How to Write a Perfect CV?
Complete step-by-step guide
Introduction
On average, a Recruiter’s glance at a candidate’s resume lasts only 6 seconds, which means that’s exactly how long we have to catch their attention with our application. How to accomplish this?
Writing a good resume in an era when so many instructional materials and other guides are available seems like a simple matter. However, it’s no secret that sometimes the more materials, the more difficult it is to verify the information presented, let alone determine (especially when creating something from scratch) how best to complete the task. In this article, we would like to focus on creating a path for building a CV that is both correct and desirable to Recruiters, as thanks to the materials of one of our Senior TA Specialists, we had the opportunity to review the notes she created, from which we learned a lot of knowledge ourselves. Get to it!
Personal data
The issue of personal data may seem obvious, yet still a lot of people make mistakes at this level.
This section should mainly include:
1. first and last name
2. location
There is no need to enter here the exact address of residence or registered address. Such information is not needed for anything by Recruiters, and only takes up valuable space in the personal data section. If you want to work 100% remotely or if you are open to relocation — mark it.
3. photo
Remember that putting it on your resume is optional. However, if you already decide to include it, you must follow certain rules. Also keep in mind that with some positions a photo in the resume can play an important role, while in some it is completely unnecessary. An employer looking for a candidate for a position that is very responsible, technical and not related to presenting yourself in the media, for example, will not pay attention to the presence of a photo, as his/her goal will be to learn first of all about your experience. In the case of programming and other engineering positions, appearance is irrelevant, so in practice, the decision whether to attach a photo for IT Recruiters is up to the person interested in contacting the company itself. It is also an important point to note that if we do not have a suitable photo at our disposal, it will be better to refrain from attaching it, as we can only damage ourselves. So, photos referring to our private life, i.e. photos from vacations or events, are out of the question — the style does not have to be very elegant, but it must not exceed the limits of a certain formality.
The main visual guidelines for photos attached to a resume:
- quality
The photo must be static and clear. Keep an eye on it to make sure it is not overexposed, darkened or too pixelated, because then it will completely lose its rationale for posting.
- execution
A resume is not a document in which we should include a selfie. It is worth ensuring that the photo is taken by someone in the form of a portrait. You should not insert photos showing the entire figure.
- background
It should be as neutral as possible, not distracting from the portrait itself — choose white or blue tones. Definitely reject photos taken outdoors.
- clothing and hairstyle
Go for formal clothing in muted colors and classic hairstyles. Photos in colorful dresses or mottled sweatshirts tend to fall out.
- facial expression
Don’t forget to smile gently (so as not to frighten a potential employer). Photos from a passport or ID cards are not suitable for a CV, as they are too serious and give the impression that you do not want to contact anyone at all.
4. phone number
5. e-mail address
The e-mail address you provide in your resume must be professional. Remember that addresses that completely do not relate to your name are not suitable for recruitment. The best choice will be name.surname@domain.com.
6. link to GitHub
If you’re applying for a technical position, it’s a good idea to throw in a link to GitHub so that Recruiters can review your projects. When doing so, it’s worth remembering to only include projects that you actually want to show off and are a reflection of your skills.
7. link to LinkedIn
Providing your profile is helpful, as Recruiters often want to fill in information about you that, for example, you didn’t include in your resume.
In the personal information section, DO NOT ever include:
- place of birth
- maiden name
- marital status
- nationality
Work experience
Experience should be written chronologically starting with the current one, as this form is the most legible for the employer and gives a glimpse of what specifically you have been doing/doing recently. In the dates of the beginning and end of the stages of your career, you should give the month and the year. Entering the year alone is too vague and does not allow you to evaluate your experience over the months. Remember to bullet point your responsibilities — this is a very significant part of building your work experience section, as it gives the Hiring Manager, along with the Recruiter, an opportunity to take a closer look at your skillset (especially good when recruiting in the IT branch).
Skills
This section plays the most important role in the resume review process, so you need to take specific care of it. It’s a good idea to divide it into categories, such as technologies, tools, etc. Remember that in this case you should choose only those technologies that you realistically know and have used in practice. Otherwise, in the process of verifying your skills, any shortcomings in your knowledge of technologies or tools will come to light. It’s also not worth entering too many technologies — this is not a competition for quantity. Focus on what is most relevant to you and you want to develop further in it. Remember, too, that an excessive number of entered skills leads to a more thorough verification of skills — the Recruiter has a base to check if you actually know the chosen technologies to at least a junior level.
Projects
If you are involved in additional projects in your spare time, it is definitely worth showing them off. A resume is a document that should include the most important projects you’ve been involved in, as well as information about exactly what your role was in working on them, and what technologies and tools you were using at the time. Adding your individual projects to your CV, on the other hand, has several advantages, especially if you are a beginner in the IT industry. Proving that you already have some practical experience despite running for Junior gives a positive signal to a potential employer, but it also shows that your involvement is not just a forced action, but also a hobby activity. So — if you develop Open Source Software, have a programming blog, participated in a Hackathon or had a speech at a conference — definitely brag about it!
Foreign languages
We determine the level of knowledge of a foreign language according to the scale: A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2. Numerical scales like 3/5 are not very precise. In this section, only add languages that you know at least at a communicative level. There is no point in entering those in which we are not able to communicate and will not be useful in our daily work.
Education
Here we choose the last university you graduated from. There is no need to write about a general high school when we have a university degree. It is worth adding a university, even if it is not a technical field, but, for example, humanities.
When entering, we specify:
- the name of the university
- major
- start and end date
- only the schools we graduated from
Training/courses/certificates
If you can boast of having participated in some training or getting a certificate from a course, describe how long the training lasted, what skills it provided and what technologies you learned. As for courses or certifications, list only those that are related to the industry you are applying to.
Information clause
After RODO, the resume clause has changed its wording. Since 2018, when the Data Protection Law came into effect, the old version of the resume clause is no longer valid.
The data protection clause is in the resume so that the Recruiter can legally process all the data of the job candidate. You provide various personal data in your resume — according to the new regulations, all this information can be processed by recruiters only with the candidate’s consent, so the consent to process personal data in the resume is extremely important and you should not forget to add it.
If a candidate does not manage to qualify for a selected position, but would still like to participate in future recruitments with this employer, it is enough to add a clause to the RODO rule that reads as follows: “Agrees to the processing of personal data by (company name) also for future recruitment.” Such a provision will allow the employer to leave the CV of such a candidate and be able to use it in other recruitment processes. This is a practical solution for both parties.
Useful tips to make your resume look its best
The beginning of the resume is the most important. The first part, where the document carries information about our career path, must contain all the most valuable information in a nutshell. Your CV must be easy to understand and memorable.
Resumes should be made up of small packets of information — those that at first glance encourage the applicant to read and ask for details. Avoid too much text, as this significantly discourages reading the whole thing.
Don’t forget to define your career goal and subordinate the content of your resume to it. Your career goal is a key element for the employer to assess what you could do and what profits both parties will get from it.
It’s a good idea to target your resume to the job advertisement — write about things that are at least minimally relevant to the position you are applying for. Modifying your CV with certain key elements can have a significant impact on the subsequent recruitment process and interest in your person. If the document is tailored to a specific ad, you will attract the attention of Recruiters and they will appreciate your involvement in the entire process — your resume will then stand out by about 90% from resumes sent in bulk to many companies.
Remember that it’s a good idea to use professional resume creators if you don’t quite know how to get down to the visual parts of the document. The layout of the content and the arrangement of all sections are very important, as they are largely responsible for the first impression about the candidate. A proper layout also allows you to find the content needed by Recruiters more quickly.
Resume summary
Professional summaries are useful especially for those who are just starting their careers or want to change careers. However, in order to keep such a summary from being too long, you should take care to provide a description in one or two sentences — explaining why you are looking for a job exactly in such an industry and what has been done so far to achieve your goal.
Use concise, short sentences that will focus attention on your most important skills, strengths and achievements, and make sure that these are also important to the employer.
How do you search for job opportunities?
1. Online portals
Look for such sites where the ads are formalized postings — the criteria and requirements are strictly defined: must have, nice to have, financial spread, benefits. Good examples are sites such as: https://bulldogjob.pl/, https://justjoin.it/, https://nofluffjobs.com/ or https://4programmers.net/Praca (a forum for programmers).
2. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is an important professional social media platform. It provides a kind of business card, so it is valid that the profile is as complete as possible.
Relevant elements:
- Identity and photo
As statistics show, the chances of a profile being displayed with a photo increase by up to 14 times!
- Headline
Allows you to specify what you do for a living, and at the same time it is the first visible information about you, e.g. Front-end Developer.
- Career summary
The second most valid thing for a Recruiter right after the headline. It encourages a thorough reading of the profile. It is also worth including keywords that will help position the profile.
- Experience
Each item in experience consists of a position, employer, time worked and an optional field with a description. It’s a good idea to include information about at least two previous places of employment, as this affects position in search results.
- Portfolio
It can be in the form of a document, a presentation, your own website or other online versions on dedicated services, platforms or social networks.
- Skills
It is a good idea to make sure that your own skills are validated by colleagues, employers and friends.
- Personal recommendations
- Activity in groups
It is impossible to build an expert image without participating in discussions held on industry groups. High activity and substantive comments will quickly make our profile go up in search results.
3. Groups on Facebook and other social networks
4. Posts on LinkedIn
Being active on your account shows your commitment to building your professional image and allows you to showcase your achievements in real time.
Summary
In this article we have tried to collect all the necessary data you need to create the perfect CV. Although a universal recipe does not exist (after all, it would be boring if everyone had the same resume…), however, all the points dissected above provide the foundation for your experience document building. There are still a lot of people who disregard the rules of resume creation, or even think they can predict a Recruiter’s reaction to the document they send. In our case, the creation of this post was sparked by a conversation with one of our Recruiters, who made us realize that still many of the resumes we send out do not meet many of the criteria. For this reason, the article you are reading was created to standardize certain rules and allow the reader to understand what is being paid attention to realistically — looking through the prism of the Recruiter.
Words by Kinga Kuśnierz, Content Writer at Altimetrik Poland
Big thanks to Kamila Rosińska, Senior TA Specialist at Altimetrik Poland — for providing me such a great materials to create this article.
