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Writing your resume

Prerequisites

Motivation

Resumes are by no means your whole story as a candidate for a job, but they do typically start the conversation. Some companies are trending away from considering resumes as the first step of the interview process (woohoo!), but even if it's not part of the selection process, nearly all companies still require a resume. They're looking for basic contact information, links to your portfolio or other projects you've built, and background about you for your interviewers' context. There is no "right" way to write a resume. The best resumes are as unique as the person who wrote it while still conveying key details that make it easy for hiring teams to both get in touch and know which role they've applied to. The least helpful resumes are physically hard to read (using obscure fonts, odd colors, full of typos, or dense in the text) and are hard to tell the role the candidate is applying for. Most resumes fall in between these categories, and there's nothing wrong with that: the essence is clear communication of professional information so that candidates and hiring teams can establish a foundation for more in-depth interviews.

Objectives

Participants will be able to write a resume that:

  • Clearly shows name, contact information (email/phone number), and other relevant links (i.e. GitHub, personal website, LinkedIn)
  • Summarizes related work experience, education or skills (or in the case of career transitions: shows projects and relevant engagement in the field, such as volunteering).
  • Clearly communicates the role desired (either explicitly through an objective statement, or implicitly through the projects or experience they've highlighted).

Specific Things to Learn

  • Content:
    • Include name, email/phone number, and relevant links to GitHub, LinkedIn, or personal website.
    • List relevant work experience (if applicable) including volunteer work (see templates for layout/organization ideas) and describe the role and your proudest contributions (up to 5 bullet points per role, as space allows).
    • List relevant technical projects including the purpose of the project, your contributions, and tools/technologies used.
  • Formatting:
    • Use sans-serif fonts (easier to read)
    • Use bullet points (easier to read)
    • Save your resume as a PDFs with live links (preserves formatting across all operating systems that might open it)
    • Name your resume file following a detailed and consistent format, such as Firstname_Lastname_month_year.pdf. If applying to multiple roles, add the role: Firstname_Lastname_month_year_role.pdf.
    • Check the digital version for web accessibility (ensures anyone can easily read your resume)
  • Layout: there are many ways to organize, lots of templates to choose from—just make sure it's easy to read & makes sense to you (and a friend).
  • Use active words like: orchestrated, enhanced, developed, surpassed, enabled, negotiated, strengthened, increased, oversaw, implemented, mobilized, advanced, spearheaded, assembled, directed, structured
  • Use Google's XYZ formula: "Accomplished [X] as measured by [Y], by doing [Z]." Example: Instead of saying "worked with team members on project", say "Collaborated with 5+ analysts on go-to-market strategy by researching 20+ cities across the United States, resulting in an ARR of $1M."

Materials

Lesson

  1. Start with this My Old Resumes Were Bad by Jarvis Johnson video (14 mins watch).
  2. Read through this Resume Writing slideshow from Auburn University.

Common Mistakes / Misconceptions

  • Avoid listing visa/citizenship status, physical address, irrelevant hobbies, personal interests, extracurricular activities or similar. According to the article "How subtle class cues can backfire on your resume" listed in the Materials section, these can encourage unwanted unconscious (or conscious) bias. As you gain more experience, this can also take up valuable space on the page that could be used to describe more relevant details.
  • It can be easy to miss typos when you've been editing the same resume for a while. Accidentally leaving typos on a resume can signal poor attention to detail. Have a friend or mentor review it to have a fresh pair of eyes.
  • Resumes should be no longer than one page (Curriculum Vitae, or CVs, are different and not usually required outside of academia). Not only are one-page resumes more common, companies that print resumes for their interviewers often do so in batches that require uniform page stapling-- this means it's easy for a second page to get lost in the shuffle (literally).
  • Avoid sending a generically-named file like "resume.pdf" or worse, "resume.doc." Hiring teams see thousands of resumes and yours is nearly guaranteed to get lost if it doesn't include your name. Non-PDF resumes often lose their formatting with different software versions so all your work making it easy to read is forgotten. PDFs usually prevent that.
  • More and more companies are just asking for LinkedIn URLs in place of resumes, so everything you have on your resume should also be on your LinkedIn profile.

Guided Practice

  1. Start a resume in a sharable Google Doc (we recommend making a copy of this resume template).
  2. After reading each piece of resume advice, edit accordingly.
  3. Take a look at this Entry-level IT developer resume template from Monster.com.
  4. Read this short reference about what to include in a basic resume.
  5. Read this article:Web Developer Resume: Sample & Complete Guide [+20 Examples] (30 min read).
  6. Read this short article on How to show tech skills on your resume .
  7. Read this 20-min Resume Writing Guide by JobScan.
  8. Glance through this list of Action Words and use them to replace any passive language in your resume. For example, replace "Was a scheduling manager at GAP" with "Improved the efficiency of employee scheduling at GAP by 50% over three months."

Independent Practice

  1. Read this article on How Subtle Class Cues Can Backfire on Your Resume.

  2. Upload your resume and desired job description on https://www.jobscan.co/. Edit your resume or make a copy that incorporates all of the suggested missing keywords that apply to your background.

  3. Add your experience, and participation, and in some cases your resume document to your profile on these sites:

    • LinkedIn
    • Glassdoor
    • AngelList
    • Indeed

Challenge

  1. Find a partner and review each other's updated resumes. Make any necessary edits.
  2. Submit your completed resume to be reviewed on Monster.com. You get one free resume review. They claim to get back to you within 2 days with your results.

Supplemental Resources

Check for Understanding

  • What are some points that a good resume should include?
  • Mention some sites where you can upload your resume.