Hey Invaders! 👽

This week for feature Friday I will be talking about Resumes! They are daunting yes but once you optimize it to reflect your experience, you feel super great about it and ready to tackle those interviews!

I usually have one base template that I used to use for every job application but I’ve read the book #ENTRYLEVELBOSS and now I’m keen to spend time and be intentional about applying and customizing my resume.

Lets set up your base resume!

1. First section is your Contact Info Section, you’ll include

   Your Name

   Your job title that you are striving for

   phone number | email | location

   Linkedin Link | Portfolio Link | GitHub Link

   I like to add a little divider under this section too

   
   

2. Next you can have a Professional summary, some say its important others think it takes up valuable space, its up to you if you want to included this or not in your resume. I usually just have 2-3 sentences giving an overview of my experience.

   

3. I am in Tech but I don’t have a degree in Computer Science so I like my next section to be my Technical Skills Section

   I like to organize them by the Languages I know, Technologies I know how to use including my frameworks, and then my certifications, You can put your certifications under your education section instead but I like mine here 😁 

4. Next if your Professional Experience

   I like to list the Company Name, location, and how long I’ve worked here

   My position/role title in italics

   and list at least 3 job duties that include a key value metric.

   A key value metric is a measurable, quantifiable outcome that clearly demonstrates the tangible impact of your work. It not only highlights your contributions to a project or task but also underscores the unique value you bring to your role.

   TIP: I like to bold the key value metrics and some times the action that metric drove to make it pop out to the recruiter/reader, this is just a preference

   In bold under my bullet points, I like to list out the Languages/Tech/Tools I used in this position

5. Some of you may just be starting out on your tech journey and may not have professional experience in tech, so this is where you include a Software Development Experience / Projects section. This is great to high light any bootcamps or projects you’re really proud of to showcase, here you’ll included what your learned in the course and list your final project you’re proud of and list the Languages/Tech/Tools used/learned in the course

   

6. Last but not least I list out my education, as mentioned I didn’t get a degree in computer science, although my degree is irrelevant to CS, it still demonstrates I can thrive in a higher education environment and I am a life long learner. I jumped from Recreational Therapy to Computer Science, that shows RANGE PEOPLE!

   

Now to be intentional about your job applications! Lets customize your base resume!

You’ve heard it, I’ve heard it, most people say to take the time to customize your resume to match those keywords in a job listing. In the past I hated doing this and I would just cold apply and send the same resume to every job… I applied and sent over 500 applications in 2022-2023 and probably recall getting about 6-10 interview processes going out of those 500 🤔

This year as mentioned, I read #EntryLevelBoss and decided to take the time to customize my resumes for each job, this is a slow process but I think it might make a difference. Take a ride with me on how I’ve been customizing my resume per job.

In my Contact Info Section, I now replace my standard Software Engineer, to match the title of the position, if the position is Full Stack Developer, I’ll put that, if it’s Support Engineer, I’ll put that!

In the professional summary section, in the book, she mentioned make this part creative and making it into a small note to the company you’re applying to:

Nice to Meet You, Beehiiv!

Hi, I’m Ariadna—a bilingual Full Stack Developer who loves creating user-focused, impactful applications. I’m comfortable working with JavaScript, TypeScript, React, and Java, and I’m passionate about newsletters and creating close knit communities. Let’s build something meaningful together! 

If I was applying to Beehiiv, my newsletter provider, I would look for the keywords in the job listing and try to add it in this personalized note. I like this idea because it shows I am taking the time to acknowledge I’m applying to their position and not just uploading my same generic resume everywhere. This section made sense to me and I have started adding this in to my resumes since reading the book!

Next is the Technical Skills section,

I’ve been breaking up the skills in this section in some more categories depending on what the job position is looking for, like if they specify methodologies or cloud technologies then I’ll add a new section highlighting my skills in that 😀 

Next is customizing your Professional Experience, here I like to tailor my job duties so they have some keyboards form the job description and match for example:

My generic resume job duty:

Improved code quality and team efficiency by 30% as the go-to expert for resolving integration testing errors and sharing best practices. 

Customized job duty:

Writing and maintaining reliable, observable code with robust test coverage and performance monitoring, improving code quality and team efficiency by 30% 

The job I was applying to had one of the job duties as writing and maintaining reliable code, so I just reworded my generic job duty to include these keywords but also still keeping my key value metric.

I use Chat GPT a lot to help me identify keywords in a job description, here are some common prompts I use when customizing my resumes:

1. You must act as an expert resume writer, please list out the keywords in this job description that I should include in my resume.

2. Here is my resume please optimize it ti include keywords from this job description.

3. How can I optimize this job duty to include a key value metric

Those are a few I use, I go back and forth with Chat GPT until I feel like I’ve got the right feel for a job duty.

This feature friday was a long one, but I feel like it was needed as many people are continuing their job search in the new year and are often confused on how they should lay out their resumes!

Happy editing!

P.S. Here is FREE Resume template for you all to use!