The one thing that many graduates have failed to do for many years after reading online materials, books or even to the extend of being coached personally by headhunters; they failed to be the preferred candidates for the final face-to-face interview phase.

We all have gone through the phase as jobseeker and looking for opportunity for a launchpad for our career. Apart from your hard earned degree scroll and transcript, your resume is the best tool to market yourself.

Resume is the brief or a summary about yourself. Unlike the CV which is used to describe in depth about your academia mileage, resume should omit your autobiographical details and other whimsical details which may cause bias for the reader. Avoid anything like your date of birth and ID number as these only shade away the importance of your key points. Secondly, cluttered spacing and utilization of space on a piece of paper is a big no-no for a person who only have 50 seconds to decide whether to put it into the tray or the rubbish bin.

Most articles in the internet and Pinterest show you some of the most wonderful and latest formats of a resume.

Infographic, wow. New age! A lot of pie charts flying around like a statistics guru - self proclaimed some what likert scale readings and probes. It would be great to have mean, median, max, min and standard deviation as well. The resume's format is close to those buntings at the hospital describing samples of the population infected with HIV. Sadly, the only great thing you can achieve would be you as part of the descriptive statistics for failure in getting a job for the year.

Minimalist is great, color shades and tones are wonderful, spacing is amazing, and tiny bits of tweaking and nudging your photo within the resume template will score high design point. Some went to the extend of ensuring great emotional contact with selection of colors and icons that greatly help with semiotics. Well, guys. Sorry to tell you that you have just scored A+ for design and effort; not the job. Do these headhunters and recruitment agents really know what they do? If yes, they would be doing something better as part of their career to be honest.

As for fresh graduates, the competition is never being fair as the greenest pastures usually crowded with old cows. At times, the competition is really fair when the organization's policies allow the recruitment of greenhorns. So how do you outsell yourself from the others? The only thing that is left to compare apple to apple between two or more resumes would be the skills section. Zero experience and a degree with first class honors - you have nothing great to offer. Pretty face is great for pricks who are trying to have you as their door rug or with a hole, wrecked. It certainly allows you to go places and not staying at a place.

Traditionally or conventionally, many recruitment agents will advise job seekers to fill this section with things which i considered ridiculous. It is great to tell others that you are a leader - yes, top notch in transformational leadership, a motivator, work under pressure, and bla bla bla. To top that up, you have interest in yada yada yada yada. Guys, you are wasting your space, effort and opportunity. Every single space is gold when you have only 50 seconds to make a great impression. No one cares about your leadership since you are going to commit or enslave yourself to the organization and micromanaged by a manager. The only person who need your motivational advises would be the janitors and you are expected to work under pressure (that is the freaking job scope and ultimate sacrifice). No one cares about your interest in fishing and photography, your weekend, your time. At work, you do what you are told to do. Full stop! Period!

In most of the career talks, i always emphasize on this key point. Skills! Skills are the abilities which are related to your work. Most of the HR managers or bosses are interested in your body of knowledge which ticks the training matrix boxes for your core competencies. These key competencies can only developed during industrial training or freelance work with seniors within the industry. So take your industrial training seriously.

Say, you are applying for a job as a civil engineer. What are the core skills that they are looking at? Emphasize on supervision skills when you are trying for a contractor and design skills for a consultant.

Contractor?
- Understood project specific or national specifications
- understood typical method statement for certain type of constructions or projects
- Understood basic sequence and execution of works

Consultant?
- Understood national and international specifications
- understood design process and sequence for every component or phase
- literature of your final year project or mini thesis

These are some of the skills which you should include and if possible make it a point that it is subliminally visible at the right area which amplifies the overall presentation.

Remember, skills - dire importance.
Resume - clean, crisp and highlighted selling key points.