Writing a resume is the first step for any job seeker, and I was confused about so many things when writing mine for the first time.

What templates should I use and what needs to be included? Should I use the 4.3 or 4.5 GPA scale? What should I include as my work-related experiences?

I'm assuming that a lot of people might also be confused about what's the difference between the resumes required by Korean companies and the ones that are seen as the norm in other countries. 

And because asking around and searching online was my only resource back then, here's some tips that I have for anyone else like me! 

This ⬇️ is what my first resume looked like, and I'll try to give a brief explanation from my experience.

Before I go into details, some of the requirements regarding an applicant's personal information that needs to be included in the resume is:

• Your Name (Korean and English)
• Contacts (email and phone number)
• Birthdate
• Address
• Photo

Apart from the personal information requirements, here's the work/skill-related things that should be in your resume.

• Education
• Extracurricular activities
• Work/internship experience
• Other skills (language, computer, design tools, etc)

Unless you are applying for a job directly from a company's career website — in this case, you'll just have to fill in the required information on the website — you will have to create your own resume from scratch.

If you are looking for good templates, job posting websites have a lot of free templates that you can download.

1) JobKorea: The link here has a lot of resume templates, but also templates for other business documents, so be sure to click on the 한글이력서 tab if you are looking for resume templates.

There's also another tab that says 경력기술서, which is only required for those applying for experienced hire jobs. It's basically an expanded version of the work/experience section in an entry-level applicant's resume.

2) Incruit: Templates here tend to be more simple and a bit for fit towards the "traditional" resumes.

3) Saramin: There's a mix of both traditional and creative/visual resumes here. I liked that it states which template is ideal to be used in which industry, but it is a bit hard to navigate because it doesn't show a preview of the templates via thumbnail.

Now that templates are done, excluding the obvious resume requirements like name and contacts, I'll try to explain different requirements step by step, so here we go!

1. Photo

Some of you might have been surprised to see that photo is a requirement. Although this may sound wrong, it is something that Korean companies will ask for.

For most jobs, a formal photo taken at a photo studio, with you in a black business-formal suit is the best option.

They are specifically known as 취업사진, and many photo studios actually have a separate 취업사진 option for customers to select when making a reservation.

Some studios also lend standard resume photo attire (only tops and jackets because that's what gets captured on camera😅). So you can simply go to the photo studio in comfortable clothes and change your top and take the photo.

But for game, IT, design, entertainment industry, startups, etc, you don't necessarily have to use the strict and formal looking photos. Going in a bit more casual direction is allowed, and actually more common in those fields!

You don't have to wear the black and white suits, but can go with any casual clean dress code. I've even seen friends use the color background ID photos (that you see a lot on Instagram) when applying for jobs in those industries!

Photo studio recommendations

The one I took my resume photo was Fork Studio (포크스튜디오) in front of Ewha Womans University. It takes 22,000 won to take the resume photo and it has tops and jackets you can wear for the shooting. It also has a small pampering zone with hair irons, hair sprays, bobby pins, etc to get yourself ready before the photo.