--- id: resume-checklist title: Resume checklist sidebar_label: Checklist --- Now that you are aware of how recruiters screen your resume, here are some actionable ways you can apply to instantly improve your resume.
## 1. Include a cover letter I've often received resumes with no cover letters, and I am perfectly fine with it. If you ask me, it is better to have no cover letter than to have a bad cover letter, especially if your cover letter is a "templated" content. An effective cover letter needs to highlight the fit between the job requirements and your skills/experiences. Do not just tell me what you have done in your cover letter; Tell me how it is a fit for what I am looking for. Some small nitpicks: - Make sure that the cover letter is addressed to the right person (either the name of the recruiter if it is known, or to a generic hiring manager) and company - Run a spell check
## 2. Keep your resume under a page Your resume should be kept to 1 page or a MAXIMUM of 2 pages. Include only your most recent and relevant experiences. Information that a recruiter wants to know: - Name, email, contact number - Objective statement - Education details: College, Major, GPA, Sample classes (optional, but if you list, make sure its classes that you scored well in and are relevant to your area of interest), academic awards, availability - If you have studied abroad, you can list that too - Projects that you have worked on - Work experience/co-curricular activities - Skills/other interests - Street cred - GitHub/Stack Overflow/LinkedIn profile (optional, but highly recommended) Information nobody needs to know: - Your profile picture. In the US, it is illegal to discriminate based on age, gender, race, or appearance - Address, home phone number, gender, religion, race, marital status, etc etc - Elementary, middle, high school - Your low GPA - Anything less recent than 3-4 years unless they are valid job experiences - Anything about your parents/siblings, their names, occupation, etc - Your life story - Anything not relevant to the job you are applying for (e.g. that you have a driving license when you are applying to be a programmer) Ideally, keep it short, concise, but as detailed as possible.
## 3. Include your GPA if it's good Everyone wants the cream of the crop. In the absence of a standardized test, GPA serves as that indicator. **While GPA may not necessarily be a good indication of how well you can code, a high GPA would definitely put you in a more favorable position to the recruiter.** If your GPA is rather low, but you have loads of technical experiences, you can try not listing your GPA in the resume. This kinda "forces" the recruiter to read through your projects/job experience, and perhaps grant you a first interview. If you manage to impress them, who cares about your GPA? But if your GPA is low and you do not have skills for the job... maybe you should work on one of them and revisit job applications later. In a different scenario, some students have low GPA, but it might be due to some irrelevant classes which they did badly in. E.g. Student X is scoring A for all his programming classes, but did not do well for his language classes. If I am hiring a developer, Student X would still be a suitable candidate despite his low GPA. In such cases, it might even be recommended to attach a transcript along with the resume. Also, when you list your GPA/results, try to benchmark it. Instead of simply listing 4.6, write 4.6/5.0 (First Class Honors or Summa Cum Laude). To the recruiter, 4.6 does not mean anything if he/she is not familiar with your grading system.
## 4. Be clear about your objectives Are you looking for a summer internship/full-time employment? What position are you applying for? Read the job description and know the job you are applying for! **"Work experience" does not mean any work experience; it means _relevant_ work experience.** If you are applying for a developer position, the recruiter is not interested to know that you were a student escort for girls walking back to their apartments at night, nor that you were a cashier at Starbucks. You would be better off writing about the project you did for some programming class - yes, even if it was just a school project. Tailor your experiences and projects according to the job you are applying for. Pick relevant details to emphasize on and do not be hesitant to drop stuff completely if they are totally irrelevant. Quality over quantity. - Make sure the description is comprehensive. Avoid writing "Software engineering intern - write code". You are better off not writing anything - Based on my experience, most fresh grads do not have extremely relevant job experience (unless you are lucky to have scored a really rewarding internship). For developer positions, I think it is ok to not have any job experience and just list projects
## 5. Use reverse chronological order Always list your resume in reverse chronological order - the most recent at the top. Recruiters are more interested in what you have worked on recently than what you worked on 3 years ago. Chances are, you probably forgot the details too anyway.
## 6. Make sure you are contactable - Get a proper email account with ideally your first name and last name, eg. "john.doe@gmail.com" instead of "angrybirds88@gmail.com" - If you are using your school's .edu email, try to have an alias like "john.doe@xxx.edu" instead of "a002342342@xxx.edu" - Avoid emails like "me@christi.na" or "admin@[mycooldomain].com" -- because it is very prone to typo errors - Make sure the number you have listed is the best way to reach you. The last thing you want is to miss the call from the recruiter because you typed the wrong number, or you are not available on that number during office hours (most probably the times the recruiter will call)
## 7. Pay attention to the layout, formatting, and design - Be consistent about the way you format your resume. Italics, underline, bold, and how they are used - Keep to a single standard font (avoid fancy fonts like Comic Sans or whatever) and do not have too many varying styles/font sizes/color - Be consistent about the way you list your dates (eg. May 2011 - Aug 2011). Avoid using numerals for both month and date due to the difference in style for MMDD and DDMM in different countries. Dates like "Aug 2011 - June 12" just show that you have zero attention to detail - Unless you are applying for a design job, just stick to the standard "table" style for the resume. There is nothing wrong with the standard style, and it helps the recruiter screen your resume more efficiently since they are trained through experience to read that format. It would also help in the automatic scoring by the ATS. The last thing you want is for your application to be rejected because the system could not parse your resume for it to be scored. That said, I am not discouraging you from coming up with your own design. It is nice to read something different. Just be aware of the risks you could be taking - Name your file `firstname_lastname_resume.pdf` instead of `resume.pdf` - it is easier for recruiters to search/forward - PDF preferred over Word doc - Be consistent about bullet points - Your resume should not look sparse. (Come on, it is only 1 page!) If you really have trouble filling it up, you are either not thinking hard enough, or not doing enough. In the case of the latter, consider working on your personal projects (i.e. stuff you can post on GitHub). That said, do not write stuff just to fill space. Read point 4 - This should be common sense, but do not commit fraud, i.e. apply for the same job using a different name, or using your friend's resume to apply for the same job. Some ATS issues an indicator if they suspect the application to be a duplicate - It's important to note the layout of your resume. If you choose to quickly upload your resume via an auto-fill program, understand that the program will read your resume from top to bottom, left to right. This is good to keep in mind when developing the layout of your resume - Try to keep white space down to a minimum. This will also help reduce the length of your resume to one page. Reduce margins and paddings reasonably
## 8. Listing your skills It is useful to list your relevant skills in a quick summary section for easy reading/matching. However, many people make the mistake of listing as many skills/programming languages in the resume as possible. This may get you through the ATS scoring, but it definitely would not leave a good impression on the recruiter - the actual human reading your resume and deciding whether to call you up for an interview! Ideally, if your resume is good enough, the recruiter should already know what you are proficient in. The skills section is just a quick summary/reiteration. **Listing a bunch of technologies you claim you know without actually showing how you have worked with them is pointless.**
## 9. Include your projects - Ideally, 1-2 lines about the project, 2-3 lines about your role, what technologies you used, what you did, your learning, etc etc. These can be Final Year Projects, Research projects, projects for a particular class, freelance projects, or just personal projects (ie. GitHub stuff) - Ideally, 2 to 3 projects that align with your interests/position you are applying for - Avoid using titles such as "Project for [module code]". Sorry, the recruiter has no idea what class is represented by the module code. Ideally, you want the project section to demonstrate your personality and skills, and be the talking point during the interview
## 10. Include your online profile/other interests Here's the news - Recruiters do search for your name! Definitely pre-empt that by Googling/Facebook-ing/searching yourself on all forms of social media to see what turns up. Make sure your privacy settings are restricted so your online profile shows only the image you are trying to project. If you have some space on your resume, it is good to list additional interests outside of coding. Eg. skiing, water sports, soccer, etc etc. Gives the interviewer something to talk to you about. It also shows that you are a well-rounded individual/cool person to hang out with.
## 11. Bonus: Country-specific customization If you are applying to foreign countries, it'd help to customize your resume to make it easier for recruiters of that country to understand your resume. For example, you can do the following for US roles: - If you're interning, expected year of graduation (month as well if you know) because some places only want to hire interns who are graduating soon - Mention work eligibility. This is straightforward for Singaporeans (mention eligibility for H-1B1 visa) - Convert your grades to a GPA out of 5 and mention whether it's First Class Honors/Summa Cum Laude
### References - [Screening your resume is like playing word search](https://medium.com/@christinang89/screening-your-resume-is-like-playing-word-search-60f4d0e60840) - [10 tips to get past resume screening for College Students/Grads](https://christinang89.quora.com/10-tips-to-get-past-resume-screening-for-College-Students-Grads)