Career resources
Practical tips for a profile that employers understand in seconds, and remember afterwards.
Record a good 15-second intro
A 15-second intro is about 35 to 40 words. That's enough to say who you are, what you do best and what you'd like to do next. Introduce yourself, not your entire résumé: employers can open that for the rest.
“Hi, I'm Michael. I've spent the last seven years leading digital marketing teams, primarily in SEO and paid advertising. I'm excited to find my next growth opportunity.”
Light
Face a window or a lamp so the light falls on your face. Avoid a bright window behind you: it turns you into a silhouette.
Framing
Hold the camera at eye level, or prop your phone on a stack of books. Frame yourself from the chest up and look into the lens, not at the screen.
Sound
Find a quiet room and switch off fans, music and notifications. Stay close to the microphone. Curtains and soft furniture cut down echo.
What to say
Your name, your role and how long you've done it, what you're best at, and what you're looking for. Skip the life story.
Take your time
Practice once or twice, then record. Recording stops by itself at 15 seconds, and you can retake it as often as you like. Keep it plain: no music, filters or effects.
Add a transcript
Type what you say in your intro. It becomes captions for people who watch without sound, and employers can find you by those words in search.
Take a professional photo
Your photo helps employers put a face to your experience. You don't need a studio. A phone and a window will do.
- Just you, from the shoulders up, facing the camera.
- Soft, even light. A window in front of you is ideal.
- A plain, uncluttered background.
- Recent, and dressed the way you would for work.
- No filters, logos, text, sunglasses or group shots.
- Keep your face in the middle of the frame. Cards crop photos to fit.
You can add up to 5 photos (JPG, PNG or WEBP) and choose which one leads your card. Our team checks every photo before employers see it.
Write a résumé that reads well
Job Elf reads your résumé to draft your profile. A clear, simple résumé gives you a better draft and less to fix.
Keep the layout simple
One column, standard headings like Experience, Education and Skills, and real text. Words inside images, tables, text boxes or page headers are easy to miss.
Give every job its own entry
Keep the job title, company and dates together. Use the month and year, like Jan 2019 – Present. Job Elf works out how long you held each role from those dates.
Use your real job titles
Use the title you actually held and put the detail in the description. Titles are the first thing employers search for.
Show what you achieved
Start each role with results, and use numbers where you have them: budgets, team sizes, targets met.
Save it as PDF or DOCX
Up to 10 MB. A PDF saved from your word processor reads better than a scan or a photo of a printed page.
Check the draft
After you upload, review every job, date and skill. Nothing goes live until you publish.
Keep your profile current
A few minutes every so often keeps your profile working for you.
Update your availability
Choose Immediately, 2 weeks, 30 days or Not actively looking, and change it when your plans change. When everything else is equal, search puts people who can start sooner a little higher.
Add new roles and skills
Started a new job or learned a new tool? Add it. When your résumé changes, upload the new one and choose whether to update your profile from it.
Refresh your photo and intro
Replace them when they're a year or two old, or when you move into a different kind of work.
Take a break without losing anything
Found a job? Hide or unpublish your profile. Everything you added stays saved for next time.
You can choose which emails you get, like new messages and job alerts, under Email notifications in your account menu.