If Indians want to sit in one of these cubicles at a call center in Bangalore, they're going to have to write better resumes — not to mention shorter. Ninety percent of resumes analyzed recently by TeamLease, an Indian staffing company, had errors in them and far too many went over the accepted one-page limit. (Sherwin Crasto/Reuters)
Why can't Indians write a good resume?
From incomprehensible language to laughable lengths, many Indians are CV-challenged. Here's why it matters.
BANGALORE — It is a country with the world’s second-largest English-speaking population after the United States. It is a country so proud of its English language skills that it aspires to be the global labor superpower of the 21st century. But if first impressions count, the resume writing skills of many Indians present a bleaker side to this promise.
“To always spread positively within the branch and reduce the grape vine,” said one job candidate in his resume.
“I laugh easily, but do not suffer fools gladly. I expect the same effort from others as I give myself,” wrote another aspirant.
Such gaffes are commonplace in over three quarters of resumes, says a recent study by TeamLease Services, which picked these out from a newly-arrived bunch. TeamLease is a large, Indian staffing company headquartered in Bangalore.
Since the start of the global economic downturn, Indian companies are flooded with resumes. Candidates are frequently updating their CVs on online job websites. The economic recession has reversed the situation for many in India where, until recently, jobs chased candidates.
But stress from a weak job market is now showing up in the resumes. Analyzing resumes of 500 entry- to mid-level job aspirants across different industries in July, TeamLease found that more than 90 percent of them had errors in some form or other.
“If a resume helps open doors at companies, many of these people would not get a toehold,” says Surabhi Mathur-Gandhi, general manager at TeamLease.
For one, many Indians write long, drawn-out resumes. Against the acceptable international one-page, the typical Indian resume for entry-level jobs runs into six or seven pages, says Ravi Shankar K. who heads Weir Minerals India, the local subsidiary of the UK-based pump and valve manufacturer.
After 13 years of work experience in the United States, Shankar says his concise, one-page resume would surprise many Indians.
Often, candidates’ resumes follow a cookie-cutter pattern making it obvious that they got help from the "resume blaster" websites, says Sridhar Ramanujam, who heads a branding and consulting firm BrandComm. He has been receiving a glut of resumes since the start of the economic downturn.
Are language skills really necessary to write a good resume? I believe writing resume has more to do with one's mindset rather than possession of good language skills. The problem lies in the believe that having more things on resume will make it more impressive, and this belief is cherished to such an extent that people do some things just to write it on their resume. So watching people collecting bogus certificates for trainings, just for expanding their resumes is a common scenario here.
There may be many possible reasons for this lousy behavior, but one thing that I can relate it to is our system of education that focus on getting marks. Right from our childhood days we are taught to follow this ostentatious behavior in our studies. Study and get marks. Its the mantra irrespective of what we have learned. When it comes to career(Studies) the quantity wins over quality.
No wonder we carry on the habits inculcated during childhood days and believe in "Lengthy resume = Effective resume".
It is their country. Their customs. And it works for them! Let them evolve at their own rate.
Saritha - Well written piece. Even though India is a world's second-largest English-speaking country but it doesn't translate into second-largest English-writing country. There is not much emphasis on writing part here.
On top of that, there is this small town factor. Lot of early stage job applicants come from small towns. Lot of desperation-driven approach to get right buzz words in resume and wrong assumption that more is better.
This is also an opportunity to reinvent personal branding. These young kids are coming to job market pretty much after the acceptance of tools like Facebook/Twitter etc. It's unfair to expect everyone to have a good resume writing skills. We need to look at candidate in all aspects.
I am definitely biased here. We have a prototype stage version of a solution which aims to fix this problem - http://www.codemunch.com
This is riding on a simple assumption that if large number of candidates are having similar problem then problem is systemic. This requires both new set of tools and general awareness about personal branding.
Thanks - Brij
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