slightly different. For instance, online resume builder is accessible for all net users and it is at user’s discretion whether they want to avail paid service or free service. However, when it comes to resume builder software, normally an individual would not go for such product as his requirement is limited and buying it may not always be cost effective. The software uses on a larger platform like by recruitment consultants who look for helping their candidates come up with customized CVs, or even companies who might require a large template base from which they can choose the kind of resume requirement that they want applicants to fill.

Who uses resume builder software?

As mentioned in the previous paragraph, this software is being used both directly and indirectly by job seekers. A job seeker may choose to purchase this software in order to access a vast amount of templates for applying for jobs. Indirectly, a job seeker can access the templates build in the software through a consultant or a company. A recruitment consultant or a company who gets thousands of applications on a daily basis can use this kind of software to get the applicants registered in their database in a set format provided by the software.

How can one get resume builder software?

The process is purchasing this software is different for all sites. Though most of the sites give it out as a paid product, some sites also give a shorter version of the software as a free download. Easyjob.net for example, helps its visitor download a demo version before they want to go for the full-fledged product. In case someone is interested in buying their product, they have mentioned the price on net, and they provide four options for payment via credit card, wire transfer, cheque payment, paypal and electronic fund transfer with proforma invoice. They also require the customer to fill in billing details where in they can send the software package.

These questions in a very simple form explain the concept of resume builder software.