Before you go on a hunt for a job, I want to share a few tips and a list of recommendations with you to stand out and find a job easier.
I have noticed that many make big and small mistakes that are easily corrected.
These tips are based on my personal experience in Sweden during 6 years of living, navigating the "system" and the way things work here. They probably can't be applied to all professions or positions, but there should be something for everyone.
Finding a job, as I see it, means "selling" yourself to the employer, your knowledge, skills, charisma based on previous experiences or work. To "sell" yourself in the best possible way, you must stand out in every possible segment (not only professionally).
Depending on the company and organization, a typical hiring process looks something like this:
The whole process can be stressful and uncertain. For some parts of the process, I want to share a few tips with you. I hope that they can help you be well prepared.
The resume must be clear, concise, short (one A4 page)! When writing a resume, there is a rule: less is more! The resume serves as a ticket for an interview invitation. The clearer and shorter the better the chance to get the call from a recruiter!
Imagine yourself waiting in a line of 500 people to enter the cinema where those who have a good CV/resume get to enter, and one person screens through the resumes at the entrance for 6 seconds.
I will share with you the most common mistakes that are constantly repeated.
By no means!
If you describe what you did, your resume will be filled in on 2-3 pages, with too much unnecessary information. What will you talk about with the recruiter in the interview if you wrote everything in your resume?
Recruiters spend a few seconds looking at your resume! By few seconds I mean 6 to 15. What can they read in 6 seconds? Your name, profession, and how many years of experience you have (if they can find it in the mess you submitted). Will they spend time reading the details written for each experience? They won't! If anyone is interested, they will ask you during an interview to explain it, verbally. Just imagine it takes 1 second to turn the page, and you have 3 pages, the recruiter is already losing patience.
When a recruiter looks at your resume, he is first interested in the answers to the most basic questions:
How many years of experience do you have? (junior, mid-level, or senior)
All of this should be the first thing a recruiter can read. So write using a larger font: your name, profession goes below, and right under a description of your profile.
The profile description should be short in no more than two short sentences. I am a junior/senior in this and that job eager to work in a team of developers/managers/etc. With a maximum of 2 short sentences, you could explain enough.
Of course, the section with your work experience should follow directly after that, then the education section - most people put the other way around.
One example is the detailed address of residence along with the detailed address where you grew up. Entirely unnecessary. In some cases, it can affect negatively (depending on the recruiter). Write only where you currently are, e.g. Stockholm, Sweden, that's it, nothing more.
Another example is giving links to all the social networks that you might have. Firstly, it takes unnecessary space in the resume, secondly, it is not relevant. A link to the LinkedIn account is sufficient.
The third example is when you describe your personality and list all possible adjectives. It is important to list only the key ones that describe your personality. List only a couple of them (four, maximum five). For each adjective, think about how you will explain and give examples. If you write that you are loyal, you must have a specific example in mind if the recruiter asks you to explain in what situation you were loyal at work.
This is a common mistake where the candidates unsuccessfully want to explain how much he/she knows something.
Example: In the languages section, you write English and 80% next to it (and draw a nice little scale). It is simply impossible to estimate how much 80% and how much 100% is. Compared to what? Honestly, most people put a scale with a roughly estimated number that does not make any sense. Recruiters won't know what that level is. Just write English - Fluent or English - Beginner.
This also applies to any other skill. For example JavaScript - 50%. 50% compared to what? In this case, it is enough to write JavaScript. The developers will see how much you know on the test and the interview.
I have experienced this myself, a couple of times and it didn't help, in fact, it just made it worse. In the Balkan countries where I come from, employers want to squeeze everything out of you (just like a sponge) as much as possible, to do what is in your job description, what you know and what you don't know.
In Sweden, it is the other way around (in most cases). If you are applying for a position, in my case a Web developer, your resume needs to be adapted to that position. Even though I have experience in design (UI and UX design), when I state below my name that I am a Web developer and UI and UX designer, the recruiter will most likely put my resume aside. He/she has the task of finding a developer, period. No more no less.
Although I had the above two or three positions stated in my resume, I received some calls from recruiters. But every time I mentioned my experience with design, they weren’t interested in it and would always say they wanted me to be a developer. A recruiter who sees potential in me and wants to hire me sees that in their “system” they have no position for both Web developer and designer, so they say, “We want to hire you, you’re great, but we don’t know in which team to put you because we do not have such a position ... "🤯
It happened to me 2 times in larger companies, where everything is literal. Maybe I was naive, but at that moment it was logical for me that anyone would want to hire someone who has a lot of skills. But no, if they need a developer and a designer, they will find special candidates for each position.
Ever since I changed my resume and stated that I am only a developer, I immediately received way more calls.
Depending on whether you have a meeting with a recruiter, manager, or programmer, you need to know what to talk to whom.You can talk to the recruiter in general, about yourself, about your experience, your ambitions, etc. Imagine talking to a stranger, you have no idea who that person is and what he/she is doing for a living.
With recruiters, you must not talk in detail about technologies, methods of work, etc. Imagine yourself explaining tech to a stranger, he/she wouldn't understand a single thing. It is the same with recruiters (mostly they don't know about technologies, nor it's is their obligation to know). You will have the opportunity to discuss this in detail with developers.
With managers, you usually need to list the technologies you know, general experiences with those technologies, work processes, how you fit into the team, etc.
You can talk to developers in detail about technologies, implementation methods, etc.
If you have the opportunity to show your work, especially in a digital format in the form of a portfolio, be sure to highlight it. In my case, it’s a portfolio website. In some cases, it can be a portfolio on one of the well-known sites where you can submit and expose your work.
If you don't have a portfolio, and you have something to point out, then get to work, now.
If you are not sure which tools to use I have some recommendations for you:
