Resume Masterclass by I.R. Cell

The importance of a good resume can’t be disregarded. In most cases, only those with noteworthy resumes are even given a chance to attempt interviews. IR cell in collaboration with IIC SPIT organized an enlightening session on having the perfect resume. The speaker for the same was an SPIT alumnus: Mr Gopala Dhar. Mr Dhar currently works at Google as an AI engineer and has previously been a Machine learning engineer at Quantiphi.

Before commencing, Mr Dhar gave a little background about his experience as an interviewer and also stated that all his views in the presentation are personal, and do not represent any company.
The presentation began with the speaker introducing the four basic pointers that everyone should follow while making a resume: 1) Being ATS compliant. 2) Having a minimalistic approach. 3) Being thorough with your resume and 4) Some miscellaneous points to remember. Mr Dhar explained the first point by showing two sample resumes. The ATS compliant format had lesser graphics and followed a more or less conventional approach. He explained that the ATS software won’t recognize the extra design that you add. Moving on, the importance of “Less is better” was talked about. Mr Dhar stressed following a minimalistic approach on writing resumes by not over-explaining oneself and trying to leverage each sentence i.e. If you write about a project you’ve done try not writing down the fine details instead it is better if the interviewer asks you about it so that you can explain it better. He also focused on using action words and avoiding putting cover photos in one’s resume.

Further, the speaker explained the importance of knowing one’s resume. Being honest and fully aware of what is written should be a priority to avoid awkward situations during the interview. For the interviewer to know to be clear about your level of expertise in a particular subject, using appropriate words is advisable. Mr Dhar also gave a personal suggestion regarding portraying one college grade pointer to his or her advantage.

Some miscellaneous suggestions included using a maximum of two pages for the resume unless someone has 5+ years of work experience. Moreover, online certifications should be added only if we are thorough with the concepts. Using bold and italics appropriately to highlight some points is also advisable. Finally, always use a pdf format while submitting a resume.
Subsequently, Mr Dhar showed his resume to the students to see a practical representation of all that pointers. The speaker was also kind enough to display a non-technical role resume from one of his colleagues.
The event wrapped up after a round of questions by the students. The session was insightful and had a lot of key takeaways as I’m sure would be agreed upon by all my fellow attendees.

It was a very informative session. Understood the basics of resumes that most of us miss. Overall had a good experience organizing the event.

Yug Harlalka
(IR Tech head)

-A report by Kevin Xavier