That Time I Tried to Write a Resume in English All By Myself

So, I needed an English resume. It wasn’t for a job application here in Korea, but for something more specific, like applying for a scholarship overseas or maybe some kind of program. I vaguely remember seeing a notice for a scholarship, the Korean Honor Scholarship, and it mentioned needing an English resume. You could download the form from the Korean Embassy’s website in the US, apparently. That sounded… official. But also, kind of a hassle to navigate all the way over there digitally.

At first, I thought, ‘How hard can it be?’ I mean, I know my own experience, right? I can just list out my GPA, any awards, volunteer work, leadership stuff, and boom, done. I figured I’d just translate my Korean resume word-for-word. Big mistake. It turns out, the way things are phrased, the emphasis, and even the common terms are totally different. What sounds good and professional in Korean just sounds… weird or incomplete in English. I remember trying to translate something about ‘participation in various club activities’ and it came out sounding like I just showed up to meetings sometimes. Not exactly highlighting my commitment, you know?

Then there was the whole issue of ‘achievements.’ In Korea, we often list things like ‘obtained X certificate’ or ‘participated in Y competition.’ I tried putting those directly in, and it felt clunky. I saw a mention in one of the articles I skimmed later that highlighted the importance of using action verbs and quantifying achievements. So, instead of just saying ‘Led a team project,’ it should be something like ‘Led a team of 5 to successfully complete Project Z, resulting in a 15% cost reduction.’ That sounds so much more impactful, but figuring out how to frame all my past experiences like that felt like a whole new job in itself. I spent hours trying to rephrase bullet points, looking up synonyms, and second-guessing every word. It was exhausting.

There was also this one part about ‘research or thesis presentations.’ I had done some minor presentations in university, nothing major. When I tried to translate the titles, they sounded incredibly academic and maybe even a bit boastful for a general scholarship application. I ended up just listing the topics very broadly. I also saw that some applications, like for international internships, even mention needing to know specific culinary terms if it’s for a hotel and cooking program. That’s a whole other level of detail I hadn’t even considered. My little scholarship application suddenly felt like it needed to cover every possible base someone might think of.

One thing that really threw me off was the recommendation letters. The notice for the youth paid positions, for example, specifically asked for recommendation letters related to volunteer work, alongside the English resume and cover letter. It made me wonder if they expected a separate letter in English, or if a Korean one with a quick translation note would suffice. And for foreign applicants for certain awards, it mentioned needing an ‘English official statement of achievements’ along with the resume. It felt like an extra layer of official documentation I wasn’t prepared for.

I eventually found a template online, but even then, just filling in the blanks felt wrong. It was probably around 25% of the grading criteria for that scholarship I was looking at. Seeing that percentage made me even more anxious. I even looked up some examples of flight attendant resumes because I saw some academies offering help with English resume writing for that specific field. They had very specific formats and emphasized things like ‘customer service skills’ and ‘international experience.’ It was a different world from my academic background. I guess my initial thought that it would be a simple translation was a bit naive. It’s more about adapting your whole presentation to a different cultural and professional context, which is a lot more than just changing words.