MY PERSONAL FORMULA OF A WINNING RESUME AND CANDIDATE

1. LEARN HOW TO…
MOHAMMED BOUAFIA
+60 11 230 370 44
antilop005@gmail.com
A RESUME WRITING
WORKSHOP

2. “…I’ve sent out hundreds of resumes over my career,
applying for just about every kind of job. I’ve personally
reviewed more than 20,000 resumes. And at Google we
sometimes get more than 50,000 resumes in a single
week…”
Laszlo Bock
Senior vice president of
people operation,
Google

3. Some are Brilliant,
Most are just ok,
Many are Disasters.

4. Have you ever asked yourself why so many CVs end up
in the recycle bin?
Yes, right here…

5. • Have nothing to offer, except a University degree.
• Did not include curricular activities (internships,
student conferences, projects, scholarships and
competitions..) within your resume.

6. Btw, it is really pitiful to end up in a recycle bin every
time, together with thousands of others who did almost
nothing during their studies.

7. So, what makes the difference between those great
10% and those extraordinary 3% candidates in any
application process, especially when you apply for an
internship or a job?...

8. • Be less descriptive but more factual.
• Be as specific as possible when you talk about previous
experiences.
• You will achieve this by including Magic Metrics.

9. Example:
let’s say you had an internship in Sales. Instead of a
soulless description of your roles, you can write clearly
that sales in your department grew by 30% during your
internship, that you established

10. Why is this really powerful?
• Numbers are so powerful.
• they bring something that is concrete,
• Numbers will tell clearly that you are a person who can grow
business, sell something, build something new,
• in general, that you are a person who will add new value to a
company or an organization

11. Example
let’s say you organized a small conference with your
friends at your University (e.g. Algerian academic
conference 1). Instead of just describing what you
organized, take a more powerful approach: Metrics!
The most important metrics would be:
 The number of attendees and speakers;
 The number of raised money from sponsors and,
 The medias which covered your event

12. 05 Fatal mistakes you must avoid during ...
writing Resume

13. Mistake 1: Typos
• Obvious, but it happens.
58% of resumes have typos. (CareerBuilder, 2013).
Employers interpret them as a lack of care about
quality.
The fix?

14. • Read your resume from bottom to top: reversing the
normal order helps you focus on each line in isolation.
• Or have someone else proofread closely for you.

15. Mistake 2: Length
 focused resume demonstrates an ability to synthesize,
prioritize, and convey the most important information about
you.
 Think about it this way: the purpose of a resume and
interview are different.
 Don’t tell your life’s story (that’s what a patient spouse is
for).
 Your resume is a tool that gets you to that first interview.
The fix?

16. So cut back your resume. It’s too long….

17. Mistake 3: Formatting
Unless you’re applying for a job such as a designer
or artist, your focus should be on making your resume
clean and legible.
 At least 10-point font.
 At least half-inch margins.
 White paper, black ink.
 Consistent spacing between lines,
 columns aligned,
 your name and contact information on every page.

18. If you can, look at it in both Google Docs and Word,
and then attach it to an email and open it as a preview.
Formatting can get garbled when moving across
platforms. Saving it as a PDF is a good way to go.

19. Mistake 4: Confidential information
• Candidates often find ways to honor the letter of their
confidentiality agreements but not the spirit. It’s a
mistake.
• In a very rough audit, it is found that at least 5-10% of
resumes reveal confidential information. Which tells the
employer, that I should never hire those candidates
…unless I want my own trade secrets emailed to my
competitors.

20. “…if you wouldn’t want to see it on the home page of
the NYT with your name attached (or if your boss
wouldn’t!), don’t put it on your resume…”.
TheNewYorkTimes

21. Mistake 5: Lies
• This breaks the hearts. Putting a lie on your resume is
never, ever, ever, worth it.
• Everyone, up to and including CEOs, get fired for this.
(Google “CEO fired for lying on resumes”)
• People lie about their degrees, GPAs, and where they
went to school, how long they were at companies, how
big their teams were, and their sales results, always
goofing in their favor…

22. A Formula for a Winning Resume

23. Accomplished [X] as measured by
[Y] by doing [Z]

24. • Improved portfolio performance by 12% ($1.2M) over
one year by refining cost of capital calculations for
information-poor markets and re-weighting portfolio
based on resulting valuations.
• Selected as one of 230 for this 18-month professional
development program for high-achieving diverse talent.
• Excellent customer service skills and positive attitude as
demonstrated by receiving employee of the month in four
consecutive months in 2014.
Exemples

25. 19 Advises to get an ..
Excellent Resume

26. 1. include a URL to the online profile.
• If you don't include URLs to your professional online
profiles, hiring managers will look you up regardless.
• 86% of recruiters admit to reviewing candidates' online
profiles, so why not include your URL along with your
contact information? Business Insider
• This will prevent recruiters from having to guess or
mistaking you for someone else.

27. 2. Use consistent branding.
• If you have a common name, consider including your
middle initial on your resume and online professional
profiles to differentiate yourself from the competition,"
• For example, decide if you're Mohamed Bouafia,
Mohammed Bouafia, or Mohammed Amine Bouafia.
Then use this name consistently, be it on LinkedIn,
Google+, Twitter, or Facebook…

28. 3. include ONE phone number and email
address.
Choose one phone number for your resume where you
control the voicemail message and who picks up the
phone. The same rule applies to an email address.

29. 4. don’t include an objective statement
There's no point in including a generic objective about a
"professional looking for opportunities that will allow me
to leverage my skills,". It's not helpful and distracting.
Ditch it now !!

30. 5. Instead, include an executive summary.
• Replace your fluffy statement with an executive
summary, which should be like a "30-second elevator
pitch" where you explain who you are and what you're
looking for.
"In approximately three to five sentences, explain what
you’re great at, most interested in, and how you can
provide value to a prospective employer“ Business Insider.

31. 6. Use reverse chronological order
• This is the most helpful for recruiters because they're
able to see what you've been doing in recent years
immediately.
• “…The only time you shouldn't do this is if you're trying
to transition to another career altogether, but then again,
in this situation, you'll probably be relying more on
networks…than your resume”, Business Insider.

32. 7. use keywords like "forecasting" and
"strategic planning“…
• Many companies use some kind of screening process to
identify the right candidates. You should include the
keywords mentioned in the job posting throughout your
resume.
• "Identify the common keywords, terminology, and key
phrases that routinely pop up in the job descriptions of
your target role and incorporate them into your resume
(assuming you have those skills)," advises Augustine.
"This will help you make it past the initial screenings and
on to the recruiter or hiring manager."

33. 8. provide company descriptions.
• It's helpful for recruiters to know the size and the activity
of the company you used to work for.
• You can go to the company's "About Us" section and
rewrite one or two lines of the description.
• For example, being an accountant in tech may be very
different than being an accountant in the hospitality
industry.

34. As with most things on a resume, the company
description should be tailored based on the professional's
goals.
If you're looking to switch industries, your focus may
be on the company size — assuming it's similar to your
goals — and less on discussing the various products your
company sells."

35. 9. don’t not list achievements in dense
blocks of text…
• Recruiters receive so many resumes to scan through at
a time, so make it as easy as possible for them to
understand why you're perfect for the job.
• Dense blocks of text are too difficult to read,

36. 10. Instead, list achievements in two to
five bullet points per job.
• Under each job or experience you've had, explain how
you contributed to or supported your team’s projects and
initiatives.
• “…As you build up your experience, save the bullets for
your bragging points,“ BI

37. 11. Quantify your achievements.
Quantify your major accomplishments and
contributions for each role…
This can include the money you saved or brought in
for your employer, deals closed, and projects delivered
on time or under budget.
Do not use any more than three to five bullet points.

38. 12. format your Accomplishments as
result-and-then-cause.
A good rule is to use the "result BY action" sentence
structure whenever possible.
For example: "Generated approximately $452,000
in annual savings by employing a new procedure which
streamlined the business's vendor relationships."

39. 13. White space draws the reader's eyes
to important points.
Recruiters do not spend a lot of time scanning
resumes, so avoid dense blocks of text.
The key is to format the information in a way that
makes it easy to scan and recognize your job goals and
relevant qualifications.

40. 14. don't use crazy fonts or colors.
Stick to black and white color.
As for font, it's best to stick with the basics, such
as Arial, Tahoma, or Calibri…

41. 15. don’t include pronouns.
Never write your resume in third person because
everyone knows you're the one writing it (unless you go
through a professional resume writing service).
Instead, you should write it in first person, and do
not include pronouns.

42. 16. don’t include images.
Avoid adding any embedded tables, pictures, or
other images in your resume, as this can confuse the
applicant-tracking software and jumble your resume in
the system…

43. 17. don’t use headers or footers.
It may look neat and concise to display your contact
information in the header, but for the same reason with
embedded tables and charts, it often gets scrambled in
an applicant tracking system…

44. 18. List Education at the bottom.
Unless you're a recent graduate, you should
highlight your work experience and move your education
information to the bottom of your resume.
Never include anything about your high-school
years.

45. 19. don’t mention: references upon request
Every recruiter knows you're going to provide
references if they request it so there's no reason for you
to include this line.
Again, remember that space on your resume is
crucial so don't waste it on a meaningless line,

47. Hired /Rejected??

48. A perfect one !!!