Resume Checklist

Resume is the most important document in the job search process. It is the proposal that you are submitting against the job requirement at the company. if your proposal (resume) would not match with the client's (hiring manager)'s requirement, you would not be invited for the interview. A few pointers to keep in mind while writing resume are :

  • Resume is a marketing material not a fact sheet.
  • Do not write anything in resume that you could potentially communicate risks
  • Always compare your resume against the job description before applying
  • Hiring manager spends less than 30 secs on your resume; make it easy to follow

Based on Alert leaders 15 years of average hiring experience and reviewing thousands of resumes, we are excited to share the checklist below that will differentiate your resume from other candidates.

  • Summary: Summarize your resume in 3-4 sentences. Many university format would ask students to remove summary to not give any advantage to any students. However, without summary, you are leaving up to the hiring manager to summarize your experience. you will lose the control on the process.
  • India: Do not reference location anywhere in your resume which would clearly indicate that you would need visa sponsorship
  • GPA: if you have low GPA, it should not be mentioned in the resume
  • Experience: The experience should be described as your achievement followed by the activities performed for the achievement. Each sentence under the experience section should start with verb.
  • Grammatical consistency: Ensure that each sentences are grammatically consistent. All sentences should start with past tense verbs to describe your experience
  • Relevant Coursework: relevant coursework does not add any value in your resume. instead incorporate the skills that you gained through relevant coursework into your projects and skills section.
  • Skills: The skills section is only for the keywords that can not be incorporated anywhere else. If some skills are already captured in the experience, do not need to repeat under the skills section