Information mostly gathered from [talent.works](https://web.archive.org/web/20201111191543/https://talent.works/) (now-defunct) it may be worth reading through there as these notes are essentially a summary of that content.

0_resume_tips.md

Resume Tips

Resumes between 475-600 words have a higher interview rate with a sharp cliff on either end. -- Try to fit it all on one page, 2 pages max.

Have enough keywords to match ~50% of the job requirements, but don't overdo it.

No Objective Section (Unless you're wanting it to take place of a cover letter)

Every 3 sentences, use at least 1 number to demonstrate concrete impact Hovering around 20% of the content having numbers

Keep your "Team-Oriented" vocabulary hovering around 20% as well. The other 80% should be active and claim ownership and authority.

Incorporate 1-2 leadership words every 5 sentences, strong active, leadership oriented words should be around 20% of the content as well. "communicated, coordinated, managed, organization"

Do not use personal pronouns, "you, he, me, she, etc." have a stronger concise writing style. Succinct, strong sentences -- "The Elements of Style"

Use a "Key Skills" section in combination /w the rest of your resume to incorporate 15-20 industry and job-posting buzzwords.

Force an "Objective" Playing-field, use "from-by-to" statements that include metrics/measurements that you took part in improving.

Start Achievements w/ (distinct) action verbs start describing what you did with an Action Verb at the very minimum, and if you use different action verbs for different things you did, even better.

1_example_resume.md

I realized while drafting this sample just now, that there's a trade-off when listing out your skills. You can list everything so an ATS is more likely to pick it up, but then you're wasting key space for a reader. I think for specific things in the job posting, if you have the skill you can include it, but for skills that you just happen to have, e.g. "Load Balancing", it actually implies knowledge of routing and architecture, so you can leave out some of the skills that might be considered building blocks.

Your Name - Location - Contact Info

1-3 sentences describing your background

Skills

Support - Active Directory, SSO, Windows (7,10,11), Troubleshooting Hardware/Network/Software, RedHat RHEL 8, Office Suite Networking - Load Balancing and High Availability, Packet Analysis, OSI Model, VLAN, VOIP, DHCP

---

Experience

Title 1, Employer 1, Time span

• Bullets should fight to survive and demonstrate real value to the business.
• What did you do? Why did it have an impact? Quantify the impact.

Title 2, Employer 2, Time span

• Hope this helps

Associate Support Agent, Amazon Web Services, Time span

• Rolled out software updates to #x devices at #y locations, with minimal(no?) downtime.
• Resolved an average of #x Support Cases per week, maintaining %y satisfaction rating, and surpassing the global average of #z tickets.
• Conducted training sessions for #x+ employees and reduced the onboarding process from #y months to #z weeks.
• Collaborated on the development of internal automation scripts reducing first response time by #x and resolution by $y.

---

Speaking

Topic - Venue - Time range

Participants learned how to use VLANs to deploy public WiFi access points for businesses to protect both the business network, and patron devices.

Certifications

• CompTIA A+, Net+, Sec+
• RedHat, RHCSA, RHCE

2_application_tips.md

Application Tips

Apply on Monday mornings between 6 and 10 am, within the first 4 days after a job is posted.

Meet 50% of the requirements

Apply for roles +- 2 years exp.

Applying to 150-250 Jobs should guarantee around 1 offer, expected chances of getting a job offer from a single application hover around 1%+-0.5% If you are experiencing rates higher than that, you may be an exceptional candidate, or the market has an incredibly high demand.

It's better if your shortest job length is 9+ months You're more likely to be hired if you already have a job.

Apply to companies with less than 500 employees

Freelance to gain some experience if need be, you'll get experience in your skill and in business which will make you more hireable and a more valuable asset.

How much time per day can you spend looking for a job? - If you're already employed full time, it's unlikely you'll have a lot of time during the day to look for a job. Something that can be helpful is ironing-out a system that helps you create a custom tailored resume/cover-letter, understand how long it takes you to achieve that to a high degree of quality for a single posting. i.e. You read a posting and tailor your resume and cover-letter, is it 1 hour to re-write those documents? 2 hours? If it's 2 hours you'll be spending ~500 hours in a year and only sending out 250 applications.