Remember: the purpose of a resume is not to impress. It’s to survive and advance.
If your resume gets you through to a technical assessment, a phone screen, or really anywhere besides the (digital) reject pile, you’ve succeeded.
For this reason, a successful resume is about simplicity. Avoid garish colors. Or a logo. Never, ever include a self-portrait. No pictures of your (very cute) cat. Keep it simple. Black and white, standard format. Let your accomplishments speak for themselves.
Preliminaries
Your resume should have a location. Not necessarily an address, but at least a place. Are you in the Bay Area? The United States? Mars? Regardless of if the role is remote, we need some notion of your general whereabouts. List a city.
No blurb, statement of purpose, or filler fluff up top. Your audience is not interested. They know you’re looking for a full-time position, internship etc. That’s why you applied.
Sadly, cover letters are a waste of time - the incremental benefit of submission is not worth the effort it takes to write one.
The Body, Pt 1
Education first. Hiring managers want to see it. If you went to Stanford, you can stop reading now. You’re good. You’re through to the next stage.
List a GPA. If there’s no GPA, a hiring manager will assume it’s bad. 3.5 is about as low as you can go. If necessary, finagle some sort of “Major GPA” workaround. Savvy reviewers will see through it, but it’s better than nothing. Highlight accomplishments: for instance, graduating summa cum laude, or earning a departmental award.
List clear graduation dates. Are you still in school? If so, when do you graduate? Don’t make a hiring manager work to calculate your personal academic timeline.
The Body, Pt 2
Next, work experience. Reverse chronological, avoid gaps. 4 bullets max per company. More than that starts to look like padding. Accomplishments should be punchy, with numbers where possible. But not too big. If you truly drove $200M+ in incremental revenue you’d probably be perusing for a private island.
Hiring managers like progression. A story. Promotions within a past company are excellent, so make sure they’re clearly displayed.
Projects. A good space filler for new graduates, but delete once you have full-time work experience. A successful project has an outcome. It’s not a toy example - something changed in the world as a result. Tell us.
External links are fine. The hiring manager likely won’t click, but you never know. Listing your GitHub? Make sure it’s organized. One repo per project. READMEs everywhere. Get some friends to follow and star. Make it look good.
Finishing Strong
Skills. The resume dessert.
Everyone has skills, but they can be a differentiator. SQL is the cut-off. Easier than that and it’s expected. Nobody is surprised that you’re capable of opening a Google doc. Specify tangible technologies, languages, frameworks over abstract concepts like “Data Storytelling.”
Hobbies are fun and fulfilling, but irrelevant here. Leave them off.
Focus on formatting, spelling, grammar. Attention to detail will put you ahead of most applicants. Have a friend review. Triple check. Keep your resume to a single page.
Apply, Apply, Apply
Submit your resume wherever possible. Don’t worry if you don’t meet all the job requirements - nobody is taking the time to cross-reference. However, limit to 1 or 2 positions per company. Don’t spam all their open roles.
Don’t get discouraged if you’re not hearing back. Recruiters, hiring managers, et al. are busy. Never take rejections or a lack of responses personally. However, re-evaluate your resume regularly, and think about what could be better.
It’s a slog, but you’ll get there in the end. Just keep applying.
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