The most attractive vacancies receive several hundred, and sometimes even several thousand responses. Now, when competition for jobs has increased and interviews are conducted remotely, the ability to stand out in the crowd has become even more important.
How to properly present yourself and your experience to an employer? What to do if you do not yet have relevant work experience? We at the D’SKUL digital school talked to Ekaterina Gavrilova, founder of Digital HR . search for specialists in IT and Digital. Ekaterina revealed the secrets of the perfect resume and shared job search tips that are relevant not only during quarantine.
How to write a good resume
To help the HR manager distinguish your resume dataset from the rest, we recommend that you adhere to the following basic principles:
- An ideal resume takes up no more than 2-3 pages. This volume is enough to present your candidacy. Appreciate the employer’s time, and you will be reciprocated.
- When describing your work experience, use verbal nouns such as “created,” “distributed,” and past tense verbs such as “developed,” “implemented,” “analyzed.”
- Indicate not only your job responsibilities, but also what results you have achieved during your work. Instead of intermediate tasks, indicate the final goal of your responsibilities.
- When describing personal qualities, do not use the words “sociable”, “responsible”, “stress-resistant”. You will not believe it, but even in 2020, people make such mistakes. We encountered this ourselves when we were looking for employees for the team. What should we write in the “Information about yourself” field then? As a rule, companies indicate the personal qualities that they would like to see in a candidate for the applied for position. Focusing on them, describe how they manifest themselves in you. For example: when joining a new team, you easily establish contact with new colleagues, because you have many hobbies and you can maintain a conversation with anyone. On the first Friday, you offer to watch a movie/play board games. In this way, you not only demonstrate your sociability, but also introduce the recruiter to your character
- Over the course of a year, you may accumulate a lot of completed courses and certificates. There is no need to list each of them – select only those that are relevant to the desired position.
- A photo is an important point, although not mandatory. You did not attach a photo in a swimsuit on the beach or a group photo to your resume – this already characterizes you as an adequate person. A good photo does not necessarily have to be taken in a studio. In the photo, you just need to be visible, you make them want to invite you to a meeting, and for this, just a friendly smile is enough.
A social network profile is the same resume that will allow you to become a more visible candidate. If your goal is foreign and international companies, create a profile on LinkedIn. For Russia, Facebook is more relevant. Here you will find many job search groups, for example, Trud.com , SELL YOUR HEAD ,Headhunters , PR and Marketing Jobs . Another lifehack relationships with as friends. When the time comes, the team will need a new employee, the recruiter or the company founder will first write about it on social networks.
Description of work experience
If you have been working for the company for less than a year, the recruiter may wonder why you change employers so often. In this case, it is ideal to immediately state the reason for leaving your previous job.
Another case is if you have been working for the company for more than 5-6 years. Your job positions have grown, starting from junior. Describe your experience at different levels: intern, specialist, manager. For the recruiter, this is a sign that the company valued you and promoted you from year to year.
Recommendations for candidates without experience
Telephone interview
If the employer likes your resume, you will be contacted soon. The first phone call will provide an opportunity to discuss the vacancy in detail.
What questions can be asked over the phone:
- The location of the office – there is nothing wrong with that, we spend a lot of time on the road
- Work schedule, possibility to work remotely
- Income level
Choose a quiet place for the conversation. You will waste your time and the employer’s time if there is extraneous noise or wind. Answer questions clearly, without fluff.
Meeting in the office or interview via video link
When it comes to the meeting, think about multiculturalism is a key characteristic your appearance. Dress code may be a mandatory part of the corporate culture. However, for representatives of the IT and digital spheres, a suit is not always appropriate. What to do? Dress code is easy to determine by the company’s social networks. Having seen corporate photos, you can easily figure out what to wear to the meeting. As a rule, it is enough to come in clean, neat clothes.
At the interview, you will be asked questions about professional skills and previous work experience. You may be asked to solve some cases. This is also an opportunity for you to learn more about the company: get information about the future workplace, learn about career growth. Curiosity is a positive quality for a job seeker, do not hesitate to ask. Surprise will be caused by the opposite – the absence of questions about the future job.
Do not interrupt the interviewer, but be prepared for the fact that they will interrupt you. This is done in order to see how quickly you are ready to switch from one question to another.
