Submitting Great Résumés to Companies on Shenzhen-Jobs.com

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Shenzhen Guide

5 min readNov 24, 2016

When you are interested in a job at one of the multinational companies posting jobs on the most popular Shenzhen English job board, keep the following advice in mind when submitting your résumé to companies that maybe hiring.

What to Include

Attention to detail goes a long way in landing that next job. Here are some points that will help single to recruiters that you are a job seeker who should be considered.

Add an Executive Summary

The “résumé Objective” is out and the “Executive Summary” is in. Ditch the objective line and get a nice looking header on your résumé that describes you and add some keywords that also describe you. This is your 2 second elevator pitch to someone reading your résumé.

Include Months and Years you worked

Your work history and education history should be accounted for completely. Gaps in time on your CV raise red flags. Make sure you account for the time. Note that it is typical for Chinese to jump around frequently from job to job. This does not look well in a western managed company’s eyes so it is best if you have a solid explanation as to why you changed so frequently.

Double the number of ‘%’ and ‘¥’ signs

Be sure to show potential employers that the work you did contributed to the bottom or top line in dollar value terms or percentage terms. Your job should have KPIs and you should be able to write on your résumé how you directly affected those KPIs. The best situation is that every line item on your résumé shows by how much you moved the needle.

Expand Abbreviations

Companies use a lot of jargon and it is best to include full word and the acronym in your CV. The abbreviation may not be the same from company to company or industry to industry and since recruiters put your résumé in a candidate database you want to cover your bases on which search terms might be used to search for your CV.

Customize your résumé towards the job description

For each job you submit your résumé to you should customize your résumé to the job description of that job. Sending a generic résumé will decrease your chances of landing the job.

Use the same terminology

Use the keywords that are used in the job description. This is the terminology human resources will be using to search their database for candidates and if you use the same terminology they are likely to recognize that you paid attention to the résumé.

Customize your accomplishments towards the job

Go line by line through the job description and make sure that to the best extent possible your job description has points which complement the job description and requirements. Take out unnecessary points that do not relate to the job description. Remember less is more.

Interests

Put some interests at the bottom of your résumé but try to put interests where you accomplished something such as “organized running club in my school”

Spelling & Grammar

Correct spelling is of utmost importance. Make sure you use spellcheck and grammar check in the English version of Word this function is invaluable.

Use past tense for your job experience and accomplishments.

Punctuation

Make sure you do proper English punctuation. In Chinese punctuation does not have spaces after it. In English spaces are required and if I see a résumé where the candidate has not put spaces after punctuation I am unlikely to hire them because their English skills are probably not up to snuff and they don’t have an attention to detail.

You can use our language exchange section to find someone to practice your English with and even maybe get someone to proofread your résumé.

Files formats

Your résumé should be submitted in the following formats
- PDF (.pdf)
- Word (.doc or .docx the later lets the employer know you are using the latest version of Office)

Do not submit your résumé as an Excel document. This lets the employer know you are using an online Chinese résumé portal and are not customizing your résumé for the specific job. Your résumé will not stand out and I have never seen a résumé that does not have punctuation and spelling errors when submitted in Excel.