First of all, I will explain how a resume for foreign companies is fundamentally different from a resume for Russian ones. I will also give you an understanding of how to build the structure of a good resume for a foreign employer.
An English-language resume does not require an overly complex language, and, most likely, if you are ready to start working for a foreign company, your English is already enough for writing a resume. Nevertheless, along the way I will tell you about some specific key English wording and life hacks for filling out a resume.
1. Specificity of the English-language resume
In contrast to the Russian resume, which looks more like a CV (Curriculum vitae - a description of the professional path for two or three pages in chronological order) - a resume for American and European companies is a one-page document drawn up in a clear structure. This conciseness may seem surprising, but one page is the generally accepted standard overseas resume. Even if you have a lot of experience, it is worth keeping in your resume mentioning only the last three or five jobs, your position and key achievements. As a rule, the employer is interested in up-to-date experience. If he needs to know more about you, he can request an extended version of the resume.
In some cases, the employer asks to send a Technical CV - two or three pages with a complete list of courses taken, work experience and skills. But this document is usually requested in addition to a resume, and most often a Technical CV is required for a scientific career.
So, a working resume for a foreign company should be short, capacious, its sections should be lined up according to the generally accepted logical and simple structure, and also described in a single style - all this increases the readability of the resume and simplifies navigation through it. It is important that at one glance at the resume sheet, the employer can quickly find key information about the candidate.
2. Order of sections
Contacts always go first. But the sections "Education", "Experience" and "Personal Projects" can be swapped depending on what is more important and what looks better. If you are looking for a job, start with work experience and personal projects. Have you just finished your studies and have little work experience? It doesn't matter: in this case, it is better to put information about education first, and then a section with personal projects. If you are sending your resume to receive a grant for training, put the section "Education" at the beginning.
But sections with any personal information - gender, race, age, marital status, sexual orientation, religion, political affiliation - are unnecessary and even undesirable in a resume by current Western standards.
Overseas employers, such as the United States, it is forbidden to make hiring decisions based on this information in order to avoid any discrimination. For the same reason, foreign employers prefer a resume without a photo: it makes it easier for them to adhere to the legislation on equal employment opportunities. Also, do not include information about the desired salary. Sometimes potential employers can ask for your expectations or salary history themselves, but if this requirement is not specified in the ad, do not mention it.
There are many resources online for resume templates. Examples that clearly show how to build convenient navigation through sections on one page, as well as resume constructors, can be viewed here , here and here...
3. Keywords
Many companies use a candidate management system (Applicant Tracking Systems, ATS) and other tools to facilitate the hiring process. These programs help you collect, filter, and organize your resume flow, schedule interviews, and automatically send meeting or rejection emails. ATS also scans submitted resumes for keywords . And if the resume does not contain important keywords for the employer, it may be rejected by the program without even reaching the recruiter.
The keywords are often the skills listed in the job description. For example, in this mobile developer position, the minimum skills and keywords are "Java, C ++, Python, Web Services (RESTful, SOAP), SQL".
It is worth making sure that your resume has all the correct keywords. How to mention them so that it does not look like copy-paste, I will tell you in the following paragraphs.
4. Contacts
Prepare to be searched for on social networks, and either do not post potentially compromising posts and photos, or configure the privacy of posts so that they are available only to friends.
Create professional accounts on LinkedIn or Github and include links to them in the title of your resume (like in the example in the picture below). You can also share a link to your personal website, where there are teasers of your personal IT projects. Social media accounts and a personal website are a way to extend your resume beyond one page if potential employers want to know more about you.
5. Experience
In reverse order, indicate past work experience (two or three places are enough): the name of the company, the position held, the dates of work and key achievements (main achievements), which are quantified, for example, as a percentage of growth in traffic, revenue, or in what- something else countable.
Indicating major accomplishments is often overlooked and confined to a simple listing of day-to-day responsibilities. But this is a mistake. Just feel the difference between “Helped with website” and “Consulted in redesign of the company's website, resulting in a 25% increase in traffic”("Consulted on a redesign of the company's website, resulting in a 25% increase in traffic"). The first sounds like “Basically, I drank coffee and was code,” and the second describes how the employee achieved results that exceeded expectations. Have you saved the company money? Indicate how much. Have you helped streamline the process? Indicate as a percentage how much more efficient it has become or how much less time it takes now.
Recruitment specialist Laszlo Bock recommends using the following formula for this:
"Accomplished [X] as measured by [Y] by doing [Z]"For example:
At the end, add an item leveraged knowledge ( knowledge used) and in it write down which programming languages or other technologies you used in the project to achieve key achievements. These are the keywords that at this point will look as appropriate as possible.
If you worked remotely, mark it on your resume. Today more and more companies are looking for telecommuters.
6. Personal projects
A personal project can be anything: a Java program or a mobile application. This part of the resume shows your involvement in modern technology, independence, and a willingness to go beyond standard work assignments and demonstrate creativity. At the same time, of course, employers understand that by doing personal projects, you inevitably acquire new skills.
Gail Luckman-McDowell is a programmer with Google, Apple and Microsoft and author of The Programmer's Career. How to get a job in a leading IT company " advises:
— iPhone, -, ! , . IT- . , – « » «».
7. Skills
List all the skills relevant to the desired position - this is another opportunity to appropriately integrate keywords into the resume: the more skills match the keywords in the job description, the higher your chances of successfully passing the ATS scan. But you should not write everything in a row, just to get further - later you will be required to demonstrate all these skills on specific work tasks.
There is a way to give yourself some freedom - you can specify the level of proficiency. For example, tagged Working Knowledge, list the programming languages that you are very familiar with and are ready to start working with right now. A marked with Basic Knowledge- languages that you are still mastering, but if necessary, you can quickly pump.
There are other generally accepted options for writing gradations: Proficient / Familiar (high level of knowledge / basic level); Advanced / Intermediate / Basic (advanced knowledge / intermediate / basic).
8. Education
The main rule is to mention only specialized educational experience. A degree in African studies or medieval history is impressive, but hardly useful for an IT firm. Is that in exceptional cases.
As well as work experience, training and courses in the resume are listed in the reverse order - starting with the latter. Indicate the name of the university or courses, degree received (bachelor / master / PhD) if available. Briefly describe the disciplines studied - here again you can use keywords. Mention your GPA if it is above 3.0 GPA ( how to calculate the Grade Point Average ).
Additional courses taken are a good indicator for the employer: he says that you are investing effort, time and money in training, and also strive to know about the latest professional trends and changes.
9. The Myth of the Universal Resume
It's impossible to write a resume that fits any vacancy. Therefore, tailor your resume to each position you are applying for. The best strategy is to create a master resume for personal use that lists all of your skills, experience, and accomplishments. It can span multiple pages. When the time comes to submit your application, you will simply shorten it by removing all irrelevant information.
For clarity, I collected all the recommendations in a whole resume-example.
