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Writing a Curriculum Vitae | Job Search in Finland

Resume or CV (Curriculum Vitae, from Latin for “course of life”; in Finnish, ansioluettelo). The CV is a marketing tool that allows you to promote yourself and gives you an opportunity to "sell" your skills and experiences to a potential employer. Resume is a document that listing your work experience and education chronologically from the most recent to the earliest one.

A good CV contains all the relevant information for the job application. CV should be: clear, consistent, informative, clearly structured and easy to read.
Keep in mind that your resume should be tailored at least lightly for each job you apply for to ensure your success in the recruitment process.
Certain things such as contact information, education, work experience and skills should always be included into your CV.

Creating and updating your CV or resume is definitely something to invest in. A resume is usually the first document on the basis of which a recruiter or employer begins to form an image of a job seeker.

Template for building a good Curriculum vitae (CV) / Resume

This simple and basic resume template has to help job seeker to find a job. A basic resume template consists of your personal and contact information, profile, work experience, education, language skills and IT skills.

Personal and contact information
Profile
Work experience
Education, training
Language skills
Software and Computer Skills
References and Referees
File format and Guidance on submission of CV
CV photo tips
CV templates and examples

Personal and contact information

All personal and contact information should be listed prominently in your resume and it must be clearly displayed.
The upper left corner of the document is a good place for a name and contact information, as well as a picture if you are going to add it (putting a photo on a resume is optional in Finland).
It is not necessary to indicate age and marital status.
Do not forget to write down your name, email, phone number, and a link to your LinkedIn profile.
If you want to bring out your personality in a CV with a photo, choose a representative, relevant, high-quality and smiling face photo.

Profile

A good resume starts with a few sentences or one paragraph, in which you summarize yourself, your skills, and your interests. In the profile description, it is also worth to write about your professional aspirations in the future.

Work experience

Tell about your experience in a reverse chronological order, starting with your current or last job and working back through past jobs. Thus, you should start listing your most recent positions first. But in some cases, if it is particularly important for the job you are applying for, it is possible also to put information about your earlier job to the top of resume.
For each period of work experience, should be mentioned your job title, your employer (company) and the time you worked there for.
Describe as concretely as possible your role and tasks you were responsible for. Also, you can write about your achievements.
If you have experience gained outside of the workplace, for example in hobbies or volunteer tasks, you can also use the title "experience" instead of "work experience" and write about other experiences that are useful for the task.

EXAMPLE
01.9.2015–30.4.2020
Assistant General Manager
Company X Oy, Helsinki
In my work, I was responsible for coordinating and planning the day to day operations of the business, such as, handling phone, planning meetings, preparing reports, generating contracts, recording data to keep financial records, assisting in the preparation and analysis of budget, maintaining inventory and keeping other different ad hoc tasks.

Education, training

Give details on your qualification, the date you achieved it and the place where you studied.
Tell about your education in order from the most recent degree (or education in progress) to the oldest one or from the most essential (for instance, highest degree first) to the most irrelevant. The order may depend on the particular position you're applying for, the most relevant education to this position can be mentioned at first.
Write the start and end date of the studies round it up to the nearest month. If your studies are still in progress, you can indicate the estimated time of graduation.
Identify your degree title and the name of the educational institution next to the educational information.
Secondary education information is irrelevant to the employer - unless you are still a young summer job applicant.
It is also good to mention the major in the education section or the most important courses taken which can be relevant for the job you are applying for. It is worth to mention if you have been on a student exchange abroad, as international experience is valued.

EXAMPLE
08/2008 – 04/2012 (assessment)
Master of Social Sciences
University of Helsinki
Major in Economics

Language skills

It is very important to provide a truthful information on your language skills as it may be tested in an interview. If you wish, you can specify oral and written language skills if there are differences between them.

There are many ways to label language skills, you can choose any of them.

Variant 1: Levels of Language Proficiency

Mother tongue or native speaker
Excellent
Good
Moderate
Elementary

Variant 2: Language-proficiency stars

Visually, language skills can also be expressed, for example, with stars from one star to five, so that one star means elementary and five is a mother tongue.

Variant 3: ILR scale

Language skills can also be presented in the CV with the ILR scale (Interagency Language Roundtable scale), which is used in LinkedIn, for example:

0 – No proficiency
1 – Elementary Proficiency
2 – Limited Working Proficiency
3 – Professional Working Proficiency
4 – Full Professional Proficiency
5 – Native / Bilingual Proficiency

ILR scale (Interagency Language Roundtable scale) - standard grading scale for language proficiency in the United States.

Variant 4: CEFR or CEFRL scale

The scale familiar to many can also be the CEF, CEFR or CEFRL scale (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages), where language skills are marked according to the level as either:

A1 - Beginner
A2 - Pre-intermediate, Elementary
B1- Intermediate
B2 - Upper intermediate
C1- Advanced, Effective operational proficiency
C2 - Proficient

CEFR or CEFRL scale. You can check the definition of the different language levels on the Europass page.

Software and Computer Skills

Having a good IT-skills are essential in today's job market. Create a list of IT skills. Be specific when listing your computer skills. Write what software applications, operating systems, web tools, programming languages, social media channels, hardware you are familiar with and your proficiency level for each of them.
When listing IT skills, you have to place a heavier focus on those skills are most in-demand for the position you applying for. You need to these skills prominent in your CV.
The best way to show your IT skills to employers is to demonstrate the results obtained! You can do it through your past work or completed projects.

References and Referees

Recruiters and hiring managers prefer to see information on referees and their contact details in a CV, so whenever possible, this information should be mentioned. Referees are people who can testify your skills and abilities you put forward in your CV. They are ready to support you in your job search. Interviewers will ask for their contact information and call them to ask for more information about you. Recommendations can be sought from previous supervisors, co-workers or employers.
However, always remember to ask permission of your referees before you give their details to recruiters so that he or she is prepared to tell the recruiter about you and your expertise. In addition to the name, it is a good to include the referee's phone number, the workplace and the job description.
Referees and references are usually added to the end of the resume.
You can also write on your resume that you provide references and referees' details on request.
If you wish, you can also add as a quote a short-written recommendation you have received from your co-worker or supervisor in connection with your work.
The Finnish law determines to whom the potential employer (recruiter or hiring manager) can call. By law, they may not contact persons other than those nominated by the applicant. The interviewer is therefore not allowed to call the former or current employer (recommender) without the job seeker's permission. Act on the Protection of Privacy in Working Life, Chapter 2, Section 4 (in English); Laki yksityisyyden suojasta työelämässä 13.8.2004/759, 2. luku 4§ (in Finnish)
There is also mentioned in the law that if the interviewer receives information from a referee about a job seeker that negatively affects decision-making then the interviewer must also discuss the matter with the job seeker before making any decision. The interviewer must ensure the accuracy of the information received. Find more in Finnish: Aalto Henkilöstöpalvelut staffing services

File format and Guidance on submission of CV

When your CV is ready, ask someone else to proofread it so that there are no mistakes in the text.
Save and submit your CV as a PDF, as it is universal and the document can be viewed and opened on practically all devices.
Name your CV so that both you and the recipient can see in an instant what it is all about. The file name can be, for example, «first name-last name-CV».

CV photo tips. Take a good photo for your CV

Including a picture on your resume is not a mandatory, but it can help your CV stand out in the recruiter's mind and give a positive first impression. A photo may be the first thing a recruiter will pay attention to in your resume.
A good CV photo is an up-to-date and relevant one, admissible to show the employer, recruiters or hiring managers.
When choosing an image for your resume, make sure the image is relatively recent and creates a positive and professional impression of you and your personality. Do not use a distant photo of yourself, party or wedding photo, selfie captured in a mirror, filters.
Choose a good quality and representative image with proper lighting and a clear background. The picture can be taken, for example, against a monochrome wall or outdoors.
Choose clothes for the picture that you could wear normally in the workplace as well, for instance, casual-elegant stile.
You can take the most flattering picture in natural light, such as outdoors or next to a window - but beware of backlight!
A CV photo is traditionally a face image, so take or crop an image from the chest up.
Look straight at the camera and smile or face the camera in a way that feels natural to you.

Resume or Curriculum vitae (CV) templates and examples

Resume templates are the best way to easily create your own professional resume. The easiest way to write a resume is to use the Word format. You can use resume templates offered by Microsoft Office and download free templates from Microsoft Word.

How your CV should look like and what content it should include? Professional, easy-to-read, well-structured, attractive and modern. Here are some examples: