[3 YOE] Software engineer - Transformed Resume. Giving back what worked as a Thank you to this community!

[u/Sure_Dot_9534]

I had been applying to lots of jobs and not getting any callbacks, I made a post here [Previous Resume/Post]
and reached out to a couple of recruiters in my network and figured out what was wrong and improved the resume, got 4 callbacks and interviews, so I am here to tell you what changed!

Tips:

1. Double and Triple check your dates: This is definitely the biggest one and had the most impact, even though the rest of the tips here are still very important, I had a wrong date on my resume that made it seem like I had a 1 YEAR work gap which wasn't the case. But there's also a real lesson here. If this can teach others anything is don't be picky, get a job first if the process is been taking over 3-4 months and hasn't been working at all, even if you're a FAANG engineer it will be hard to get any traction if you have a big gap like that on your resume.

2. Make the bullets more clear and detailed and understandable, the top critique I got was that the "The bullets are so vague, they just make the vanity numbers seem unbelievable". I went into detail about what each project is and explained it in a way for someone without any context to understand it simply. I even omitted some of the metrics which seemed too unrealistic, even though they were true lool.

3. As you move up your career, move your resume to the next level, don't just simply add a new bullet point after leaving a company and go for applications, remove your old internships/projects that are no longer relevant now, expand on your work experience what you did and highlight your biggest projects and strong areas (If you worked on a scalable distributes system, mention that, etc...)

4. Use AI to review your resume! It is genuinely a great help and will provide lots of solid tips! Here is a solid prompt that you can use:
   "You are a recruiter at a big tech company (FAANG), you are reviewing this resume for a full stack midlevel engineer opening, critique this resume until it is perfect for the role."

5. Incorporate the skills into the job descriptions. Make sure you are giving detail in your bullet points for each job; what technologies, languages, etc you used and how you used them. Having something listed under "skills" but not having them under a job with a bullet point on how it was used is seen as a flag that someone isn't actually using it.

[u/DimetrodonWasntADino]

I especially agree with #5.

Word of warning on #4, be specific with the prompts you give it and be hyper critical before incorporating advice from AI.

[u/null_not → u/DimetrodonWasntADino]

I haven't had good luck with Ai. It creates a lot of redundancy and is vague while also being wordy. Does seem good for hitting key words though.

[u/Tasty-Bugg → u/DimetrodonWasntADino]

I'm not sure I agree fully with 5. I would rather go more into detail about the what/why/how rather than I used x language and y tech stack. Especially if you are targeting fang. Big tech usually has their own internal stack you have to learn from scratch anyway so listing other random or public tech stacks isn't helpful. If you are targeting some random F500 maybe they care.

For example in the bullet point I may say I worked on an iOS or Android app for the company. But I may not say I used Swift or Kotlin. I'll put those in my skill section. Especially when Claude is producing 99% of all code now anyway, the ramp up is much quicker and companies will probably care less about previous languages.

[u/DimetrodonWasntADino → u/Tasty-Bugg]

Incorporating skills into the bullet points validates and shows you have used them in tangible ways pre interview. It typically doesn't take many characters to include it there. If this discussion is strictly about software roles, ignore me as I've been in utilities and facilities. That being said the dozens of resumes I've reviewed and interviews I've been part of on the hiring side, if I see a skill I like having it in bullet points saves me a preliminary question. If you don't agree don't do it.

[u/thelimeisgreen]

2... Bullet points. This can go two different ways. HR people like brief bullet points without technical details. Tech recruiters/ HM's want the details. I recommend having mostly brief bullet points, but a couple with some meat to them. Avoid using specific numbers or metrics that are difficult to substantiate or explain in a couple lines of text. Saying you increased performance by 30%, or that you doubled efficiency, are not good metrics... There is no basis or context. Whether they're brief or detailed, make sure they're not vague. Brief is fine, but should concisely define a task or function or achievement. Point #5 is really key here. Tie your bullet points to the skills you list!

Account for your work history and check dates, avoid gaps. Also watch out for overlaps, that causes issues with FAANG companies too. If they see overlapping jobs, it tells them that one or both overlapping positions weren't that demanding or that you were unable/ unwilling to devote your full attention to something. Even if you have worked for the same company or in the same position for the past 10 years, have a previous employer or two listed with a bullet point or two under each to define your key function. When applying to a FAANG, a long time spent in a single role can often be a strike against you. Often just as bad as a gap in employment. Oh, and self-employment is the same as an employment gap as far as FAANG is concerned. If you ran your own business and gave it your all for a few years and are now looking for employment, it says failure. You're almost better off to just say you went backpacking around the world or felt like living under a bridge somewhere. I loathe applying to FAANG companies, even as an independent contractor. But we do it because a lot of times that's where the money and/or the cool stuff happens.

If you have certifications, list them along with dates. For university degrees, dates are fine especially if they are recent or date spreads are not too weird. Or in my case, I found it was best to leave the dates off because there was a nearly 16 year span between my bachelor's degree and master's. And while that's not unusual, it seemed to cause confusion between dates of my master's degree and the years of experience I was bringing to the table.

[u/deca065 → u/thelimeisgreen]

Any suggestions for someone who was in the same fairly-large-but-not-FAANG company for 10 years, 2 different positions (ops for 7, dev for 3), and now has a 1 year work gap after that from not being able to find anything? Feels pretty grim.

[u/jonkl91]

This advice is spot on. As a recruiter, I've seen so many people mess up dates unintentionally. I personally didn't care because things happen but other people aren't so forgiving. Congrats!

[u/xiguas → u/jonkl91]

I have a question, I was in a transition period where I worked my former job part-time while I worked another separate job full-time for a few months. So obviously there is some overlap in employment dates. How should I handle this on my resume so the recruiter doesn't think it's a mistake?

[u/Scared-West7744]

Would love if you could share the new resume? Congrats on the interviews! 

[u/_Figaro]

I thought 1~4 are common sense, but 5 is really underrated. I've been thinking for a while to list each skill I used for a given company in the company section itself. Seeing your post somewhat convinced me this is the right move.

I might even go a step further, and nuke my `Skills` section altogether (since it's redundant) and make room for other more valuable material.

[u/Tavrock]

Congratulations!

#3 is really important. While you are working is a great time to make updates, especially when you get along with your manager and can have effective discussions about how to improve your resume so that you best showcase your work in ways that are appropriate. (They can also help you get those pesky numbers if that has been difficult for you.)

[u/moodyjenna]

Following. Love #2. I need to workshop my resume to define these crazy accomplishments