How to prepare a resume for tech interviews

Resume or CV is the first impression of who you are, when you are applying for new positions. Your resume should communicate your specialty in a precise and accurate manner. This post explains in simple terms "do's and don'ts", to help you with formulating your resume.

1. Choosing a template

Select a simple resume template. Resumes need to be simple and to the point. They are usually reviewed at a glance, so you want to make sure the most important points are highlighted and put at the top of the page. Any simple template without too many colors and flashy logos should work just fine. At the end of this post, you can find a few resume examples, including my own resume. My resume is made in LaTeX, as some research positions might prefer that you use LaTeX for your resume.

2. Length

It does not matter how long your resume is, as long as the content matches the job description requirements. Unless the page count is specified on a job description (in case someone still prints these resumes for review) it is better to make your resume easily readable, and use more space, rather than cram a lot of content on one page and make it harder for the reader’s eye to navigate. However, making a resume too long could make it harder to "review at a glance". If the resume is multiple pages long, use a footer to include “your name/page number” (in case someone prints it).

3. Content

Every resume should include the following sections:

• Education
• Work Experience
• Skills

Depending on your experiences it can also include:

• Projects
• Awards
• Volunteering

You can also add Github or some other developer profiles that highlights your proficiency.

It is a good practice, though not necessary, to include a headline outlining your specialty i.e. machine learning engineer, security engineer, etc.

Do not forget to include email address or other contact information.

3. Work experience

This is the most important section of the resume, it needs to clearly outline the positions held and duration of the employment. Under each position it should include your contributions while in that role. Use numbers/percentages to highlight the impact of your work. 3-5 bullet points should be sufficient to include the most important information about the role.

4. Projects section

Especially for new grads it is important to outline practical projects, research papers, awards/funding, hackathons and any other practical experience they have had during college. While it might be alright to have the course list included, it is always better to see a Github project that was a result of that course, rather than looking at the fact that you took that course, it means very little.

It is a big bonus if you have done internships. If you are still a student and do not have much real world coding experience, I would recommend applying for internships asap, and way before you decide to go for a full-time job.

5. Awards section

Include only relevant awards to the role you are applying for. It is always good to include any awards received in programming competitions and hackathons. If you include that you are a rated member of programming competition communities, make sure you have a high rating (above yellow for algorithms) and a demonstrated history of achieving said rating.

In addition, Include financial prizes and awards for your contributions to your field.

Including any awards received before college or any beginner awards in the first years of college, comes across as vain. Unless you are Gennady Korotkevich and got first place at ACM ICPC as a freshman, it does not matter. Furthermore, it can do more harm than good, since it reads as if you have not done much so you are including everything that comes to your mind.

6. Programming skills

Highlight tools and languages that are in high demand for your profession. For example, if you are applying for a machine learning position make sure to include languages and libraries like python, Tensorflow, Pytorch, NLTK, etc., not MS Excel and Powerpoint. Remember it is all about highlighting your experiences related to the role and it will be glanced at once. If you feel like something might not be relevant to include it is likely not worth including it.

Volunteer section is not necessary unless the volunteering jobs helped you gain any experience related to the job you are looking for.

Finally, give your resume to a person who does not know you in a professional capacity to look at it for a few seconds, then ask them what they think you are good at. Edit your resume up until their answer matches what you want them to convey.

Building resume

If you do not have enough experiences necessary and relevant to the types of job you desire, work first on building your resume: work on projects, publish code on Github, participate in hackathons and programming competitions, do freelance work, collaborate with other engineers on open source projects, or go back to college. Make sure you have skills and knowledge necessary and you can demonstrate any proof for it. If you do not know how to go about gaining practical experience, approach a mentor at your university/community, check job boards, mailing list and show up for hackathons and ask for help. 

While you can always aspire to make your resume more and more impressive as time goes, don’t ever fake your credentials and do not exaggerate to the point of lying or misleading interviewers. Instead put more effort and work into actually obtaining the credentials you desire. Lying on a resume can seriously damage your career.

For example: if you worked on a project that has not been completed yet, you can include that you are working on the project, but do not say it has been completed and you have made amazing achievements. If you have worked on some technology or programming language for a while but it's been years since then, you can still include it. However, when I asked during the interview be honest about your proficiency. Do no include skills you have never had or have any experiences with, just because it is part of the requirements for a job posting. First do the work to get familiar with it and then apply for the position.

Internships are a really good way of obtaining relevant experience for future roles. Tech internships are always paid and on average 2-3 months long. Make sure the internship does include the type of work you want to do in the future. For example if a company hires interns only as a tester or quality assurance type of work, it is not so helpful for your future back-end engineer career. Reject these opportunities and do not get side-tracked. Focus on the roles that are directly honing the skills you need. A small project related to your future job is more helpful than a huge project with a great impact in meteorology.

Examples of readable and simple resumes from the web:

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Finally this is a version of my resume, that includes all the information I might consider worth mentioning in an application. Based on the positions I am applying for I often remove some of the content to make it simpler and easier to read.