Latest news with #résumé
Yahoo
07-08-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
I'm a software engineer at Microsoft. Here are the résumé tips that landed me 4 job offers, including from Amazon and eBay
Ritvika Nagula, an engineer at Microsoft Azure, said these résumé tips helped her land four offers. Nagula said engineers should highlight individual projects and show their work on GitHub. See her full résumé below. This is an as-told-to essay based on a conversation with Ritvika Nagula, a senior software engineer at Microsoft Azure. She's worked at the company since 2019. Her employment and job offers were confirmed by Business Insider. This story has been edited for length and clarity. I graduated around December 2018 and shortly after landed four job offers, including from Microsoft, Amazon, eBay, and a startup. I chose Microsoft and joined in April 2019. I was not just cold-applying, I was applying everywhere: on LinkedIn, on Indeed, I was going to direct company portals to apply from there. I was reaching out to people on LinkedIn who were at those companies, or if I was able to find out who the hiring manager for a particular role was. I tried to use all my networking skills to at least make sure that my résumé got through from the initial phase, when it's just recruiters or just some hiring manager going through papers without actually knowing you. While cold-applying isn't the most effective, if you have a strong résumé, it can eventually work out for you. For software engineers, at least from what I've seen throughout my career, the résumé is definitely the most important thing. The cover letter is almost always optional. So I took extra care to make my résumé stand out. Highlight your individual projects, including ones you did on the side If you have any internship experiences or previous work experience, that should be something that you highlight at the top of your résumé because that immediately makes it stand out, even if it was just three or four months. Some companies also take co-ops, and I was a co-op intern at a startup for seven months. That was at the top of my résumé. You also should list individual projects you have worked on. For every project that I had listed on my résumé, I made sure to highlight the programming languages and tools and how I used them. This helps in two ways. It helps somebody reading your résumé understand that you have this breadth of tools and languages that you have used, and then, within the project description, you go into two to three lines of detail to explain how you used those particular tools. You should have three kinds of projects: One would be a project you worked on in your internship. Another is going to be the projects that you did as part of your coursework, in grad school or undergrad. And then the third should be all the extra projects that you did on the side, which show that you're really passionate about becoming a software engineer. This would be something you did on your own time. Nobody gave you grades, and you didn't have to submit this at a particular time. No deadlines, no assessment. Just something that you did for yourself. One of these I included was a Facebook chatbot I made, which you could use to get information about books. So you would essentially be talking to a chatbot and asking, "What about this book?" And it would give you a quick summary. I built it using publicly available APIs from GoodReads. Show your work with GitHub For software engineers, GitHub is like a substitute for a cover letter. It's something that everybody uses to maintain their code in, and you can have a private repository, or you can have a public repository. I leveraged it by keeping all the projects that I did as part of my coursework updated in my GitHub profile. I also made sure that I updated the code for all these tiny extracurricular projects that I had. Then I put my GitHub username on the résumé itself and hyperlinked to my actual GitHub portfolio page. That way, if a prospective hiring manager is going through your résumé, and let's say one of your projects catches their eye — if they want to go look at it, you are giving free and easy access to them right there. That automatically gives you an edge over somebody else who's just written, "worked on this chatbot for X and Y." Having the code out there in GitHub shows this website was actually coded by you, and you didn't use a website builder tool. This allows your work to speak for itself. It's not like you've just written down something on a résumé. When you put it out there on GitHub, it proves that you've actually done something about it. There are all these AI tools and AI agents now that can make your life a little easier, and vibe coding is definitely a phenomenon. But before you jump into that, it's always better to have a deeper understanding of the code that you're working with because there is only so much the AI agent is going to understand. See her résumé in full below: Do you have a story to share about getting hired? Contact this reporter at kvlamis@ Read the original article on Business Insider Solve the daily Crossword
Fast Company
15-06-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
How to use AI to write your résumé
Love or hate AI, it's reshaping how we apply to jobs. While nearly a third of job candidates think AI is hurting their job search, according to recent research from Career Group Companies, the same report found 62% of candidates using AI to write a résumé, cover letter, or writing sample for a job application—up from 32% just six months ago. So if you can't beat 'em, how do you join them and use AI to write résumés that stand out in a sea of applications? Résumé writing experts say it's important to avoid common pitfalls and know when a human touch is irreplaceable. Where AI shines The most common resume mistakes job seekers make is overlooking the fact that they need to make a good impression on hiring managers who are strangers, Marc Cenedella, founding CEO of Ladders, a résumé and career services company, pointed out. Résumés need to be clearly formatted and free from errors to help these strangers focus their attention on getting to know a candidate, what they've already done, and what they could do in a new role. AI can help with the 'common, silly errors that end up hurting [candidates] in the job search,' Cenedella said. Some of these errors can be fixed by simply asking AI to reformat or proofread a résumé. AI programs can also help change the tone or word choices in a résumé to match what a certain company is looking for. For people looking to switch jobs or enter a new field, AI can also make a good career coach, said Dana Leavy-Detrick, founder of Brooklyn Resume Studio. It can help brainstorm new roles that fit a candidate's existing skill set, and it can analyze job postings to anticipate how a candidate's résumé will stack up against the competition. AI can make it easier than ever to create a polished résumé. But with so many candidates using AI, résumé experts emphasize that human insight is still necessary for crafting a résumé that will stand out to hiring managers. 'What I've noticed is that the floor of resumes has gone up,' said Keith Wolf, cofounder and CEO of ResumeSpice, a résumé consultation service. He pointed out hiring managers are seeing more 'okay' résumés, those he'd rate a 5/10. 'It's really easy to go from a zero or two to a five [due to AI], but there are so many fives,' he said Taking your résumé to the next level requires understanding how to differentiate yourself with a human touch. Where human insight matters Although AI is evolving rapidly it still can't communicate the full experience of a candidate the way a human-written résumé can. 'There are always nuances about your field and about the way humans talk about experiences that AI doesn't quite pick up on,' Cenedella said. Using words that accurately describe a previous role—rather than just the words AI might come up with—helps lend credibility to a job seeker's application. This concern about credibility and authenticity is particularly relevant given that as many as 10% of job seekers admit to having lied on their résumé, often using AI tools like Open AI's ChatGPT to do so, according to a recent survey from AI Resume Builder of nearly eight thousand U.S. adults. 'It's pretty easy to spot when somebody's used AI to just throw in a bunch of keywords and terminology that doesn't really relate to what we know somebody at that level would be doing,' Cenedella said. Beyond capturing the nuance and correct terminology used in a job seeker's field, AI may also struggle to keep up with changes in hiring processes. Recruiters' preferences about résumé formatting and the types of applicant tracking systems they use are always changing, Wolf said, so it's important to customize a résumé before sending it out—even when using AI. How to leverage AI For job seekers who want to use AI in their résumé writing process, résumé experts say it's important not to expect its first attempt to be a perfect fit for the job you are applying to. Because AI relies on aggregating initial information, 'at best, you're sounding like what's already out there,' Leavy-Detrick said. One way to avoid writing a generic résumé, Cenedella suggests, is to ask the AI program to answer questions—such as, What are 10 pieces of advice for improving this résumé?—from the standpoint of a recruiter. By asking the program to act as a recruiter in their field, job seekers can get more targeted suggestions. Another key piece of advice, Cenedella said, is to ask AI to help candidates quantify the impact they had in previous roles. 'Every job in every field on planet Earth in 2025 can be described in numbers,' Cenedella added. Adding those numbers is an effective way to help recruiters understand a job seeker's potential, and AI programs can suggest ways to seamlessly add these numbers into the résumé. Above all, the résumé experts suggested staying true to your own story and experiences throughout the job search, rather than letting AI take the reins. 'At the end of the day, what you're doing is getting a story across,' Leavy-Detrick says. 'You want to put your own voice on it. Trust your own voice, because [AI] can't tell that story for you.'
Entrepreneur
18-05-2025
- Business
- Entrepreneur
Former VP Reveals Six Critical Résumé Mistakes That Could Cost You a Job
Former VP Reveals Six Critical Résumé Mistakes That Could Cost You a Job After reviewing more than 10,000 résumés throughout his career as a Vice President, Ethan Evans has identified... This story originally appeared on Calendar Former VP Reveals Six Critical Résumé Mistakes That Could Cost You a Job After reviewing more than 10,000 résumés throughout his career as a Vice President, Ethan Evans has identified six major mistakes that job seekers commonly make—errors that could potentially eliminate candidates from consideration before they even reach the interview stage. Evans, who has extensive hiring experience at the executive level, has developed a keen eye for spotting red flags in job applications. His insights offer valuable guidance for job seekers looking to make their résumés stand out for the right reasons. Common Résumé Blunders That Hurt Your Chances According to Evans, the first critical mistake many applicants make is failing to tailor their résumé to the specific job they're applying for. 'Generic résumés rarely make it past initial screening,' Evans notes. He emphasizes that customizing your application to highlight relevant skills and experiences that match the job description significantly increases your chances of getting noticed. The second major error involves poor formatting and organization. Evans points out that hiring managers often spend less than 30 seconds scanning a résumé initially. If your document is cluttered, hard to read, or lacks clear sections, it may be immediately discarded regardless of your qualifications. Typos and grammatical errors constitute the third mistake that Evans identifies as particularly damaging. 'These simple errors signal carelessness and lack of attention to detail,' he explains. Even a single spelling mistake can create a negative impression that's difficult to overcome. Content and Presentation Issues The fourth mistake involves focusing too much on job duties rather than accomplishments. Evans stresses that listing day-to-day responsibilities without showing measurable results fails to demonstrate your value to potential employers. He recommends using specific metrics and outcomes to showcase your impact in previous roles. Excessive length represents the fifth common error. 'Many candidates believe more information is better, but that's not the case,' Evans states. He advises keeping résumés concise—typically one page for early-career professionals and no more than two pages for those with extensive experience. The final mistake Evans highlights is including outdated or irrelevant information. This includes listing obsolete skills, very old work experiences, or personal details that don't relate to your professional capabilities. He suggests regularly updating your résumé to reflect current industry standards and removing information that doesn't strengthen your candidacy. Practical Solutions for Job Seekers Evans offers practical advice for avoiding these pitfalls: Have at least two people proofread your résumé before submission Use action verbs and quantifiable achievements Research the company and position to align your résumé with their needs Maintain a clean, consistent format with adequate white space Focus on recent, relevant experience that matches the job requirements 'The résumé is your first opportunity to make an impression,' Evans says. 'It should be treated as a marketing document that sells your skills and experience in the most compelling way possible.' For job seekers facing a competitive market, addressing these six common mistakes could make the difference between landing an interview or facing continued rejection. Evans suggests that applicants take the time to review their résumés through the eyes of a hiring manager, asking themselves if the document clearly and quickly communicates their value proposition. By avoiding these critical errors, candidates can significantly improve their chances of making it through the initial screening process and securing interviews for positions that match their qualifications and career goals. The post Former VP Reveals Six Critical Résumé Mistakes That Could Cost You a Job appeared first on Calendar.
