CVs that sell us

Friends, today we will raise the topic not from the world of numbers, bugs and codes, but very important for each of us. No matter how simple this question may seem at first glance, it is in this area that many make “harmful” mistakes.

So, we suggest you look at the subject of creating a resume selling through the eyes of a personnel service that assesses you at the first stage of selection remotely and needs some kind of information to help you draw correct conclusions about you as a specialist. Our director of administrative and personnel matters, Oksana Tkacheva, gives recommendations on how to create a resume, to which recruiters will turn their attention first. So, we pass the word to the author.

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More often, less often, for the first time, at least once in our life, we are participants in the labor market, a market that is specific, but still obeys all the laws of sale. Awareness of this fact simplifies both the hiring of specialists and the search for work.

Why do I think the labor market is specific?

In this market there are two sales and one purchase.

1. The company sells itself to potential candidates through advertising, marketing materials, spends a lot of effort on the formation of the HR-brand.
An important role in recruiting employees is played by HR managers, secretaries, vacancy experts with whom the candidate interacts, because he communicates with them about the company as a whole: goodwill, level of speech, compliance with the rules of business writing, knowledge of the vacancy and business of the company.

2. The candidate sells his knowledge, experience, skills and abilities that he can offer to the market. To be in demand in the labor market, you need to constantly take care of your level of knowledge, work on competencies, never cease to grow personally and professionally.

3. The company assesses the level of proposed knowledge of the applicant and a number of other criteria, and then decides whether the candidate is ready and how much is ready to pay, i.e. "Buys".

The employer needs personnel who are able to solve the assigned tasks, so he must pay attention not only to product marketing, but also marketing to HR.

In this market, there is one common problem that prevents successful "deals" - the level of resume applicants. In most cases, people cannot make a resume informative enough and attractive enough for it to pass through the recruiter's filter and be put on the table to an expert or customer of a vacancy in a company. And this concerns not only beginner market participants - even experienced specialists and managers often do not know how to profitably present themselves to a potential employer.

I'll tell you about the most frequent mistakes that occur during the preparation of a resume and make it difficult to find a job.

Inappropriate photo

If you do not have a portrait photo, it is better not to post a photo at all.

What exactly should not be: full-length photo in nature or on the street; photos while sitting, lying down or standing on the desktop (yes, there are a lot of them); cropped group photos in the style of "I and my friend's brush"; passport photos, holiday photos, avatars (photos of animals or something more creative), selfies, vulgar photos. All this can be fun, but not in the quality of correct positioning, especially in leadership positions.

Creative email address

Such “original” addresses like darth.vader @, klubnichka77 @, hello.kitty @, bad.boy @, blackshaman @ and so on are good for informal communication with friends, but when you specify something similar as a contact to the resume and while looking for a job not as a role-playing partner, it looks weird and inappropriate. Such addresses as the first name, last name @, phone number @, etc., or the bank card number (joke) will look more adequate.

Social Network Accounts

If you doubt whether the content of your pages will not cast a shadow on your image as a candidate, then you should not give links to social networks. Also remember that a potential employer can independently study your profile, so be careful in choosing the content or use the appropriate visibility settings.

Long list of desired posts

Do not specify several positions in one resume, this is puzzling for both the recruiter and the customer for vacancies within the company. Choose one thing and build your positioning in the resume in accordance with the position you want to take. It is better to have several resumes for different positions than to “sculpt” everything into one.

One more important point: those who strive for managers should remember that the ratio of managerial positions open in the market to vacancies for specialist positions is, on average, one to several dozen. It is always more difficult for a manager to find a job. In addition, a competent and experienced specialist who constantly develops his knowledge is much more valuable for a company than a manager. Finally, if you are a director, then stepping down a notch will be almost unreal. Rarely there is a situation when the manager takes to himself the subordination of another former leader. Therefore, also consider this when specifying the position you are applying for.

Non-informative description of knowledge, skills and experience

The main mistake is that people are often embarrassed to write about their achievements, although this is the most important part of a resume. But you don’t need to go to the other extreme: if you are writing about successes, then they should be yours. It is naive to think that recruiters do not recognize deception. Attributing other's achievements to yourself will not exactly help you in your job search.

Description of tasks in continuous text greatly interferes with the perception of content by a recruiter. It is better to present them in the form of labeled text, each function should be described succinctly and briefly, preferably in the form of phrases of 5-7 words.

A very important description of the technologies that you own, this is especially true for technical specialties. Often, I hear the opinion: “Why write, because it’s understandable”! I explain: yes, this is understandable to the customer of the vacancy, to experts on the vacancy, but in most companies, recruiters conduct the initial selection of candidates for the vacancy. These are, first of all, experts in the field of personnel management, and not in your professional field, and the primary search is carried out by keywords. Everything is simple: the technology was pointed out - they were selected, they were not indicated - they were not.

Typos are normal and natural, but it is not normal not to check spelling before sending a resume. When you write yourself, the eye is often "washed out." I recommend always asking someone to review the text of your resume or download it to a file and run the check in a text editor. Such opportunities are provided by any job search site.

Misconception about work experience

If during work in one company you have changed your position, then indicate the latter, and leave all previous positions for the field with functionality.

For example:

System analyst (from 07.2013 to the present); Testing Engineer (from 11.2011 to 06.2013)
Key features as a System Analyst: - ...
The main functions as a testing engineer were (a): - ...

Otherwise, if you have registered each new position in the same organization as a new place of work, then during the initial brief review, the recruiter may get the impression that you have not worked for a long time anywhere. With a huge number of vacancies, the HR-manager can simply not penetrate into the structure in detail and reject your resume due to “ragged” length of service, while your task is that CVs should be studied in detail.

The same is true for the company name. You do not need to rewrite the work book and indicate all legal entities where you were transferred during the entire period of work in one brand. Specify only the commercial name and the dates of commencement and completion of cooperation with this company.

This aspect is very important, because Often the legal names of the organization are not related to the brand name and will not create a proper impression of you, but only the appearance of the aforementioned “ragged” length of service.

Portfolio issues

If your post implies a portfolio or examples of work, then it is better to post them on a separate web resource and specify as a link rather than post it in the CV itself. This is due to the fact that often attached to the resume portfolio can not be broadcast to the customer job in the proper quality.

Separate advice - graduates with no work experience. Very important indicators when evaluating specialists without experience are:

• participation in conferences and olympiads, as well as simply in the public life of a university or school - in circles, KVN team, the program “Debates”, etc .;
• any letters - school, university and others;
• main academic disciplines in the specialty;
• topics of theses and dissertations;
• knowledge of technology.

I wish you success in your search for interesting work! By the way, we now have some hot vacancies. :)

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