The following checklist is designed to help you prepare your resume for the job search. The list is extensive, but is not meant to be complete. Please see your Career Services Manager for additional information and insight.
Your resume should follow this structure:
Include:
- name
- location of your job search
- phone number
- GitHub
- personal website/portfolio (if applicable)
- Technical skills that are relevant to their desired role
- Does not include soft skills
- Does not include common skills (Microsoft Word, Photoshop, etc) Don’t list anything you don’t want to talk about
- Include any relevant background, doesn’t have to be paid work
- Previous jobs, internships, volunteer opportunities, academic projects Include:
- title
- name of the company
- city and state of the company
- dates worked at the company
- Relevant and transferable responsibilities; each accomplishment
- Is listed in bullets, not sentences/paragraphs
- Each bullet starts with an action verb (don't overuse the same verb!)
- Includes metrics, when possible
- Is clear and specific
- Include incomplete degrees, relevant coursework
- Type of degree earned
- Major/subject studied
- School’s name
- City and state of the school
- (Optional) Dates that they studied at the school
- Galvanize education is listed in the education section as “Certificate, Web Development” or ”Certificate, Data Science”
Make sure all links work (hyperlink but remove underline and blue coloring)
- GitHub
- Personal site
- AngelList Make sure all text of handles and links are correct
- GitHub
- AngelList
- Every bullet must start with a strong verb in the past tense
- Do not start with “Successfully,” or “Seamlessly” - these can be incorporated later in the bullet point
- Do not start with weak verbs like “assisted,” “used,” or “worked” - they do not demonstrate a skill or communicate your value
- Check to make sure you did not use the same verb twice. Use thesaurus.com if you need help to diversify your verbs
- For every bullet about your applications, always answer the following questions:
- What interesting technical thing did you build?
- What technology did you use to build it?
- What was the technical benefit?
- Is there a way to quantify your impact?
- Refactored search algorithm to reduce component load time by 2.1 seconds
- Architected new testing suite with Mocha and Chi, reducing unit testing time by 1.4 seconds per build If you faced interesting technical challenges, talk about how you overcame them E.g., scalability challenges, load times, etc.
- Built modular front-end views with React for complexity management and scalability
- Designed responsive UI/UX with HTML, CSS and react-bootstrap for a seamless experience across device sizes
- Created RESTful API with Node and Express for scalability and maintainability.
- Integrated scheduling and SMS services with Iron.io and Twilio for open communication channels
- Designed document-based schemas with MongoDB and Mongoose for flexibility in data modeling
- Implemented authentication with Bcrypt and JWT for proven security and encryption
- Integrated Google Maps API for greater location based functionality
- List your experience in reverse chronological order
- Right align your dates for each experience
- Group your experience in appropriate sections, if necessary
- E.g., use “Professional Experience” and “Academic Experience” sections if you are going to list a past job and academic research
- Every bullet point must start with a strong verb in the past tense
- For each bullet point, answer the following questions:
- Why should the reader be impressed?
- Why was this a big deal/significant?
- How can the reader tell I was above average?
- What was I most proud of about this experience/project?
- Highlight your transferable technical skills Automation, working with engineers, project/product management, software testing, complex thinking, design
- Quantify your work - show the reader why your previous experience is impressive
- E.g., if you were in sales, did you meet your sales goals? What were those goals? How did you compare to the other members of the sales team?
- Provide information about the company to call out the company’s scale & significance
- What is their annual revenue? How many clients does the company serve?
- Focus on outcomes - how did your work impact the company?
- Were you recognized for any awards?
- Did you save the company time or money?
- Get straight to the point [Activity] [Why/Outcome] vs. [Outcome/Why] [Activity]
- E.g., “Promoted 4 times in 2 years due to excellent performance”
- Led a team of 4 while managing day-to-day operations of an import-export company
- Acquired new customers and leads through strategic marketing efforts, competitive bidding, and client referrals, resulting in $50,000 of increased revenue
- List your education in reverse chronological order
- Right align your dates for each educational experience
- Include your last institution and your degree earned (B.A./B.S.)
- If you did not graduate, include the college name and field of study - do not include B.A. or B.S., as this indicates you did receive a degree
- List scholarships/awards as “Academic Award Recipient”
- Most readers will not know the title of the award or its significance