Beginner's Guide to Resume & LinkedIn

Points clés

• A resume has one job, earning you a conversation, so every line should help answer whether you can do this particular role.
• Keep a private master list of every job, course and project, and cut each one-page resume from it using the posting's repeated words.
• Write each line as an action, what you did and an honest result, instead of listing duties or adjectives like hard-working.
• Treat your LinkedIn profile as the public version of the same facts: a clear photo, a searchable headline, a short About and matching dates.
• Before sending, check for the classic mistakes: one generic version, fancy layouts, risky personal details, typos and claims you cannot explain.

À l'intérieur de ce bit

1. What a resume and a profile are for

   A resume is a short document, usually one page for a beginner, that tells an employer what you can do and what you have done. It has one job: to earn you a conversation.

2. The words you will keep meeting

   A handful of terms cause most of the confusion. Resume and CV usually mean the same thing: people in India and the United States often say resume, Britain says CV, and in university jobs a CV means a longer, complete record.

3. Your first three moves

   Start with a master list, not a resume. On a single document, write every job, internship, course, project and volunteer role you have had, with dates and one thing you are proud of from each.

4. Writing lines that show, not tell

   Most beginner resumes describe duties: responsible for customers, handled stock, assisted the manager. A duty tells the reader what the job was, not how well you did it.

5. Setting up LinkedIn without the stress

   A beginner's profile needs five parts, and together they take about an hour. A clear photo: your face, good daylight, a plain background, taken on any phone.

6. The classic beginner mistakes

   Most weak resumes fail in the same few ways, which is good news, because a checklist catches them. The first is sending one generic version everywhere; a few minutes of tailoring to the posting's words usually does more than dozens of identical applications.