Sidin Vadukut
| Here's a guide to manufacturing the `perfect' CV. |
The first thing is to describe precisely your responsibilities in the incumbent job.
Wait a minute there. Why do I see you standing coyly by the office printer? The sly conspiring look on your face can only mean one thing: You have been using office equipment and stationery to prepare your CV. Aha!
We have all seen, and even been, young managers shamelessly typing away CVs on office-supplied computers during office hours, sitting on office furniture and sipping on cups of office tea.
They (we) then stay back late under the pretence of `urgent work which has to go tonight'. And when everyone has left we spend many merry hours printing and reprinting our CV till it looks just right and one's grades are too small to see without expensive optical equipment.
Using office resources shamelessly thus for one's own personal benefit is not just opportunistic and probably against company policy, but it is also sound common sense. And with that thought we will begin this special two-part series on resume making and interview preparation.
It is an undeniable fact of corporate life that everyone, yes, even that fellow in the corner after whom the company is named, is on the lookout for a better job. Thankfully, somewhere out there is a firm that is just dying to pick you up and pay you even more to do what you are doing now — reading a satire column in a business newspaper late on a Monday morning. (They might even make this your KRA if you bargain hard enough.) Your job is only to heed that call.
This column, adhering to the lofty ideals it set itself many editions ago, will now hasten you, the new manager, along on this journey of self-discovery and self-realisation. (Also known as Rs 43 lakh per annum-plus-bonus-plus-Octavia with driver.)
First of all you need a resume. This is a document where you should mention your name, telephone number and address truthfully.
The rest is where your resourcefulness should come into play. (Yes, even gender can be suitably managed. A male friend continues to achieve great success in a firm in a `ladies only' role and recently returned from maternity vacation. They believe he had twins.)
The first thing is to describe precisely what your responsibilities are in the incumbent job. For young managers, this is a challenge.
They have often only been around for a few months and only recently, after an elaborate classroom session and off-site in Goa, learnt which button produces tomato soup.
But there is nothing a little creativity cannot help project. Helped move the office furniture last week? Make it "Instrumental in reorganising organisation to improve efficiencies by 32 per cent." Mailed confidential internal cost price details to all your customers by mistake? Make that "operationalised new pricing strategies leading to dynamic change in customer portfolio."
Once you have suitably represented your job responsibilities you need to account for your educational achievements. Many applicants represent their academic performances on their resumes.
This is a common error and one reason why lots of brilliant managers with atrocious grades don't get good jobs. Exercise caution here and try to represent your performances in the best possible light. For instance:
"Rank 182 in the Kerala State Engineering Entrance Examination in Thrissur District."
"Graduated top of the B.Com batch of 1996 from SRCC in Taekwondo."
With adequate highlighting and judicious use of bold and italics it is easy to pull this off. But remember the cardinal rule: "Don't say anything that another applicant may also fib about." (This is a common enough occurrence and I personally remember interviewing a class of engineers, 18 of whom had come first in class and 34 had come third.)
So now you have explained your current job and your education qualifications. The next critical part of the resume is to talk about the personal side of the young manager-applicant. In other words hobbies, interests and other extra-curricular activities.
LIST RELEVANT HOBBIES
Now remember that your resume will be read by a firm that hopes to recruit you at some point. (There are certain HR people who randomly call for resumes just so they can have something to do in the afternoons. We are clearly not talking of them.)
So you will be wise to refer to hobbies that are relevant to them. Also remember that your CV may be read by somebody who shares your passions and hobbies. (Yes, there are all kinds of managers out there. You meet the most fascinating people like this.)
So do the smart thing and make sure your personals are untouchable. Don't just say "reading books". If it's a bank say: "Reading the complete works of Alan Greenspan. (Only those co-authored with Norman Crookier)." You ask who is Norman Crookier? Exactly. Also remember that most people get caught lying on their personals. So make sure you have back up for whatever you write.
Interviewer: "So you say you are a keen follower of Ray's films?"
You: "Yes, I have watched all of them. They are brilliant."
Interviewer: "Oh... great. I love them too. Which is your favourite scene from Pather Panchali?"
You: "Err... ummm... the alien abduction? And yours?"
That would be a disaster. But alas, goof-ups like that do happen. But how to handle interviews and carry on the brilliant work you started with on your CV will be the topic of the next column. Till then keep working on that resume. And make sure no one catches you.
Homework: A vacancy has arisen in a leading automobile company. You took seven years to clear your degree in Automobile Engineering. How will you explain that in your resume? Hint: Vacancy is Global Head, R&D.
(The writer, an alumnus of IIM-A, was a management consultant before quitting to work on a book and a full-time writing career).
