Your resume must answer one question in under six seconds: "Where was this person working last?" If your most recent job was in the US, put the US company name and location first — even if your previous roles were in Shanghai or Shenzhen. The same rule applies in reverse: if you just returned to China, lead with a China-based role.
Don't do this:
Do this instead:
Generic guide would say "quantify everything" — this guide shows the actual mistake haigui make when blending two markets.
Before (confusing):
Problem: The recruiter cannot tell whether you managed the Shanghai team (implying China-based) or the US team (implying offshore). The 120% target could refer to either market.
After (clear for any market):
Why it works: You named the cities explicitly, stated the dollar figure (not a vague 120%), and showed the timeline. A recruiter in Hong Kong or Singapore can instantly evaluate scale.
A common haigui mistake is listing the same global company twice — once for the US office, once for the China office — as separate entries. This wastes precious resume space and makes the candidate look desperate to fill space.
Wrong:
Right: Amazon | Seattle, WA (2021–2022) → Beijing, China (2023–2024)
In a list format use a single bold company name with a bulleted sub-list of roles and locations underneath. This signals career progression, not job hopping.
Many ATS systems (including Workday, Greenhouse, and Lever) parse parentheses and periods poorly with non-English characters. If you list "Tsinghua University (北京)" in parentheses, the system may drop the entire line or record it as an error.
Safe rule: Write the university name fully in English, then a comma, then the city in English. No parentheses for the Chinese name.
Same for degrees: write "Bachelor of Engineering, Computer Science" not "BE, CS" — some ATS treat two-letter abbreviations as stop words.
Before you send your next application, run your bullet points through a quick edit at PrismResume — the free checker catches mixed-market phrasing and inconsistent formatting with no sign-up required.
Only if the US internship is more relevant to the job you want. Otherwise, reverse-chronological order by actual end date — the recruiter cares most about your most recent professional level, not where you went to school.
Write the company name and then list both offices on the same line separated by an en dash, e.g., "Cisco | San Jose, CA – Shanghai, China." In the bullet points, clarify which office you led for which project.
No. US and most Singapore/Hong Kong companies do not expect photos on English resumes, and including one can trigger unconscious bias. Save the photo for your LinkedIn profile or a Chinese-language version.
No. Create two versions: one with US-targeted formatting (no photo, metric system) and one with China-targeted formatting (photo optional, university year included). The rule above about leading with your latest market stays the same for both.
Run your resume through a quick consistency check at PrismResume — free, no sign-up, catches mixed-market phrasing.
Run a free haigui resume check at PrismResume
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