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I'd suggest that you write the first draft yourself. You will see dozens of resumes that have obviously been written by a recruitment agency or someone other than the candidate. And then during the interview, the interviewer can easily see that the candidate doesn't know what is in their own resume. That leaves a very bad impression.

No one knows you, your career, your professional strengths, and your job requirements...like you!

For the first draft, just focus on capturing relevant information. Forget about how it looks, the fancy parts, styling, etc.

First ask what type of jobs am I applying for? Do I need different resumes for different types of jobs? What skills does that job need? What skills do I have that meet those?

Showcase those skills up front in a section, as key words. Most companies have software that just parses through resumes looking for those key words and filters them. (But don't add things just for the sake of adding them!)

Then add a section that lists your job experience. Just a heading with the company name, tenure, then 2-3 lines describing what you did at each place. If you have spent a long time at one company or have done something truly outstanding, then a few more lines for that company/job will be warranted. But don't write paragraphs detailing every aspect of every single job. No one will read that. The idea is to give the interviewer just enough info so they can ask follow-up questions during the interview.

(Obviously you are an experienced candidate, so I don't need to tell you not to add info about hobbies, marital status, home address, passport, etc. :))

After you have a first draft capturing the information, in whatever format, show it to someone who knows you professionally and get their feedback. Does it represent you accurately?

After revising it, then you can consider using tools or ready made templates to fit all that info in best and making the final version.

But write it yourself first is the main advice I can give you. It will make your resume stand out and will help during the interview as well.

Question to Chennai BHPians.

My son is currently in 9th std. Does it make sense now to see career guidance counselor who can advise on the different opportunities? Can you please details of someone good in Chennai?

Thanks.

World is moving towards leaner structure where IC role person also manages team. So embrace it as I don't think one can get away from this. Also be careful if this is not midlife crisis instead of just team stress. If possible take couple of weeks off to recharge and then in peace evaluate why you don't want team management.

One common reason I find mid management folks struggle is they are not ruthless in delegation. Nurture 2-3 people out of 400 to take on share of queries and explain to them that you are helping them grow by doing this. With time I think it should become better.

If all fails then my mantra is Health First and everyone has to take the ownership over keeping self healthy. So do what you gotta do and it will all be ok.

Hi Naveen - I used to work in the Business Transformation space and understand this fairly well. I can put you in touch with someone who writes resumes for a fee. There are a couple of things to note when you do your resume

1. Have a lean one with 1/2 page format which focusses on your work/success in brief , revenue or cost you have managed and calls out your strengths, skills
2. Have a detailed resume which provides in-depth detail into the work you have done, projects you have handled, the KPIs achieved, results etc
3. Nowadays recruiters and talent acquisition folks use an ATS to filter resumes, so your resume should be ATS proof and this is where you can pay a fee to get it done or use some free tools (am not sure they are foolproof).
4. Add your LinkedIn profile and keep it up to date, for roles such as what you are looking at Linkedin is better than recruitment search engines from an employer perspective
5. There are a lot of free templates available when you google and you can check them out for formats, templates etc
6. Dont put too many images as this will never pass the ATS

Hope this helps

My son is presently in 12th std and has given the 12th std board exanms as well as JEE exams. Unfortunately he could not be eligible for the JEE advanced exam missing the cut off by 1 mark. He has given Vellore entrance exam and has the MH CET in the coming days. What options does he have if he wants to pursue a career in Computer Science Engg. We are aware that this is the choice of stream for the top rankers and getting into good engineering colleges even with good percentile in CET is going to be a very tough challenge.

Plus the faith in the education system has been eroded in the past few months. My son has been seeing that in JEE exams, VIT exams there has been some suspicious activities where the invigilators in the exam hall have been in close proximity of few students and prompting the answers. I have been approached by a few people who claim to get the engineering seat in top colleges but for a hefty fee. I am also told that most of the management quote, NRI quota seats have already been booked in the top engineering colleges. Never in my lifetime had I heard people scoring 100 percentiles in exams and these days its becoming a norm. Plus add to that the reservation quota in spite of low scorers still get a spot in premier institutes.

These news has been taking a toll on me and my family and its seems paying money is the only way out for future career. A guidance in this regards would be appreciated.

I don't have specific advice to offer, my involvement with these matters was over 2 decades ago when I was a student.

But one thing doesn't seem to have changed, this is the point where the student and family are at their most apprehensive and vulnerable. And there are too many unscrupulous people/institutes ready to take advantage of the situation. Their weapon is fear. Do not give in.

From what you have described your son is a good student anyway. Not getting into IITs is not the end of the road/world. Or even the 'top 10 colleges' (whatever method of ranking they use to arrive at those anyway!) At this point, most students don't know what they want anyway. So they follow the 'hot' engineering streams. Again, from an industry point of view, recruitment into the IT industry has never restricted itself to CS engineers only.

Most of us have not graduated from the IITs, nor the 'top' branches. Yet we have somehow made a decent career using our on the job learning. From mod Samurai's (several!) posts on this topic, he describes this very well, about aptitude and the willingness to learn being more important than the college and as a marker of potential success in the field.

And the CS/IT industry itself is changing dramatically. AI, the 'gig' economy, who knows if whatever is being taught in today's colleges will even be relevant as soon as the students graduate, forget in the next 20-30 years of their career.

As a parent the best thing you can do (and this is just IMHO, I'm not even a parent) is give confidence to your boy. If you are anxious, he will be even more so and both of you will be taken advantage of by shady touts and institutes. Let him give the entrance exams and do his best without anxiety. Am sure the university he gets into and the branch he takes up will prove more than enough for a smart young man with several more opportunities and avenues to pursue his interests even outside the curriculum.

This means your son has reasonably high percentile in one of the two mains. It will make him eligible for one of the IIIT/NIIT.

I would recommend avoiding "engineering seat in top colleges but for a hefty fee"

Apart from the exams he is giving, you son can also give BITSAT exam which is for admission to BITS.
Secondly, you son probably has a domicile of some state (each state has different eligibility criterion). Please check. This will make him eligible for state quota for that state's engineering colleges.

My son is also in the same state..just completed his 12th and is writing all the entrance exams. He was clear he did not want to write Advanced. He has written VIT, KCET and BITS. Lets see how it goes.

Worrying point is, why are you and your family so desparate regarding IIT? Did you force your son into it? Even NIT/IIIT is difficult unless you are in 98.5+ percentile. NIT-Trichy CS cutoff is at 99.7 percentile. Also, I think you are confusing percent with percentile.

Rather than assuming IIT -CS is the only option in life, talk to him, understand his interests and get him admitted to a college/course where he can learn well instead of just the IIT tag. If he is really interested in CS, in the long term, he has a better chance than the IIT guys who took CS without real interest in the subject. If it helps, Satya Nadella graduated from Manipal - a private engineering college.

On the faith in the exams, I seriosly doubt if the invigilators will know the answers to these tough questions in the computer based tests. They wouldnt be doing this job if that was the case. These are employees of the testing centre who do the invigilation. Even if any manipulation is done, it would be done at the college/university backend where things are really opaque.


Top private colleges always had "agents" getting you seats in management quota. If you are ready to pay for that, you can directly visit the college and pay that amount - avoiding the agent.

Wishing your son the very best!!

Please don't worry. These exams don't determine the future. I have been recruiting engineering grads for over two decades, and my son when through these dilemmas in the recent years.

Being a US citizen, my son didn't qualify for any of the entrance exams, JEE, CET, PG-CET, etc. It didn't matter he studied in Karnataka entirely, starting from LKG. In fact, he opted for commerce after 10th. However, at 2nd year of B.Com he wanted to switch back to computer science. So he took up MCA at MSRIT after completing his B.Com. He was the only commerce student in his MCA class. Since he had natural aptitude in the subject, he ended up getting an internship and placement in American investment MNC. After the completion of internship in 2024, he decided to go abroad instead of joining the firm. That's a different matter. So, not following the traditional routes didn't hurt him at all.

As a recruiter of fresh graduates, I have become very wary of engineering graduates. The quality has dipped so low, I have started to prefer BCA/MCA/BSc/MSc grads over BE these days. I have shared this observation with few other tech CEOs, and they too concur. BE is not the only path to tech career, don't fret too much over it. Companies these days have started to look at individual ability over their pedigree. BTW, I regularly observe my non-BE staff outperforming their BE counterparts in other companies.

Only the HR of large companies are still stuck in the old way thinking. But a determined candidate can find their way to excellent jobs without the traditional routes.

Many thanks esteemed BHPians for the advice, means a lot to me.

Let me clarify a few things - My son had targeted IIT/NITs and there was absolutely no pressure from me or my wife for this. He is yet to appear for the SRM, BITSAT and KICT exams apart from MH CET. Me and my wife have clearly told him we have his back for whatever he decides. Its just that the peer pressure is getting to him. His drawback is and which I am not yet to able to solve is he scores fantastic in online tests at home but gets jittery, palms sweating, hyper excited on seeing the question when he is taking an online exam in a centre. The results just plummets. I have tried all methods of prepping but he is unable to over come that as yet.

Any link I can request from anyone here which gives me the list of colleges and the fair chance of getting into one based on the marks. Is there any such website available? I just wanted to spread the cards on the table to make the right choice.

I myself having studied in a private college 3 decades back and have been doing good. There is no limit if I start comparing myself with my colleagues of that time.

My son is currently in 12th standard, and preparing for JEE. I myself had ranked close to 200 in JEE. Though I could wish for it, I can not have unrealistic expectation from him to achieve the same feat. There are several other good alternatives: Manipal, BITS etc. There are 3-4 options in Bangalore itself: RV, MSRIT, CMRIT. There will be many more options that you can explore.

VIT takes in so many students each year based on different criteria, it is not difficult to get department of your choice if you are ready to pay higher fees. Likewise, you can got admission in a private engineering college of your choice under Management quota. If you want to go for management quota seat at private college of your choice, you do not need to go through agents and should approach the college management directly.

What matters at end of the day is the aptitude that he develops during those 4 years, and it is mostly independent of the college which he joins for engineering.

Did your son join online test series of some coaching institues? That could help.

Also, if your son wants to drop a year and try again, you might consider that.

I would like to only wish your son the best, and all success in whatever path he takes. About the stress, anxiety and panic attacks I would recommend having a consultation with a psychologist because this needs professional help. Dr Ragu Ram or someone competent at NIMHANS could be a good start.

Just take it easy, unless you stop worrying, it won’t help improve your son’s nervousness.
Engineering is not the only course for a good career and IITs/NITs aren’t the only institutions in our country.

Take a deep breath, step back and ask your son what is it that he really wants to pursue, sometimes children find it difficult to express and articulate what’s on their mind clearly, just give him his space and time, try to get him away from the madness of competing with others.

If it’s really engineering that he wants to pursue, there are dime a dozen good private engineering colleges in and around Bangalore that could be options. Many are private universities as well so they have their own entrance tests. If the college is aided by the state government, then the option of getting a seat via CET or COMEDK are also there (Fees will be lower than a management quota seat through these entrance exams).

If it’s not engineering that your son wants to pursue, it will open up another world of other options to look at, some that you may never have considered earlier. You can also consider a career counselling organisation that can conduct some aptitude/skill based tests to assess what areas your son is strong in and what courses might be a good for him.