Top 5 Tips to Make Yourself a More Attractive Candidate on Paper

Since 2017, the Jellyfish recruitment team has supported over 300 engineering professionals monthly in advancing their careers. From our experience, many job seekers focus heavily on nailing the interview and answering questions perfectly. However, many fail to get past the initial document screening stage, missing the chance to showcase their skills.

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1. Be Precise with Your Descriptions

• Don’t be vague about your projects. Provide specific details:
  • What is the product/project for? (B2B? B2C? B2B2C?)
  • What issue/problem needed solving?
  • What technologies did you use to solve specific problems?
  • Did you choose the technology? If yes, why? If no, who did and did you agree with the decision and why?
  • Was it waterfall or agile? Describe the development culture and flow.
• Precision and detail help employers understand your role and impact.

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2. Your Document Represents Your Work Ethic

• Pay attention to formatting. Neat, well-organized documents reflect well on your work ethic.

Consider this: would you prefer working with someone who writes clear, organized comments and Readme files or someone whose documentation is a mess?

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3. Avoid Using Percentages or Stars to Represent Skills

• Graphical indicators like “60% React, 80% JavaScript, or 4.3 stars Docker” are often misleading.
• Who and what are you comparing yourself to?
• Employers may hesitate to hire someone who describes themselves as only “60% familiar” with a key technology.

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4. Understand the Recruitment Market in Your Target Country

• Different countries have different standards and metrics for evaluating candidates.

For example, in Japan, employers focus more on the starting and ending dates of your education, your major/minor, and your research supervisor, rather than class ranking percentages, like in India.

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5. Be Mindful of the File Name

• Don’t overlook the file name. It’s the first thing an employer sees.
• Use a professional and clear naming convention for your documents.

There are many more tips and advice we would love to share with those who care!
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