How to write a resume: our tips for job seekers

Let's be honest: a resume is not the main thing when applying for a job. A person with unique experience and competencies will be invited for an interview, even if his resume is written on a napkin. Another thing is if he does not yet belong to the category of rare super-professionals. Then the chance to meet competitors in the fight for the dream job increases, and the quality of the resume comes to the fore.

In this article, we've rounded up top tips for writing the perfect resume.

Photos and contacts - business

A photo on a resume will always be a plus, even if the position does not involve communicating with people. A photo will personalize your resume, making it easier to spot and making a response with a photo harder to miss or delete. But you need to choose a portrait for a resume critically: an unsuccessful photo can ruin everything. A professional portrait photo, businesslike and neutral, is best.

In the contacts section, pay attention to the mailbox - it must correspond to a professional status. The address [email protected] emphasizes a non-business approach to work. And here [email protected]- already better.

Some job seekers include their home address on their resumes, right down to a specific apartment. It is enough to indicate the city or the nearest metro station, for example, "Mytishchi" or "the village of Mansurovo in the Kursk region."

Compare wages to the market

It is not necessary to include your desired salary on your resume, but if you do, employers will not come to you with inappropriate offers. Universal advice: write an amount 15-20% more than what you are earning now. This will make it possible to bargain without prejudice to their own interests. We talked about how to determine the desired income in more detail.

Compare your expectations with the average salary in the market: look at vacancies, statistics by region and professional field. A salary that is overpriced by 40% or more will definitely scare away a recruiter. You can find out the average salary in the market for your city and your professional area using "".

This is how HeadHunter's "Recipient" looks like - a simple service that helps to compare salaries with the market one.

The exception is the resume of top managers. Executive salaries are calculated differently in different companies, so specific expectations can scare employers away.

work experience

If you are not a novice specialist, then experience is the main part of the resume. Approach this section with particular care.

1. The experience should look like a whole, that is, without long breaks in a career. If there were breaks, then they should have explanations: maternity leave, doing business, freelancing, and so on. We talked more about how to write about gaps in experience in.
2. If you change jobs more than once a year, this will alert the employer. You have been promoted - write about it in one block.
3. Pay attention to the last three years of work, this is of interest to employers in the first place. About the initial stages of a career and about what happened more than 10 years ago, you can talk very briefly.
4. If the company is unknown in the market, indicate its type of activity. Not just LLC "Horns and Hooves", but the "Chernomorsk branch of the Arbatov office for the preparation of horns and hooves." The activities of the company can be briefly described in the block of responsibilities.
5. In the headings, write job titles that are generally accepted in the market: for example, “commercial director” instead of “head of purchasing and sales coordination”. The same goes for the resume title. Often, applicants copy the last position into it, which is wrong: the name should reflect the essence of the work, and not an entry in the labor. For example, "project manager" looks more generic than "managing director of a business unit." Employers will find such a resume faster through the search.
6. Never copy the list of responsibilities from job descriptions. Highlight the most important and write down in an understandable language, without clericalism. For example, "optimization of business processes" instead of "implementation of project activities to optimize business processes." Five to ten tasks will be enough.
7. In addition to job responsibilities, be sure to include your specific accomplishments and results (for example, “together with the IT department, developed corporate business process control standards”).

Avoid general phrases like "was the hardest working employee in the department" - this is an opinion that cannot be verified, so it is not interesting to the employer. But “became the best employee of the department at the end of the year” is a useful line.

Sometimes job seekers describe work in a particular company as if they were writing a chapter from their own biography: “Here I started my career from lower positions, diligently seeking promotion” or “From a cursory acquaintance, you might think that the work was given to me easily, but in fact it was smooth vice versa". These examples are the standard of how not to describe experience. The resume worked if the employer sorted through the experience in a few seconds and realized that this candidate was worth a closer look. And you can demonstrate enthusiasm in a cover letter.

Education

All educational courses indicated in the summary must relate to professional activities. It is better to leave something out than to add dubious certificates - for example, about courses in massage - if this knowledge is not needed in the work.

It is always better to talk about the thorny path to the top at the interview. Therefore, you can skip studying at a technical school or vocational school if you have a higher education diploma in the same field.

key skills

Many applicants completely ignore this section, but in vain: often this is where the recruiter looks after getting acquainted with the experience and education of the candidate. Key skills are specific knowledge and skills that are directly related to work processes. For lawyers, this can be “Arbitration Courts” and “Corporate Law”, for a logistics manager “Working with Customs Authorities” and “Incoterms”, for a financier - “Statistical Analysis” and “Budgeting”, and so on.

The site system itself suggests the name of a particular skill, offering the shortest and most unified version - if possible, choose it.

Avoid the obvious: no need to write that you know Windows, Internet Explorer and use e-mail.

About me

Job seekers often confuse skills with personality traits. So in the skills are "Responsibility" or "Punctuality". We advise you to write about these qualities in the "About me" section and avoid platitudes. Instead of “Responsibility” and “Punctuality,” write “I am conscientious in completing tasks” and “I always meet the promised deadlines.” The essence of this will not change, but the wording will be remembered.

In some cases, you can indicate personal qualities that are not directly related to the profession - it can be a good physical shape or sports achievements ("CCM in cross-country skiing"). The same applies to achievements in the intellectual sphere. If you are a city chess champion or have won a programming olympiad, this is interesting. If you're just into reading, then no. Add only what will help you get a job.

But in most cases it is better not to specify at all. The recruiter is not interested in it, and exotic activities (like esotericism and even yoga) can completely scare them away.

How to write

The final text of the summary should be a squeeze, from which everything that, in principle, can be removed without loss of meaning has been removed: introductory words, epithets, participles and participles, extra verbal adjectives and nouns.

Badly: Was engaged in the organization of carrying out inventories in divisions belonging to the company. Carried out activities for the organization of tenders, in particular, the preparation of an extensive package of documents on this issue.
Better: Taking stock of the departments of the company. Preparation of a package of documents for tenders.

The shorter and simpler the sentences, the better.

Keywords

Insert marker words into your resume that a recruiter can use to find it through a search. For example, if you are an auditor and work with offshore companies, then your resume must include the word “offshore”.

Think about what keywords are related to your profession by imagining what terms the recruiter will use when searching for a resume. Use information from vacancies that interest you.

Transmittal letter

In the site system, the recruiter's acquaintance with you always begins with a cover letter. It usually begins with a greeting phrase: “Hello! My name is Kondraty Stepanov and I was interested in your vacancy as a city mayor.”

In a new paragraph, briefly describe your achievements and main skills (“led a department”, “participated in projects”, and so on). This paragraph should not be longer than three or four sentences.

The third paragraph is the key to the recruiter's heart. Write in it why you want to work for the company and why you think you are a suitable candidate. Try to avoid banal phrases like "I consider my work at your company as an opportunity for further development" - such phrases will make the recruiter suspect that you are copying the same cover letter for different vacancies.

Try to find information about the company on the Internet and indicate the fact of acquaintance with it already in the cover letter. A good example: “I was especially interested in your projects in telecom: I have been working in b2b sales for 4 years and constantly intersect with such clients.”

It is customary to end your resume with a phrase confirming your readiness to come for an interview: “Thank you for your attention and I will be glad to meet you to answer your questions!”.

Resume check

If you want to show your resume to someone else, choose a person with experience as a recruiter - otherwise you are guaranteed to get a bunch of unnecessary advice. If you are considering several different positions - for example, "sales manager" and "head of sales" - make two different resumes.

Remember: every profession has its own characteristics. If lawyers are expected to have a perfect resume without a single mistake, then, for example, it is more important for accountants to indicate specific accounts and versions of 1C with which they worked. The differences between the "subcultures" of different professions do not allow us to make the only correct instruction for everyone. We have collected only general tips that apply to all job seekers.

Good luck in your job search!

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