It doesn't matter who you work or what you do. Sooner or later in life, the very moment comes when you happen to meet the first recruiter in your life (or HR, short for English Human Resource, “HR”). Or rather, first it will be not you yourself who will meet with him, but your resume. And the result depends on how well it corresponds to the moral and aesthetic values of the personnel specialist: they will invite you for an interview or filter you out for scrap at the first “screening” stage. Here you will reasonably remark: “How is it scrapped? I have work experience, skills, knowledge, and everything that is needed for the vacancy, plus a little more on top. How come I won’t be invited to an interview?” And the answer is simple - because they can. Yes. Because they can, and because often the recruiter thinks more about the “great and eternal” than about the tasks that the specialist he hires must solve. Don’t think that all HR are narcissistic egoists. More often than not, they are truly and wholeheartedly passionate about their work and want the best for the company. It’s just that most of them are humanitarians, and what’s important to them is not so much your knowledge and skills, but how you fit into the company. They determine this not only by strange tests at interviews (often “honestly” copied from courses “how to become a psychologist in three days” and Internet tests “find out what kind of psychopath you are”), but also by all sorts of formal “shortcomings” in your resume.
Journey through HR communities
What do they attribute to such shortcomings? How to tweak your resume to make it more attractive in the eyes of HR? With these questions in mind, we set out on a research journey through recruiting sites and HR communities on Linkedin. And, surprisingly, they returned not empty-handed, but with bug reports. Based on them, we have compiled several patches for resumes that will help you “hack” the screening filters of HR specialists.
Patch #0: common file type and reasonable name
So, let's start with the name of the resume and the file types suitable for them. Usually, an average vacancy receives from a couple of dozen to hundreds of resumes. A technical person will collect a small database from them (at the same time there will be a supply of potential candidates for a new search for an employee). And the recruiter... the recruiter will save them in a folder. And here we see the first bug - if your file has one of the standard names (“resume”, “my resume”, “resume111”) then there is a high probability that it will overwrite an existing document with the same name. And the next resume of the same name will overshadow your candidacy. It's like in programming - if you don't use mnemonic names, you can accidentally overwrite data in an already initialized variable. So it’s better to name the file with your first and last name, adding to them the name of the vacancy for which you are applying. The second part is needed in case the recruiter has several vacancies in his work. This means that that same daddy has already turned into a complete hell, in which it is impossible to find who applied for what job. Another nuance is the file format in which the resume is sent. Here, making allowances for the weak technical knowledge of the personnel officer, it is better to focus on standard rtf, doc, docx or (if you have focused on graphic design) pdf. When choosing other formats, the probability that the file will be opened begins to approach zero. Again, this is not out of malice, just “the computer could not open this file.”
Patch #1: suitable photo
Now let's move on to the insides of the resume. First, you need a photo. Not strictly passport style, but also not from barbecue or the latest freeride from the Alps. A face with a smile (or without - as you prefer) in 60-70% of the frame and civilian clothes. No, a vest won’t work, and it’s also better not to wear a Teletubby costume unless you’re applying for the role of an animator. It’s better to wear a plain shirt or a T-shirt in an uneven color. Again, this is all dictated by the peculiarities of the perception of personnel officers. In their opinion, a resume is your “front façade.” And if in the photo you are posing with a surfer or a freshly caught ide, then you are more passionate about these activities and don’t give a damn about your main job. It is not always obvious to them that a hobby is an outlet into which all the fatigue from monotony and negativity accumulated during work merges. And this photo on your resume is your attempt to share moments of happiness.
In HR's understanding, photography is about presenting yourself in the best possible light to your future employer.
Patch #2. Contact details.
Secondly, communication data. Let’s say right away that it is better to make profiles on entertainment social networks closed from prying eyes, and in the overwhelming majority of cases it is better not to show them to recruiters. Especially if you have signs of a busy night and daytime personal life there. In this regard, HR is somewhat similar to grandmothers sitting on a bench at the entrance. Frivolous photos - prostitute/concerned → scrapped, check-ins in clubs and bars - drug addict/alcoholic → scrapped, active discussion of religion, politics or finance - fanatic/radical → scrapped. And this doesn’t even take into account the personal cockroaches of each individual recruiter! And there can be anything - from an unfavorite color and a football team, to problems on the personal front, but with you and your significant other everything is sweet to the point of cloying.
It only makes sense to indicate a profile on Linkedin or a similar professional network, where you write only about your work and your achievements.
It is also worth taking a close look at your email and messenger ID. For a technical person, this is simply a means of communication, akin to an IP address on the Internet. And for HR, this is another clue to fantasize about your personal characteristics. That’s why emails and identifiers like “erotic” ones: I lovebigitk@whatitbylo.com, your_sweet_candy, fat_f@foryou.net, uncle_stepa@pornhub.net - take them from thinking about work to thinking about what your profile looks like on dating sites. And the more geeky ones: thirst_for_blood@donor.com, I work I'll eat, tlhIngan_maH@imperia.org, nagibator2000, back_to_the future@tambyl.com - are perceived by them as a manifestation of infantilism and immaturity.
For peace of mind, they need stupid template addresses born of corporate email policy, such as last name_initials or first name_last name.
They don't know you. More often than not, they don’t know at all. Therefore, it is difficult for them to understand that from a young age these identifiers belong to you. Each of them has a long and glorious history of being associated with various services or games. Therefore, you have no intention of giving them up. But they judge you by these identifiers, invented as a joke or under a momentary surge of hormones. Therefore, it is worth using a simple and effective patch to get around this pitfall. Create a separate email “for resume” as close as possible to the standard one (often inexperienced recruiters think that every Ivan Ivanov can create a corresponding address on Gmail, and they are not embarrassed that there are thousands of such people, but only one address), and set up a collection in your own mailbox mail from this new mailbox. This way, the recruiter will receive his perfectly faceless email, and you will remain with your subscriptions.
Patch #3: salary expectations
Third, state your salary expectations. Yes, recruiters themselves are very fond of skipping the point about payment, indicating a vague “worthy”. But they still have numbers, based on which they see whether the company can afford such a specialist or not. This point will save you both time and nerves. The main thing is, having decided on the salary for which you are willing to perform the duties specified in the vacancy, add another ten percent to it. Often our employers are not averse to bargaining, and the reserve amount will give you room for maneuver. Plus, it will not be superfluous during the probationary period, while you are not paid a full salary.
Patch#4. An adequate list of skills and their order
Fourthly, you need to carefully consider the order in which the requirements for the vacancy are, and how it relates to the arrangement of your skills in your resume. If the vacancy places special emphasis on commercial development experience, place the relevant jobs at the very top. If you need certificates, raise them higher too. And so on all points. If you have mixed work experience (several specialties in different fields), then it is better to shift information about your second incarnation downwards, leaving at the top only the skills applicable in the new place of work. If the specialties are completely different (for example, a cook, and you are applying for a job as a Java programmer), then it is better not to list your work experience in the second specialty at all, adding it to the list of your useful skills.
Patch #5. Don't hide your successes
Fifth, whenever possible, collect and write down your achievements to illustrate your successes. Be sure that the line: “2015.03 - 2017.08 Horns and Hooves LLC, Java Developer” will lose with a crushing score to “2015.03 - 2017.08 Horns and Hooves LLC, Java Developer: developed a billing system linked to the customer base from 1C.”
Therefore, as soon as you do something significant, write it down. We have developed a custom API system for interacting with third-party applications - this will be useful for jobs where working with external APIs is important. We optimized the operation of servers to withstand DOS attacks - useful in vacancies where you need to achieve stable operation of highly loaded services. Don’t put it off until the moment you need to start working on your resume—you still won’t be able to remember all your successes over the course of a year, two, five, or ten. Slowly write a log so that later you have plenty to choose from.
Total
This concludes the tour into the head of HR. If you have your own observations that can complement and expand our patch library, you are welcome to comment. PS: Almost forgot. For God’s sake, don’t include all sorts of sadomasochism, guro, orgies, and so on in your “hobbies and interests.” In the coursework on page 115 you can write that “we will make this transistor from birch, since no one will finish reading this anyway.” But a resume is a short work, and having gone through the screening filters at the previous stages, you can get cut off by such banality. Let your resumes have as few bugs as possible, and let HR hack easily and naturally!
Again, this is all dictated by the peculiarities of the perception of personnel officers. In their opinion, a resume is your “front façade.” And if in the photo you are posing with a surfer or a freshly caught ide, then you are more passionate about these activities and don’t give a damn about your main job. It is not always obvious to them that a hobby is an outlet into which all the fatigue from monotony and negativity accumulated during work merges. And this photo on your resume is your attempt to share moments of happiness.
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