
Ask HN: What do you want to see in a resume / GitHub profile? - jakearmitage
I&#x27;ve been out of the hiring game for 7 years. I love my job, my company but, unfortunately, COVID has affected it more than we would like to believe and layoffs are going to happen soon. I want to be prepared when that happens, so I&#x27;m asking my fellow HNers: what do you want to see in a resume and GitHub profile? I&#x27;m a Principal Software Engineer.<p>I see all the cool kids with side-projects: libraries, applications, etc. I also see plenty of fancy resumes. I have a 2-page thing in Helvetica, nothing fancy, listing my achievements and skills. I tried to reduce as much as possible since I&#x27;ve been told that the more I put there, the worse it is since it makes me look old and &quot;you can&#x27;t teach an old dog new tricks&quot;.<p>I know a lot of people, and I&#x27;m sure I won&#x27;t be in a pickle. But I don&#x27;t want to rely on my soft skills or work connections to set me up in the future: what is it that the market is currently looking for and how to adapt myself to it?<p>ps.: Oh, is ageism a thing? I&#x27;m 35.
======
gas9S9zw3P9c
Let me give you a slightly different take. There are no specific things I'm
looking for. But here are a few red flags that have proven to be good
indicators of who NOT to hire. Don't

\- Use high-level vague marketing speech like "helped reduce customers
acquisition cost by $X" \- The world is complex, who knows what that means in
practice.

\- List MOOCs, certificates, or free online courses on your resume. 99% of
these require no commitment and don't teach you anything. Listing them signals
that you care about cheap credentials more than learning. If you wanted to
learn, you would've created a project out of it, tried to implement something,
or written a blog post, etc. I'd rather see "I privately read books about X in
my free time" than cheap MOOC credential signaling. That'd be more impressive
and I could ask about it in an interview.

\- List software like Excel or Google spreadsheets. I mean, if you're an
engineer I'm assuming you can use a computer. Listing this means that you're
living in a different world.

\- List fluffy soft skills like "I am a good communicator" without any backup.
Results speak louder than words.

\- Too many spelling mistakes.

These are the things off the top of my head, I may add to it later.

~~~
znpy
> List software like Excel or Google spreadsheets. I mean, if you're an
> engineer I'm assuming you can use a computer. Listing this means that you're
> living in a different world.

I'd take this with a grain of salt. Excel is a very malleable tool that can do
marvels in the right hands.

~~~
greenie_beans
Yeah spreadsheet wizardry is as valuable to a business as being able to do the
same thing with Python and Pandas

~~~
znpy
Yes.

Excel has the usual advantage to be immediately communicatable to others
outside IT: just send the excel file.

------
collyw
Unpopular opinion, but as an old person, I am starting to look down on having
too many technologies / frameworks on a CV these days. Some developers need to
try something new every project and never learn anything with style or get
deep into a tech, they are busy jumping on the next trend and learning things
at a very shallow level.

It's not a definite "no", but it's a red flag for me as to why you would need
Flask for one project when you have used Django for another and PHP for
something else. If you can convince me that you that you had a good reason for
changing that doesn't appear to be resume driven development, then I'll
listen.

Also I am starting to value team players over technical skills. Provided you
are of a reasonable level of ability it's more useful to have a team player
than a diva genius. Most of us are doing a variation on CRUD that doesn't
require superior levels of algorithmic ability.

My 2 cents having done this for 20 years and getting a bit bored of the
bullshit .

~~~
stu2b50
I think you're not being fair to assume people who try out different
technologies are looking to catch more buzzwords for their resume.

Using cutting edge technology can be fun and interesting. It may not be
optimal, but these are personal projects--they're not intended to be optimal,
but rather something more hobbyist.

~~~
collyw
How many web frameworks is it useful to know? Is it more useful to know one in
depth or many at surface level?

I don't have a problem with people trying out things, but I have worked with
developers that appear to need a new tech for every project. These people are
doing it on work time.

It's like when you see a tutorial learn python in 8 hours. That means you have
8 hours of experience in Python, you don't know it in the same way as someone
who has used it for 4 years.

~~~
schwartzworld
> How many web frameworks is it useful to know

You're almost there. It's probably not useful to know every framework inside
out, but there is a lot of value in being familiar with trends, which often
means trying out a small project in a new tech to get a feel for it and then
moving on.

What sort of value? Every programming tool (not just framework) requires you
to learn different concepts to use it. Each requires you to think differently,
which strengthens your toolbox in all frameworks, and learning new things
often makes it easier to learn.

There is the potential for professional value. You never know where the
community will go or what job listings you will see. For emerging tech, a
little side project could mean the difference between getting or not getting a
job that uses that tech.

------
IvyMike
As someone who has conducted a lot of interviews and read even more resumes,
there is no single good answer here.

Some of my peers would pour over resumes for hours. Others would look for
specific items (a technology, a company, a school). Others would almost
completely ignore the resume. Some companies I've worked at would have HR pre-
vet resumes, getting rid of ones that didn't have some magical combination of
keywords.

Sadly your resume is going to have to survive encounters will all of these
people.

I will list one personal pet peeve: do not put anything on your resume that
you cannot have an intelligent five-minute conversation about. "That was a
long time ago, I kind of forget the details" doesn't cut it--if you forgot the
details, it doesn't feel like it's part of your current skillset and thus
doesn't belong on the resume.

------
drahazar
...when did 35 become old?

Am I the only 30 yr old who feels like he only just got to grips with the
basics of how to write software like an adult?

If we're past it by 35 what happens for the other 35 years of working life?

~~~
cvs268
+1 on having the feeling of FINALLY understanding wht the whole hoopla is
after age 30. :D

BTW, based on the currently common lifestyle choices, most tech folks who are
35, likely do not have another similar 35 yrs left in them :-)

------
gregdoesit
I'm a a hiring manager at Uber. All I want to see is your profile being
relevant for the position. The second best thing you can do is choose a clear
format [1], be clear about the results you've helped happen, and customize
your resume for that specific job.

The best thing you can do is get a referral. Still with a referral you'll want
a relatively relevant resume.

And to your point on what you can _do_ to be relevant. I say keep track of the
impact of what you ship. How much $$ per year does your project generate? How
many users? How many RPS? How many engineering hours saved? Whenever I see
people with resumes who have done more impactful things than I'm hiring for, I
think: I need to talk to this person. It's exactly the type of expertise we
need. And so few resumes have any of this.

I'm also writing a book exactly on this topic, which is at 115 pages and lots
of visuals, and examples, including advice for experienced people like
yourself. As I don't trust myself only, I'm having tech recruiters and hiring
managers across the industry help me out. You can check out the beta of the
book [2] and I'd love feedback on what you might feel is missing there.

I'm planning to make the book free for any software engineer who have lost
their job due to COVID when it launches.

[1]
[https://twitter.com/GergelyOrosz/status/1279431439914762240?...](https://twitter.com/GergelyOrosz/status/1279431439914762240?s=20)
[2] [https://thetechresume.com/](https://thetechresume.com/)

------
kingnothing
Hiring manager here.

In a resume, I want to see where you've worked, how long you were at each job,
and your major accomplishments at each. Those can be technical and non-
technical -- perhaps you made some excellent people process improvements you
can showcase. I don't want to see your hobbies or where you went to high
school, keep it professional and relevant to work. Personally, I use LinkedIn
as my resume. If a recruiter wants something different, they're welcome to use
print mode or format it in Word / PDF themselves.

I don't care about your GitHub profile. It's a small value add, nothing more.

Ageism is not a thing I've seen. I've worked at a trendy unicorn and was
involved in hiring multiple people 30+ and at least one 50+. I'm in my mid
30s.

At your level, I really want to know how you work with others and influence
teams across an organization. Your tech skills are now secondary to your
people skills, but you still have to be up to date on tech since you'll be one
of the driving forces at the company.

Why don't you want to rely on your network to set you up in the future? It's
one of your biggest professional assets and will open doors to jobs that
aren't publicly advertised.

~~~
bE9a3S5So8igd3
> I don't care about your GitHub profile. It's a small value add, nothing
> more.

I think this sentiment may be unfortunately common. It used to be that having
a good github profile was golden. I got my first two jobs probably as a result
of my github activity. Lately I get the sense that no one even bothers to
look. To me this signals that the company itself doesn't value technical
matters as much as how good the candidate is at answering canned behavioral
questions.

For example, if as a hiring manager you are convined that "Tell me about a
time you had a disagreement with a coworker" is more valuable than a decade of
open source contributions to relevant projects, that's a problem IMO.

~~~
kingnothing
> I got my first two jobs probably as a result of my github activity.

That makes sense. You're showing small contributions which is what's expected
of a junior engineer. It showcases that you can actually write some code.
However, as you advance in your career, the expectation is that you will work
on higher level concepts. Github profiles aren't really a place I've seen used
to showcase architecture and design skills, nor how candidates work with
others, and those things matter significantly more than a 20 line patch in an
open source library for a Lead+ engineer.

The parent poster was asking for advice as a Principal Engineer. At that
level, they aren't going to be writing much code on a daily basis, so their
Github profile is not very relevant to the job at hand. That level is VP
equivalent or higher at most companies, and most engineers will not achieve
it. It comes without the people management, but is most definitely a
leadership position.

~~~
_lacroix
Also, a principal engineer is more likely to be older and have a family and
other commitments outside of work. They're therefore less likely to be able to
spend all their free time working on side projects or contributing to open
source. If you have a robust github profile with lots of contributions that's
great, especially for a junior, but I dislike this expectation that candidates
should be judged on whether or not they spend their free time coding outside
of work. When I get home I want to log off and spend time with my friends and
family, get outdoors, exercise, cook, read, participate in other hobbies etc
etc. Not all of us are 22-year-old startup kids whose lifestyle consists of
work-party-code 24/7 - and that's okay (no shade to those kids, I used to be
one but I'm old and boring now...and a much better engineer). Nobody judges
lawyers on how many case briefs they read in their free time or asks doctors
to spend the weekends treating their friends and family for minor ailments.
It's silly.

~~~
bE9a3S5So8igd3
> whether or not they spend their free time coding outside of work

I would argue that candidates should absolutely be judged on whether they have
significant portfolio work available to view publicly. Of course, this is
dependent on the hiring managers' being competent.

Candidates shouldn't necessarily be judged on _not_ having any public
portfolio work though. I'm an advocate for take-home challenges. I think these
give the best representation of actual work.

~~~
_lacroix
What do you mean? They should be judged on whether or not they have something
that they should not necessarily be judged for NOT having? That doesn't make
any sense. But yes I'm in favor of take home challenges as well. I know a lot
of people hate them but it's the best way to get an idea of how someone will
work under normal constraints (i.e. not during a timed hackerrank exercise).

------
peterwwillis
Do you have $120? If so, hire a resume consultant like The Muse
([https://www.thebalancecareers.com/the-muse-resume-
review-484...](https://www.thebalancecareers.com/the-muse-resume-
review-4846277)). Landing a good job affects your mental health as well as
your financial security, so this is a really cheap and easy investment in your
future.

From my own experience, I can tell you that there's two basic kinds of
resumes: an "attractive to recruiters" resume, and an "attractive to a single
employer" resume.

The former is what you post on job boards to get recruiters to notice you.
It's full of buzzwords and designed to cast a wide net. It doesn't need to
look great, but it should provide lots of information about your last few jobs
and highlight all the tech you've worked on as well as different industries,
roles, etc.

The latter is what you send them as your "latest updated resume" that will get
passed on to a real hiring manager at a real company. It should be trimmed
down, attractive without looking ridiculous, and only showcase the stuff that
matters to the one company and what they're looking for. You want the person
who hires you to think that you were born to fill that role, and that you will
be an "easy hire".

And yes, ageism at 35 is a thing, but you can use it to your advantage.
Younger people might get overlooked for some positions for "not enough
experience", whereas an older person can talk up their proven effectiveness
and ability to solve problems and manage complex work and soft skills.

------
Jefro118
I've talked to a few different hiring managers and recruiters about for the
sake of my own project[1] this so I'll share what I've learned here (this
applies more to GitHub/portfolio than resume):

\- Projects should have a clear README explaining what it is and why it
exists. Some hiring managers will dive into the code properly but others
simply won't have the time and are looking to get a good overview. Both groups
want to see a clear README that explains what the project is about and ideally
provides a link or some screenshots if relevant. Things like installation
instructions should be there as a component of good documentation, but don't
expect them to actually go to the effort to do install and run things, most
won't.

\- Curating your GitHub profile a little can make their lives easier. Simplest
way to do this is by pinning your best repos. Consider removing (or making
private) things that might be considered "clutter" like e.g. forks that you
haven't done anything with.

\- Having good, atomic commit messages, and clear, helpful comments on issues,
prs, etc. is good, but many simply won't go into this much depth.

\- Having detailed, well-written blog posts about technical issues can
definitely be impressive. As with your code, a hiring manager may often just
skim this, but all they need to come away with is the impression that "this
person knows their stuff".

\- As said in another comment, things like typos and grammar mistakes are a
big no-no, especially on resumes.

[1] - [https://profiled.app](https://profiled.app) (tool for generating a
portfolio site from a GitHub account)

------
jaspal747
\- Show respect for the reader's time. Sometimes we scan 10-15 resumes a day
and can see clear patterns, repetitive marketing pitch, lofty unsubstantiated
claims. Unserstand that others applying for the job have very similar resumes
and you need to be more direct and stand out from the pack. The job poster's
BS detector is fairly finetuned and can quicky pick out BS from true merit.

\- What draws my attention is humility and the resumes that speak directly to
me. Like a resume narrating a coherent career story.

\- Show some solid experience in the core technologies requested in the job
posting.

This much is usually enough to prompt me to give someone a call and then know
their story and cross reference it with what the resume said and also know
more about them.

------
notsag-hn
Hi, jakearmitage. As a senior engineer that was able to get jobs/visa
sponsorship abroad more than once I feel I can give you the following pieces
of advice:

\- Start with what kind of job you would love to have. Do you want to work for
a blockchain startup? maybe a gaming one? Or fintech? It may be something you
never did, don't limit yourself.

\- If you don't have a Github project related to what you want to do, create
one. Put a lot of emphasis on the README of the project and on code quality.

\- Read a relevant book before starting looking for the job. That alone will
give you a lot of stuff to talk about and it's going to be really fresh in
your mind. People that read books have much more chances of standing out.

\- Create 2 or 3 generic CVs and do customize them when applying for a job. I
used to customize mainly the top paragraph(s) of the CV I use to introduce
myself. Describe your skills and interests from the perspective of that
particular job.

\- Regarding CV style, I'd prefer a sober and minimalistic one. Google "best
fonts for CVs 2020" and pick up one you like.

\- Highlight keywords so it's much easier to understand your skills at first
glance.

\- Don't just list technologies but also explain in a higher level what you
have achieved.

\- Nowadays there are ML-based tools that analyze and even discard your CV
before a human takes a look at it. Glassdoor had some time ago a CV analyzer
that literally gave me hints that allowed me landing a job, after simply
changing a bit its wording my CV got much more visibility. Find some of those
tools and give them a try, if the feedback you get is reasonable edit your CV
accordingly and see what happens.

\- Have a lot of interviews! If it's difficult for you to get them (which I
doubt if you are a principal engineer already), apply for jobs that you would
just take in an emergency situation and sit those interviews. At some point I
was having like 2-3 interviews a day. That helped me be sharp on selling
myself after some weeks and that is crucial!

And that would be it, I hope this helps. Good luck with your search!

------
ghiculescu
Honestly I’d consider hiring you based on the combination of confidence &
humility in this post. It’s rare.

I’m not sure if linking to this post from your resume is a great idea... but
it could be.

If you’re in Chicago, reach out.

~~~
jakearmitage
Thank you for the kind words, really uplifting! Unfortunately, I'm in FL.

------
codegeek
Some tips:

\- Decide first what type of role would you be interested in ? And this is not
always driven from your current experience but most likely, your current
experience will be the most relevant. You said you are a Principal Software
Engineer with at least 7 years of experience ? Do you want to be ready for a
similar job or are you interested in a different role that you know you are
capable of.

\- based on your determination from above, you then need to work on your
Resume and online presence. Do you need a github ? Not really. There are lot
of github profiles out there that are basically just a fork/clone of other
projects without any new work being done. Instead, create a 1-2 page website
about you with your Resume on it. Make it easy to learn about who you are and
if you are worth a second look on paper. Focus on "accomplishments" instead of
technologies especially as you become more senior over the years. I couldn't
care less if you are a Python or PHP developer if your Resume talks about
solving real problems at work that are similar to your prospective employer.

\- I highly suggest starting a blog. It is hard I know. It is difficult to
write. But talk about things you have learned. Not only tech but general
stuff. Things that gives a prospective employer indication about the type of
work you like to do. For the right employers, it will help. No one knows who
you are until you show. This is an old saying "Show, Don't Tell". Figure out
what works for you to show who you are and then let people find you hopefully.

\- Ageism is absolutely a thing. But there are plenty of good companies/hiring
teams that look for experience and value it. Because they need it. Find those
teams. Ageism becomes a bigger issue when you are that guy with 1 year of
experience 7 times instead of actual 7 years worth of experience. Which one
are you ? Challenge yourself and find out.

------
enriquto
There's nothing that piques my interest more than a way too long and well-
documented rant about an extremely niche and inconsequential topic (tabs vs
paces, variable naming conventions, whatever). I do not really care about the
specific option taken, but about the raw passion on its defence. Mostly, I
appreciate people who can write an engaging argument.

------
twalla
In the service of keeping my resume as dense as possible while remaining
readable I've moved specific technology keywords from the body of my line
items to the end of each job's body.

So instead of this:

    
    
      Weyland Yutani Corp, Sea of Tranquility, 2318-2320 
      - increased foo by bar with blockchain, ml, vr, k8s, GIMP
      - did baz with COBOL, webassembly, graphql, react
    

I'd just have this:

    
    
      Weyland Yutani Corp, Sea of Tranquility, 2318-2320
      - increased foo by bar
      - did baz
      (ml, blockchain, big data, k8s, GIMP, react, etc)
    

I can't comment on if it's something hiring managers and recruiters prefer but
I can say that I think it looks nice and I am currently employed.

------
downvoteme1
Totally different take . Nobody cares about your github or has time to click
that url.

Instead get a referral and leetcode like crazy. Target all the leet code
questions that are tagged by your target company and CTCI

------
muzani
1\. Clean resume. Programming is 100% communication, both with yourself and
others. If your resume doesn't communicate well, you probably don't
code/design very well. Emphasize important parts, and it matters what exactly
about yourself you're emphasizing, and that you don't follow a "default"
template.

2\. Seniority. It's said that a person's second project will be their worst,
overengineered and bound to fail. Someone who has done three projects can
solo. Any less needs a mentor who has done at least three projects. Someone
who's working on their first production project will underengineer it, but
that's fixable by bringing a senior in later. There are people who have years
of experience but never the opportunity to do a project from scratch - these
will still go through those phases.

3\. Fill in gaps. If they're a break, why? Many people are embarrassed of
gaps, because they're a phase of experimentation and failure. But if you've
taken a couple years off to become a monk or try a startup, say so. Dealing
with burnout says a lot about your experience and how tough you've grown too.

------
awinder
For the last couple of jobs (lead and senior) I’ve had a resume focused on
business achievements that I helped lead. I’ll put some relevant technologies
but it’s not a huge focus area. This helped slim down the resume naturally
because my first few jobs had less notable “big deals”, later jobs more.

Not that you asked for advice on this part but — ageism isn’t a thing (at 35
imo), but what is a thing is interviewing from position of strength. There is
a world of a difference between being a principal who is seeing the writing on
the wall and getting out, versus waiting for the layoffs and now being a
former principal. It’s gonna make the interviews harder, you’re going to have
more stress, companies may play comp games. If you think it’s going there I’d
strongly consider expediting your search.

------
sergiotapia
Whatever you do, keep your CV short, one page. Highlight your impact to the
business. Don't list Word, Excel since you're applying to a software dev job.
Highlight personal projects if any, and clean up your github profile to show
your most starred repos if any (play the game).

------
wojciii
This post reminded me of the generator (English, Danish and pirate-english is
supported) that I used to write cover letters when hunting for jobs. I sent
the same CV for each job.

I was usually called in for an interview for 2 out of 5 times. The CV just
lists the different places that I worked and what I worked on. At the end I
have a table with the tech that I know. Listed most recent first. I have a
picture in the CV and some bullshit about what I do in my spare time. I have
kids .. so no spare time of importance.

------
PopeDotNinja
Here's my tip for kickstarting a career search from a cold start:

\- Look at N job descriptions for job(s) you want

\- Flush out your LinkedIn profile to make it look like you can do the jobs
you want

\- Set your LinkedIn profile to being open to new opportunities

\- Engage with any recruiter who comes along for the practice

\- If you get a lot of attention, refine your pitch, and if you don't get any
attention, look into why that is

\- If a recruiter asks you to send them a resume, and you don't have one you
like, use a PDF of your LinkedIn profie

~~~
non-entity
> Flush out your LinkedIn profile to make it look like you can do the jobs you
> want

Could you expand on what all this involves?

~~~
PopeDotNinja
Say you want to be apply for a Lead Frontend Engineer role @ GlamourCo.
They're asking for experience w/ React, UX, training junior devs, and customer
facing experience.

Now let's say you've been working on as a Fullstack Engineer @ BlandCo. You're
confident that your recent work experience has prepared you for the frontend
position at GlamourCo, but it's not an obvious fit.

Would a recruiter @ GlamourCo look at your work experience from BlandCo and
think "holy moly, this person looks has the CV that makes me wanna call them
first!" If not, why not? You need to make your application a package that the
hiring team wants to open sooner than later.

------
bJGVygG7MQVF8c
The best advice I ever got regarding how to write a technical resume was all
cribbed from Gayle McDowell's "The Google Resume".

The most salient piece of advice: Use a "what-how-what-impact" format in your
work history's line items.

To modify an example given elsewhere in the comments, instead of

> helped reduce customers acquisition cost by $X

prefer

> Streamlined customer acquisition by building a self-serve customer
> onboarding web app using Python and Django, reducing acquisition cost by $X
> yearly

------
dave_sid
I wouldn’t personally look at someone’s work on github and take this as an
indication of they type of code they would write for a production system. Not
unless they provided their profile as a showcase specifically. I play around
with ideas and experiment with stuff on github. If I thought someone was going
to use that to judge the quality of the code I would write at work I would
delete it as it’s not what I would produce professionally.

~~~
dave_sid
For what it’s worth, I’ve never once been asked to provide a link to my github
profile during a job application. If I was asked I’d think they company were
being pretty short sighted if using this as a way to filter applicants.

------
bobbydreamer
I am a mainframe Db2 DBA, after having 5yrs of experience, I had a resume of
almost 4 pages. I was asked to interview a person with 20yrs experience his
resume was 2 pages. His resume had all works he did in that 20yrs and tools he
used. That day I decided if I am sending out an resume it's not going to be
more than 2 pages. I can still remember his resume, it was simple to read.

------
wodenokoto
To answer the headline, the main thing I’m looking for in a github page is
“can the applicant code”

So what I want to see is a project repo that the applicant has made in a
language that I can read. That’s pretty unfair, as github decides which repos
are listed on top, so they might be forks or similar stuff that is not helpful
in evaluating an applicant.

------
IvyMike
> I don't want to rely on my soft skills or work connections to set me up in
> the future

Maybe don't _rely_ , but please don't feel _bad_ about using work connections.

And it's not necessarily a matter of "set me up": If you work well with
someone at one company, you'll probably work well with them at another. It's
win-win.

------
_ah
* Bullet points.

* Concise bullet points.

* Easy-to-scan bullet points.

There is a style of resume I sometimes encounter: huge blocks of paragraph
text including scattered bold statements about _React Native_ and other _Super
Buzzwords_. There's a whole story crafted about the applicant and their _AWS_
skills.

It's incredibly hard to parse. Don't do that.

------
wikibob
I just bought this book by Gergely Orosz and it was extremely helpful:

[https://thetechresume.com/](https://thetechresume.com/)

------
samyounon
ageism is a thing once you're past 40, for sure. Not so much at 35, I think.

