A presentation at Software University about making a resume. Covered topics such as overview of the recruitment industry, usual mistakes and myths about the resume and a complete dissection of every resume section. At the end there is a bit about the personality part of people resumes.

1. Is it possible just a piece of paper
to change your life?

2. Co-founder & Harmonizer-in-chief @
Enhancv
Volen Vulkov www.twitter.com/volenvul
kov
vulkov@enhancv.com
Experience
Education

4. …and it is happening 15 000 times per day… meanwhile 95% of the resumes
are rejected
THIS IS REAL

5. What are you going to hear today:
• Trash-course in the recruitment industry
• Myths, Mistakes & Rules
• The Complete Resume Dissection
• What happens after the resume?

6. The Recruitment Industry

15. From Resume Submitting to Hiring
1. 1000 resumes received together with
yours
2. Automated Matching
3. Handpicking the best
4. From 2 to 8 interviews
5. You are hired 

16. Myths,
Mistakes &
Rules

17. “A resume is essentially a document that enables you to sell yourself to an
employer at the best possible way”
Bing
What does resume really mean?

18. • “There are certain rules and formats that you MUST follow”
• “The resume is all about YOU and it is the ONLY way to apply for a job”
• “The resume is the first step and you need only ONE resume”
• “I don’t have ANYTHING to put on my resume”
• “The resume usually CONTAINS personal info, paid experience, education, skills &
languages”
• “The resume is FAST and EASY job”
• “I will send my resume where EVERYONE else is sending it”
• “I will choose where to send my resume based on the SALARY and REQUIREMENTS”
• “My resume will be REVIEWED”
• “It’s ALL about the resume and a good one is ENOUGH”
The 10 myths of the resume

19. • Typos
• Lies
• Under or Over self-estimating
• Responsibilities vs Accomplishments
• Not reading the requirements and more about the company
• Trying to put all of their lives on it
• Formatting
• Experience is paid work experience
• Afraid to show their personality
• Not trying to see what the HR will understand from their resumes
Job applicants top 10 mistakes in their resumes:

20. • Performance-based
“..focus on the specific results you’ve driven and provide tangible evidence of your skills
and accomplishments” ~ Laszlo Bock VP People Operations Google
• Human-centric
“How I Hire: Focus On Personality” ~ Richard Branson
• Short & Concise
“If you cannot sell yourself in 2 pages, you won’t be able to do so in 5, either.”
• Job-specific
“We don’t believe in the “spray and pray” tactic – choose 2-3 companies and apply for
them” ~ Enhancv
• Natural Heatmap
“Make it much easier for recruiters to spot the best match for the position without spending
hours interviewing the wrong applicants”
The Perfect Resume is:

21. How to craft my resume?
Microsoft Word
Crafting plain &
simple resume
Enhancv
Job-specific &
personality
review
Resume building
platforms
If you are
focused on
particular thing
Photoshop &
Illustrator
Good for
portfolios
New Idea?
Try it 
Never let someone else to write your resume – the employer will understand it,
you will loose you confidence at the interview and most importantly no one knows
you better than you

22. Before you start…
• Choose a company
Look at the values and its mission. What is the company trying to solve? Do you like it?
Why do you want to start working there?
• Think or check what is important to write in your resume
Review the job description, look for specific technologies and requirements
• Keep in mind that you need a PDF of your resume and better to have an ATS
optimized one
Is the company big enough to use an ATS? Would your PDF match the job description?
• Never start with Curriculum Vitae, CV or Resume as a tittle of your resume
“If I can’t understand that your resume is actually a resume, a title won’t help me”
• It will take time
“Make it much easier for recruiters to spot the best match for the position without spending
hours interviewing the wrong applicants”

23. The Complete Resume Dissection

24. Personal Info
• Pick one name and stick with it on all of your social profiles, resume and other
documents
• Skip your middle name
• Do not add any prefix or suffix before or after your name
• Be careful writing some advanced degrees together with your name
Personal Name

25. Personal Info
• Look at the resume title from a recruiter’s perspective.
• Write about the most important things first.
• Don’t state that you’re looking for a job.
Title

26. Personal Info
• “It’s kind of illegal to consider factors like age, race, gender, etc. in hiring
decisions.” ~US, but we live in visual and digital age now
• A picture is worth a thousand words, so be careful of its quality and
professionalism
Photo

27. Personal Info
• Your e-mail should be from a well-known provider, containing you name initials
• Applying with you current work mail is disrespectful
• Writing your university mail or personal email is completely ok
Email

28. Personal Info
• Recruiters usually prefer to contact people by phone then in person, so write your
mobile number
• Put a code before the number especially if you are applying in another country
Phone Number

29. Personal Info
• Exclude your home address – no one is going to send you a letter
• Normally it is good to include only your city and state or city and country if you
are not in US
• If you haven’t still relocated near your desired employer add “Open to relocate”
next to your address or remove the whole field
Location

30. Personal Info
• Consider adding links to your personal website, blog, github or linkedin account,
only if they are relevant and relative, put you in a good light, and do not go to
dead pages
• Adding social profiles such as behance or twitter is good way to show your
projects or recent activity on certain topics
Links

31. Summary
• The summary statement serves as an introduction to the reader that seeks to
answer the question “Tell me about yourself” in just a few lines of text
• What critical problems are you well positioned to solve?
• What issues, topics, or areas are you most passionate about?

32. Experience
• Experience can be paid or unpaid for, an
internship or a substantial class project,
volunteer positions, or positions held in
clubs, etc.
• If the predominant experience you have
is in Software Development or Sales,
then it's a good idea to rename the
whole section to Software Development
Experience or Sales Experience
• Start with most relevant one and if you
have a couple of additional positions in
other job sector, group them into other
category
Type and Content of Experience

33. Experience
• Write accurate title of your position
describing your role and daily duties.
• Type the full name of the company or
organization – if there it is an
abbreviation, write next to it the full
name
• Add the company or organization type at
the end
• If the company is not well-known, add a
one or two sentence description of it.
You can take it from the company
website
Position, Company / Organization Name and Description

34. Experience
• Responsibilities doesn’t bring any
valuable information about you – the
recruiter can read that from the job
description
• It matters what outcomes resulted
directly from your involvement, what
would not happened if you wasn’t there
• Do quantify that results to convey the
scope and significance of your work
• Mention if you had some specific role,
whether have you worked in a team, etc.
• Craft concise statements – not full
sentences – and use active verbs
• Use always past tense and keep your
bullets in one format
• You can also add “Acquired Skills” and
“Technologies used” for example
Achievements

35. Most Proud of (Achievements)
• This is the most important section of
your resume as it reviews most of your
experience, personality and passions
• Think in term of personal
accomplishments that you are proud of.
Back them with concrete facts, numbers,
and figures
• What do you consider as your greatest
life accomplishment so far? Why?
• This could be a primary role in some
company/project/organization, awards,
scholarship, year of experience,
something you truly believe in or you are
part of
• This is also the hardest section of your
resume, so don’t give up easy on it! You
can also ask your friends for help.

36. Education
• Unless you have significant relevant
work experience outside of school—a
couple solid semester-long internships,
for example—then your “Education”
section should stay at the top of your
resume.
• Write the full name of your major,
starting with the degree, or the main
subject, or profile in your school. Use
also the university's full name - you can
check it online.
• Didn’t quite earn the degree? Mention it
anyway!
• You can also list educational
organizations that you was part of.
Major and Degree

37. Education
• At the education sections you can skip
the months in the dates
• In technical fields, employers tend to
place high importance on GPA. If you
have a high one - definitely include it.
• You can also write a bit about the
university ranking or your personal
achievements at that school
Time Period, GPA & Accomplishments

38. Courses & Certificates
• Include courses that are relevant to your
objective that the employer wouldn't otherwise
know you've taken.
• If you have a certification or licensure (i.e.,
teaching certification, Engineer in Training, fitness
certification, CPR, First Aid, scuba diving, etc.)
include a "Certifications" or "Licensure" heading
and give this information.
• Expired certifications show that you are capable
of passing the exam and that, if required, you
could regain certification.
• If you have an upcoming qualifying exam
scheduled and you are 100 percent positive that
you will pass the exam for certification in your
field, it's acceptable to indicate a future
certification on your resume.

39. Technologies / Tech Skills
• You shouldn't include every service you’re on, just
the ones that best reflect your professional persona.
• When assessing your technical skills do not
overestimate yourself - rate yourself from 1
(beginner) to 10 (a guru master) in that area or skill
• Keep in mind that the more experience you have in a
particular skill, the more you will understand how
much more you have till you master it
• If not mentioned in the job description, which are
the most important skills for that position?

40. Strengths
• Every resume has plenty of soft skills in it - state
clearly why you think you have this soft skill so the
HR will be sure you have it
• Don’t sell yourself short by just throwing in flat,
overused words to describe your talent - use your
own words to describe what you are best at.
• More questions: Think of a time when you were
successful in a project/job. What skills did you use to
achieve this? What do you think others can learn
from you?
• It is really hard to extract your own strengths, ask
ten friends to tell you 3 things that you are really
good at and why they think so

41. Talent
• What is your number one skill that makes you
different from the others?
• What do you believe about yourself?
• Why do you think the achievements that you have,
have happened?
• What was the result of your talent?

42. Languages
• Include your mother tongue, the languages you have
basic understanding of, and the ones you can speak
and write to fluently.
• Use caution and do not overstate your abilities on
your resume or job application. During the hiring or
interview process, you will be evaluated on your
language proficiency

43. Projects & Activities
• Projects are typically
school/university, software,
hackathon, freelance or even
start-up activities – they
speak much about you
• Include as many numbers as
possible in this section to
illustrate the impact you made
or the results you contributed
to
• Describe how you carried out
the activity and what results
you achieved, even if the
project was a short-term
assignment— what did you
learn and how can you apply it
now.

44. Volunteer & Memberships
• List specific skill-building volunteer
activities on your résumé. Substantive
work, like managing the budget of a sizable
charity or recruiting and training a team, is
attractive to employers because those
experiences are applicable to business
situations
• Volunteering shows initiative, good use of
your time off (especially if you are a
student), plus any language skills or
technical skills you acquired in the process

45. Passions & Life Philosophy & Quotes
• Try to include as much relevant interests or
activities as possible - these types of items reflect
initiative, discipline, hard work, and skills, which
are valuable characteristics to your future
employer.
• If you have interests, activities or hobbies that are
very important to you and that make a statement
about who you are, do include them on your
resume
• Putting quotes on your resume could speak more
about your personality, but keep in mind that it
doesn't prove anything

46. Favourite Piece of Arts
• As a kid, Elon Musk read every book he could find at his home, the library, and
local bookstores. Because he enjoyed learning to that high of a degree, Elon
moved on to reading encyclopedias after he ran out of new books in his
school’s library
• Arts speak about you more than you can imagine – it shows creativity, passion
and sense of belonging

47. And much more of your true-self 

48. • Don’t try to put yourself in sections that you don’t fit – be creative and add new one
• You can name your resume according to the company you are applying for
e.g. Valentina Milanova Microsoft Resume
• Find the recruiter’s mail and send the resume directly to him (or an insider who can
recommend you)
You can find it from LinkedIn or Raportative
• If you don’t know anything or want just an advice – do not hesitate to ask us
• Prepare for the interview
• Smile, you’ve done a great job 
That’s almost everything about your resume, but:

49. • Processes in the job searching
• Rules & Mistakes & Myths
• Can a good resume change your life?
• What to do next?
Overview

50. Co-founder & Harmonizer-in-chief @
Enhancv
Volen Vulkov www.twitter.com/volenvulk
ov
vulkov@enhancv.com
Thanks!
(Any Questions?)