Warning: Not complete.

As part of my work, I’ve had the privilege of doing resume reviews and have been an active participant in various outreach activities. My personal joy is in reaching out to University and College students as part of a School trip.

Note: While some of the insights here have come from experiences that were gained during my time at Google and other employers, none of this is in any way meant to indicate some form of preference, or behind the scenes insight, for obtaining any sort of employment or special consideration. I do not speak for my current, nor any of my former employers, in any capacity.

There are many suggestions for how to write resumes, and I’m sure that in the current AI/ML enabled environment, many of the suggestions are going to be very different from past best practices. Please do additional research to ensure that your resume provides you the best possible option to reaching a human reviewer. Once your resume does reach a human reviewer, the key is to convey the most important information in the most efficient method possible. Naturally the implementation of that method may be different for different job markets. A job in design may have different requirements from one in Site Reliability Engineering. My experience is mostly in the Software Engineering and Site Reliability Engineering space. Take these points with that in mind.

Common Mistakes

First let’s go through a quick list of common mistakes:

1. Typos and grammar. Most of an SRE and SWE job will be to communicate with many stakeholders. Writing design documents, reviewing designs and code, and otherwise persuading other folks to your viewpoint. Having typos and grammar mistakes brings across the impression that you lack detail orientation. For a SWE or SRE, that can be a death knell. Make sure that any “quick changes” you make are sound. Use a spell checker. Double check any AI generated content. Have another person read your resume. Read your resume from bottom to top.

2. Formatting. The resume is meant to convey information in the most efficient manner possible to your resume reviewer. Make sure that your font is easy to read and one of the standard fonts. At least 12pt font. Black print on white background. Consistent spacing, plenty of margins (give the reviewer a place to scribble notes!). Put your name and contact information on every page. Make sure that the formatting works in email, Google docs, MS Word, etc. A PDF will likely be the best option.

3. Too long or rarely, too short. Many resumes have way too much information in them and are much too long. Keep a resume to less than 1 page for every decade of work. Keep in mind, is experience from 20+ years ago really still relevant to a current resume, created for a current job search? Make sure your resume is purely there to get you an interview, to get you into the room.

4. Lies and exagerations. Do not lie on your resume. Keep to your accomplishments. Do not embelish on your degrees or certifications. At some point these things will come out and then they’ll bite you.

5. Confidential information. Absolutely never put an employer’s (or really anyone’s) confidential information in a resume. Well, your name and contact information, but nothing else. Your new employer is going to pretty much reject your resume outright if they find that you’re willing to share confidential information. They do not want their intelectual property shared.

Unfortunately, all too many resumes contain at least one, and usually multiple of these mistakes.

Content Is Key

So you’ve gone over your resume and made sure that all the mistakes have been taken care of. It’s short, to the point, easy to read, has no mistakes, and… it’s just not pulling in any responses. Now we need to look at the content we are using to convey the information in our resume. For each piece of experience you have within your resume, see if you’re following the following basic recipe:

	Accomplished [X] as measured by [Y] by doing [Z]

That’s it. For each point, clearly indicate what it is that you accomplished, how you measured that accomplishment, and what you did to accomplish it.

One of the questions I usually get asked when talking with students is:

	... but how do I say this for the <insert example job here>?

It is true many jobs that students have before they enter their first SWE/SRE job may seem like they do not have an relevance to the job you’re applying for. Do not despair. Put on a mix of school projects, personal projects (if you have them), and work experience, while following the above formula. If you look at the following two points, which one would you think reads better to a potential employer?

• Cashier at Coffee Is Awesome
• Provided excellent service as a Coffee Is Awesome cashier as shown by receiving multiple national customer service awards over 3 consecutive quarters in 2020.

As you can see, the second point provides much more specific data points than the first. It even provides crucial information that the first misses out on. Unless the reader of your resume happens to know a lot about Coffee Is Awesome and what exactly the duties of a cashier there are, they’re not going to know that customer service was an integral part of your job. Nor will they know how your performance was measured, nor what you achieved. Be concise, but make sure all the information necessary is there.

This example brings up another point that a lot of students asked about during my interactions:

	My job is just <insert reason here> and not really relevant, how do I show
	that my work is relevant to my dream SWE/SRE job?

Your future employer is looking at your type of resume not because they are looking for a Senior Staff Engineer, but because they’re looking for a Junior Engineer that can grow and has certain attributes. Some of these attributes are going to be beyond the “I know <insert computer language here>” or your knowledge of <insert framework here>, etc. Those parts are just table stakes. Knowing the language is part of your toolset.

Beyond those basic table stakes, employers are going to be looking for people that can learn and lead. People that can identify a problem, devise a solution, and execute on that. Every job is different. But every single job I’ve had, has had opportunity to make something better. To improve the business. To improve the quality of the workplace.