Resume advice for applying in coding Interview

What Resume Screeners Look For

Resume screeners look for the same things that interviewers do:

• Are you smart?
• Can you code?

That means that you should present your resume to show those two things. Your love of tennis, traveling, or magic cards won’t do much to show that, so it’s likely just wasting space.

Keep in mind that recruiters only spend a fixed amount of time (about 20 seconds) looking at your resume. If you limit the content to the best, most impressive, most relevant items, they’ll jump out at the recruiter. Weak items only dilute your resume and distract the recruiter from what you’d like them to see.

Employment History

Relevant Jobs: Your resume does not - and should not - include a full history of every role you’ve ever had. Your job serving ice cream, for example, will not show that you’re smart or that you can code. Include only the relevant things.


Writing Strong Bullets: For each role, try to discuss your accomplishments with the following approach: “Accomplished X by implementing Y which led to Z.” Here’s an example:

• “Reduced object rendering time by 75% by applying Floyd’s algorithm, leading to a 10% reduction in system boot time.”
• Here’s another example with an alternate wording:
• “Increased average match accuracy from 1.2 to 1.5 by implementing a new comparison algorithm based on windiff.”

Not everything you did will fit into this approach, but the principle is the same: show what you did, how you did it, and what the results were. Ideally, you should try to make the results “measurable” somehow.

Projects

Almost every candidate has some projects, even if they’re just academic projects. List them on your resume! I recommend putting a section called “Projects” on your resume and list your 2 - 4 most significant projects. State what the project was, which languages or technologies it employed, and whether it was an individual or a team project. If your project was not for a course, that’s even better! It shows passion, initiative, and work ethic. You can state the type of project by listing course projects as “Course Project” and your independent projects as “Independent Projects” (or some other wording).

Programming Languages and Software

Software: Generally speaking, I do not recommend listing that you’re familiar with Microsoft Office. Everyone is, and it just dilutes the “real” information. Familiarity with developer-specific or highly technical software (e.g., Visual Studio, Eclipse, Linux) can be useful, but it often doesn’t make much of a difference.

Languages: Knowing which languages to list on your resume is always a tricky thing. Do you list everything you’ve ever worked with? Or only the ones that you’re more comfortable with (even though that might only be one or two languages)? I recommend the following compromise: list most languages you’ve used, but add your experience level. This approach is shown below:

• “Languages: Java (expert), C++ (proficient), JavaScript (prior experience), C (prior experience)”

Advice for Non-Native English Speakers and Internationals

Proofreading: Some companies will throw out your resume just because of a typo. Please get at least one native English speaker to proofread your resume.
Personal Information: For US positions, do not include age, marital status, or nationality. This sort of personal information is not appreciated by companies, as it creates a legal liability for them. However, you may want to include your current work authorization / visa status, particularly when applying to smaller companies who may be unable to sponsor candidates.