guidance counselor 2.0 · episode 65
how to actually write a resume
key takeaways
- summary section should list years of experience in specific tech stacks so recruiters know your skill depth immediately.
- professional experience needs project-based descriptions written at a high level, not long task lists without context.
- bold only company, position, location, state and year to avoid distracting the reader with too much formatting.
- technical skills section recaps everything you've touched that you want to be called about, separate from what you did day-to-day.
- cover letters should quantify accomplishments across your career in a few paragraphs, showing impact with numbers when possible.
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about this episode
how to structure a resume with project-based accomplishments, technical skills, and a summary that tells recruiters exactly what you do.
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full transcript
auto-generated from the audio, so expect a few typos. the audio is the source of truth.
Sweet this pretty cool feature. So this is my resume template that I really really enjoy and I want to walk through this with you with you all today because So if you want this resume template go check out my website Taylor dessin.com. This is free. You can download it and It's for your for your availability So Timothy what's going on so let's go ahead and talk about the summary portion right Amber your morning Please try to cover let it please try and cover about the cover letter Maybe we'll maybe get there ask me. Let me know if you have any questions as well about this resume So let's dive in so some reports.
So the summary portion is very important People are like should I do paragraphs? No, don't do paragraphs should I? Do an objective no, don't do an objective Right summary is clear and concise What you've done summarize with years of experience right now the biggest question I get is okay What if I'm a junior developer well if you have six months of coding bootcamp put six months coding bootcamp up there Right, but for me the summary portion needs to be I need to know exactly what you do Like Immediately right so when I open up your resume I need to know you have 10 years of dot net experience four years of angular experience two years of Azure experience and a BS degree in computer science Right like those are very important things the summary portion is very important to outline To outline your entire career snapshot with years of experience because here's the deal That's what recruits and high majors want to see Right we want to see how many years of certain skill sets That you've worked with so that's what I put with the summary again if you all watching Excuse me, please add me comment me if you have any questions Let's go to professional experience.
So this is where we're this is where most of y'all mess up to be totally frank I'm gonna pull this in a little bit so y'all can see it so I'm Pulling in a little bit more so only thing that should be bolded right and and y'all take some notes The only thing that should be bolded is this portion right here is this portion company position held location state year nothing else needs to be bolded right I what happens is is Resemaze are so heavily bolded that it takes away from actually reading it You think you're drawing the readers eyes to the bold, but you're actually not you're distracting so I would only Bold this information so here's not like to see some read the company and what they do Especially if it's a small company start up not a well-known company right if you work at Google We all know what Google is you don't have to describe it right but if you work at a payment company that provides payments to I don't know 5,000 users like that's where you need to put that here right like so if I look at your resume.
I can look at what you are doing I'm what I have some questions about feed issues. Hopefully. Hopefully you all can see it.
Okay But so what when it comes to the summary that's important as a recruiter I want to see like what you're doing company wise And kind of you know the ecosystem you're in right and so here here's the big thing that most people mess up on is people don't List things out project based Right project based is incredibly Incredibly important and here is why y'all list when I say y'all the collective y'all the people Just give me 15 diagonal bullet points to task you did and it's like this doesn't tell me a story Right your resume needs to be project specific whether you're in code
school Whether you're working on your first job at a code school or you're a senior engineer You need to be project specifics on your resume right and here has here is how I would write projects on your resume so first off I would list out the major Projects in each company this way I would describe that the project in a super high level so I was tasked by my company to develop a widget that is going to say the company three million dollar Right that is what the project needs to be project level super super high level Very out very 30,000 foot view like you're
describing it to your family because let's face it We all talk to our family Definitely than we do somebody in our industry for example mom.
No, I do not code I find people that code right so that's the way you need to write your project summary then what I would do is not go crazy on bullet points right you just want to list out the main tech that you used or the main tooling you used to solve the problem right so we leverage react Js on the front end to develop Single page applications using blah blah blah blah blah then we leverage AWS to develop serverless functions to for faster response times Right that's how I would do it right specific tech describing the specific part of the project you used to solve it and then and then I would do the technologies used portion the technologies used portion is Recapping your entire tech set now the question I get a lot is Taylor that doesn't make sense I'm already listing out the tech.
I'm mainly working with so why would I list out the entire tech stack because here's the deal Let's face it we all touch technology Differently in different projects right so if you're in a dot net ecosystem using Dotnet core Azure Angular whatever but let's say that you primarily work on the angular portion But you touched Azure like I need to know you've worked in an Azure environment and if you don't if it and because Azure was not your main responsibility that's not going here I need to put it here because that is what is going to get recruits to call you Does that make sense?
Same thing here right another thing now you probably Taylor You know I had one question from a senior developer a while back because I've has I have had 15 projects I've had the same company for 10 years. You know what? You need to list your top six or so six or seven and your resume needs to be two or three pages Right, but again, it's got to be project specific these long resumes with tasks that don't tell a story don't help you If you have any questions, please ask me Again, I go very very specific and one on ones with resume writing This is obviously super high level in 15 minutes Here's another thing technical skills.
I think it's incredibly important for technical skills The reason why I think it's incredibly important for technical skills is this is a way for you to get caught up and To wait for a way for people to discover to discover you as recruits and higher managers Because if you put All the tech you've used in your career that you want to get called about that's important Right if you've worked on called fusion and cobalt But you don't want to get called about it. Don't put it here Right these are all just you're recapping your technical skills that you've used in your career And so the technical skills portion is just like another complete summary of everything you've touched Sir sir certificates not a big certificate guy, but if you have certificates here it is if you have Project side projects maybe you noted as projects down here and you list them right and then education down here now I will tell you this if you have graduated If you have graduated from a very good engineering school or have a master's in technology or computer science Or even a bachelor's I would include that back up in your summary right I still think in the industry a BS degree in Computer science or a master's in computer science or any of those related relevant Studies I think does carry a little bit of weight still does it mean it's going to set you from the top of the list?
No, but it's good to include So that is so that is that is a quick rundown on how to write a resume I'm going to keep talking for a few more minutes. So please if you have any questions comments Let me know I'll pull them back up. I'll pull up the resume template. Let's talk about cover letters. Listen I have talked to a lot of people about cover letters. I have not found a good cover letter that I like Well actually I have I had a developer send me a cover letter But I will tell you this the big thing that makes a cover letter is Writing it in a way that sells yourself.
That's project specific right? So what what you do? What you want to do is you take Your seven projects that you've done in your career or eight projects you've done in your career and you Summarize those eight projects Two like a cover letter like one thing like hey, I've worked on One project that has served 30,000 users that's leveraged, you know high availability clusters or some other jargon right? I think cover letters need to be very Quantitative very quantitative about things that you've accomplished that want to brag about right your resume is project based Throughout your career a cover letter is like cramming all of your projects in your career to like a few paragraphs or a paragraph Right like for me my cover letter would be I've recruited for 10 years And let's face it the recruiting industry everybody bails after a year and a half So I'm already ahead of the times right you want to you want to write your own jargon or your own voice in the cover letter Then I'm going to talking about how I've been elected VP of the Dutnet user group for a few years And and I've met over 4000 software engineers now in my career and over 10,000 people and you show them saying very Quantitative in your cover letter of people that you've worked with or helped etc.
A few questions that have come in again. If you have any questions now is your time to ask me on how to write a resume or a cover letter John goes my work section is all non-tech related Instead I added a section to my resume a project I've worked with with the tech I've used is that the best way to list this information I think it is that's a good way to list on your resume what I would do is I would take your technical skills your technical projects Bring it up to the top right. So what I would do is I would do the summary portion and instead of professional experience It's technical projects and then you list that out and then under it its professional experience and then you list your entire career That's how I would do it right your first page needs to be all tech experience whether it's project the real world And then on your LinkedIn I would just put tech stuff on your LinkedIn and I would Ride it like it's an actual job.
Does that make sense John? So if you've worked on a side project for a church for last three months Put that down the churches your company the month start starting end date You can highlight in this in the pro in the summary that this is a you know five hour week job Using WordPress right or something like that. That's what I would put that's what I would put on You read it on your LinkedIn Edson goes is it okay in the summer section Instead of bullet points writing sense is sharing about self-listening. I'm I'm not I like bullet points And I think hiring managers like bullet points too We don't have time just to like read paragraphs and I personally feel like I personally feel like this summer eat if it's bullet pointed Um, it's easier to read you do you Right.
That's what I say all the time like the end of the day. You do you But for me. I would do bullet points. Edson goes. What do you think about sites like rescore to to go score? No, no don't do that stuff. That's so stupid. It's arbitrary. I would Just send me an email tailor at vaco.com send me an email. I'll eyeball But I will eyeball it and tell you but don't don't do anything like that That's all arbitrary and honestly to be totally frank with you Edson anything I say is arbitrary right? That's what the funny thing is about this whole thing Resume writing LinkedIn writing all of this.
It's just people's opinions I'm just telling you what works for the 4000 engineers that I've seen and worked with Um, Amber goes how do you best present MBA masters at our progress? I would put that in the summary section and go and instead of so in the summary section was bullet pointed out Instead of going like MBA and computer or or masters in computer science right what I would do is I would Say currently studying for my MBA or currently studying for Masters in computer science right? You don't want to lead off with the MBA or MS You want to lead off with that in the bullet point because that looks like you have it But you can say currently studying Three forces away through my MBA or something like that, but I would absolutely highlight that John, thank you Edson.
Thank you. Cool. All right. Oh, well that's it for today Quick to the point on how to write a resume This will go this will be live on my YouTube for y'all checking out and share with others I would also tell you I will be chopping up this content And sharing it so again share my LinkedIn with your friends And all that jazz. I'm gonna again. Thank you. I'm tuning the guidance capture 2.0 Brendan I appreciate you man. I appreciate you a ton Share this with your friends. I think this specific episode can go a really really long way with a lot of people I appreciate you all tomorrow morning unicorn finders 930 a.m.
Central and get this unicorn finders finally got our LinkedIn live for our For our LinkedIn page so we were going live tomorrow morning unicorn finders linked in page. Hope to see you there. Thanks again