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159 lines
5.3 KiB
159 lines
5.3 KiB
---
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id: write-effective-content
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title: Write effective resume content
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description: Learn how to effectively write your resume for FAANG software engineer roles
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keywords:
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[
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FAANG,
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software engineering resume,
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step-by-step resume guide,
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software engineer resume,
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FAANG software engineer resume,
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professional summary,
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skills,
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work experience,
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education,
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awards,
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]
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toc_max_heading_level: 2
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---
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Next, fill up your template!
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It is daunting to start on a fresh slate, so I recommend you start by making a laundry list of bullet points under each section, then optimizing it accordingly. This prevents excessive attention placed on premature optimization.
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**Do's for ATS readability**
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- If a divider is required between information, use "|" (pipe character) or tabs
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- Use simple bullet points
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**Don'ts for ATS readability**
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- Do not use images, pictures or diagrams
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- Do not use tables
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:::tip Expert tip
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To maximize efficiency in applying for several job types, create and keep updated a "Master resume" which you basically use to maintain an exhaustive list of all points under every section of your resume. When applying for each job, you can make a copy of the Master and eliminate or optimize points as necessary.
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:::
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## 1. Contact information
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**Must-haves**
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- Name
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- Personal phone number
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- Never include your work phone number here
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- Location - City, State, Zip
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- Just enough for recruiters to determine if you are a local or international candidate
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- Email address
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- Never include your work email here
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- I recommend Gmail if you are using other email services
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- LinkedIn profile
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**Good-to-haves**
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- GitHub profile URL
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- Personal website URL
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- Stack Overflow profile URL
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- Medium profile URL
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- Competitive coding profile
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- Codechef
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- Hackerrank
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Where relevant, indicate achievements in coding platforms, for example, max ratings, ranking, number of stars, badges.
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## 2. Professional summary
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The professional summary, if written well, will be the most effective and important part of your resume. From my experience as an interviewer, I generally may not have the time to read into the detail of resumes - hence summaries which directly address why a candidate is a good fit for the job greatly improves their chances of capturing my attention.
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**Start with a resume headline**
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Always start with a concise, one line description of yourself
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- Fewer than 10 words
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- Summarizes your experience relevant to the job description
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Examples:
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- Staff Software Engineer at Facebook with over 5 years experience leading teams
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**Summarize your best selling points**
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Below the resume headline, include a summary of yourself which expands on your resume headline.
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- 4 or less points, in bullet or paragraph form
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- Include most important skills and experiences relevant to the job applied, quantifying them where possible
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- Keep in mind to answer the question of "Why am I a good fit for this job?" - while writing the summary
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## 3. Skills
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Include programming languages and tech stacks:
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- Structure in the following manner: `[Skill summary] : [List skills separated by "|"]`
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- Programming languages - If impressive, include your familiarity by the number of lines you have written, for example "Over 10,000 lines"
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- Frameworks
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- Databases
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## 4. Work experience
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List your work experience in a familiar format and reverse chronological order. Every job listed should have:
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- The company, location, title, duration worked following this structure
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- `[Company or Organization], [Location] | [Job Title] | [Start and end dates formatted as MM/YYYY]`
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- e.g. `Facebook, Singapore | Front End Engineering Lead | 08/2018 - Present`
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- List of top accomplishments, including
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- Scope of job and skills required
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- Accomplishments listed following this structure
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- `[Accomplishment summary] : [Action] that resulted in [quantifiable outcome]`
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## 5. Education
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Most software engineering jobs will require at least an undergraduate degree. However, unless you are a recent graduate or do not have much work experience, it should not be prioritized above your work experience.
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Use the following format, eliminating information where it is not relevant:
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```
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[Degree Name], [Year of Graduation - write expected graduation date if not graduated]
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[University Name], [Location]
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- GPA: X.XX / 4.0 (List GPA if more than 3.50/4.00, or more than 4.3 under a 5-point system)
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- List key achievements, including leadership positions, skills, societies, projects, awards, etc.
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```
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Example:
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```
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BSc in Computing, Computer Science, Graduation Year 2015
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National University of Singapore, Singapore
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- GPA: 3.82 / 4.00 (Magna cum laude)
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- Dean's List, Valedictorian
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- President of hacker society
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```
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## 6. Projects
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Include at least 2 projects you have contributed to, outlining your key contributions.
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```
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Docusaurus, Menlo Park, CA
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Lead maintainer 01/2018 - 04/2020
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- Maintainer and lead engineer for Docusaurus v2, a static site generator which powers the documentation of many of Meta's Open Source Projects - React Native, Jest, Relay, Reason, etc
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- Used by 7.6k projects on GitHub
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```
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## 7. Awards, accolades and certifications
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Only include achievements related to the job application:
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- Always quantify your achievements
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- A good format to use would be: `[Year] [Quantification] [Competition]`
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```
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2016 | Best All-Round Product out of 50 teams | Facebook Hackathon
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```
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