01 Design a Resume that Attracts Interviewers #
Hello, I am your interview course teacher, Yang Yukun. Welcome to lesson 01 “Designing a Resume that Attracts Interviewers”.
1. The Appearance of the Resume #
If you are new to the job market, are you trying to attract the attention of interviewers through flashy resume templates? For example, using colorful resume templates found on websites.
In fact, this is futile. Colorful resume templates can indeed create a fresh feeling. However, such templates can easily disrupt the thinking of interviewers, making it difficult for them to notice the core content of the resume. Moreover, it is difficult to expect every interviewer to have the same aesthetic taste as you. If you choose a template that an interviewer finds outdated, you may miss out on a great opportunity.
Therefore, a simple and clean resume template with a solid background may be the best choice. Interviewers are more likely to focus on the contents of the resume, allowing them to better judge whether your experience matches the job requirements. For example, here are screenshots of a few flashy resume templates:
As you can see from the three resume templates above, they have two obvious problems:
- The background is too elaborate, which easily distracts recruiters.
- Many useless information is presented, and the key points are not prominent.
Here is a relatively clear resume template for reference:
This resume template has the following advantages:
- The layout of the resume is clear.
- The paragraphs of text are clear and concise.
- The key points are prominent.
2. Structure and Logic of the Resume #
When designing a resume, you can divide it into several sections: personal information, education, work experience, project experience, self-evaluation, and additional information.
(1) Personal Information Many friends like to fully display themselves when they conceive their personal information, such as height, weight, gender, ethnicity, marital status, political affiliation, home address, and native place, all of which are written on their resumes.
But have you ever thought about whether these pieces of information are what the interviewer needs? Of course, for certain positions, it may be necessary to provide information such as height, weight, native place, ethnicity, or political affiliation. However, in the current situation where Internet companies occupy a large job market, there aren’t many Internet companies that care about these superficial information. Interviewers often care more about whether the name is written completely, and whether the phone number and email address are filled in correctly. Only when these information are complete can the interviewer contact you quickly. Secondly, interviewers will also pay attention to whether your job intentions match the position you are applying for, as well as whether your expected salary is within the range of the position.
The resume in the above image is too cumbersome, and many personal information listed are not necessary for HR. It is also difficult to quickly find personal contact information and email information, which can cause great trouble for recruiters. By simply highlighting your key information, it will not only make it easier for recruiters to obtain, but also make them think you are a candidate with clear logic.
In the education section, it is recommended that job seekers only need to show their formally accredited learning experiences, such as undergraduates, postgraduates, or doctoral students. Many people would write their experiences in high school or even middle school, perhaps their high school is very famous in their hometown, but it is difficult for companies to judge and verify. Because the School Enrollment and Academic Degree Online Verification System only includes universities, it is only necessary to fill in the education experience after high school graduation.
When filling in the school experience, only highlight the period of study (admission time - graduation time), school name, major, and educational background (regular or non-regular). Companies can easily determine what you have studied through the major and school, and do not need you to provide too much explanation. It is often seen that some novice workers in the workplace will write long introductions about their majors and subjects studied under their school and major information, which is often fruitless.
Lastly, some people also share all the certificates they have obtained and activities they have participated in during their school time. I believe many interviewers will spend less than 5 seconds on this section, so even if you show how well you have studied, it will not attract much attention. It is better to keep a neat layout here and pick some important certificates or activities related to your strengths and put them in the miscellaneous information at the end of the resume, which will also give the resume extra points. If you feel it is a bit monotonous, you can include some truly valuable awards.
Work experience is often a part that companies care about the most, and it is also the part where recruiters spend the most time. When writing work experience, you must clearly indicate the following: company name, work period (start time - end time), job title, job responsibilities, and achievements.
a. Company name Currently, many Internet companies have different external names than their registered names. Therefore, it is recommended to also indicate the external name of the company when writing the registered name of the company. This will also help the interviewer determine the industry and field of the previous company you worked for, as the registered names of many Internet companies are not well known.
b. Job title After the company name, it is recommended to indicate the job title in the company. The job title can be written as the hierarchy of the position + specific responsibilities, such as Recruitment Coordinator, Recruitment Supervisor, Recruitment Manager, Recruitment Director. Interviewers often judge your abilities based on whether the content you were responsible for matches the level of the position. Currently, most companies have internal job levels, so you can indicate your current job level after the job title to facilitate clear judgment by the interviewer.
c. Work period It is recommended to be specific about the year and month, such as 2016.07 ~ 2019.03, so that interviewers can have a clear understanding of your work experience.
Tip: When writing the duration of work, you must pay attention to whether there is a coherent transition between each period. If there is no coherence and there is a long gap in between, it is best to add an explanation of why there is such a long blank period and what you were doing during that time. If this kind of gap appears in several consecutive experiences, you need to carefully consider whether you want to change your existing work habits.
If there are many experiences, it is recommended to prioritize the most recent experience and write in reverse order. Most companies are accustomed to understanding a candidate’s work experience starting from the most recent job.
d. Job Responsibilities
Next, let’s talk about the most important part of the resume, which is the description of job responsibilities.
I know that many people tend to refer to the job descriptions of similar positions or even directly copy and paste the job descriptions of large companies into their own resumes to indicate that they have worked in similar roles.
But have you carefully read these job descriptions? Often, when companies publish job descriptions, they hope to find candidates who meet the most comprehensive requirements. However, candidates rarely possess all the required skills. If you copy and paste without carefully tailoring the descriptions, your resume may raise doubts about its authenticity. Therefore, the best practice is to carefully consider your previous job responsibilities before designing your resume, and then summarize and describe these responsibilities in order of importance.
Of course, some people may say: What if I am not good at writing? It’s okay. If you already have a clear understanding of your daily work, you can also refer to the job descriptions in recruitment postings.
Suppose you are a sales assistant, and your daily work includes:
A. Visiting customers and communicating sales product information with them B. Collecting customer data C. Daily document organization and contract filing
For HR, the content of A and B is more important, so they should be highlighted in the first two points to demonstrate the significance of your daily work. Make sure to use paragraphs to separate each job responsibility. After describing one job responsibility, start a new paragraph to describe the next one.
If you have multiple work experiences that are similar in nature, it is best to show a progressive relationship between them, with each paragraph highlighting a different key aspect of your work.
Now let’s take a look at a screenshot of a resume. Can you identify the problems?
There are several issues with this resume:
- The work duration is in reverse order, contrary to the usual reading habit of HR professionals.
- There is a 1-year gap between the two work experiences, which may raise doubts.
- The job descriptions are too simple and fail to highlight any notable achievements.
e. Achievements
If you have any company-recognized awards or outstanding performance during your work, you can add a section after the job descriptions titled “Achievements” to showcase them. However, this section should not be too lengthy. Select 1 to 3 significant awards or performance achievements and summarize them by importance, such as “Company’s Outstanding Employee of the Year” or “Achieved an A performance rating last quarter”.
(4) Project Experience
Project experience is similar to job descriptions in terms of presentation. However, you don’t need to include every project you’ve worked on in the resume. Only select the projects where you played a major role or were responsible for, and add them to the resume.
The presentation of project experience should include the project name, duration, position held within the project, responsibilities, and achievements. If you provide additional descriptions of the projects, it will give your resume extra points and make it more impressive to the interviewer.
(5) Self-Evaluation
Don’t underestimate the self-evaluation section. This is a summary of the entire resume, and most interviewers are eager to understand the candidate’s overall situation through it.
Therefore, it is recommended to evaluate yourself from two aspects:
- First, summarize your past work or study experiences.
- Then demonstrate your personality and work attitude.
For example, the “Personal Strengths” section in the image above has a clear and concise structure.
The self-evaluation section above is a reference template: it not only highlights the candidate’s strengths but also clearly demonstrates their proactivity and learning ability, leaving a positive impression on the recruiting team.
(6) Additional Information
If you can’t think of anything specific, you can skip this section. However, if you have any valuable awards or relevant training, you can showcase them here. For example, publications in certain columns, CPA certification, or legal examination certificates, etc.