Learn how to write a resume that will impress a recruiter with expert tips and advice. Customize your resume, highlight achievements, and use keywords for success.
We talked to career consultants Alexandra Martynova and Anna Laricheva about how to write a resume correctly, show your professional skills from the best side and find your dream job.
How to format your resume to get noticed
Recruitment managers often receive hundreds of responses. Specialized programs are used to process resumes. The advantage of standard resumes is that they are easily integrated into these programs and are displayed correctly in them. A document created in a different form may not be recognized, and then the HR manager will not see it.
A non-standard format — a bright background, unusual layout and impressive fonts — can be used if you are going to send your resume to the employer in person, by email or via messenger. This is especially relevant for positions in creative professions.
Remember that a resume should be readable first and foremost, and a variety of colors and fonts can hinder this. If you are not a designer, it is better not to experiment with the design, but to use ready-made templates.
Resume templates
Antras is an online resume builder that helps you create a resume using a template. Simple interface and one concise universal template. You can download a ready-made PDF file for 119 rubles.
Icanchoose is a site where you are asked to fill out a table and then download the resume you have created. There are several design options to choose from. You can download two response options for free.
Cvmaker is a website-constructor where you can create a resume yourself or order it from professionals. Access to the resource costs 199 rubles for 7 days.
Many positions require a portfolio in addition to a resume. Especially for creative professionals: photographers, sculptors, craftsmen, designers, etc. Marketing managers can enhance their resume and show the events they organized and the materials they developed. Top managers can demonstrate proof of their results.
Examples of your work can be uploaded to the cloud. Or you can create a personal business card website. A link to a high-quality and well-designed portfolio will always be a plus.
🖥 Portfolio Website Builders
Tilda is a website builder. You can create one website for free from ready-made blocks. The paid plan has more functions and features.
Flexbe is a website builder with an intuitive interface. The free trial period is 14 days. Then you will have to pay from $15 per month.
Wix is a designer with ready-made templates and a flexible customization system. It costs from 90 rubles per month, including the purchase of a domain.
What information to include in your resume
A resume is a formal document that is usually written according to a fixed plan. A recruiting manager can quickly look through it and quickly find out basic information about a candidate. It will be more convenient for a recruiter if the applicant adheres to the format, writes briefly, succinctly, clearly and to the point. Ideally, a resume should fit on one or two pages.
Personal data
Indicate your first and last name, desired position, age, city of residence and contact information. Try not to write too much. For example, it is not necessary to indicate your exact home address. Marital status and the presence of children can be noted only if this will be an advantage for the position in question. For example, you are responding to a vacancy for a teacher in a children’s club.
Attaching a photo to your resume is not mandatory, but is advisable. It is better to take a good quality portrait on a neutral background without unnecessary details.
I recommend not playing “Guess what salary is comfortable for me” with your employer and immediately indicate your desired income. To find a starting point, try to find out the salary level in the market for your profession. If your wishes and the average salary level coincide, you will most likely receive quite a few offers. If you are applying for a salary above average, there will usually be fewer offers. Beginners usually receive below the market average.
Education
Indicate your higher or secondary specialized education, even if it does not match the profile of the position you are interested in. Write about additional education and advanced training courses only if the knowledge gained is important for the vacancy. For example, if you are a designer, write about completed courses in Photoshop. But it is not necessary to indicate that you also learned to bake cakes and play the ukulele.
experience
List your jobs over the past ten years, starting with your most recent. Briefly describe your responsibilities and major accomplishments.
Please only indicate experience that is relevant to the position. If you have worked part-time in another field in parallel with your main specialty, I recommend not mentioning it. This way there will be no doubt that you want to work in this particular field.
But there are exceptions. For example, if you have worked for a long time outside your specialty, it is better to show this experience to close the gap. A long break in work may raise questions from the employer, because in any position, in addition to professional competencies, social and behavioral skills are developed: the ability to negotiate, work in a team, manage time, and so on. After a break, the applicant will need to catch up on these, too. From this point of view, any work experience is an advantage.
If you worked part-time in different places for a couple of months, indicate this in one line. For example, “from 2019 to 2021 I worked as a sales manager”, and then a list of employers separated by commas.
When talking about your skills, you shouldn’t copy the job description. As a rule, the duties are described there dryly and in too much detail. It’s hard to read such a text. Remember that a recruiter spends literally ten seconds scanning a resume. And you need to place the emphasis in such a way that during this time you interest him and get an invitation to an interview.
Professional skills are best seen in achievements. Try to write in simple language what exactly you did and what results you achieved. For example, “managed a five-person sales department and doubled the store’s overall revenue in five months.”
It is necessary to indicate not only professional skills, but also social and behavioral skills, the so-called soft skills . These include, for example, communication skills, time management skills, self-presentation, and so on.
Don’t write about what all candidates have by default: confident PC skills, the ability to search for information on the Internet, etc. It’s better to choose more specific skills that match your specialty. For example, a marketer can emphasize the ability to work in visual editors.
Tell about your hobbies if they highlight important character traits for the profession. For example, one of my clients is the CEO of a construction company and at the same time the captain of an amateur hockey team. Under his leadership, the team won the Night Hockey League Cup. Such hobbies enhance the impression of the candidate’s personality.
But most people can say that they love traveling and photography, but for the profession, this usually doesn’t matter. Of course, unless you are a professional photographer or travel blogger. In most cases, you don’t need to mention hobbies that are not related to the profession.
What to do if you have no work experience
If you don’t have any relevant experience, you can try to present your existing skills correctly. For example, the ability to manage people, communicate with clients, manage projects, etc. are in demand in many areas. Try to package irrelevant experience in a way that will interest the employer. Tell what you can do and how your skills can be applied in the company where you want to work.
To gain relevant experience, make a list of companies you would be interested in working for. And follow the news about internships with them. You can offer your services to the employer free of charge for a trial period. This could be remote work, part-time work, or work on weekends.
Look for vacancies in companies that are ready to grow specialists from scratch. They usually offer assistant and Junior specialist positions.
Another way to find a job without experience is to put together a portfolio that demonstrates your skills. Until you have a large number of clients, you can include work done for friends and acquaintances – for free or for a small fee. For example, if you want to become a designer, draw samples of business cards for a friend, develop a corporate style for the nearest grocery store, or create a website layout for a student club at a university. Finished work will complement your resume well.
How to Increase Your Chances of Finding a Job
Don’t send the same resume to everyone. Tailor it to the vacancies. To get noticed, the responsibilities in the vacancy and resume should match at least 70%. Pay attention to the first three to five points in the description of responsibilities. They are usually the most important for the employer. Include this information in the resume and only then respond. Of course, provided that you really have these skills.
I recommend including a cover letter with your resume, even if it is not specified in the requirements. The letter shows your motivation and interest in the vacancy. The cover letter should answer two questions: how you can be useful to the company and why the company is interesting to you.
Focus the recruiter’s attention on what is important to you. For example, if you don’t have any professional experience yet, you can highlight your motivation and quality specialized education in your cover letter.
A cover letter doesn’t have to be long. In seven to ten sentences, highlight what makes you stand out from other candidates.