How to write a good resume for remote work in a foreign company

In the previous article , which reveals the general trends in the development of the remote work market, we slightly touched on the topic of creating a competent resume. We have listed the main points and important points on which employers focus close attention. Today I would like to cover this topic in more detail, especially since most of the questions received by our support team are connected with the need for a correct resume.

The hiring market works exactly the same for all professional areas. I think this article will be equally useful for IT-employees and other specialists who want to try their luck in foreign companies.

So, to collect all the information first hand, we turned for help to our subscribing companies, which receive a fresh batch of resumes every week. We asked to tell us about how they select candidates, what is the search algorithm among a large amount of data, and what they pay attention to in more detailed “screening” of information. Experienced recruiters only need 30-40 seconds to make a first impression of the resume. Below is a list of key points that are important in selecting candidates.

Remote work experience and last position

As part of the service for searching for remote employment, one of the main criteria for employers is previous work experience on a remote basis. This may be, for example, work on freelance exchanges. In this case, a good confirmation of professional skills is the presence of a sufficient number of positive reviews in your profile. If there is no remote work experience, you should be able to give a clear answer, what exactly prompted you to take such a step.
Of course, one should not explain his decision only with the desire to change office routine to remote employment. However, if you know that you can work more remotely more efficiently, changing your current job will only benefit you.

Forkize HR explained this point as follows:

We always try to determine what exactly prompted the employee to change his previous work. And most importantly, is his experience relevant to our current vacancy? You must have a clear answer to this question, as this is the first thing you will be asked if it comes to the interview.

The ability to work in a remote team also plays a very important role. The difference between teamwork on a project when you are in the same office and work with participants who are distributed around the world is quite large. But, using tools such as Slack, Basecamp, Google Hangouts, you can easily erase any boundaries.

Companies where the applicant worked

If your resume has a couple of trump cards, such as working for Google or Microsoft, this will certainly be a plus, but do not forget that the specifics of working on large-scale projects is different from working in a startup, where each employee has more responsibilities and more often total very limited time to solve problems.

General experience

Of course, at the forefront when hiring for remote work is the experience of remote employment, but the general competence plays an important role. If you have been working remotely for 10 years, but only occupying the position of front-end developer for only 1 year, it is unlikely that you will be hired for a similar position precisely because of the extensive experience in remote work.

Career growth

A very significant point is how the candidate moved up the career ladder at the previous job, whether his level of responsibility and role in the company increased.

As technology evolves every day, you need to keep up with the times. If you have not noticed a desire to develop or improve your skills in the same place, you may not be able to become a really good specialist.

Organization resume

Try to keep within 1-2 sheets, do not write too much resume. There is high competition in the remote work market, and HR can receive 100-200 resumes per week. Cut him time on processing your data. Even if the resume is really very worthwhile, but its size requires a lot of time to study, most likely it will be put off in a “box for later”, where they will safely forget about it.

Creativity and unusual design

Remember the main thing - no creativity compensates for your work experience, but there is nothing wrong with presenting information about yourself in an interesting way. It is important not to cross the line, as many HR look for the necessary items in the resume using the document search, and if you send the resume as a pdf-document with a picture instead of text, it may go back to the same “box”.

Your online visibility

Do not forget to include in the resume links to your profile on social networks and on professional resources. This could be a profile on Github or a portfolio on Behance.

There are several things that job applicants are strongly discouraged from doing.

Exaggerate your own merits

Everything secret always becomes apparent, even if you and the employer are separated by thousands of kilometers. Be as honest as possible when writing your resume. Many HR in large foreign companies are always in contact with each other. There is a high probability that your lie will haunt you for a very long time.

Copy someone else's resume

It is possible that an employee of the personnel department has already seen the exact same resume many times. Even if you have similar skills and simply set up your work experience and education, this will not make you pay attention to it.

Be careful with personal details.

In Europe, when compiling a resume, it is quite common practice to indicate personal information, such as: gender, height, citizenship, marital status. In the USA, such details are redundant. Here they adhere to the policy “briefly and to the point”, especially if the issue concerns discrimination of the applicant on any grounds.

If you still have any questions, I will be happy to answer them in the comments.

Sincerely, the founder of Talentboard.me - Smooth Artem.