It’s easy to critique resumes yet never really know how to implement critical feedback in. I have personally made iterations of my resume weekly until I had received my co-op offer at a small firm and a summer internship offer at legacy big tech. Across 7 months and 859 applications, I have spent around 50 hours tailoring my resume as a general resume to be sent in without tailoring. This blog is meant for those who are struggling with searching for jobs within the Computer Science / Data Science market and things you can do that may seem trivial but make huge impact.

Overall Format

As common formality, many people use Jake’s Resume as a standard technical resume. I have also used Jake’s Resume (Anonymous) with a few modifications in my own preference. My personal advice is to use Jake’s Resume as a standard format on what fields to put within your resume. As I gained a lot of experience, I will be in the process in transitioning to a more condensed XYZ formatted resume for my experiences due to the amount of different experiences and projects I can change for certain jobs.

On a general basis, standard information should remain underneath the name title. Keeping contact information, professional profiles, and website information displays a level of presence and activity an applicant has. Believe or not, recruiters actually check out LinkedIn, GitHub, and personal websites to gauge activities. Having a consistently active LinkedIn displays keeping up to date and talking about activities that aren’t represented on the resume. A GitHub profile with commits shows the commitment towards building projects within repositories and allows for some technical recruiters to gain insight on your work. Personal website is able to show a quick portfolio of your personal projects and activities with an emphasis on displaying yourself with your own personal style.

Education

The first section consists of your education. If you had great impact in your previous education within high school, it can be substantial if your resume lacks strong experience and projects. Place your current university education with any active activities that you are currently participating in within the university. Use your GPA if it is greater than 3.5 to show your academic success. Ensure your graduation date is aligned with the job roles but regardless, you can still apply if you are too young!

Coursework

Coursework can be a part of the education section or an entire education entirely. If you are looking for another section to make the resume stronger, coursework can be substanial to show skills you are actively working on right now. I had removed the coursework section after my experiences have displayed the course skills in real practice.

Technical Skills

Recruiters like to see techncial skills near the top of the resume. They should be able to see your skills at the very beginning to see if you have what they are looking for. I have personally seperated my skills with coding languages, frameworks, langauges, and tools. Some people have seperated their skills based on specific aspects that they want to focus on such as machine learning or computer vision.

Experience

Early in your career, your experience may not be very relevant on your resume. As a result, many people tend to put anything on their experience. This is the right move. If your experiences are lacking, use anything to showcase your skills. Showing soft skills can be just as strong as showing technical skills.

However, if you have strong experiences, ensure the wording is strong. Clubs can be strong experiences based on leadership or as software developers. Even if you have prestgious names on your resume, lacking significant work within those experiences may hurt your resume more than a lesser name where you have had strong impact. Use XYZ format for your bullet points to showcase your impact.

Projects

Early on your career, projects actually make a huge impact. First co-ops and internships tend to look at the projects to see what problems people have been able to solve and the skills built within them. My personal feelings with projects are strong due to my interviews focusing mainly on my projects, eventually leading to my offers. Projects should be unique. Try not to use any projects done by class since they can become repetitive when employers see the same project over and over again. Easier said than done, think about a problem you are struggling with. Even the simplest of projects show your ability to take initiative to build something. Ensure the usage of XYZ format within your bulletpoints to signifiy the level of impact in your work. If your experiencs are weak, move projects above your experience.

Leadership

An extremely strong section for the resume to display a person taking intiative to work and lead others for orgnizations. I personally do not have any leadership currently but potentially starting soon. Describing in fine detail your role shows significant impact for people to realize your ability to solve problems, manage others, and be a potentially strong candidate to oversee others.

Interests

This I have found to be an interesting section of the resume. People have told me that this section is able to create conversation and personality within your resume. I have personally never used it during my 859 applications but have added it to my resume once again with the potential to break the ice with interviews.

Wording

The wording of your resume may be the decider on how a resume stands out as someone ordinary or someone extraordinary. A weak style of wording shows that you may have just completed one ticket at work versus phrasing it with metrics show that you are able to build featuress that have helped many different users.

XYZ Format

The XYZ format follows this sort of template.

Accomplished [X] as measured by [Y] by doing [Z].

Priortizing a goal through a metric by doing your designated role showcases to employers why they should hire you. Employers are not looking for someone with skills but for someone who can create an impact in the company, beyond the average worker. Ensure your first adjective while following the XYZ format should be unique and not repetitive cross the resume to show that you are able to do different skills and showcase creative thinking.

Consistency

Keep spacing and formating consistent. I had made the mistake of having inconsistent format for the dates and titles as well as spacing, leading for a lower than expected ATS score.

Asking Others for Feedback

Ask as many people as possible for feedback. From advisors, to professionals, to friends, anyone can able to provide significant critique on how you should create your resume. I had made the mistake of only having my resume reviewed by very few people, even while getting my offers. Without a doubt, other people have been able to describe reasons on why I would and wouldn’t be a strong candidate (even pointing out small typos that I had completely missed).

Tailor to the Role

I haven’t done this yet but really tailor your resume to the roles you are applying for. Utilize AI to be able to help change the wording of your resume you match yourself with the essential skills of the role. This can have substanial impact on passing the ATS checker and be able to get yourself the first round.

ATS Score

Use an ATS checker to determine whether or not your resume is able to pass the automated scanner. This can prove substanial on deciding whether your cold application can even have a chance to be lucky enough for an interview. ATS is also a good chance to show potential flaws in your resume.

Wrap up

This is my personal advice for people who are looking for advice on their resume. Some key tricks compromised in one single article. I will be continuously updating this as I feel that I have missed a few personal points.