What HR pays attention to

Current employment. The description of the activity at the time of sending the resume says a lot. Why is a person interested in getting a specific position? Why is he looking for a job: was he fired or did he leave on his own? How long has he stayed in a particular place? How relevant is his latest experience to the position?

General experience. It is essential to understand how active the life and professional position of the applicant is. A recruiter will rather give his preference to a novice programmer who has shown himself well in his previous job than to a seasoned specialist, in whose career there have been no changes over the years.

“Keywords” Debra Weeney often uses a search for the initial analysis of his resume. This allows you to quickly determine whether the candidate has the right skills and knowledge. For example, proficient in the Python programming language or specializing in iOS programming.

“Online trail” of the candidate. According to Debra Weeney, she likes this stage of studying the resume more than others. It is always interesting to know about a candidate’s presence on social networks to get acquainted with his work on GitHub, personal accounts, or a website. You can learn a lot about a person by seeing who appreciates his thoughts and observations.

Resume design. Errors, poor formatting, intrusive design – these are all distracting and even annoying. Describe your knowledge, skills, and achievements correctly, and an opinion about your creativity will be formed during interviews and teamwork.

How to make it right

• Describe real projects with landmark achievements. Do not use boilerplate phrases such as “designed the application architecture” or “bug rules”. Write what you are proud of, what you have learned – it arouses interest.
• Don’t neglect “Easter eggs”. Recruiters scan resumes almost every single day. Throw in an elegant joke on yourself. Of course, the seriousness of the presentation of your professional skills is fundamental, but you can always find a place for humor.
• Write about your projects. A recruiter interested in hiring the right specialist will always ask what a person is working on in their free time. Author’s projects inspire, indicate the professionalism and passion of the programmer for their work.
• Use beautiful typography. Reading a well-formed resume is always a pleasure. Besides, the applicant’s attention to detail indicates the seriousness of his intentions and a responsible approach to business.

How to make it wrong

• Exaggerate your accomplishments. Only write the truth.
• Write a resume addressed to the head of the company (CEO, director, president). 99% of these resumes end their lives unopened and are eventually deleted along with spam and other junk. CEOs of large companies do not read resumes.
• Stretch your resume over several pages. Write only to the point and only relevant information. Trust me. It’s not that important that you worked in Mac a few years ago. Bulky resumes are tiring and rarely read to the end.
• List goals and desired salary level at the beginning of the resume. Do you need a job? So, first of all, you should interest the employer, convince him that you should be invited for an interview. Your personal ambitions are not important to them.
• Make mistakes, confuse the present and the past. Stick to your chosen writing style. It is optimal to write from the third person in the past tense.