Make photo immaculate for the perfect first impression. Hire a professional photographer — you won’t regret it!

Do: Use a clear, professionally-taken, photo. Style according to your industry’s standards.

Do NOT: Use selfies, photos taken at an angle, or those in which you look bored, unenthusiastic, or unfriendly.

Generally, don’t use photos for applications in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and India.

Contacts are your call to action, like “add to cart” button when you shop online. Make it visible and easy to click.

Email: Has to look reputable, so do NOT use creative, personal addresses (e.g. “little.kitty97”) or corporate emails. If necessary, create a new, professional address that contains your name, e.g. “john.brown@...”

Phone: It’s better to write it down with the international code.

Links: Just type the text and use our link tool in the black panel above to add ‘http’ to the address.

Social Networks: HR will probably find your profile anyway, so be prepared! Review your public photos, including Facebook and every other social media platform you use.

Just 3 - 5 bullet points here. This is your “elevator pitch”, where you list specific examples from your career and the most impressive and relevant achievements for this application.

Avoid cliched buzzwords like “outside-the-box thinker”, “team player”, and “hardworking”. Use facts and figures instead.

Now, here’s the key question: If, given the job you’re applying for, can you deliver?

In order to prove your ability, it’s way better to write down your accomplishments instead of the routine tasks you carried out at other jobs. Numbers, related to your achievements, are extremely valuable here!

Furthermore, only list relevant experience. Do NOT list every bit of work you were engaged in. FOCUS! Aim for 3-5 bullet points for each position.

For a recent graduate with little work experience, this section is especially important. List your GPA (if it’s high enough), coursework and projects relevant to the position you’re applying for, and other academic achievements and honors.

This section serves 2 purposes: Firstly, every relevant certificate increases your salary potential, as well as your own confidence in your skills. However, as equally important is the fact it also proves your interest in professional growth and that you’re willing to take the time in your own development.

So if you don’t have any certificates, simply take some online courses: they are often inexpensive and very time-efficient.

These are not just all your soft and hard skills, but ONLY relevant to your field of expertise. Pay attention here: HR’s eyes (as well as ATMs) are looking for keywords here. So, write down 3 to 6 points...and please, don’t be lazy: tailor them for position you apply!

Use this section to list any specific software skills applicable to your industry. And by “specific” we definitely do NOT mean “Word skills”, “PC skills”, or “generic Slack/Outlook/[insert commonly used software here] skills” – those are like reading and writing nowadays!

Even if there is no specific request for foreign languages in the job description, according to study published by the Economist, your potential salary increases for each language you can speak.

That being said, only list languages you know at a conversational level or above.

An additional section which helps to communicate the type of tasks you’re particularly competent at, or are willing to explore and develop further.

We would advise against listing your hobbies here (because nobody actually cares, save it for the interview if someone asks!). Instead, talk more about the type of work you most enjoy and the direction in which you’d like to take your professional development.

Personal traits can be mentioned as well but only those that complement your professional skills, “strong attention to detail”, for instance. On the other hand, no, “playing the ukulele” doesn’t count.