Over the years, while working at Google as a software engineer (and previously as a development team leader at Microsoft), I’ve looked through hundreds of resumes to pick out candidates who can take the next step in the interview process. Some people’s resumes impress me, while others don’t.
Over time, more and more friends and family are asking me for advice on how to improve their resumes, so I’ve rounded up some of the most common resume problems I see and hope you can avoid them:
The format and name of the resume file are optional.
If you are an interviewer looking for a senior recruiter, which of the two resumes above gives you a good impression?
Like “Li Sheng – resume. PDF” this may be a bit better, there are “front-end engineer.pdf”, [resume. Word], [Li Sheng – resume copy. Candidates may not understand the cost of screening, but this is a resume that the interviewer sees as “not paying attention.”
PDF/Word is recommended, JPEG/PNG is not recommended, Numbers/Key/Powerpoint is not recommended. There will even be [Li sheng. Zip], [Li Sheng. Rar], [Li Sheng.
If the file format is not well handled, there will be garbled, such as some versions of Windows Word, preview on Mac or preview in Intranet resume system, sometimes there may be all or partial garbled, to be on the safe side, try to use PDF format, after completion, Preview them on your computer and on your phone.
2. Spelling mistakes or typography confusion in Chinese and English.
As front-end engineer, routine job is on the web UI presentation, which is sent to the back-end, data collection to the back-end data display on the front end, and all kinds of copy, fill the pages then all spelling mistakes, how can claim is a strong sense of responsibility, careful, serious, can do every pixel of the reduction of front end engineer?
PC instead of PC, iPad instead of iPad, jQuery instead of jQuery, MySQL instead of MySQL… As for typography, H2/H3/H5 mixed headings, project descriptions larger than project experience and work experience, and lists of nested disorder, inconsistent… Too many to count.
The following is a screenshot of the resume of a child I pushed to byte before, which is clean and clear for your reference.
Forget or write the wrong phone number or email.
When I met multiple candidates, I wrote wrong email or forgot to write, and wrote wrong phone number or forgot to write, which led to the failure of HR telephone and email.
4. Missing, wrong or conflicting work experience.
For example, I graduated in July 2017, but I started to write my work experience in October 2018. After graduation, more than 1 year is blank. I stayed in school for a year after graduation, I did other industries for a year, I was unemployed for a year, I was part-time for a year Interviewers don’t have the patience to guess, and sometimes they just have to put the resume on hold.
For example, I worked in A company from July 2017 to July 2020, and I worked in B company from January 2020 to March 2021. There are 7 months overlapping in the middle. Is it wrong to write that there are two jobs in the middle or that A/B company is two subsidiaries of the same company
For example, the development timeline of the project does not coincide with the timeline of work experience. As for the work experience, please fill it truthfully and do not falsify it. It is necessary to fill it carefully.
In addition, the writing of work experience can be simplified, which is mainly to mark when and how long you worked in the company. If there is any significant promotion or commendation, it can also be included. For example, this is the resume screenshot of a boy in my former team (the company name is pseudonym) :
Five, age or educational background forget to write or deliberately omitted.
Some children’s shoes, feel yourself getting big (31), or feel bad education background (e.g., college, or 2), will be on your resume deliberately not fill in the year of birth or age, experience or education do not fill in, or put the education experience with minimal words, write a resume of the most in the end, this is not recommended, First of all, leave the impression of “smart” and “not confident” to the interviewer.
Suggest truthfully fill in, if not appropriate, then from the CV screening don’t have to waste their time on both sides behind at this moment, if appropriate, also won’t because of the fill in, and give one candidate a thorough negation, the world is not black and white, the growing experience of each individual candidates are unique, as above said, job-hopping is a chance, You may meet a very senior interviewer, you may meet an interviewer who is very disrespectful to the candidate, but in any case, you need to be honest on your resume. This is also a way to directly face your past experience. If you can face your past objectively and boldly, you will win at the starting line.
Some children will worry that if they don’t hide in this way, they will not get the interview opportunity, but can they get the Offer by hiding in this way? Maybe from some small probability, for example, some small and medium-sized factories are not particularly standardized teams, maybe they turn a blind eye, but for large and medium-sized factories, the chance of winning is lower.
6. Post your poorly maintained blog /Github/ Nuggets home page.
Some children only Fork other people’s projects and small demos written by themselves on Github. There are only a few scattered articles on their blogs, or they may post social media homepage such as Weibo /B, but there is no content in it. Then they say in their personal comments that they like social contact, are passionate about products and have good learning habits. The first thing the interviewer sees is that “even the most basic objective evaluation of their own awareness is not very good”, if put on the resume, must be put can withstand the challenge, put others in front of the eyes, put their long-term business and precipitation of content, so that will bring extra points, otherwise will only deduct points.
7. Write the project name but not the business description.
Some projects are easy to understand its business, especially the infrastructure projects, such as H5 visual building platform, while some write an H5 mall, can not see what industry, who the users are, the general functions of the project, can not predict the complexity of the project.
Or the project introduction to write a long paragraph, more than four or five lines, a project generally two lines can describe its positioning and the general scene, if the writing is too much, it indicates that the project candidate may not be familiar enough to describe it succinctly.
If the business behind the project is sensitive, you can also describe the role and content of the project from a technical point of view, as shown below:
The mistakes listed above are common to me, so in addition to avoiding them, what else can you do to enhance your resume?
Include technical details of your work
Programming language, your personal achievements and skills. I sometimes see resumes with a one-line job description like this:
- Develop an E-mail plug-in with a team of three.
Screeners will read your resume with selection criteria in mind: 1. How challenging the job is, 2. How relevant is your job to our company, so you need a clear job description. A more appropriate way to write this would be:
- Use C++ language to implement an automatic backup Outlook E-mail plug-in. Three people worked on the task, and the other two were responsible for writing the backup storage server and packaging the product for distribution to 300,000 customers.
2. Don’t let something mundane dilute the appeal of your resume
If you write too many small details, it will drag down the quality level of your entire resume. You don’t need to write, “I completed this task on time and met my expectations.” Readers will default to it if you don’t, and you weaken your resume by presenting something as an achievement that isn’t.
Sometimes I see a “main job description” like this:
Intern, XYZ Company * optimized ABC component code and increased its execution efficiency by 20%. * use C++ to achieve the front end of ABC components. * Organize documents and do some administrative work.
If this last one isn’t as influential as the first two, get rid of it. It’s okay to write just one — as long as it’s an engaging message.
Reflect your work authentically, not pompously
Screeners use their own perceptions to judge the nature and value of your work, including quantifiers, awards (internal or external), news coverage, salary increases, and other measurable things. Don’t use your own subjective description. This will flatter you without seeming arrogant.
Instead of “developed amazing software quickly,” write “increased software efficiency by 25% in 3 weeks of effort.” Instead of “I was called in to put out fires when others were messed up,” write “I was assigned to three projects that were seriously behind schedule and helped each of them through.”
Also, don’t be ridiculous and grandiose, like this:
Through the organization of an ice cream Party, the harmonious cooperation between several teams was realized.
4. Make a detailed list of all the things that will enhance your image (awards, special projects)
I have a friend named Melody (not her real name) and I’ve known her for 10 years. She developed a product that earned her company, XXX, millions of dollars and received a lot of industry praise, and it became her company’s flagship software. When I went to Shanghai, I saw a line of billboards advertising their products on the side of the highway. However, when I looked at her resume, it just said:
- Technical leader of the company’s product, which provides enterprise-level solutions for users to perform X tasks.
You write about the honors and awards you’ve received!
If you’ve done some technically challenging projects in your spare time, or have a significant number of users (several hundred), these are also listed on your resume.
5. Don’t lie
This doesn’t seem to need reminding, but I’ve seen resumes several times at job reviews that say, “Rewrote XYZ Company’s e-commerce backend.” But one of the panel members said, “I used to work for XYZ Company. That’s not what he does!”
That alone is every reason to reject the man.
Finally, I wish you all a satisfactory offer and a bright future!
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