Resume Mistakes and Tips
This a chapter of the book Get a Better Developer Job. It’s best to start at the beginning.
Resumes. You get a lot of conflicting opinions on them. In some cases, conflicting facts. Programmer turned recruiter Aline Lerner did a study and found out that both developers and recruiters do a lousy job of using them to predict whether the candidate will do well (albeit for different reasons). Would it shock you to learn that both groups assume the opposite, that they are good at it? I didn’t think so.
It could be because people spend 30 seconds reading them. I’m not exaggerating, that’s been measured. I’m sure that hurts some and helps others.
But like it or not, they’re here to stay in one form or another, so let’s explore how to maximize their benefit. Or at least not ruin your chances.
Updates
I recommend quarterly reviews of your career, and this is a great time to update your resume and LinkedIn profile. If you procrastinate until you’re looking for a job, A) you may forget things (see “Quantify” below) and B) major updates to your LI profile raise eyebrows. If you’re not looking, you can honestly tell your boss you’re trying to keep it up to date to improve networking opportunities. And it won’t hurt to show off your value to your employer as well. A week before your annual performance review is an excellent time to update your profile. Put it on the calendar.
Format
The two you need are Word and LinkedIn. Elaine Wherry of Meebo did a test of recruiters and found that despite claims to the contrary, they all used LinkedIn exclusively to find developers. I’m sure a few would use GitHub or StackOverflow, but unless you include your contact info, there’s no way to contact you on those services. Yes, you’re going to get contacted by clueless people.1 But the alternative is being completely invisible to those looking to hire you. Not all will be recruiters, either; some will be managers or leads with whom it would be good to connect.
A lot of people submit PDF resumes instead of Word. I suppose they are worried about recruiters adding some skill they don’t know. But the number of recruiters who will do this is vanishingly small because it’s fraud and they will lose their clients for it.
In contrast, do you know what percentage of PDF resumes I’ve gotten that contain mistakes? 100%. Send it in Word and allow the recruiter to fix it if necessary. Just ask for them to give you a copy if they made any improvements.
Style
If your work involves anything visual, such as front-end or UI work, you may want a fancier Word template for your resume. However, I’ve seen something as simple as a two column resume completely screw up the resume parser and the result was horrible.
So if you decide to be creative, make sure you also have an easy to parse resume for uploading to applicant tracking systems (ATS). One way to do this is export your LI profile to PDF. All ATSs can read that without error.
Objective
Remove it. Everyone has the same objective: get the job. You’re more likely to put something that turns them off than gets them excited. Save this for the cover letter and give yourself more real estate.
Phrasing
First, remove the alphabet soup. I don’t mean the acronyms developers should know, like ORM, MVC, API, etc. Those are all fine. I mean the TLAs your corporate overlords made up:
“Enhanced the QPR system for the AR department of IDS.”
Nobody outside your company knows what that means! I’d wager that some employees within the IDS division don’t know.
Furthermore, say exactly what you did. Do you have any sentence that begins with:
- Involved in…?
- Participated on a team that…?
- Worked on a project that…?
Or even “enhanced” from the previous example. The rest of that sentence won’t get read. They’re not hiring your team or buying your product; they’re determining if you personally are a good fit. We write these things because we feel insecure about what we did, but something is better than nothing and it’s more impressive than you think. Be sure to describe both your role (architect, programmer, manager, etc.) and detail what that software did. E.g.,
- “Modified the security configuration to allow social sign-in from Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn (OAuth 2).”
- “Conceived and created a multi-criteria recommender system implemented with Amazon Machine Learning, which generated a list of complementary products. Implemented custom tracking using Google Analytics Enhanced Ecommerce to show it generated $30K in additional sales per month.”
I looked at my own profile and discovered clarifying what I did actually made me look better.
Quantify
Knowing the financial (or other quantitative) impact you had on the project (like the second example above) is very powerful, but few non-managers do this. Talk to your manager, ask what effect your work has on the bottom line. If they don’t know, your organization isn’t using metrics effectively – a great opportunity for you if you’re interested in management.
Tailor
If you have a lot of experience, tailor it to the job you’re applying to, and organize it from most to least impressive. If you developed a system from scratch, leave the soft skill stuff like “gathered requirements” and “documented the API” for last. Yes, they’re important, but since every developer does these things, they don’t make you stand out in any way.
Typos/Errors
You may have heard that typos will get your resume tossed in the trash. Managers think that if you couldn’t take the time to proofread it then you must not be serious.
I’ve heard developers say, “If they dismiss me because of typos, I don’t want to work there!” Well, two things about that: while developers and recruiters can’t predict performance from resumes, Aline Lerner found that typos predict bad interview performance. If you can’t get the resume right, you’re probably not practicing for the interview, either.
And two: the compiler doesn’t tolerate typos, either! We’ve got a job that is very detail oriented and bugs can cost insane amounts of money. When your first impression is that this person is careless, it just puts a big FAIL stamp on your resume.
Don’t forget, it’s most effective to catch bugs in requirements, which is why every job requires great verbal and written communication skills. A resume communicates your value to the company. First by telling them what you can do, but also your command of English. It’s a famously difficult language, but you only have to get a single page right and you have as much time and help from friends (or professional resume writers) as you need.2
I’ve observed that some people who’ve learned English as a second language put little emphasis on capitalization – even on their own name. Or the opposite, capitalizing words that don’t require it (it’s Java, never JAVA). I assume their native alphabet or grammar does not stress capitalization. Similarly, many languages have a different plural form, and English has exceptions, so pluralization from those writers appears random. The easy solution is to get a strong English writer to proofread it for you, or hire a pro.
And if you want to improve your writing in general – even if you’re a native English speaker- there are a couple great books. My personal favorite is Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace:
I like it because it’s prescriptive about to write clearly, with many examples. I was writing much more clearly by the second chapter. This is in contrast to the oft suggested Elements of Style by Strunk and White, which is more suited to professional writers. Another book (which I haven’t read, but is well praised and free online), is On Writing Well by William Zinsser. Both are oriented toward writing nonfiction.
That said, Word now does a fantastic job of grammar/style suggestions. And ChatGPT can help now as well.
GitHub
A lot of developers have a number of GitHub projects that show off their skills. I’ve heard some say, “GitHub is my resume.” I won’t pull punches – GitHub is a terrible resume format.
A number of managers have complained about how annoying it is to find exactly which projects you contributed to and what you did. Keep in mind, these are managers like me who have a GitHub account and projects of their own there. Furthermore, you want to control your own story. So I recommend having a list of projects with descriptions that detail what you did, the reasoning behind your technical decisions, and a direct link to your list of commits. LinkedIn has projects and this is a good place for them.
Discrimination
Lastly, your name may be limiting responses to your application (or how often recruiters contact you):
http://whatwouldkingleonidasdo.tumblr.com/post/54989171152/how-i-discovered-gender-discrimination
Another possibility is age discrimination. Personally, I have not seen that, but I’m sure it exists. The way around that is removing your graduation year and early positions if they are no longer relevant (likely if you’ve a long career).
Finally, there are many questions that are illegal to ask you in interviews: race, ethnicity, religion, marital status, etc. A new one in California is salary. Do not put these on your resume, including a photo. It makes HR people nervous, and a few have a blanket policy of rejecting them to avoid potential lawsuits.
And I know, that photo is on your LinkedIn profile so connections can recognize you (especially if you have a common name). We live in a world rich in irony. You can always remove it if you think it’s interfering with your job search. However, you’re probably better off using a quality photo of you smiling and looking friendly. Who doesn’t want to work with that person?
Discrimination against anything is beyond stupid (and illegal), but you should be aware of it, lest it unfairly shake your confidence.