Annotated Outline Template: Fill & Download for Free

In reading the list of the most common mistakes people (and especially software engineers) make on their resume, it's important to remember how resumes are reviewed. Resumes are not read; they are skimmed for about 15 seconds. Let me say it again: resume screeners do not read your entire resume.With that said... the most common serious mistakes are:Long Resumes: In either an effort to pad their experience or just an inability to be concise, I routinely see resumes that are 3, 4, 5, ... even 11 pages long. Seriously. This is not okay, people!Now, think about what happens when you have a five page resume. By definition, only 1/5th of that content would have been good enough to make a one page resume. So, now your resume screener is reading bullets at random from your 5 page resume. 80% of what the screener is reading isn't, well, all that good.Keep your resume to one page, or a max of two pages if you have 10+ years of experience.Paragraphs / Lengthy Bullets: When you only get 15 seconds to read someone's resume, you just aren't going to any paragraphs. You don't have the time. If you want your resume reviewer to read something you put on your resume, keep it short.Each bullet should be 1 - 2 lines (and ideally, no more than half of the bullets should be 2 lines).Team / Group Focused: The accomplishments of your team just aren't that interesting. Sorry. Why not? Because I'm hiring you, not your team.Tell me what you specifically built, created, implemented, designed, architected, programmed, etc.Messy Resumes: What is it about software engineers and creating their own templates? If you're not good at design, why are you doing this? I've never understood this. Many software engineers just open up Microsoft Word, hit Ctrl-B, and start typing. The result? Resumes that look cluttered, are hard to read, and yet don't actually fit much on it.Consider, for example, this resume:----Microsoft CorporationSoftware Engineer2008 - 2011----You just took three lines to list this information. Now, if you use a well designed template with columns, you can do this:----Software Engineer Microsoft Corporation 2008 - 2011----Use a good resume template, with columns. This will allow you to fit more content on your resume while making it easier to scan for key information like company names and titles.Listing Responsibilities instead of Accomplishments: It turns out that if you were a software engineer, we basically know what you did -- you programmed. Bullets like: "Implement features for ________ project" are not particularly helpful. They don't show off anything that you actually accomplished. Your bullets should tell me what your biggest 3 - 5 accomplishments per role were.Focus on accomplishments, not responsibilities.Leaving Out Cool Stuff Because It's Not "Resume Material." I'm not sure who started this concept of what's "resume material," but you should [more or less] forget it. Stop thinking about what does and doesn't belong on a resume and start thinking about if something makes you look more or less awesome.An example: I was helping a PM at Microsoft with her resume and -- just as we were getting to the final stages -- she asks, "Oh, by the way, I started a little gaming company on the side and hired a few people for it. We created a decent product, but never ended up launching because [various personal reasons]. I didn't think I should include it on my resume."Gaa! No no no no no! Of course that belongs on your resume!This PM was by no means the exception here. I've seen countless cases where people decided not to include meaty projects because they were [pick one] for a class / independent projects / unfinished / unsuccessful / etc. Forget about all this. At some point, coding is coding.If it makes you look good, it's "resume material." So before you finish your resume, ask yourself: what did you not include?I've posted an annotated resume at http://www.careercup.com/resume, outlining what resume should look like. It covers some of what I've listed above, as well as some new items.

After developing applications for hundreds of businesses, we’ve created our own Product Requirements Document Tool and a simple how-to guide to help our clients here at Scalable Path.While I am a big believer in Agile and Scrum, it’s just not sensible to hire a development team and start building features without knowing what you are getting into. However, you needn't waste precious time trying to define every possible thing your software will do, and frankly, no one likes writing (or reading) verbose requirements documents. Instead, we lean on the Agile side of the spectrum where the product is released quickly, feedback is obtained and improvements are made iteratively.A Requirements Document should act as the starting point for your product: outlining its purpose, who will use it, and how to use it.From the perspective of development teams (in-house or outsourced), the PRD is an essential precursor to design and development.Here is the set of instructions we provide to our clients on how to write a requirements document that will be good enough to get a reasonably accurate estimate from us or a dev shop. I’ve found it to be the right balance between being prepared and being agile. In other words, the bare minimum effort needed to get started building a great product.The ‘Bare Minimum’ Framework:Often a product owner will have grand ideas for their project and all of the features it might have in the future. Dreaming big is great, but it’s extremely important at the outset to narrow your focus down to the minimum set of features that you need in the first release. This is called the Minimum Viable Product. After you release your product and get feedback from your users, you can then decide what additional features you want to add.But while you are writing your requirements document, clear your head of all those potential future features and just define those that will be included in the first version of your product.Note: Of course, if there is a future feature that must be known about at the outset, then the development team should know it is coming and I’ll talk about how to include that.Enough preamble, below are the sections I suggest for a simple requirements document:GoalsUser PersonasUser StoriesScreensWireframes (optional)Non-Functional RequirementsRisksFuture IterationsGOALS:The business goals and objectives serve as the context, showing the dev team why they are building what they are building.Here are some common questions you can ask yourself when fleshing out this section:What is the purpose of this project?What are the problems it will solve?What improvements does your product offer over current solutions?What is the vision of your product?Check out our Free Product Requirements Tool for more examples.USER PERSONASUser Personas are hypothetical individuals who match your desired, or actual, audience. Thinking about the background of these users will improve your ability to create a product that meets their needs.User personas can be complicated, so here are some rules that will help:Cover the primary types of users.Focus on what you know.Start with defining: Occupation, age, gender, location, education - they will be the framework for your profile.Name your End Users.Give each profile an objective.Essentially it boils down to this: your personas should be detailed enough to allow you to see the product through their eyes.Here’s an example created using our PRD tool:USER STORIES:User stories are short descriptions of a feature, told from the perspective of one of your newly created end user profiles. They are typically structured in the following fashion:As a [type of user], I want [some goal] so that [some reason].User stories are a starting point, not a destination. It’s often best to think of them as pointers to your eventual requirements. These stories are vital because the discussions they start will help shape your content architecture and design.So how can you use this concept to move your product forward without getting bogged down in hundreds of stories and feature ideas?Limit yourself to high-level (and must-have) stories - also known as ‘Epics,’ which can be broken down later into smaller more manageable stories.Your stories should be short and specific.They should describe who needs what and why.They must be user-centric. Remember you can use your personas.Tips: Don’t write every single detail of functionality. Focus on the Epics and flesh details out when wireframes and designs are created. At this point, you are writing to give the designers and developers the minimum information needed to start a productive conversation about how to create your application.SCREENS:Screens should include the following four steps to build progression towards a fleshed-out picture of the final product as a whole. The better the detail the clearer the path for the project will become.Name: Use a name your team can easily refer to during design and development.Description: Overview of the screen’s purpose. (Ex., Will it allow users to access the app, create an account, or recover their password.)Elements: Lists the main items on the screen, typically listed in order of importance. I.e., For the login, it would be an email or username input, password input, submit button, forgot password link, and a create account link.Images: Wireframes or mockups representing the screen to illustrate the overall layout and placement of key elements, sometimes annotated with relevant notes.WIREFRAMESWireframes are simple page layouts that outline the size and placement of elements, features on a page. Think of them as a basic blueprint image (no color, font styles, logos, or any design elements) that conveys the location of your product’s elements.Here’s an example:Notes:Wireframing is probably the most time-consuming step of this process and for some simple projects, it may not be necessary. However, more complex projects will definitely require well-thought-out wireframes.Even if you don’t have experience with wireframing, I recommend you try it out yourself as this process requires you to think deeply about how your product will work - which often results in development going more smoothly.EMAILSSimilar to the screens section above, this section allows you to document the template, content, purpose, and audience for notifications such as emails and messages in your product. Our PRD tool lets you outline each communication and attach supporting files if you have them available at this point in the process.NON-FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTSThis part of the document defines requirements that may be important to your business, but are not about how the software itself behaves. For example:The application must be built in Ruby on RailsThe application must be hosted on AWSThe application must use Stripe for payment processingOTHER SECTIONSExternal Links and Files: Here you can add links to external resources and attach additional files. This may include something like a link to a competing product, a website whose design is similar to the style which you want to achieve, image and logo samples, and so on. You can also directly add attachments to the PRD such as design files, documentation, assets, or anything else that may be relevant to your project.Risks, Future Iterations, and Final Notes: Our PRD tool ends with three areas to record additional thoughts and considerations relating to the product and project in general.In the ‘Risks’ section, add in potential risks (to help consider and get ahead of any potential problems you may face before they come up).‘Future Iterations’ it’s helpful for considering the product’s potential beyond the MVP phase.‘Notes’ is the last section we recommend for you to record any thoughts that have not been covered in the document elsewhere.——————————-This is a brief overview of what my team and I consider to be the necessary aspects and you should cover in a requirements document. If you’re interested in using the tool, it’s freely available here, regardless of whether you’re a part of our network or not. You can also see an example PRD for a ToDo app to get an idea of what it looks like.

A literature review is more of an explanation than a summary!Literature review is a critical analysis of an authorized and accredited body of knowledge through classifications, summary, evidences, justifications and comparison of prior research studies. While writing, you must not confuse your review paper with an annotated bibliography.Being a writer, your purpose is to realize the readers that this chapter is informative and targeted but, it still has the scope to answer “Why”, “When”, “What” and “How”. More than just sequence of names, your literature review outline must have solid substances as well.Before understanding the rudimentary facts about outline template, learn the two major aspects either of which can be followed while designing a literature review outline.Aspects of a literature review paperDepending on the university guidelines, you have to choose either of the below mentioned aspects for your review paper. If you follow any of the sample literature review, you can observe a clear distinction between the two aspects. No matter which of the two you pick, make certain you justify the original creator’s work in a true sense.See what the scopes are!An effective summary and synthesis of specific documents on a particular research topicA critical synthesis of prior research studies that logically leads to the queries that you wish to explore in your review paperA literature review is much like a conversation grounded with academic theory, arguments and reasoning. In order to draft the most incredible literature review outline, you need to comprehend the ways to conduct the conversation.How to conduct the conversation?Conversations in a literature review paper are a three-tier process with each tier having its own trait. Here are the significant stages of the conversation –Intellectual (logos): In this phase, you have to project the location of your question, the problems associated with its wider academic and the other professional contexts relatable with the piece of writing. Apart from this, you also need to enlighten on the status of your study within the discipline, its significance, purpose, meaning and relevance.Social (ethos): Here you need to establish your right to speak with proper arguments and illustrations. You also have to make people realize why they should read your work till the end.Rhetorical: This section is more generic than the other two. Here you have to present your ideas for a specific pattern that information should follow in order to make the content coherent.A literature review outline entails multiple stages that are concurrent with each other. You have to interlink the stages with a transition phase maintaining their significance.Stages of literature review outlineA successful literature review outline stands on brainstorming ideas, a collection of relevant data, a solid research and proficient writing. In the subsequent part, you can find an illustration of each phase –Procure innovative ideas to present a literature review:Unique and captivating stream of thoughts is the spine of a successful literature review paper. You have to present key literature relatable with your field of research written by accredited authors.The foremost responsibility is to choose the literature from online databases like Google Scholar, Learning Resource Library Guides, UMD Library and other noteworthy online libraries. You may also seek help from electronic databases (eg. KeyNote).Besides these search engine results, you may also refer to the bibliographies mentioned in your module handbooks. Course books cover a list of reference textbooks, articles and so on, from where you may get solid sear results.If you reach a dead loop or get stuck at some point, you must consult with your research guides or professors. Never let internet be your primary source of information.Narrow down your considerations:You have to refine your choices. From the general topics, the initial task is to figure out the set of information that you wish to analyze.Once you are done with the selection, you have to fathom the appropriate information that you can use directly or indirectly. Now, extract all the relevant data from those sources so that later, you can use those facts and figures as evidence.Literature review paper is not about how much you have read it is more about how much research you have done. You must maintain extreme clarity in your writing.Note taking is crucial to present a perfect literature review:As you proceed with your research, take note of the crucial points that you need mentions. Do not just highlight a sentence or some specific words, there are several processes of note-taking mentioned below.Summarize any portion that seems relevantQuote from prior researchesParaphrase previous studies in this fieldList the critical questions that come to your mindNote down any comment that strikes your brain at that momentKeep details of the authors, books, publishers or titles of any other articles, essays and so onYou can paraphrase from the literature that you are going to review and you can also quote other author’s previous comments on that piece of writing.Assess and order your research:Most of the students and novice writers reach a phase where they have an enormous amount of information but they have no idea about what to do with them. This is the stage where they remain confused about whether or not that much data is sufficient.The only solution is to assess the data whether they are relevant and concern with your future proceedings. Sort the ones you need and prioritize them to define their order.One of the vital responsibilities is to identify which of the author’s ideas complement each other and which are the thoughts that disagree.Choose an approach and plan your writing:Approaches to planning your literature review are multiple but, you need to choose amongst the rest. Depending on your topic and research filed, you have to choose an effective approach that may help you to compose the best literature review.Mentioned below are the distinct aspects of writing a literature review paper.ChronologicallyThematicallyBy ‘different schools of thought’No matter which approach you choose, you must keep a significant relevance between each paragraph. You need to make use of smooth transition sentences in order to keep the flow of writing intact and relatable.Write and re-write unless you feel satisfied:One of the most laborious stage of literature review writing. Make sure there is no repetition of data in your writing and all the contents are original and apt. While drafting the first copy, you must maintain little or no mistakes so that you don’t have to waste extra hours in proofreading the document.Focus on the following factors while writing your draft –Avoid global statements even if the problem area is of the broader aspectIdentify the importance of reviewing the topicPrecisely comment on the timeliness of the topicWhile citing a landmark or classic study, consider it as suchJustify your comments like – “no studies were found”Avoid non-specific referencingIf the previous research analysis are inconsistent, cite them separatelyProvide an overview if your review is longYou need to have utmost language proficiency and in-depth knowledge about the topic in order to ensure high-quality standard. Prior to writing, you must study multiple examples of a literature review paper to gain a profound idea about the exact style of writing.Edit and proofread to assure 100% accuracy:As you complete drafting the literature review paper, the foremost task is to proofread the copy. You must assure there is absolutely no mistake during submission. While revising the review paper, concentrate on the grammar issues, spelling mistakes, and erroneous wordiness. You must also check for punctuation splices so that the meaning remains intact.Manual editing is a great way of identifying the mistakes. As you read aloud, you can hear wherever you have written wrongly.By far, you must have understood the stages a writer has to walk through in order to outline a literature review paper. In the subsequent portion of this blog, you can find the significant elements of a review paper and what are the substances to be entailed in those categories.Elements to be included in a literature reviewIn a literature review paper, you have to be very careful so that you do not sound harsh towards any author. Each of your justifications must be authentic and you should present them in a decent way.Here are the categories and subcategories to mentioned in the review paper –Introduction: This is almost like an overview of the context. Here you need to highlight the following points –Mention about the range of the topicIntroduce the name of the author and bookGive a brief idea about the themeOrientate the reader with the literaturePortray your research in a few sentencesDepict the need for this reviewMain body part: The most important section of the literature review paper has two distinct sub-categories. Both of them have their own significance and distinct writing approach.Critique the piece of work: In this section, a writer needs to discuss the content of the book and arguments depicted by the creator. In the subsequent paragraphs, you have to put forth the negative and positive aspects of the book. If you have liked the work, better to start with the negatives and course into the positive points otherwise, vice-versa.Develop your own argument: Here you need to voice your own arguments and their specific explanations. Remember to b strict and precise in your point of view in order to convince the readers. Make sure your illustrations justify your arguments in a true sense.Conclusion: In the concluding paragraphs, you have to keep relevance with the topic as well as an interconnection with the previous paragraphs. End with a logical statement that sums up your idea more or less. You can also include bits of researches in your concluding section so that readers can relate to the rest of the review paper.