4 ms·

Job Search advice and resume feedback

18 points by MKeehl 3y ago

Hi! I recently graduated with a Masters degree in Computer Science. I conducted research and did my thesis in the field of Machine Learning and Computer Vision. I'm interested in pursuing a career in the field of Software Engineering (instead of ML or CV) as I find it more fulfilling and enjoyable personally than working in CV or doing research, especially in startups. I enrolled into graduate school right after graduation from university so I could only get professional experience while being a student. By the time I graduated grad school, all my professional experience was in the field of SWE (Full-stack Web Dev) through: - Four internships: 2 x 3 months + 2 x 6 months - Freelance work: 1 year 6 months - Contract work: 3 months However, during my job search for entry level dev jobs (in startups) in the last 2 months, I received many rejections (100 applications, 50 rejections, 40 no-response, and 10 interviews that didn't result in job offers). Is that response rate normal considering my resume and my experience? Here is a link to my resume https://imgur.com/Mssxs1K and I'd appreciate any feedback or thoughts about it (what to improve, add, delete...). I only included my four most recent professional experiences to keep my resume fit in one page. Thank you

RadixDLT 3y ago
nobody uses asp.net except the homeless on the streets of Fan Francisco
- RadixDLT 3y ago
  you should also contribute more to open source JavaScript projects
- MKeehl 3y ago
  How about the rest of the resume? What do you think?
sjducb 3y ago
The CV looks good, only change is to move the skills section to the top. Your CV will pass through several non-technical ppl before getting to a technical person. They are all scanning for keywords like JavaScript. Make it super clear that the 3 month was a fixed term contract. It looks like you got fired. Otherwise it’s just hard out there right now. When I started programming in 2014 anyone could get a job.
- MKeehl 3y ago
  Thank you for your feedback! You're suggesting moving the Skills sections at the very top even above the Education section? And then have the personal projects at the very bottom?
  - sjducb 3y ago
    Yes
eggsellent_folk 3y ago
Yes, the current job market is hard. I think the CV looks alright, maybe one thing you could try is also highlighting the impact of your work as the starting phrase for each contribution you did. For example: "Reduced processing time to [X] seconds/hours by developing [X] system"
tacostakohashi 3y ago
The work experience blurbs are a little bland, especially the top one. "most popular products" => which products? "leading e-commerce platforms" => which platforms? Where are the numbers? How many products, user reviews, comments are we talking about? How could it be more, and run intraday? The template/format you are using is also a very common one, which is fine as a starting point, but to stand out it wouldn't hurt to customize a little, to suit your exact situation (e.g. if the country is the same, just take it out and use the space for more details). Your resume is not terrible, but it's not something that would stand out / go to the top of the pile either.
- MKeehl 3y ago
  Thank you! Appreciate the feedback. Do you think the resume would give me interviews at least (passing the document screening) for entry level positions?
  - tacostakohashi 3y ago
    What I think isn't too interesting, according to your own experience you only got interviews 10% of the time. The purpose of a resume is to get you interviews - it doesn't have to tell your entire story (that's what the interviews are for), or get you a job, it just has to get you an interview. Most candidates are eliminated before the interview stage, because interviews are time consuming and expensive for the company.
neural_thing 3y ago
Honestly, 10% interview rate for a new grad is pretty good. I wouldn't worry about the resume. Failing 10 interviews is concerning, though. Drill down on what's going wrong there.
- atrettel 3y ago
  Not getting an offer after 10 interviews may seem concerning at first, but based on my experience there is a lot left to chance here. I typically get offers after 25% of jobs that I interview for. If I had 10 interviews, I would have a 94% chance of getting at least 1 offer (assuming a binomial distribution). But a lot of this really depends on the probability of getting an offer conditioned on an interview. If that drops to 10%, then that job seeker would only have a 65% chance of getting at least 1 offer. 5% leads to a 40% chance of getting at least 1 offer. My point is that 10 interviews really is not that much in this job market, unfortunately. Anything you can do to increase the odds would help --- trying to figure out "what's going wrong" --- but nothing might be going wrong per se and you just have to apply to more positions. It's a numbers game, unfortunately.

18 points by MKeehl 3y ago

RadixDLT 3y ago

nobody uses asp.net except the homeless on the streets of Fan Francisco

RadixDLT 3y ago
you should also contribute more to open source JavaScript projects
MKeehl 3y ago
How about the rest of the resume? What do you think?

sjducb 3y ago

The CV looks good, only change is to move the skills section to the top. Your CV will pass through several non-technical ppl before getting to a technical person. They are all scanning for keywords like JavaScript. Make it super clear that the 3 month was a fixed term contract. It looks like you got fired. Otherwise it’s just hard out there right now. When I started programming in 2014 anyone could get a job.

MKeehl 3y ago
Thank you for your feedback! You're suggesting moving the Skills sections at the very top even above the Education section? And then have the personal projects at the very bottom?
- sjducb 3y ago
  Yes

eggsellent_folk 3y ago

Yes, the current job market is hard. I think the CV looks alright, maybe one thing you could try is also highlighting the impact of your work as the starting phrase for each contribution you did. For example: "Reduced processing time to [X] seconds/hours by developing [X] system"

tacostakohashi 3y ago

The work experience blurbs are a little bland, especially the top one. "most popular products" => which products? "leading e-commerce platforms" => which platforms? Where are the numbers? How many products, user reviews, comments are we talking about? How could it be more, and run intraday? The template/format you are using is also a very common one, which is fine as a starting point, but to stand out it wouldn't hurt to customize a little, to suit your exact situation (e.g. if the country is the same, just take it out and use the space for more details). Your resume is not terrible, but it's not something that would stand out / go to the top of the pile either.

MKeehl 3y ago
Thank you! Appreciate the feedback. Do you think the resume would give me interviews at least (passing the document screening) for entry level positions?
- tacostakohashi 3y ago
  What I think isn't too interesting, according to your own experience you only got interviews 10% of the time. The purpose of a resume is to get you interviews - it doesn't have to tell your entire story (that's what the interviews are for), or get you a job, it just has to get you an interview. Most candidates are eliminated before the interview stage, because interviews are time consuming and expensive for the company.

neural_thing 3y ago

Honestly, 10% interview rate for a new grad is pretty good. I wouldn't worry about the resume. Failing 10 interviews is concerning, though. Drill down on what's going wrong there.

atrettel 3y ago
Not getting an offer after 10 interviews may seem concerning at first, but based on my experience there is a lot left to chance here. I typically get offers after 25% of jobs that I interview for. If I had 10 interviews, I would have a 94% chance of getting at least 1 offer (assuming a binomial distribution). But a lot of this really depends on the probability of getting an offer conditioned on an interview. If that drops to 10%, then that job seeker would only have a 65% chance of getting at least 1 offer. 5% leads to a 40% chance of getting at least 1 offer. My point is that 10 interviews really is not that much in this job market, unfortunately. Anything you can do to increase the odds would help --- trying to figure out "what's going wrong" --- but nothing might be going wrong per se and you just have to apply to more positions. It's a numbers game, unfortunately.