Not Landing Interviews? See If Your Tech Resume Passes This Quick Test
You ask a group of programmers, “What’s the worst part of job searching?”. What do you think they’ll say?
“Bombing a coding interview”
“Getting passed up for another applicant”
“Receiving an offer and its a lowball”
Now, I won’t lie. I’ve been there, and these all majorly suck. But there’s another scenario that trumps them all:
“Apply for hundreds of jobs and hear nothing back”
All those hours spent searching and hardly any responses back. Talk about feeling defeated. And worst of all, it’s incredibly common.
But luckily, one simple change can have responses coming in.
Why Does Nobody Respond?
Alright, first things first: why the hell is nobody responding to you?
Is it because you aren’t qualified? Is your resume just getting lost in massive piles of applicants? Or maybe hiring managers are just jerks who don’t value your time.
Well… it’s often none of these.
I’ve found one of the biggest reasons for people not hearing back is that their resume isn’t easy to read.
(I know, I know. You’re probably thinking how simplistic and stupid that sounds. But just bear with me a second)
The 7 Second Test
Before I dive into my reasoning, let’s do a quick test.
First, take out your resume
(And yes, you should really take it out right now and do this)
You’re going to pretend that you’ve never seen your resume before. You don’t know your experience, your education, etc. You have no idea who you are.
Now you’re going to set a timer on your phone for 7 seconds. When you hit go, you’ll start reading your resume with “fresh eyes”.
I want you to genuinely see how much you can learn about yourself in those 7 seconds. What kind of experience do you have? What can you offer? Etc.
Do this now and then come back.
(Really! It’s worth it I promise)
The Results
How’d you do?
If your resume is like most people’s, you probably gathered your name and that your objective is “I’d like a job”. Not exactly the best description of you, huh?
Why does this little “7 Second Test” matter?
Because according to sources like Indeed and Business Insider, that’s how long hiring managers spend looking at your resume before deciding to go forward or not.
You’ve got 7 seconds before they decide to keep learning more or to toss you aside.
While that might seem a bit harsh, the recruiter isn’t brushing you aside out of spite. They often have so many applicants that it’s not reasonable to give each applicant a thorough look.
That said, how do we make sure you pass the initial 7 seconds?
Tips for Improving Your Resume
1. Order your resume sections (and bullets in the sections) by relevancy to the job.
– Suppose you didn’t go to college, but have released several iOS apps. You would have a “Personal Projects” section way higher than your “Education” section.
– Let’s say you just graduated with a CS degree, but have no relevant work experience. You put your “Education” section above your “Work Experience” of delivering for Papa Johns.
2. Be concise. Like really concise.
– If your resume looks like an essay, it’s not getting read (yes, even if you did it in MLA format)
– Each item on your resume (a job, a school, etc) should have around 5 bullets max that briefly describe it
3. Don’t waste resume space on generic things.
– Don’t put an “Objective” section (I mean, we all know your objective is to get a job).
– Don’t waste space describing yourself as “hard working, a quick learner, etc”. It might be true, but if anyone can put it on their resume, it doesn’t hold much weight.
4. Keep it one page
– If you’re a newer dev and feel its hard to keep things one page, your not being nearly concise enough
– Once you have ~10 years of experience (or worked at ~5 or so jobs), you can decide on adding a second page
5. Unfortunately, Buzzwords matter
– Every tech role has a list of technologies in the job posting. Make sure your resume mentions any relevant ones you have experience with.
– A “Skills” section at the bottom can be a great place for developers to list what they’ve worked with. That way you don’t bloat the rest of your resume with “buzzwords”.
Conclusion
Now, I can’t solve everyone’s resume in a short article. There’s an endless number of reasons why someone’s resume might not be working.
That said, I certainly think the general tips above can help you. After all, if your resume isn’t easily readable, none of your other potential issues even matter.
Now, if you want a step by step guide to making a great resume, I happen to have a course that covers just that! (How convenient, I know 😉).
- On average, there are 118 applicants for every one job. Learn how to build a resume that stands apart from the rest.
- 1h 33 mins
- 19 lessons
But even if you don’t take the course, I really hope this article helps you improve your resume and earn more responses from recruiters.
And finally, best of luck on your job search!
