Reading & Writing Assignment (7) – The Ultimate Resume

We have been saying this for a while and we know you get it, but there is no harm in reiterating the message. If you want to build your communication skills in English, read a page and write something every day.

What will you do in this assignment? – You would read something interesting, watch a video on it, and then answer a question based on those.

Today’s situation

A resume is one of the most important documents that you need to apply for internships and jobs. It is a 1-2 page long document summarizing your education & employment history, achievements, skills, and projects – basically, all the key information that gives a recruiter a clear understanding of who you are and how good a fit you can be for the role.

Another commonly used term for a resume is CV (Curriculum Vitae – means ‘course of life’ in Latin) and while technically there is a difference between a ‘resume’ and a ‘CV’, for the purpose of job/internship application, both the terms can be used interchangeably.

Given how crucial a resume is for one’s career, students always try to impress recruiters by creating a resume that stands out from the crowd. Some even go to the extent of creating their resumes to look like a Google search result :).

The latest in the series of creative resumes is a video resume, where instead of sending your resume as a Word file or PDF, you make a video about yourself (and your skills/education etc.). The idea has been gaining popularity in the West, but the adoption in India has been slow (given the lack of access to suitable video making tools to a large majority as well as slower internet speeds). And just like what some of us may do in our Word resume, a few don’t mind exaggerating in their video resumes as well :). One of my favorite clips (see below) on this is Barney Stinson’s video resume from popular TV show How I Met Your Mother –

Question for you– Okay, so Barney took this to an extreme level; however, I am sure you would be lot more honest in answering this question :). What qualities do you think you have which you would like to mention in your resume? Back your answer (minimum 150 words) with an example or a proof from your life for every quality you list.

You can also read fellow students’ answers in comments (but do so only after you have submitted your own answer so that you don’t get influenced by what others wrote). We also encourage you to share your feedback, appreciation, and thoughts against others’ answers. Remember, it is a community effort and we are all in it together :). Only when you participate, you can expect others to participate and share feedback on what you wrote. Deal?

To read the next article of the series on building your vocabulary, click on the next button below. To go back to the earlier article, click on the previous button.