Resume Guidelines

Create a 1-page resume by following the instructions below.

Your resume is a brief description of all your work on a page. Recruiters typically spend
only 30-45 seconds looking at a resume. Hence, it is imperative that you communicate
the most important experiences and skills here so that you get a shortlist. While there is
no one correct way to write a resume, this document and the resources linked here are
the most commonly accepted.

A good resume is broken down into 3-4 sections. Education, Work Experience, Leadership
experience/Academic Projects, and an additional Skills and Tools section. If you already
have a verified and polished resume, you can refer to this document and the do's and
don'ts at the bottom to ensure that your resume is shortlist-ready!

If you are creating a resume from scratch, the guidelines below ensure that you are able
to draft an impactful resume.

HEADER
● Center your full name at the top of your resume. Employers should see this piece
of information first.
● Include your phone number and email address.

EDUCATION SECTION
● Add schools attended in reverse chronological order (most recent comes first).
Include institution name, city, degree, certificate or course of study, date of
completion, and major/concentration.
● State academic grade; either average percentage on major percentage is
acceptable.
● Consider including a brief listing of relevant courses outside your nature including
independent coursework for a listing of special skills if you think this information
permit special emphasis

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 ● You can also include relevant activities that you did in the institution, which are not
significant enough to be mentioned separately in one line only. (for eg, swimming,
debating club, member of the dance club, etc)
● You need not include 10th-grade details since you are already in college

WORK EXPERIENCE SECTION

This can also be broken into two sections if you have many internships under your belt as Related
experience and Additional Experience

● List experience in reverse chronological order (most recent first).

● Include employer name (or Organisation), role title, city, dates (month and year
only), and accomplishments (what were the results).
● Use action verbs, to quantify and qualify your outcomes, not just responsibilities
(i.e “Worked on ideation, promotion, scheduling & execution of digital marketing
campaigns for ‘Young Achievers’ Program’, JKL’s flagship program for K-12
students”). You can use this resource and this resource as a reference for action
verbs.
● Do not include volunteering / pro-bono experience here if you have other
experiences. This can be added in a separate section named ‘Community
Experience’
● You can refer to this document to structure this section further

LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE
● Leadership does not have to mean starting a new organization. Demonstrate that
you have an ability to get the job done and make things happen, especially if it’s
behind the scenes.
● Add any leadership experience here. This could be as part of a club, event, hostel,
or competitions
● Do not add experiences from high school unless they are at least at a district level
or higher
● Demonstrate that you have taken initiatives to go above and beyond what was
expected of you and make sure you highlight the outcome of your
accomplishments.

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Demonstrated Core Competencies/Skills to include in your resume

While composing your competencies/skills, think about the kinds of universal or

transferable skills that apply in any sector. These skills SHOULD NOT be listed as bullet
points but rather demonstrated through your work experience, leadership experience, or
community experience.

1. Multitasking: the ability to do several tasks at once, switch gears quickly, and
manage several long-term projects simultaneously.
2. Showing initiative: starting a new program, solving a long-standing problem,
asking for new responsibilities.
3. Influence: getting people to work with you despite not having direct supervision or
control over them.
4. Managing diversity: bringing diverse groups together and being purposeful about
inclusivity.
5. Working under constraints: limited time, limited finances, and limited staff to
accomplish tasks.
6. Flexibility: changing direction mid-course in a project based on user feedback.
7. “Pleasing the masses”: making sure that everyone is happy, not just the people on
your team (known as stakeholder management).
8. Social Media: ability to connect people, issues, and organizations through
web-based technology to create interactive dialogue and the exchange of
user-generated content.

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 Important Dos and Don’ts:

Customize your resume with relevant Do not exceed a page

experience based on where and what role
you are applying for

Use active voice and use past tense (even if No spelling and grammar mistakes
it is a role you are currently working in)

Restrict a bullet point to a maximum of 2 Do not have hanging words. Restructure your
sentences for brevity
lines

All sentences have periods or none of them No subjective verbs, adjectives, and adverbs
have

Be consistent in format, highlighting, and Don’t lie or pad your resume!

content

Make it easy to read and follow, balancing Don’t Abbreviate

white space

Use consistent spacing, underlining, italics, Don’t use a narrative style or use personal
bold, and capitalization for emphasis pronouns (such as I)

Avoid information gaps such as a missing Don’t use slang or colloquialisms

summer

List headings (such as experience) in order Don’t include your picture, age, or gender
of importance

Within headings, list information in reverse Don’t list references

chronological order (most recent first)

Be sure that your formatting will translate Don’t start each line with a date, ensure your
properly if converted to a .pdf dates are in the same format. Avoid season
nomenclature -- summer, winter, etc.

Here are two sample formats that you could use. Embark 2021 Sample Resume 1 and Embark
2021 Sample Resume 2. You can choose one depending on your experiences and what you
are comfortable with.
Note: It’s not mandatory to use this format, feel free to copy and replace information in case you do not
have a resume.

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