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RESUME FORMAT

what why how format on resume

recruiter's mindset
 - companies do not know hwo to assess your software engineering ability

-interviews have a rough sense they want someone who is
 -> smart, gethings done and a good fit

-but how to relialby assess this in as a little as 20mins?
 -> its almsot impossible

-so interviews fall back on
 -> heuristics/credentials/how polished your answers are



RECRUITERS MINDSET

recruiters goal : impress their boss (VP of engineering)

HOW?
 -> Not by assessing actual technical ability (the recruiter is non-tech and has almost no understanding of the work you have done)
 -> Instead, by an IMPRESSION of your being 'credible'(sounding like other people the VP of ENG hired)
 1) Ideal scenario: Send candidate who comes across as credible
 2) Next best: Send candidate who does not come across as credible but has mulitple years of experience in tech of job description
 3) No go: Candidate not credible & insufficient experience

If the recruiter ask yours 'years of experience' you have not come across sufficiently credible & they're offering a lifeline

* The recruiter only cares about years of experience as a backup if you're not coming across credibly
* Need to use resume strategically to get us into the next interview phase!

* Every word that isn't related to programming on your resume is damaging
* FOCUS ON AREAS OF STRENGTH!
* Must do INTRO section
 -> SHOW, not TELL
 -> Never write 'I'm a great team player', show them!
 -> 'Highly motivated' IS VERY BAD, HIGHLY BAD
 -> Show them how we're interesting, etc

* Try finding Codesmith Resume Guide





*** JOB SEARCH PIPELINE***

APPLICATION OR INBOUND --> PHONE INTERVIEW --> ONSITE INTERVIEW --> OFFER&NEGOTIATION


The job search process is a pipeline and all about the conversation ratios


Your initial application: the company's perspertive
-> Your job is to STAND-OUT from all the other 'cold' applications as the rare person who (despite limited years of experience) has :
 1) CREDIBLE engineering ability
 2) SINCERE INTEREST in the company



How can you maximize your conversion ratios from cold applications
-> There are 4 main strategies to get a min 20% conversion from application to phone interview

Application to phone interview
 1) Apply on angellist/linkedin/company website with a strong profile & resume
 2) Apply with a humble-confident message (or cover letter)
 3) Send a double-down email the same da y
 4) Send a follow up email 4 days later



1) Apply on AngelList/LinkedIn/company website with a strong profile & resume
 * Overall goal: Your application seen by a decision maker who can recognize your sofware engineering ability & invite you to phone interview

 Choose your applicaition platform carefully:
  -AngelList - most likely to be seen by engineers on the team - they UNDERSTAND your ability from your bullet points & have decision making power
  -LinkedIn/Company Website - most likely to be seen by internal recruiters - they have decision making power to invite to phone interview
  -Indeed.com/Ziprecruiter - lots of external recruiters w/o decision making power

 Get your online profiles(AngelList/LinkedIn) to perfection:
 - Separate lecture & sign-off process

 BONUS: Stand out w/ a referral (more on coming up on this)

 * Indeed/aggregator sites aren't that great, apply to websites directly!

 *INVITE ONLY: indeed prime, triplebyte, etc are really good!

2) Credible, humble-confident application message
 -> YOu must absolutely never apply w/o an application message (sometimes known as a cover letter)
 -> on AngelList - "add application note'cred
 -> on Linkedin - 'add message'
 -> on website -> 'add cover letter'

4 Parts to any application message
 1) Credibility signal
 2) Your personalized 'in'
 3) Call to action & logistics
 4) overall style

An example message:

 Hi Cailey - the frontend dev role in React at nfl.com caught my eye. I've really appreciated how early you took
 on React in the team (I've kept tabs in ~2016) so I'd be fascinated to hear how you've scaled it over time. I actually
 spoke at SoCal React on optimizing systems at scale with webpack a week ago.

 Most Of my work day to day is in React/Redux/Node architecture w/ specialization in the broader flux paradigm. Anyway
 I'd be happy to be talk more about the challenges you are working on if you're still looking for folk for the role.
 I'm available Wednesday afternoon nexxt week or let me know a good time thats good for you.

 All best - Will

 LinkedIn | GitHub | Resume


T SHAPE DEVELOPER - good in a 'stack" (react/node/js/aws) but masterful in 1 (could be react, etc)



* CREDIBILITY SIGNAL - How can you expose your credibility?
 - Production project
	-> Seriousness of problem it seolved
	-> 'response of dev community has been thrilling'


* Your personalized 'in' to the company - something that shows your sincere interest in the company
 -Likely not something you can find by just looking at the job description
	-> Stack choice or hsitory of stack choice(Changes)
	-> More unusual tech decisions theyve made
	-> Likely technical challenge/decision they had to make given their stack..
	-> Personal connection (shared identity w/ leadership or values of company, school, culture)
	-> Team
		-> history & background (previous engineering team of employees)
		-> talks or publications!


* Call to action and logistics
 Application message needs :
	* Strong call to action - suggestion of specific availability but also show flexibility
	* No references to resume/linkedin etc


*Overall written style of application message
 * Application message must have the tone ofa busy engineer who is:
  -> Confident enough to write a conversational (not casual) email
  -> Sincerely interested enough to have a specific non-obvious 'in' to the company

 * Stylistically this can mean:
  - Abbreviations are preferred (AWS,dev)
  - Lower case can be effective
  - Phrases like 'All best', 'cheers'
  - If you don't know name, use 'Hi there'
  - Idioms 'ahead of the game'

EX:

 hi there,

 I came across WAG when I was searching for a dog walker myself, and noticed the backend developer position wich seemed very intriguin.

 I appreciate the fact that the team is taking seriously the fascinating challenges associated w/ scaling webapps on AWS - it takes
 a concerted effeot to scale an RDS/EC2 cloud stack thoughfully. I was invited to speak on that very topic at SoCAL React/Node last week
 - 'Building w/ AWS RDS for million of users'. Hearing the challenges in broader dev community - it's thrilling to see WAG is so ahead of the game
 when it comes to scalability.

 Since your team uses AWS & SQL in the backend, I would be happy to talk about the role & contribute my ideas to the conversation.
 I'm free next week on Wednesday or thursday. Let me know if there's a time that works for you.

 All the best,
 Harry



** STEP 3: Send a double-down email
 - Most of the time companies didnt see your application because
  * Too many apps to review
  * Filter by years of experience, prestige background, intros (remember company's perspective slide)
  * irregular review of apps
 - What can we do? Answer: The double down email. Why? If your app



Ex: Hi Victoria - I just wanted to send a quick note over. Ive applied for the senioer dev role w/ Handy on AngelList but wanted to let you
 know directly - hjere's the message I shared there just so you have it, etc.




* FOLLOW UP EMAIL:

 EX: Hi Victoria - did youi get a chance to read this - let me know if you did. All good either way, here it is again etc.