The desire to get a job in an IT company without experience or at the age of 40+ often sounds unrealistic. However, such opportunities exist and a significant number of companies are ready to hire specialists without discrimination on the basis of gender or age, prioritizing hard and soft skills.
It is essential to understand that the number of IT specialists is huge. In order for an HR specialist to notice your resume and make a decision to invite you to the interview, you need to create a perfect CV without any mistakes that will attract the attention of the recruiter.
What do you pay attention to and how can you get a job in an IT company? We’ve prepared several tips from experienced HRs that will help you achieve success.
How to Apply for a Vacancy in an IT Company
First of all, you should find an offer that suits your skills and experience as much as possible. Don’t send your resumes to all the IT companies you can find. Set yourself a goal, choose a couple of offers that fit your needs, and contact them.
What to write in the resume?
In many companies, recruiters review absolutely all resumes submitted by candidates. This allows them to not miss the good professionals who often do not know how to present themselves well. However, this is not always the case. At the same time, the critical points to which they pay attention still exist:
- Experience. HRs assess whether it exists at all, and if so, to what extent it meets their request for a specific position.
- Brief information about a candidate at the beginning of the resume. It is quite interesting to read how the candidate positions oneself in 2-3 sentences.
- Hard skills. HRs analyze what the candidate knows, what tools they use, and at what level.
As for the design of the resume, there is no perfect scheme to focus on. But here are some tips to keep in mind when drafting a document:
- Be honest and do not add the experience that you do not have. Because honesty is highly valued and will be able to compensate for the lack of any of the skills listed in the job description.
- Include a story about yourself and your skills in 1-2 pages. HRs don’t have time to read longer resumes.
- Consider the structure of the document so that it clearly distinguishes the main sections, such as work experience, hard and soft skills, and education.
- Design a resume file so that the recruiter is not distracted by too bright colors or unreadable fonts. It is better to let it be just a decorated document with black font on a white background.
As for the presence of a photo in the resume, it is not critical for many HRs and they do not make such a requirement. But for candidates who plan to add a photo to their CV, it is recommended first assessing how it fits the format of the document.
In general, the resume is treated as a tool that shows the candidate’s experience, skills, and abilities. And HRs do not evaluate the personal qualities of a person according to this document. This is determined during communication in the next stages of selection.
Do You Need a Cover Letter?
You may have noticed that IT companies are rarely asked to send a cover letter with a resume. Many companies do not make this a mandatory requirement or make it a competitive advantage for the candidate. At the first stage of selection, a resume evaluation is enough.
And, frankly, the cover letter does not always play in favor of the candidate. For example, a person can show their real (often medium or low) level of foreign language proficiency by writing a document with a bunch of mistakes. And to prove oneself as a braggart, too actively arguing why they are ideal for the position.
If the company does not ask you to prepare a cover letter, you can skip this step. This will not be a mistake and will not reduce your points at the start of the selection.