The word "essay" came to the Russian language from French and historically goes back to the Latin word exagium (weighing). French ezzai can literally be translated into words experience, trial, attempt, sketch, sketch.

An essay is a prosaic composition of a small volume and free composition, expressing individual impressions and thoughts on a specific occasion or issue and obviously not claiming a definitive or exhaustive interpretation of the subject.

In the "Explanatory Dictionary of Foreign Words" L.P. Rat essay is defined as "an essay that treats any problems not in a systematic scientific form, but in a free form."

The Big Encyclopedic Dictionary gives the following definition: "An essay is a genre of philosophical, literary-critical, historical-biographical, journalistic prose, combining the author’s emphasized individual position with a laid-back, often paradoxical presentation, focused on colloquial speech."

"Brief Encyclopedia of Literature" clarifies: "An essay is a prose composition of a small volume and free composition, interpreting a particular topic and representing an attempt to convey individual impressions and considerations, one way or another connected with it."

Some signs of an essay:
• the presence of a specific topic or question. A work devoted to the analysis of a wide range of problems, by definition, cannot be performed in the genre of essays.
• the essay expresses individual impressions and considerations on a specific occasion or issue and does not knowingly pretend to a definitive or exhaustive interpretation of the subject.
• As a rule, an essay suggests a new, subjectively colored word about something, such a work may have a philosophical, historical-biographical, journalistic, literary-critical, popular-scientific or purely fiction character.
• in the content of the essay, first of all, the author’s personality is assessed - his worldview, thoughts and feelings.

This genre has become popular in recent years. The creator of the essay genre is considered to be M. Montaigne ("Experiments", 1580). Today, an essay is offered as a task quite often. It is one of the main components of a package of documents (upon admission to an educational institution or employment). The essay contest helps to choose the very best from the diversity of the best!
It is important to write an essay for a young specialist.
The way the candidate managed to submit himself, as he described his achievements and mistakes, allows the employer to determine whether this person is good enough for business, whether his work experience is sufficient to meet expectations in the future and to benefit the company (organization, enterprise).

The purpose of the essay is to develop such skills as independent creative thinking and writing out your own thoughts, there are also essay writing services.
Writing an essay is extremely useful, because it allows the author to learn to clearly and correctly formulate thoughts, structure information, use basic concepts, highlight causal relationships, illustrate experience with relevant examples, and substantiate his conclusions.
The most relevant topic for an essay by a young specialist is the topic "Me and My Career". The topic of the essay is given so that the commission (to the employer) can easily assess the features of your thinking, creative abilities, enthusiasm and potential. The best way to achieve such a result is to write directly and frankly, while remaining honest with yourself. If you are not honest, there is every chance that your composition will be considered unnatural.