How to write a kick-ass resume that lands you the interview
A recruiter typically looks at your CV for around 5–7 seconds, according to some studies. How can you make sure that your profile stands…
The resume is your first impression to your potential employer
A recruiter typically looks at your CV for around 5–7 seconds, according to some studies. How can you make sure that your profile stands out compared to all the other applicants?
With this handy checklist, I want to help everyone who is currently looking for a job and has to rely on their resume to help them land an interview.
You might argue that a resume might be an outdated tool when it comes to job applications. People, especially in tech, nowadays often show their portfolio of products they built or (side) projects they worked on, blog posts, LinkedIn or simply use their network. However, in practice, it is still quite the norm and necessary to have a resume up your sleeve.
Who am I to judge what makes a good resume?
Having landed interviews and jobs at major firms in consulting and tech such as Amazon, PwC, Revolut, Porsche or Deloitte, I am now myself involved in the hiring process at the startup I am currently working with. I am quite a geek when it comes to resume tweaking, reading up on the latest trends and help my friends with their CVs to land interviews. So I figured it’s time to share some of that knowledge and experience and help others get the jobs they want.
The Structure
The typical structure of a resume for someone with work experience looks like this:
Contacts
Professional Experience
Projects / Entrepreneurship
Education
Skills (technologies, tools, languages)
If you are a fresh grad, you might want to consider something like this:
Contacts
Education
Internships
Projects / Entrepreneurship
Extra-curricular & Awards
Courses
Skills (technologies, tools, languages)
If you are lacking the professional experience, try to make up for it by showing your engagement and ambition with side projects, extra-curricular activities or online courses like Udemy.
I am not a big fan of including a crisp summary or objective. One page is not much space for your resume, so I would rather include things that provably highlight your strengths.
Format / Layout
One page resume all the way! Only if you have more than 10 years of professional experience, you might consider using more than that. Being concise and prioritizing are important features for an applicant. Also, as mentioned before a recruiter does probably not read your entire resume, so make sure to only show the most valuable stuff
Reverse-chronological order, most recent items at the top
3–5 bullets per role, max. 2–3 lines per bullet
Keep enough white space to not overwhelm your recruiters’ eyes
When it comes to the font, it doesn’t matter as long at it’s clean and easily readable
Be consistent and keep it simple. Do not use many different fonts, colors, and styles such as bold or italic
Do not use personal pronouns (I did X…)
From my experience, I would not include a photo
If you are a designer, do use a visually attractive layout. Canva has some cool templates. If you are not a designer, I recommend using a more classic template. Here is a good one
Whether you are creating your resume in InDesign, Word, LaTeX or Google Docs, just make sure to save and send it as PDF
Crucial: Accomplishments & Proof
Professional Experience Section
Always show accomplishments, not responsibilities! Imagine you are a recruiter and read that you have been responsible for doing X. That sounds like you have been assigned to do that task and that’s not very appealing is it? Show how you achieved something and made a difference. What have you done exactly and how is it relevant to the role you are applying? You need to prove it! This is done best by showing some numbers, e.g. How much revenue did you create? How much did you save your company? How many users did you attract? How much time did you save someone? How much did you improve customer satisfaction? Those are all sample questions to show how you made a difference in your previous role
A good structure to use for your bullets is:
Did X by doing Y which led to Z.
For instance:
Introduced a new key feature by designing and managing the development of feature X, which led to an extra $1.5 million in revenue.
When describing an accomplishment, use action verbs. Good examples: Led, developed, prioritized, achieved, drove, created, implemented
Create context. Check required skills and technologies in the job description and see how your profile matches those. Use related keywords in your bullet points. How is the stuff you have on your CV relevant to the role? Try to put yourself in the recruiter’s shoes
Optimize for ATS systems. Large companies often use Applicant Tracking Systems to pre-filter resumes. Those systems automatically scan your CV for keywords, phrases, and numbers. If you want to make it past them, you need the aforementioned context in your profile
If you have something to show for, go for it! Certifications, extra-curricular stuff, hackathons (if relevant). Always provide links as proof
Leave out the soft skills section. If you feel the urge to mention some and can prove them, put them in the cover letter
Education Section
Unless you are a fresh grad, just mention your school, major, location and dates. Also only mention grades if they were exceptional, after a few years of work experience, nobody cares about the grades much
If you are a student or fresh grad, also mention relevant coursework and grades
One more thing
A resume is your tool to sell yourself and showcase your expertise, skills, and strengths. When I hired for my company and looked at CVs, I want to know how you made a difference, how you contributed to your company and what value you could bring into mine. Make sure that you create context and show how your profile is relevant to the role that you are applying for.
I hope you find my summary useful. Feel free to share your thoughts or reach out to me if you need support with your application.
Twitter: sebionic — LinkedIn: Sebastian Hoffmann