Resume Writing Guidelines

Why the fuss about resume

2

• From recruitment point of view

– May be used for shortlisting
– First impression –creates a positive influence in the interview
– Helps brand the institute placement process and builds recruiter comfort
• From candidate point of view
– Leads to introspection – it answers questions about if and why you are/
can be relevant for a role
– It is a great tracker – building a good resume requires content. Content
needs work

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What to take away from this document
3

• The only AIM of this document is to learn and internalize how to write resume content
– Understand how each element on your resume needs to be crafted
– Learn to write in crisp detail bringing out the richness of your experience and your key
expertise/skills

• Do not compare the format that is used to explain these examples or semantics like
the name of the section
– All format and structure (section heading [Is it internship, SIP, CIP | PoR versus Leadership|
PoR being part of ECA], way company-designation- timelines are denoted and other such
things) related information is based on the resume format that has been shared or enforced
using a system
– Do not refer to this document for matters in the above bullet

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Some ground rules Bear these in mind – READ EACH POINT CAREFULLY THRICE
• Uniform format for entire batch – Resume is not proof of your creativity, stick to the format given
• One page strictly for the final resume – master CV should be longer. You can have 2/3 versions of
your CV taken out from master CV.
– UNDERSTAND that versions need different content – hence master CV can be longer than 1
page
• Only one level of bullet – do not use sub-bullets. Keep bullets as per format (no fancy bullets)
• Strictly NO pronouns - in resume like I, me, my, mine, our, us, we, you, he, she, they, them, their, etc.
• Drop all articles – a, an, the can be left out in resume writing. Helps shorten sentences
• Use action/power verbs to start all bullet points – Conducted, Designed, Organized, Created,
Recommended, Proposed, Concluded, etc. Avoid repeats. Refer to power verbs pdf shared
• Use symbols – ‘>’ ‘<‘ ‘~’ ’&’ ‘$’ ‘₹’ to keep sentences tight and short
• Keep the writing tight & lean – remove all unwanted information and words to convey maximum
information in the least number of words. However, concise doesn’t mean unclear
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 5

In case of conflict between what ppt is saying and what

placecom is saying

• PLACECOM is the final authority

– Especially around format, headings, making things bold, verifying CV
point etc.
Profile Highlights – ONLY if your format allows this 6

section
· 3 short phrases (3-4 words per phrase) to bring out your USP. Limit total length to 1 line max

· NO BEHAVIORAL TRAITS: Don’t say hardworking, creative, friendly, team player etc

· Achievements can be of any nature (extra-curriculars are also fine)

· Do not write in great detail or in long sentences

· The idea is to tell 3 top things about you which is ATTRACTIVE TO THE JOB YOU ARE APPLYING FOR
AND WILL SET YOU APART FROM THE OTHER APPLICANTS

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Profile Highlights – Examples
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Good Examples
• MKTG: IIM Cul Com Secretary | Star insurance salesman | Part-time DJ with 10K Insta followers
• FIN: MBA Gold medalist | Best finance internship, 2019 | CFA Level 1
• OPS: Manufacturing process efficiency expert | Logistics coordinator in IIM fest | 6 Sigma Green Belt
• CONS/ANLT: NIT Gold medalist | Data Camp hackathon winner | Amazon case study India finalist
Bad Examples
• MKTG: Improved Godrej Sales in Gujarat by 30% | Got new sponsors worth 45L for cultural fest | Best
networker of the batch [What’s wrong – phrases are too long!]
• FIN: 99 percentiler | Good analytical ability with superior number-crunching | CFA Level 2 candidate
[What’s wrong – phrases are too long & generic skill mentioned]
• OPS: System mindset driven | 6 Sigma Green Belt certified by KPMG training institute | Logistics
coordinator [What’s wrong – phrases are too long & generic skill set]
• CONS/ANLT: Case competition winner | Best finance internship, 2019 | IIM Cul Com Secretary [What’s
wrong – not the most relevant points!]

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Academics
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· Every row should be only one line. Abbreviate course name/college name if it is too long
· Eg – ECE instead of Electronics & Communication Engineering or MESKK School, Mysore instead of
Mysore Education Society Kishore Kendra School, Mysore
· Consistency in number of digits after decimal point

Examples

Degree University/Board Year %/CGPA

MBA Management College of India 2018 - 2020 3.45 / 4.33
BE College of Engineering, Guindy (Mechanical) 2012 - 2016 76.3%
12th PSBB, Mylapore (CBSE) 2012 87.9%
10th PSBB, Mylapore (CBSE) 2010 85.2%

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Co-curricular and Academic Achievements
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· All scholarships/ awards etc should clearly state the awarding body and the year
· Similar scholarships/awards (like best outgoing in 10th and 12th ) can be merged. Don’t merge
unrelated points
· All bullets to be strictly one line long
· Sometimes just bullets under the academics table (in some formats)

Examples

· Director’s gold medal for 1st rank in 1st year MBA, 2020
· Gold Medal by Kotak Salesian School for first position in Standard 10 examination, 2012
· NTSE Scholar and recipient of scholarship for 3 consecutive years, 2007-2010
· Best outgoing student in 10th (2012) and 12th (2014). Bestowed with gold medals
· Scholarship of INR 1L by Jain Higher Education Academy for exemplary performance in 12th Std, 2014

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Certifications
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· 1 line per certification – include who certified and when. Include validity if relevant
· Don’t keep old tech certifications like Java etc. (Keep only relevant ones like SQL, R, Python, ITIL,
Scrum)
· Nothing too old. BEC certified in English in 2007 is not relevant
· A bad example will have only name - FLIP Certified, Coursera Finance for Managers

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Certifications – Examples
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Finance
· Level 1 CFA certified, 2020 by the CFA Institute, USA
· FLIP certified in Analytics for Capital Markets and Basics of Banking & Insurance, 2020
· Certified by Finshiksha in Financial Modelling and Fundamental Business Valuation, 2020
Marketing
· Udemy certified in Consumer Behavior by Johns Hopskins University, 2020
· Google certified in Basics of Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing, 2019
· Facebook University certified in Social Media Management and Marketing, 2019
Operations
· Coursera certified SCM professional from Rutgers Business School Newark and New Brunswick, 2020
· CII certified Logistics and Supply Chain Management Professional, 2020
· Certified in Linear Optimization using Python, Udemy, 2020
Analytics
· Certified in Advanced Python, Udemy, 2020
· Completed Machine Learning Application in BFSI, Swayam, 2020
· Advanced Tableau certified by Salesforce.com, 2020
Consulting
· Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP®) by IIBA, 2019
· Completed Management Consulting Techniques, Tools and Frameworks certification, Udemy, 2020
· Advanced Tableau certified by coursera.com, 2020

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Summer Internship – How to spin a nice story!
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• There are 3 components to successful explanation of Summer Internship (SIP storyline!)

– Context
– Action
– Result
• First bullet in your SIP should be Context
– Write in simple & easy to understand language a summary of your internship. What did you set out to
do?
– It is aim of your SIP (Do NOT blindly copy paste project title, change it to make it attractive and easy to
understand)
• Next couple of bullets should be Action
– What are the specific things you did to achieve the above Context/ Aim. Actions, analysis, activities etc.
• Last few bullets should be Result
– What are the outcomes, findings, recommendations, projections, results etc
Recruiter wants to know more about your activities and achievements and not the academic description of the
project. Long sentences about project title, name, description should be avoided
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Summer Internship – Context (Examples)
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Examples Good/Bad

Responsible to calculate Market Size of Dairy Products in Bangalore Good

Part of team responsible for ERP implementation in logistics division of FMCG client Good

Responsible for Market Penetration of Vimal’s readymade textile business in Nagpur market Good

To assess feasibility of launching home digital blood sugar measuring device in Bangalore Good

Responsible to conduct Financial analysis of XYZ SBU and design investment roadmap Good

To evaluate the number of retail stores for Milk and Dairy business and their daily sales volume. To identify whether
there is space for a new market entrant with similar range of products. Scope of the study is in Bangalore Market Bad
[What’s wrong – TOO LONG]

Part of market research study [What’s wrong – OF WHAT, WHERE etc missing] Bad

Digital marketing for AMUL [What’s wrong – OF WHAT, WHERE etc missing] Bad

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 SIP Quiz: Context
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What you wrote What’s wrong What it should be

Responsible for calculating market share
Interned under Sales Director of Lubrizol Very repetitive. Context
of competitors & identifying potential
as a Data Analytics intern for market incomplete. Explain the full
target segments in Indian fuel additives
sizing of Indian Additive market problem statement market
Sounds like result and method
Delivered dealer satisfaction resulting in Responsible for identifying technology
also is mentioned. Problem
maximum dealer retention through solutions to improve dealer retention in
unclear. Segment, market
potent technology support luxury auto market in Ludhiana
missing
Conducted Primary & Secondary Tasked to suggest the most optimal
Sector/ segment missing. This is
research to analyze different pedagogies pedagogy for online training of high
more action. Create a context
that can be adopted for online training students for math & science
This is an action point. What are
Conducted secondary research and Responsible for building a strategy for the
you expanding to and where?
generated vital information for analyzing wire transfer app service to be introduced
What aspects are you looking
critical aspects for expansion in Oman and Saudi Arabia markets
at?
Revamping retail customer onboarding Reasonable. Just need to add Part of a team to identify process
processes and improvements in current onboarding for what? What is improvements in the digital onboarding
digital&onboarding
Private Confidential processes the product/ service process for Gold Loan customers

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Summer Internship – Action (Should be multiple bullets)

• Up to 3 bullet points on the method adopted – Don’t list/repeat responsibilities given to you by the company.
Highlight how you fulfilled those responsibilities. What did you exactly do?

• Highlight your technical skills, team skills, coordination skills, software/tools used etc through the work done.
Use one bullet at a time to highlight every skill. Don’t mix

• Be specific – Use metrics to quantify your work. Ex - 200 respondents, trained 5 new recruits, Approached 20
retailers, Analysed 10 Annual Reports, Conducted 4 focus group
• Use names, places, etc. Ex - At Bangalore, At XYZ Mall in Chennai, Acquired clients like Airtel, Titan,
Woodland

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Summer Internship – Action (Examples)
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Examples Good/Bad

Market Research of Watch Lovers [What’s wrong – details of activities missing!] Bad

Conducted primary research of 200 respondents at 5 malls in Bangalore, analysed data in Excel. Conducted factor
Good
analysis and k-means clustering using Python

Analysed airline industry [What’s wrong – details of activities missing!] Bad

Analysed Indian airline industry using Bloomberg airline stock data & industry reports from IATA. Used Ansoff
Good
Matrix & Bottom of the Pyramid analysis to identify next set of opportunities for airlines in India

Financial analysis of Just Dial [What’s wrong – details of activities missing!] Bad

Used 2017-20 annual reports, IPO info from Red Herring prospectus & 4 analyst reports to conduct detailed study
Good
including ratio analysis & capital structure analysis

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 SIP Quiz: Action
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What you wrote What’s wrong What it should be

360-Degree communication plan for Power verb missing. Any Designed a 360-degree Instagram &
retail customers across channels to constraints in the planning, what snapchat video campaign to increase
improve product awareness channels did you use? product awareness in Gen-Z customers

Surveyed 320 sales associates & managers

Assess and audit the current status of How did you do? What
across India to assess performance
each of the parameters of the scorecard parameters?
evaluation parameter of HR scorecard
Cold called 120 SME technology
Capturing and analyzing requirements of
How did you do this? Which customers to understand the
different training programs by customers
customers? What tools? requirements for BI tools like Tableau and
using data visualization tools Microsoft PowerBI
Conducted online survey of 350 South
Performed thorough market research to How many people? Which
Indian households to understand the
understand and effectively communicate segment? Which product/
utility of an automated cooking gas
product value proposition feature? booking app
Compared 50 industry academia across
Conducted Secondary Research on Where did you do this research?
US and Israel across funding amount,
Industry Academia collaborations What analysis did you do?
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Summer Internship – Result (Can be multiple bullet points)
• Last few bullet points should cover key Result/Recommendation/Findings
• Mention specific recommendation/outcome

Examples Good/Bad
Recommended improvements in Marketing [What’s wrong – too vague!] Bad
Recommended digital marketing spend to be increased by 50% with Google Adwords spend to be
Good
2x of Facebook paid Ads
Concluded problems in Logistics Management [What’s wrong – better than marketing example
Bad
above but still too vague!]
• Concluded road transport as reason for delay in after sales service in over 70% of complaints
Good
• Identified 5 new 3PL companies for better fulfilment of spare parts at service points

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 SIP Quiz: Result
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What you wrote What’s wrong What it should be

Designed referral program for B2B
Developed new strategies for B2B to create
What is the specific strategy? What customers to increase engagement. Over
Brand Awareness and increase customer
is the impact of engagement? 20% of existing customers referred leads
engagement
worth $3Mn
Wrote articles, social media posts on all the Created 100+ social media content across 5
How many products and how many
products and services describing their various products for Instagram & Facebook, growing
articles? What is the impact?
benefits to clients brand’s organic reach by 25% in 2 months

Recommended workwear brand to use

Developed insights for clients for their What insights for which client? Be
humorous pandemic themed messaging on
advertisements on digital media platforms specific. Use 2 bullets if needed.
Instagram to improve traffic to website

Onboarded 32 student content creators to

Successfully got people from the category to Which category? How many people?
produce 300 pieces of content for the laptop
onboard and create content for the website How much content?
bags category on bewakoof.com
Developed and analyzed database of 116
This is an action point. Make a piano competitions in UK through secondary
Developed and analyzed a database of 116 separate point for result research
piano competitions to derive insights Identified that co-branding with reputed
regarding target market Competitions where? What insights music schools, celebrity judges and
Private & Confidential did you get? What market?
July 21 admission related prize drive participant
engagement
Summer Internship – Good Examples
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MARKETING
Puma Summer Intern Apr 2020 to Jun 2020
• Responsible for analysis of product performances of campaigns on platforms like Flipkart & Amazon
• Analyzed 15 active & 30 closed campaigns to understand consumer behaviour & sales progression across segments
• Strategized digital campaigns basis results on Flipkart and Amazon for 5 categories covering >10,000 SKUs
• Created 360-degree ATL & BTL digital marketing campaigns for #SockThem launch across all channels
• Enhanced digital campaign performance – increased product lines action rate from 1.17% to 1.45%, improved conversion rate
from 1.4% to 2.3% & reduced overall ACOS from 8.53% to 5.21%
• Awarded PPI for delegated deliverables and proficient work performance during internship

FINANCE
JMarathon Advisory Services Pvt Ltd Summer Intern Apr 2020 to Jun 2020
• Involved in detailed study of movement of currency pairs to identify arbitrage opportunities for mock trades
• Monitored change in price of currency pairs - EURUSD, AUDUSD, JPYUSD using technical & fundamental analysis
• Took 200 trades on volume 0.01 on different currencies in Meta Trader five platform using trend lines, pending orders, support &
resistance lines, price action strategies on various pattern of candlesticks
• Used leading & lagging indicators like Fibonacci Retrenchment, Bollinger Bands, ADX, Stochastic Oscillator and RSI
• Conducted fundamental analysis using data from Forex Factory which provides information on micro and macroeconomic factors
like inflation, unemployment, CPI,WPI and GDP.
• Combined intensive analysis with taking stop loss and take profit, made ~25 USD profit on 500 USD base, in mock trading in a span
of 2 weeks using inefficiencies in INRGBP, USDGBP and INRUSD exchange rates
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Summer Internship – Good Examples
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OPERATIONS
Winspire Consulting Summer Intern Apr 2020 to Jun 2020
• Worked on lean transformation project for Indian supply chain client to implement lean technologies such as 5S, Kaizen, Poka-
Yoke to reduce lean wastes in raw material warehouses
• Conducted detailed feasibility shop floor study by assessing distribution and support process which resulted in rework of
warehouse layout to reduce time to sort parcels by 3.2%
• Carried out 5S audit for firm across 24 parameters, awarded 65 upon 120 over 5-point scale. Identified 5 areas of improvement
including IoT for real-time data capture, barcode changes for sortability & increasing number of stacks
• Worked for another Logistics client to reduce freight cost on transporters being used across India by extending business analytical
support through Tableau and projected 20% potential savings on current spending.

CONSULTING
The Business Research Company Summer Intern Apr 2020 to Jun 2020
• Responsible for analyzing trends, growth opportunities & forecasting market size of E-Commerce industry in India for 2020-2025
• Analyzed collected data from research reports, government websites, journals & other data portals like Statista, IBEF,
DigitalCommerce360 & Grandview Research
• Computed market size of e-commerce market in 2019 using data of top 10 players in India, projected market size for 2020-25,
concluded future growth rate is at 17.69% CAGR
• Analysed Walmart-Flipkart deal for drafting detailed report, assisted reporting manager in QA of final reports
• Using Tableau, delivered interactive dashboard to slice e-commerce projections by product, location, gender, channel and 20
other variables. Dashboard was approved & published for paid users on company website

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Summer Internship – Good Examples
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ANALYTICS
Reserve Bank of India Summer Intern Apr 2020 to Jun 2020
• Involved in analysis of impact of Foreign Direct Investment & Exports on GDP of India
• Studied government initiatives encouraging FDI & exports in India, conducted secondary research from 2000 to 2020
• Employed, on Python, statistical analysis such as seasonal adjustments, stationarity, johansen co-integration & granger causality
tests to determine relationship & direction of causality of impact on GDP
• Proved existence of univariate relationship between FDI, exports and GDP of India - contribution of FDI & exports is very low.
Opportunities for significant growth exist by improvement of Ease of Doing Business Index
• Recommended increase in FDI in Agriculture & Manufacturing & need to increase awareness of export norms in startups to
Regional Director of RBI of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh
IT BA
TATA Consultancy Services Summer Intern Apr 2020 to Jun 2020
• Responsible for identifying gaps & recommending changes in 3 SAP processes of US logistics major – month end financial
closing, customer collections & dispute management, for better IT operations
• Identified manual & repetitive tasks. Assessed ease of automation & conducted cost benefit analysis. Zeroed in on 1
automation proposal/ process. Referred to SAP Closing cockpit, SAP4HANA website & interacted with SMEs
• Conceptualised key stroke level details for automation of above identified tasks with help of SMEs
• Recommended algorithm for auto-posting in inter-company reconciliation – month end financial closing which reduced
processing time, architecture for automatic customer correspondence reducing DSO
• Ideated proactive design for retrieval of documents for claim settling & dispute management for bad debts
• Recommended blue prism RPA tool to be used by the organisation. Awarded PPI for exemplary work
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Work Experience - Guidelines shared with students
23

Recommended structure and flow (applicable for free fowing format only)

For each company you have worked, create a set of points like this
Company Name Designation(Last Held when leaving company) mm-yy to mm-yy
• Work Context
• Action 1 & its result/reason
• Action 2 & its result/reason Write as many as you need
• Action 3 & its result/reason
• Action 4 & its result/reason
• Award/Achievement/Recommendation 1
Write as many as you need
• Award/Achievement/Recommendation 2

• Work context: should summarise your entire work in 1 bullet in non-technical language. Avoid detailed description of a specific
task done in this part. Cover responsibility as a team and as individual. This is frame of reference for recruiter to read remaining
points in work experience description
• DO NOT write project wise
• Don’t write JD points – this is a CV not a JD. You must write what you actually in your job. Be specific
• Awards should be followed by specific achievement that led to the award. Stand alone awards don’t make sense
• Focus on business side of the work (Remember you are in business school and not UG college)

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Work Experience – Work Context: Example
24

Examples Good/Bad
Part of delivery team responsible for development of web and mobile app module for 3 major US Healthcare
clients
Good

Led 20 member sales team for market penetration of Fevicol & FeviKwik in Delhi NCR region Good
Part of team responsible for smooth operation of 3 paper production units of 5 lines each with production
capacity of 20MT per annum at Ballarpur, Maharashtra
Good
Varied experience as Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) solution developer to enable integration of systems
and applications across an enterprise using IBM BPM Middleware Integration technology. [What is wrong! Client Bad
side is missing and the tool is not critical, can come later on. Also too many adjectives]
Ensured timely completion of cheque truncation process of Pune region consisting of 9 branches [What is wrong!
Very tactical. It is one of things that you do. Also, it already contains the result]
Bad

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 Work Ex Quiz: Work Context
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What you wrote What’s wrong What it should be

Part of a 150-member team managing
Part of team managing routine Operations where? Use numbers
daily operations at a 150MT annual
operations to show scale
output bauxite mine in Rourkela, Orissa

Performed Functional & Non-Functional Responsible for Quality Assurance of

Control system and training
Testing of control system and training aviation simulator’s control system and
system of what? Which country?
system for a defence client training system for a US defence client

Managed a project worth INR 400 Crore Managed commissioning of INR 400Cr of
What project? What part of the
(4% of KEC Revenue) as a part of an 8- electrical systems in 8X400 MW coal
project did you manage?
member team in Malaysia power plant in Malaysia, in a team of 8

Supported and Maintained the daily Supported & maintained daily processing
processing of records for a US-based What records? Volume? of 10000+ claims records for US-based
Managed HealthCare company Managed HealthCare company

Very generic. Sales of what? Also Responsible for annual sales of INR 10Cr
Delivered sales of 10CR in Kerala branch sounds more like a result. What gold loan products to B2C customers in 6
was overall work you had to do branches in Allepey, Kerala

IT IS MADATORY TO WRITE A LINE OF WORK CONTEXT

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21 EVERY COMPANY YOU HAVE WORKED IN
Work Experience – Action & its Result/Reason
26

• Don’t list down job responsibilities, instead, focus on how you fulfilled those responsibilities
• Don’t divide your work based on projects within same company, instead of dividing it based on
various areas of work like consulting, business analysis, sales, marketing, procurement, design,
coordination, team management, development, client interaction, etc
• Maintain Action - Result/Reason format

• Be specific, use numbers. Highlight your technical skills through the work done
• In the examples that follow, look for yellow, grey and blue highlights to understand action,
result/reason and technical skills

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Professional Experience – Action & Impact/Reason - Example
Examples Good/Bad
Implemented integration for Aetna Healthcare Inc., using IBM Message Broker to fetch provider details
Good
based on demography, specialization, etc.
Developed automated tracker processing service for merchants of Global Payments Inc. to integrate over
Good
cloud using Salesforce.com
Devised breakdown & preventive maintenance schedule of paint shop by conducting root cause analysis.
Good
Reduced downtime by 20%
Mentored 4 newly recruited probationary officers and clerks, designed 3 month on-job training schedule,
Good
reducing induction training time ~ 40%
Acquired 30 major corporate clients leading to increased sales of over INR 10 crores in ensuing months.
Good
Updated the leads in sales funnel on Seibel CRM
Maintained > 20 MIS reports on Tableau in Marketing & Operations area for ease of senior management to
Good
track project progress
1)Development and testing
[What is wrong! Just key words. Don’t show
2)Conducting Market Research
what you exactly did and what you achieved] Bad
3)Downtime Management
4)Client management

yellow, grey and blue highlights are action, result/reason and technical skills
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 Work Ex Quiz: Actions and result/reason
28

What you wrote What’s wrong What it should be

Developed a tool using REXX and COBOL Developed automation tool that reduced
Which process? What does it do
that reduced the debugging process of a ETL load fail debugging from 30 to 3 mins,
for the client/ team? freeing upto 10% of ETL server capacity
program from 30-40 to 2-3 mins
Debugged 100+ DataStage codes to reduce
Debugged 100+ DataStage codes and How do you measure quality?
formatting errors in imported data by 85%,
hence improved the data quality and What is the impact of this? What resulting in 40% increase in customers
effectiveness of the model model is this? getting scored in default prediction model
What report? How do they use Created interactive Tableau dashboards
Daily MIS Report to be submitted to
this? Did you do any additional about inventory at site for procurement
management for entire Department.
analysis? On what tool? head to take daily PO release decisions
Identified 5 new Indian vendors for
Where and how many vendors?
Negotiated, analysed and developed new import substitution of spring coils for
What projects? Vendors for
vendors for new/ongoing projects Jhajjar power plant expansion, reducing
what? Impact? cost by 10% and lead time by 25%
Automated mail notification for receipt of
Ensured the processing of 1000-2000
What records? What is the payment reconciliation issues of Belgium
records per hour promptly through the
improvement? unit, increasing ticket processing capacity
mail notification automation by 25%
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Work Experience – Achievement/Result/Recommendation
• Mention any achievement, awards, certifications(within same company) etc here.
• Add things that you did beyond your regular task (additional work) like training, mentoring, organising an
event, helping your manager, etc

• Example (award) - Received FY16 Q1 ACE team award and FY16 Q3 ACE Individual award, highest honour of
Excellence in Accenture, for closing 15 L1 infrastructure tickets in 3 days for trading application of US BFSI client

• Example (achievement) - Completed automation project for manpower reduction, saved approx. 1.5
lacs/month, reduced overall cost of production

• Example (additional work)- Worked at Kakatiya Thermal Power plant as site engineer for 4 months. Executed all
Civil Engineering works and handled Planning and Billing for Additional Coal handling system worth INR 30Cr

• Example (additional work)– Organised company wide cultural event with team of 15 volunteers in Bangalore.
Introduced innovative competitions in dancing, painting & stand up entertainment to increase engagement

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Work Ex Quiz: Result/Achievements/Awards/Recommendations
What you wrote What’s wrong What it should be
Improved existing Data model & reduced Recoded in SAS, product recommendation
What data model? How did you
server usage; cutting down project cost model to reduce server usage by 10% and
improve? Quantify the impact?
& production time significantly costs by 15%
Received Rising Star Award for
Received Rising Star Award for
What did you do to get the automating the defect reporting for the
outstanding performance as part of
award? Be specific team using BluePrism, saving 10 hours per
Eminence & Excellence Awards week of manual effort
Built excel macro to reduce time for
Built macro model to reduce time Build model on what? What
generating weekly direct sales report for
required for generation of the report and report? And how much time
India by 30%, reducing errors & manual
to avoid repetition of same work saving? effort
Selected among 100+ team members to
Represented product engineering with Very unclear what you did and
represent product engineering at meeting
program management at audits by why this is an achievement. Be
in Japan HQ for onboarding new Korean
Toyota, PSA for new acquisitions specific vendors for ergonomic seating in cars

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Work Experience – Good examples
31

IT
IT Analyst, Infosys Oct 2015 – Sep 2019
• Part of quality assurance team for website & mobile applications for Customer Relationship Management module
for leading US-based bond trading company
• Carried out manual, automated & non-functional testing along with defect detection & analysis, besides leading
team of 4 members at offshore
• Provided client with recommendations on kind of test approach (Agile or Waterfall) to adopt while testing
Salesforce application tailored to deal with retail investors
• Helped build Income Tax Calculator feature by recommending highest coverage, reducing defect chances by 70%
• Delivered automation testing frameworks using Selenium & HP UFT. Executed automated tests for 2 years, thus
reducing manual testing effort by 40% & cost incurred by 50%
• Carried out mobile device testing by simulating Samsung & Apple phones & tablets on ‘Browser Stack’
• Received Gems Award & Client Appreciation Letter for delivering HP UFT automation framework for complete set
of test cases to integrate live bond prices into CRM application, in less than 4 months

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Work Experience – Good examples
32

Operations
Production Manager, L&T Ltd Oct 2016 – Sep 2019
• Part of team that managed operations of 20,00,000 units a month switchgear and electrical accessories
production plant in Noida. Responsible for R&D & testing of products and technologies of European origin
• Created plans & daily schedules while overseeing daily manufacturing. Led 3 supervisors & 80 workers per shift
• Ensured fair & better production planning & timely delivery of customer orders using SAP, created delivery
schedules & planning depot zone-wise. Managed safety FG stock for 15 days within plant
• Recommended creating 2 FG stores in plant to differentiate between export & domestic products. Added ink jet
special mark on export goods to avoid improper delivery of goods
• Analyzed data to increase productivity & reduce rejection, increased productivity by 25% (65 to 80 per
manpower) and reduced process rejection by 83% (i.e. from 12.5% to 2.5%) by automation & KAIZENs
• Part of accessories development team started in production Oct-2017, implemented smooth work process for
accessories line, increased productivity by 148% & reduced cost per piece by 65%
• Reduced RM inventory by 14% and FG inventory by 24%, which further reduced inventory days by 45%
• Provided 400+ man-hours technical training to supervisors and workers

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Work Experience – Good examples
33

Sales and Marketing

Sales Manager, Blue Star Oct 2017 – Sep 2019
• As first employee for energy, air & water management business selling innovative energy products like
BacComber, ATCS, Sterile Air, Frigitech, etc. grew business from scratch to INR 1.7 Cr in western region
• Front-ended sales of centralized HVAC equipment to industrial, commercial offices & government buildings in
Rest of Maharashtra & Goa
• Involved in cold calling & pitching prospective clients to maximise business opportunities via rigorous follow-up
to achieve revenue of INR 6.43 Cr – 17% YoY increase
• Received Exceptional and Over Achieved Rating for FY16 & FY17 which prompted transfer to central chiller sales
division to handle Rest of Maharashtra and Goa region
• Devised marketing strategy for North & South regions to win first BacComber orders worth INR 0.36 Cr from
global giants like Oracle, Honeywell and Cisco
• Led awareness drives through seminars & trainings for facility, maintenance & project teams of Mahindra group,
RP Goenka group, Aditya Birla Retail, Bharti Airtel, CBRE, Cognizant, Infosys, etc resulting in 2x leads
• Developed training programmes for dealer sales teams on HVAC systems resulting in orders worth INR 2.74 Cr as
against INR 0.85 Cr in previous year

Private & Confidential July 21

Academic Projects
34

• Cover projects, assignments, submissions completed during MBA program. Understand recruiter has come to hire you
in an MBA college because they want to know what have you learnt in MBA. Focus on MBA projects
• If UG projects, they should be super relevant for the job you are applying for. Hard-core technical projects may not be
of much use at this stage
• Stay relevant to the job applied
• Focus on projects completed recently – Capture Term 3 or 4 projects where there is depth in the study. Capture Live
projects where you have done extensive job
• Minimum 2 projects for people with work experience. Add more if you don’t have a one full page resume
• Minimum 4 projects for freshers
• Maintain Context – Action – Result Approach
• Be specific, use numbers, names to substantiate your work

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Academic Projects
35

Examples Good/Bad
• Compared print advertisement of XUV500, Creta & Ecosport, interviewed 20 car owners, analysed sales Good
data to understand importance of segmentation in advertising
• Concluded Mahindra XUV used bold & macho communication to segment the market

• Strategy analysis of TVS Motors (2-wheeler industry). Conducted interviews with marketing team of TVS. Good
• Crafted global expansion strategy, defined positioning in premium segment after demonstrating capability
to produce BMW bikes

• Analysed delivery time, number of orders fulfilled per day, average distance travelled per delivery to Good
optimize cost of delivery agents.
• Created new delivery plan with 50% reduction in distance travelled resulting in 20% cost savings

• Study and analysis of organisational design of iNurture using different organizational framework & model Bad
• Project on marketing strategy of HUL’s Lifebuoy in the B2C context Bad
• Managing organisation project: Analysing organisational structure, process and culture of Voolsy networks Bad

yellow, blue and grey and highlights are context, action and result

Private & Confidential July 21

 Projects Quiz
36

What you wrote What’s wrong What it should be

Conducted primary survey of 250 Conducted factor analysis in Excel on
demographic and SEC data of 250
customers to find the factors influencing Context can have segment of
shampoo users in Nagpur to understand
customer’s buying behaviour of brands customer. Did you use a
buying behavior. Identified that response
of shampoo. Analysed the data in excel technique to analyze? What are to dandruff, availability of smaller packs
and found major factors responsible for the specific factors found? and endorsement by fashionistas were
different age groups key drivers

Cluster analysis to launch a product: Surveyed 150 potential users of a new IoT
Performed primary research and cluster What product? How much based water bottle. Using cluster analysis
analysis is done based on the responses research? Of whom? What did of data on SPSS, identified that coolness
using SPSS software under the guidance you find? Prof name not needed quotient and perceived health benefits
of Prof.Madhurima can be used to achieve premium pricing

How did you analyze? How many Analysed business performance of Axis
Conducted financial analysis of Axis Bank Bank for last 3 years. Measured health
years data did you see? What
using financial ratios. Prepared detailed using financial ratios, asset health, NIM,
metrics did you measure? What
report and recommended ways to cost of capital against industry averages.
are the specific Recommended normalizing credit risk and
improve financial performance
recommendations? enhancing employee’s credit analysis skill
July 21
Academic Projects – more examples
37

Marketing
• Live project to analyze consumer behavior for newly launched fruit drinks of Raw Pressery by visiting 20 retail & super marts and interviewing 150
customers in tier 2&3 cities. Formulated retail on-ground branding campaign at regional fairs & retail stores for better visibility
• Analyzed EU & US tea demand and India tea export data for 2010-20 to assess growth prospects for state’s tea estates with Uttarakhand Tea Board.
Recommended seeking export duty waiver in line with Assam teas, branding of high tea of each estate & using professional managers.
• Defined digital marketing campaigns for new casual shoe brand website launch. Developed strategies, formulated multi-channel media plan & made
changes based on performance reports. Observed traffic growth of ~400% & decrease in bounce rate from 75% to 23%
Finance
• Calculated ratios & beta, forecasted financial statements and conducted free cash flow valuation to arrive at intrinsic value of ONGC Ltd. Used last 5 years
annual reports & data from Bloomberg terminal. Identified that stock is under-valued
• Conducted comparative analysis of Uttam Sugar Mills Ltd. with one competitor Bajaj Hindustan using profitability, liquidity ratios, turnover, solvency &
investment ratios from annual reports of last 5 years. Recommended increasing spend on R&D & aggressive distribution to improve turnover
• Analysed business performance & overview of Axis Bank. Measured company health using financial ratios, asset health, NIM, cost of capital viz-a-vis industry
averages. Recommended that banks should normalise credit risk and enhance employee capabilities
Strategy
• Strategic analysis of Jyothy laboratories & competitors using balanced scored, internal factor evaluation matrix, external factor evaluation & BCG matrix.
Identified need to increase products in discretionary spend category & greater spend on marketing for brand awareness
• Studied condition of rural banking in India & government initiatives taken to solve access problem. Analyzed data from RBI over last 5 years & 7 private
reports. Suggested employing local youth as staff, customizing products for rural needs & broadband connectivity can ensure 100% access
• Prepared thesis on challenges & opportunities in MSMEs in India. Looked at GoI industry data for 5 years & conducted primary research of 100 MSMEs
across sectors. Identified that easing compliance, higher import duties on competition & loosening labour laws will achieve ~20% growth

yellow, blue and grey and highlights are context, action and result
Private & Confidential July 21
Academic Projects – more examples
38

Analytics
• Completed project on visualizing house sales data on Tableau for Boston Real Estate market. Scrapped data from 3 popular real estate websites and city’s ownership
database. Dashboard can be used by agents to optimize the houses they show to potential buyers
• Compared manual and auto ARIMA models in R to select the best model for predicting gas spot price for the Australian market. Identified that auto ARIMA is better with 45%
accuracy as compared to manual ARIMA’s 32%
• Built ML model in Python to predict mode of transport by employees at MNC to understand real estate costs associated with projected growth. Used SMOTE to remove
imbalance. Compared Logistic Regression, KNN, Naïve Bayes, Bagging & XGBoost and concluded that Naïve Bayes gives best results
• Applied CART and Random Forest models to bank’s customers to identify top customers for cross-selling personal loan products while minimizing acquisition costs. Identified
a potential saving of 25% in acquisition costs while maintaining number of acquisitions
Operations
• As part of Smart Cities initiative of Warangal, designed end-to-end technology enabled solution for solid waste management. Compared best practices from Sweden &
defined roadmap for roll out of collection, segregation & processing of solid waste to make Warangal waste-free by 2025.
• Live project with Amara resorts to conduct inventory optimization. Studied consumables usage patterns for last 5 years & used predictive algorithms to redefine MOQ for
consumables. Projected reduction of on-hand consumables inventory by 25%
• Studied reverse logistics requirement for fashion category in e-commerce in India. Used secondary data about e-commerce &logistics companies to identify cost drivers.
Identified better prediction, deploying time of delivery return & including return charges in certain cases as opportunities to trim reverse logistics costs
Technology/ IT
• Designed AI implementation roadmap to reduce TAT by 40% & enhance per-client revenues by ₹ 20M (by 50%) for Ador Fontech. Identified critical query fields to be
incorporated in chatbot design through extensive analysis of existing data repositories
• Identified automation opportunity to replace manual sanction of loans & medical reimbursements for 3000 executives on Enterprise portal (EP) of large MNC. Selected PRISM
tool for RPA after comparative analysis of key products in the market
• Defined Digital Transformation roadmap for promoter managed FMCG company in India by analysis of current lacunae in IT infrastructure basis discussions with CTO.
Recommended digital field data capture, automated payment settlements and blockchain pilot for inventory management

yellow, blue and grey and highlights are context, action and result
Private & Confidential July 21
 Positions of Responsibilities/ Leadership Initiatives
39

• Maintain variety, 2-4 such initiatives at max. Avoid job related initiatives in this section. Mention timelines
• Don’t write mere responsibilities. Include specific actions that you took, new initiatives and results from your actions
• It should be something significant
• In some formats, this may be clubbed with Extra Curricular Activities

Examples Good/Bad
Senior Coordinator, iBank, 2017 – Conducted sector specific sessions for juniors. Pioneered development of hostel library for students
Good
ensuring placement specific material being available at short notice
Organizer, RAMINI-2017, designed 15 posters for all-night classical music concert organized by Chennai SPICMACAY resulting in
Good
highest ever attendance of 500+
Lead Coordinator Inter-NIT Sports league2018; hosted 8 colleges from across India, secured sponsorships worth ₹2 Lacs Good
Academic coordinator, 2018, IIM Udaipur. Work closely with professors and batch to roll out 5 new electives Good
National Service Scheme: Co-organized Sishu Mela for 1000+ underprivileged kids; Organized blood donation camp with footfall of
Good
800+, 2016
1)Secretary, Organizing Committee – Responsible to organize events [What is wrong! Just key words.
2) Member - Placement Council – Responsible to maintain relations with companies Don’t show what you exactly did Bad
3)Captain, NCC Dehradun Wing and what you achieved]

yellow and blue highlights are Action and Result

Private & Confidential July 21
 POR Quiz
40

What you wrote What’s wrong What it should be

Conducted 5 startup workshops & 3
Responsible for fostering and facilitating How you did this is missing,
webinars with alumni founders to foster
an entrepreneurial spirit among the IIM qualify and quantify your efforts,
entrepreneurship. Increased club
community how do you measure efforts membership by 20%

Managed the accommodation of Managed accommodation on campus for

Attendees for what? From
attendees & was assigned as the point of 300+ attendees from all over India for the
where? How many?
contact for them for the event 3 days techno cultural fest of ABC college

What are the number of items, Designed sweatshirts for 15+ clubs on
Accountable for designing and
value of procured items, how campus. Identified new, 20% cheaper
procurement of the Official Merchandise
many vendors you dealt with, vendor from Ludhiana and procured
for the batch of 320+ students customized merchandise worth INR 3L
any numbers for negotiation?

July 21
Extra-curricular Activities/ Other Achievements
41

• Cover things done in last 5 years, including B-School Competitions, NGO work, sports
etc.
• Maintain variety, avoid too many bullets with similar ones
• One bullet for one activity, don’t merge many in one, unless they are very similar and
makes sense to do so (If you won FY16,17,18 medals in U-19 Badminton, combine)
• Stick to Action – Result format
• Be sure you can talk about what you have written
• If you want to write hobby(ies), only one at a time with clearly specifying your
achievement in that area.
– Do not write points like hobbies include reading, football and politics

Private & Confidential July 21

 Extracurricular Quiz
42

What you wrote What’s wrong What it should be

3rd among 200+ in environmental
Secured Third position among 200+
What did you write about? awareness essay competition for
students in environmental awareness
Which year? analyzing farming led deforestation in
essay competition Brazil, 2020
Winner of case study conducted by NSIT 1st prize – B-plan for air ambulance in
What was the case? What did
Incubation & Innovation center to crowded Indian cities at NSIT Incubation
you propose
promote start-up ideas, 2020 & Innovation center event, 2020
Collaborated with local hospital to spread
Collaborated with MIOT hospital on their awareness about removing stagnant
What did you do? What is the
“Health awareness and disease water during rains by canvassing
impact? Which year
prevention” initiative neighborhood and putting up posters,
2021

July 21
Extra-curricular Activities/ Other Achievements
43

Examples Good/Bad
Best Incubation Plan for rural e-education venture out of 54 in Pratyarpan ‘18 - Social B-Plan Contest, IIMA Good
Winners of group dance competition in Sanskriti 3.0 conducted at IIM Nagpur amongst 25 teams, 2019 Good
Represented Karnataka in the U-19 bowling team, 2017. Won U-19 series for 1st time ever for the state Good
Regular volunteer(2014-2017) with Make A Difference to provide English & Mathematics support to over 500
Good
underprivileged children
Winner of Best Manager – CFO round, at Christ University, for proposing working capital management plan
Good
for sick steel fabrication SME, 2019
Campus Winner for Amazon ACE 2020 Challenge for proposing strategy for Amazon to increase presence in
Good
NBFC lending space
Winner of Coursera Machine Learning hackathon 2020 for implementing artificial neural network algorithm
Good
to auto classify insurance queries into different support buckets
1)Member, Rotaract Club Delhi [What is wrong! Just key words.
2)Attended a seminar on Stock trading at JLMN College, 2018 Don’t show what you exactly Bad
did and what you achieved]
3)Volunteer, College Annual Fest

yellow and blue highlights are Action and Result

Private & Confidential July 21
 44

THANK YOU

Private & Confidential July 21