What common resume mistakes hurt your chances of getting hired?

1. Missing Soft Skills: Don't forget to mention important soft skills like managing people/stakeholders, leading teams, and effective communication. These are just as crucial as technical skills. 2. Missing Metrics: Whenever you can, use numbers to show the impact you've made. It makes your achievements more credible. 3. Missing to showcase your learning eagerness: Show that you're eager to learn by mentioning any courses or certifications you're taking. It proves you're dedicated to staying up-to-date in your field.

A resume should not be verbose, it should have result-oriented statements that have some quantifiable outcome such as "Added CI/CD in the current project which reduces the build and distribution time by 80%"

Functional resumes are suited when you must compensate for a lack of direct demonstratable experience in the job you are applying for. Reasons for this could include: 1. You are fresh out of college and don't have sufficient work experience to highlight. 2. You are switching careers. As reverse chronological format is common, functional resumes are often viewed with skepticism and should be avoided.

Do not buy into the "1-page resume" rule. If you have 10 years of experience that is strongly relevant to the job you are applying for, do not leave them out just to fit your resume to one page. Start your resume with a brief paragraph highlighting your value proposition, followed by a section on your key achievements. Try to strongly corelate these 2 sections with the Job Description such that within the first 1/4th to 1/2th of the first page of the resume, the reviewer has a clear understanding why you are worth consideration then look for evidence in the work history that follows in reverse chronological order. The rule is about not bloating up your resume with information that's irrelevant to the role you are applying for.

0 to 5 years = 1 page > 5 years = no more than 2 pages Show the reader that you can focus on the critical few and communicate efficiently & effectively.

Your resume should tell a story about how you are a great fit for the role you are applying for. Everything you include in the resume must align to tell that story. Here, it could be confusing to read the recommendation to not be too specific. You should not narrow your scope down to an industry or specific role that you've played**. But be focused on your experiences that match the job description. **In case where you might be applying for a role with a former competitor, where they might actually be looking for this level of specificity, then you may want to be that specific as well.

Avoid using company specific terms or acronyms. Generalize the term into a universally accepted term or phrase. This not only helps make your resume readable, it also forces you to think through how to more clearly explain the role and accomplishments to an outsider.

Emphasize outcomes and impact. Instead of drowning your resume in a sea of technical jargon and enumerations, shift the focus to tangible outcomes and impact you've had in your roles. Hiring managers are more interested in how you've made a difference than the number of years you've spent with a specific technology. Example: "Increased service reliability by X% through the implementation of XYZ strategy" holds more weight than a generic statement like "10 years of experience working with JS." Back achievements with evidence. Support your claims with concrete numbers, percentages, or specific results to provide a clearer picture of your contributions.

- Resume should have quantifiable information backed up with data points. - Remember you have "10 sec attention span" to impress the recruiter.!!

1. I personally find that illustrating impact is frequently forgotten. It’s very tempting, when describing the experience, to focus on the activities done and not on the outcomes achieved. Hence a great differentiator is to depict, in a succint way, your impact and your teams’ impact for each past experience. A good way to write achievements is in the format of delivered objectives, touching on real-life outcomes, using numbers to encapsulate the impact. 2. I always appreciate candidates that can talk about their learnings. Great to see some highlighted in the resume as well.

Elevate your resume by highlighting that engineering is more than just a job; it's a passion. Integrate details about your involvement in open-source projects, proof-of-concepts (PoCs), or any initiatives that demonstrate your commitment to innovation, problem-solving, and continuous learning. This not only adds depth to your profile but also underscores your dedication to the craft beyond the confines of a typical workday. If you're transitioning to a different field or tech stack, complement your resume with a cover letter. Explain your motivations for the change and highlight transferable skills that make you a valuable candidate for the new role.