The Resume Confidence Crash

𝗜𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀…
𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗲’𝘀 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗱. 𝗬𝗼𝘂’𝘃𝗲 𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗶𝘁 “𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀.”
𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗿𝘂𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝘀𝗸𝘀, “𝗦𝗼 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗲?”
𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲𝘇𝗲𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗘𝗹𝘀𝗮 𝗶𝗻 𝗙𝗿𝗼𝘇𝗲𝗻.
𝗧𝘂𝗿𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝘂𝘁, 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗸𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗶𝘁. 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗜𝗹𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗗𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗵—𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗵𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗮𝗶𝗹.

As a former recruiter in tech, I have seen hundreds of resumes and interviewed countless candidates. To stand out, here are some tips that I suggest for candidates:

1. Show how you acquired and use that skill in your job: Candidates often list technical skills on their resumes, but simply listing a skill is not enough. Instead, I suggest highlighting how you’ve used that skill in your previous job. For example, if you have experience with Apache Flink, explain how you used it in your previous role. If you can also discuss why you chose Flink over other stream processing engines and any issues you’ve encountered, it will demonstrate your depth of knowledge.

2. Cold message or brand your expertise: Another way to demonstrate your expertise is to share it publicly. This can include contributing to open source projects, answering questions on StackOverflow, or writing blog posts. Make sure to share these publicly on your resume, LinkedIn, or GitHub. If you’ve contributed to open source projects, include links to the PRs you’re most proud of. If you’ve written a blog post, make sure it covers a topic in-depth.

3. No go on the fundamental projects, give it your unique perspective: Avoid listing cookie-cutter projects on your resume. These are projects that simply replicate a common solution to a popular problem, such as the Titanic dataset or sentiment analysis of tweets. While these projects are good for practice, they won’t help you stand out as a candidate. Instead, showcase unique projects that you have worked on, such as a personal website that looks like MacOS or a CLI tool to autocomplete bash commands.

4. URLs: If you have more to show than your resume allows, create a personal website. Assuming that you have basic coding skills, it’s fairly easy to create a free personal website using GitHub Pages. You can also include links to your GitHub profile or Google Scholar profile, but make sure they are up-to-date and relevant. If you have a lot of repos on GitHub, consider pinning the important ones on your homepage and writing a README to guide visitors.

Control what you can control. Use these tips so you can stand out as a candidate amongst everyone else fighting for decision-maker eyeballs, and increase your chances of getting hired. Remember to be specific about your experience, showcase unique projects, and share your expertise publicly.

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