
Ask HN: What do you look for in a resume, which gets you to talk to the person? - mds101
Hi HN,<p>This is a question mostly for first level recruiters&#x2F;HR.<p>I&#x27;ve been job hunting recently, and while my resume (which is currently a list of companies I&#x27;ve worked for, the work duration, and the tech I&#x27;ve worked on), seems to get responses within India, the same resume when sent out to most European companies has so far gotten me only two call backs from about 300 applications.<p>So I&#x27;d like to know, when you receive a bunch of resumes, what makes you decide whom to call up and talk to?<p>I&#x27;m a full stack Javascript developer with experience in React, ESNext, Node, Postgres, Mongo, Express, Electron,  microservices, RMQ and GraphQL (amongst others). If there is anything specific about the tech I am experienced in that you would like to see in the resume, do let me know that also.<p>Thanks
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itamarst
You can imagine three levels of skill
([https://codewithoutrules.com/2018/10/10/beyond-senior-
softwa...](https://codewithoutrules.com/2018/10/10/beyond-senior-software-
engineer/)):

1\. Implement a solution someone already came up with.

2\. Solve a problem someone gave you.

3\. Identify problems.

The higher the level, the more valuable of an employee you are.

If you are level 2, you want to make sure your resume doesn't give the
impression you're level 1. So for example, don't just list "I wrote some
code", explain how you came up with this design, and why.

If you are level 3, you want to make sure your resume doesn't give the
impression you're level 2. So make sure you explain how you identified the
problem, and why it mattered.

~~~
muzani
It's really hard to put level 3 on a resume though. For example, I had a
situation where we built a product from 0 to release in 2 weeks, got revenue
and hundreds of buyers by the second month, without any funding. But just
writing it that way doesn't make it clear whether it was luck, skill or the
effort of colleagues.

~~~
itamarst
You can give context, and what you did.

"After noticing the need for X, I proposed we build Y. As a team we build an
initial prototype, and within two weeks we had revenue and hundreds of
buyers."

Example from my resume:

"I created a new product from scratch for the company. I researched user
needs, explored the solution space ([http://...](http://...)), and then built
Telepresence ([http://...](http://...)), a local development environment for
Kubernetes. As of Feb 2019 the project had grown to 1600+ GitHub stars and is
now a CNCF Sandbox project."

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cimmanom
My company doesn’t sponsor visas, but we get a lot of overseas applicants
anyway.

One theme I’ve noticed from these resumes is that for the summary of
experience they tend to list out technologies and job responsibilities. And
also to have about a dozen bullet points for each job, which is overwhelming.

This makes the candidate look incapable of independent thought - reinforcing a
negative stereotype of Indian developers. Too many of us have had or heard of
bad experiences with outsourcing companies that need to be given instructions
almost as detailed as you’d give a computer.

American and European companies (at least the good ones) aren’t looking for
coders to accept and execute instructions. We’re looking for software
developers who can synthesize context and business goals to develop software
that will create value for the business.

What I’m looking to see on a resume are projects undertaken and even more
importantly accomplishments. And only the most relevant 2-5 for each position.
How did your work impact the business?

Instead of ticking off “I’ve used this technology” boxes, focus on
highlighting your business value.

~~~
mds101
Thanks for your advice! I'd also like to know if you would consider a non-
conventional resume (like a specialized resume website), rather than a
conventional word/pdf document, as a positive or a negative?

~~~
cimmanom
Most places you’ll have to submit a PDF (or sometimes Word doc), so start with
that. Having your resume also hosted on LinkedIn or elsewhere won’t hurt you,
but it doesn’t add much value.

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bobbbi
Are you based in India? If so, I imagine the practicalities of getting a visa
are more of an issue than the quality of resume.

~~~
mds101
Yes I am currently based in India, and I know visas can be an issue, but I am
specifically talking about openings that are advertised as 'Visa Sponsored'.

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Spooky23
I’m a little deeper in the funnel, but I prefer narratives over lists of
acronyms. Give me something to talk about.

Also, are people seeing your resume, or is some middleman changing it? I
notice with Indian candidates agencies tweak them in ways or for reasons that
often don’t benefit the candidate.

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nickwhite99
We start off with internal referrals...

Your best bet is to try and network into your top companies by reaching out
via LinkedIn, asking friends and family for connections, alumni etc

