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First impressions are everything, so let’s make sure you create a kick a$$ one for your next employer. Here’s how!
1. Build a great UX design
2. Debug discrepancies
3. Use proper syntax
4. Refactor your infrastructure
We review resumes daily and receive feedback from hiring managers about what jumps out as the good, the bad and the ugly. Your resume tells your story and ultimately lands you the interview, or it doesn’t. We’ve put together some resume must-haves based on that feedback!
Let’s start with the basics:
Tell your story in order! Listing your roles in reverse chronological order (i.e. most recent position first) is the most straightforward way to organize your resume.
Talk about the tech! Including the technologies you’ve used under each role is a great way to show off what you’re more relevant skills are.
1. Build a Great UX Design
Resumes should be clean, easy to read, and organized. Try not to over-engineer the formatting. Keep it simple. Showcase what’s important first.
Divide your resume into clear sections with bolded titles. (i.e., Summary, Technical Skills, Experience, Education/Certifications)
A good summary of 3-5 facts/highlights about you is the perfect way to kick-off the user’s experience. (What makes them want to keep reading?)
Include a brief technical skills section that lists out by domain what tools you’ve worked with.
When it comes to putting together your responsibilities, try starting each bullet with an active verb followed by the duty you performed including key details and closing out with the outcome achieved.
2. Debug Discrepancies
Correctness, conciseness, and consistency are key to ensure no discrepancies. We encourage you to pick a path (i.e., full stack vs full-stack vs fullstack) when it comes to abbreviations, punctuation, hyphens, etc. If your code isn’t consistent something will break, right?! If your resume is riddled with inconsistencies, how will you show up when writing code on a development project?
Ensure everything from the font size and type to technical abbreviations are consistent.
Check out the tense (past or present) and stick with one, but please don’t switch between them in one section describing your responsibilities.
This one goes without saying (or at least it should!) but let’s make sure spell check is turned on.
A quick code review will go a long way to ensure your resume will deploy successfully.
3. Use Proper Syntax
If you’ve written code, you understand how important punctuation is! While a grammatical error on your resume won’t result in a program failure, it will affect the quality. Precision is important in engineering and that needs to come through in this representation of yourself too.
Avoid misusing capitalizations and stick with proper nouns like names, titles, or acronyms for capitalizations.
Description bullets are most impactful when they begin with an action verb such as achieved, led, built, created, etc.
Leave the personalization like “I”, “me”, and “we” out.
4. Refactor your Infrastructure
A role-winning resume doesn’t need to be an award-seeking novel. Messy over-engineered code might work, but it’s not always the best solution for the long run.
Ditch the outdated objectives, of course you want a new job!
Skip the long-winded description with every cool thing you’ve done in life, and opt for a concise summary that highlights your top 3-5 strengths relevant to the role.
"Think short strings”; unfortunately, run-on sentences have become commonplace on resumes and that trend needs to end. Again, keep it simple and easy to read.
Just as a standup meeting gives you ~60 seconds of airtime, your resume might only get a brief review. Don’t waste time with too much “fluff”. Get to the point in a meaningful way with each sentence/bullet.
Your resume is the full stack version of who you are and should be a big-picture visualization of your work history, hard technical skills as well as showcase your softer skills. Think about the functions you’ve preformed in your career that got you where you are today. Showcase those and tailor them to the role you’re applying for. Make it easy for the user (i.e., Hiring Manger) to see you’ll be able to come in and do this job. If there is not enough overlap between the skills highlighted in your resume and the responsibilities of the role, it’s likely you will not get the chance to explain why you are qualified in person.
Apply these four tips and enjoy the next step of getting your resume deployed so you’re one step closer to your new role!