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Winning Resume for Technical Career

Why winning resume is so important?

After you submit applications to companies, your application (cover letter and resume) will be handed over
recruiters (or hiring manager directly). Recruiters review applications and pass the selected resume to
hiring managers. Resume (or CV which stands for Curriculum Vitae) is a marketing tool in your job search.
Because recruiters get tons of applications everyday, they don't spend much time to review each
application. Given this situation, it is extremely important to write impressive resume to catch recruiter's
attention. Once your resume will be handed over hiring manager, the hiring manager will asses each
resume and evaluate candidate based on the information stated in the resume. Once they decide you have
skills for position, you will be contacted for the phone interview. So, it is essential to create resume that
can get phone interview!!
Key Things you have to keep in mind

Keep the size of resume in 2 pages - It is generally believed that the length of an ideal resume is
around 2 pages.  But if you have a lot of experience (for example, you worked as a software
engineer for years or you did a lot of programming projects before), then you can add 1~2 more
pages.
Customize resume according to positions - You have to read job description carefully and
customize it accordingly. For example if the position requires C++ or Java skills, then you have to
emphasize your experience on C++ or Java projects.
Add Objective part  - Mention your career goal.
Add Qualification part - Address why you are the right candidate for the specific position you are
applying to.
Include technical details of the projects you have done - List all the major projects you
accomplished. Add one line of title and 3~4 lines of description for each project. Which
programming languages you used (C++ or Java)? What's your specific contributions in the
project? Any challenges in the project?
Your resume should be also result oriented. For example, instead of "design/development of XYZ
systems", you can say something like "design/development of XYZ systems, which results in 3%
performance lift of XYZ systems"
Include all necessary keywords - Recruiters search resumes from resume database using
keywords in job description. So, don't forget to include all necessary keywords in resume, such
as C++, Java, J2EE, database, Oracle, Perl, Python, AJAX, Microsoft Visual C++, XML, etc
Refer to sample resume - You can refer to resume for software engineers or C++ programmers.
Use action word - Use action words to describe your skills in resume.
Keep the content professional.  
Do NOT write anything in your resume in which you don't have experience. It will hurt your
credibility.
Proofread, proofread, and proofread - Your resume should be free of any typo or grammar
mistakes. Just relying on automatic spelling and grammar check of Microsoft Word is not enough.
Ask proofread to your friends or someone who is good at writing.
Key Things you have to include in the resume

Contact information - Name, phone, address and email-address
Objective - What's your career objective?
Qualification - Why does employer think you are qualified for the position? Again, your resume is a
marketing tool, so you should advertise your main strengths here.
Education - list the most recent one first.
Professional Experience - Besides full-time employment experience, any Internship experience,
teaching assistant, research assistant can be included here.
Award - add any award you received like best paper award, fellowship, etc
Research and Project Experience - You can include key course project experience or research
project experience.
Publications - You can itemize this section according to journal, conference, workshop papers.
Relevant Advanced Courses - Don't forget to include relevant courses you took, for example,
computer network, database, algorithm, data mining, etc
Computer Skills - You can itemize this section according to programming language, and operating
systems
Services - Any voluntary work? Any reviewer experience in journal?
References - Instead of "Available upon request", please include specific names