What do HRs think about online courses?

From game theory to virology: are your HR hobbies interesting? Now only the lazy one has never visited Coursera or Khan Academy in search of something new and exciting. And after 6 weeks, you are already a connoisseur of the Beijing opera or Big Data and are eager to share this amazing news with the world. But when it comes to writing a resume, you think: is it worth bragging about?



Worth it! Here's what HR experts say about online education, its place in the resume, and the importance of employee self-development for the company:

Ekaterina Tarasova, HR-generalist PepsiCo

It all depends on the specifics of the vacancy. If a candidate applying for a production, engineering position indicates online courses in a resume, I will be careful about this, but if the field is humanitarian - for example, marketing - then it’s positive. I myself periodically study remotely, as there are now webinars, where people communicate the same way as in this seminar.

Anton Klygin, Accenture Recruitment Specialist

For me, as a recruiter, the online courses taken by the candidate primarily speak of determination, the desire for self-education, and give an additional idea of ​​areas of interest to the candidate. The resume should include only those online courses that are related to the position.

Irina Smolyakova, Vice President, Human Resources, Asteros Group

I still react with enthusiastic surprise to the resume in which the candidate indicated an online course. From practice, I will say that today, unfortunately, it is still a rarity. Obviously, for graduates and young specialists, the “training” section in the summary is reduced to the name of the educational institution, and for completed specialists, to the list of trainings and internships held in employing companies. The fact that the list of trainings in the summary is an indicator of good level, rather, of previous employers than the person’s desire for development. Corporations purposefully organize the training of their employees, this is not a person’s desire, but rather, the realized requirement of the company. With online courses, everything is different. Indeed, in order to choose a course, take, pass a test, a person must have a conscious need.

I believe that it is absolutely necessary to indicate the completed online courses in the resume, but you should understand that this does not give guaranteed advantages when hiring. It all depends on the company: someone needs a mature and experienced person who will already begin to do his job today. And there are those who evaluate not only qualifications, but also potential; and here the presence of a person’s intention to develop is an undeniable and guaranteed advantage.

People who are able to learn on their own are a minority. And they will be a priori successful. If you can’t imagine your life without training and development, then choose the companies for which this is important.

Svetlana Naydina, Head of Human Resources Department, “He Clinics”

I have a positive attitude to any type of training, especially to additional, it does not matter if it is related to the profession or not. The presence in the resume of completed online courses characterizes the candidate as a person capable of self-organization and striving for development. The scope of our company is medical services, and additional training gives our employees an advantage in the quality of additional earnings.

Oleg Lisin, business coach at Staff-Up recruiting agency, owner of the JUST4BUSY consulting group

Like any education, online courses are always a big plus for the candidate. But only if a person really learned something, and not just received a diploma for show. I myself enjoyed taking several courses on coursera.org. Normal employers evaluate a candidate precisely by what he knows, and not by where he studied.

Svetlana Kazarinova, HR Director Atriniti

In general, I react well when I see online courses in a resume, for me it is an indicator that a person is looking for opportunities to learn and develop. If his education is limited only to online courses, then I have a lot of additional questions, and most likely I will choose a candidate with a good basic education, supplemented by courses, including online.

Lidia Krasikova, training manager, private consultant

It seems to me that a serious education should be contact. But this approach is already outdated, everything should be considered individually. It should be borne in mind that there are very busy people and those who want to study abroad, but they do not have such an opportunity. I believe that, of course, it is necessary to display the completed online courses in the summary. It’s necessary to understand for the recruiter himself, a person really learned something or inserted it “for a red word”. Whether he will understand this or not depends on personal preferences.

Output.
Do not hesitate to indicate online courses in the CV, this will testify to your desire to study and develop - this will be especially true for companies for which not only qualifications are important, but also potential. If possible, indicate those courses that are relevant to your field of activity, especially if you have a technical specialty. Online courses should harmoniously complement your basic education, and not replace it. And finally: those who don’t need a kick in the ass to learn something, will definitely not be lost in this life.

Ripe for an online course? Hurry to listen to any interesting course from our November list .