[I posted this to LinkedIn...]
A lot of my former colleagues are putting together resumes for the first time in years, or if they're less experienced, new one-pagers. There is a lot of advice, some of it bad, but as someone who has had to hire dozens of people over the years, let me tell you a bit about how I approached screening and calling folks. I've only had one that didn't work out, which I think is a pretty good track record. And I'm available, if you're interested. 😊
First off, the elephant in the room is AI. Recruiters are using it to filter, candidates are using it to game the system. The result is a lot of terrible matches. I only have one solution to that, and I'll get to it later. For now though, I'm not sure why recruiters, especially the newer ones, are relying on a tool that yields poor results.
Let me start with what I hope is obvious. Don't be a hyperbolic braggart. I saw a LinkedIn profile with the summary, and I swear this is real, "Helping dope companies reach their potential and slay competitors." Yikes. That would be an immediate hard pass for me, because it doesn't really say anything, and who really talks like that?
The biggest mistake is that people write their job descriptions into their resumes. Everyone knows what a Senior Software Engineer is, but what is it that *you* did? Look for the hard facts. For example, I suggested that a former member of my team use, "Built and maintained a service that handled more than 100 million transactions over a year, with zero downtime." As a hiring manager, I would see that and think, "This person gets performance and scale."
Be real and don't embellish. Anything you put in there is game for discussion in an interview. I can smell BS like swamp gas in Florida. Not everyone gets to work at enormous scale or write software for jets. That's not what I'm looking for anyway. Whatever your career stage is, I'm looking for a pattern of growth and learning, and a balance of humility and confidence in what you do know.
Oh, and don't worry about length. People don't print resumes anymore. Just make sure that at least those first two jobs are packed with accomplishments unique to you. That's all anyone is going to read anyway.
Above all, the single biggest factor in your success is your ability to network. This is far easier when you're looking at local, in-person work. But it works for remote gigs as well, and I think it's the only reasonable shot that you have over the AI problem. People come and go, and your network gets extensive. Respect, value and appreciate the people that you work with, and they will look out for you. They'll write some nice recommendations on LinkedIn for you, too. This is how you get to the top of the queue, and not just submit to a black hole of job descriptions.
Hang in there. These are certainly weird times, but don't panic. Hang on to your trusty towel.
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