#ya girl needs a resume review

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

charred kayak
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@neat knot might know thinky

neat knot
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I have been summoned. So I will be 100% honest. It might come a little harsh but its just because im going to be blunt while I write my notes. By no means should you take it as discouragement.

neat knot
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First Thoughts:

  • Template looks good. Simple to read, simple for ATS to scan, this is ideal.
  • Order of information is ideal looks good. Education should be first till you get some job experience and are no longer a student.
  • One page is good!

Education:

  • Nice format.
  • I believe the deans list information would be better utilized within education
  • You have a masters did you do any research? Are you able to put specialty there?

Projects:

  • Your first project doesn't give me the impression of a masters soon to be grad. Terminal programs are quite basic and something that freshman students in college or highschool students often does. Specifically a file management system is something that undergrads will often do in an OS class within a semester for a single assignment in my experience. After almost 6 years of studying CS the expectation is that you have stronger more full stack / integrated projects.
  • Your second project reminds me of a class project from a compilers class and the way you describe it sounds quite basic in the sense that learning about the free function from C is something I would expect to see in a resume for a sophmore undergrad.
  • Third project is probably the most basic of the three and something I would expect from a freshman/sophomore. There is nothing marketable in this project.
  • Overall this might sound harsh but a masters student I would expect more of a specialty (AI/ML, Web, Algorithms, Game Dev, 3D Graphics, Etc.), technical projects, as well as research level projects. Your projects say sophomore in college so at this point your masters is hurting you.

Further Notes on the above:
I want to emphasize you take this advice seriously, you need to focus on getting substantial projects. I am not sure of your circumstances but in order to get a job in this industry you either have to be REALLY lucky or you need to work outside of the classroom to gain marketable skills. For example: Companies do not build apps using javafx anymore, and any company using javafx still would be using something like fxml and following an MVC at bare minimum. The project you have is primitave which makes it not very marketable. For compiler project would be great for if you want to work for Oracle/Java for example but it would require further research around optimization and for deeper technical explanation of your project. Your python file manager is fairly basic and doesn't really apply to any field.

For context & comparison to many undergrads:

  • I work with many students who are freshman - senior level undergrads building full stack web applications utilizing frameworks, APIs, building APIs, etc.
  • I have worked with students building full games utilizing ray tracing algorithms, graphics generations, building game engines, etc.
  • Many students I have worked with also have full research projects, LLMs, Chat Bots, user bases for the projects they built, or contributed to open sourced projects used by thousands of users.

These are your competition.

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Skills:

  • You mention sql yet do not demonstrate sql knowledge or relational db knowledge.
  • Junit, javafx, mongodb i wouldn't consider tools. Junit is a test library, javafx is a ui library a part of java.
  • I would remove markdown.
  • Languages are great, but I am expecting a little more skill focus. javafx isn't very marketable, and junit should be implied through knowing java.
  • I like that you have two categories, but I believe you need more such as "frameworks" or "databases" "back end" idk depending on what you want to specialize in. Currently you don't have a specialty it appears.
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Experience

  • Odin Project: cool that you contributed but there's nothing of substance to market yourself as a developer/engineer. Merging pull requests can be pressing a button. Contributing in the community/helping people with css/git/etc doesn't tell me anything other than you like to converse with others. Can you specify (technical contributions) what you did for the odin project?
  • church / highschool club: these emphasize more that you're a community member which is liked but shouldn't be taking up more room on your resume than engineering/developer skills.
  • I would remove highschool contribution, make church smaller. More words is not necessarily good on a resume. The more words the harder it is for someone to want to read most of it and both experiences emphasize the same qualities making them redundant.
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Overall Thoughts:

  • You unfortunately lack marketable skills if we are strictly going off the resume you provided.
  • Not sure if you're downplaying yourself but the descriptions of your experience/projects seem too elementary or basic compared to what their potential descriptions could be.
  • your masters status is hurting you here more and emphasizing your lack of experience/skills/technical ability more. I think if this were a BS student resume on my desk for an internship we would consider interviewing but the fact that you're getting a masters would have us all wondering where your master's work was.
  • I am confused that you're contributing to Odin project but you don't have any full stack/web apps projects listed using the many frameworks, tech topics, etc that the odin project provides resources for.
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@neon shuttle i apologize for the word vomit above and somewhat harsh statements there but I wanted to really give an in depth critique of your resume and I want you to succeed. First step is recognizing your weakest points. Let me know if you have any questions! You can also DM me or we can get into a call if you'd like as well.

charred kayak
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uuu

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thats deep deeeep

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i want one too for mine

neat knot
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Send it :)🤣

charred kayak
wide roost
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ill respond to this soon. just marking it for later.

tribal juniper
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@neon shuttle I'm going to be in my last year of undergrad and I relate to you in a lot of aspects. From what I see, the lack of projects is the main problem.

I can't say which project would help - the bar is low for me because I'm still in undergrad and companies that are looking for excellence are prone to make their search more difficult. kekeke

For internships or even apprenticeships, have you tried emailing small companies in your area? Everyone knows the big companies and applies to them, but there are also small ones that are willing to pay an intern with the minimum wage and collaborate. You just have to find the willing one and show them you're determined to work there. pcow

Someone correct me if I'm wrong im_fine

neat knot
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@neon shuttle there's a lot of common language in your response that I am seeing where you mention classes and what you have and haven't learned.

CS is not software engineering, game dev, cyber sec, etc.

CS degrees will always be the bare minimum of introduction to concepts with a focus of theory. It is your responsibility to learn more than that outside of the classroom to get a non CS job. Similar to how if you get a 'fine arts' degree. You cant get a job as a game concept artist, graphic artist, etc without a portfolio practicing those specific mediums.

It is not an excuse (not that you're saying it as one) to not know things because you werent taught. Picking engineering / science field is signing yourself for perpetual self learning for the rest of your career. There are individuals entirely self taught still getting jobs in our industry and its not because of fancy certs/degrees but that they learn and apply marketable skills. It doesn't matter how good or bad your schooling is its whether you have the work ethic to learn what is necessary to succeed

No one was taught how to make google originally, no one was taught how to build the first computer, no one was taught how to build these impressive optimizations of various algorithms.

The students I have worked with are doing their projects / learning outside the classroom through "learn by doing" where they attempt with trial and error.

What your resume is missing is the fundamentals of engineering & science: self taught discovery and exploration through projects.

Ex. If you partook in odin project the expectation is that youve been able to build a full stack site using a db, framework(s), cloud hosting, and some impressive implementation.

You can't change the past so I suggest instead to start now with projects with substance where you're learning / exploring solutions on your own rather than following tutorials or relying on class formats.

neat knot
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To respond to volunteer/club/community i do not actually think that it is very important for resume building.

As for networking, simply reaching out to people on linkedin, going to conferences, mass emailing, career events, etc. Are great opportunities for networking and meeting professionals.

As for finding an interest I will not lie it is very difficult to at your stage of almost 6 years studying to find a specialty if you haven't found a specific interest in the field of CS yet to focus on. Ideally I dont suggest students go for master's degrees especially if they dont have direction because it can show on their resume. You're picking a field you want to do and be in the space of for your career something you're likely to be foing for next 30+ years. Every day for 8-12 hours. Attempting to specialize at the end of your masters is if I am being honest putting you significantly behind.

My usual suggestion for all highschool and hopeful college students is to have a job or space in mind BEFORE you pick a major. Its difficult to get the degree then figure out a job that fits the study. CS is purely academic and research related.

If you wanna stick to theory you can go into academics (teaching and research) or be sponsored to work at a company as a research computer scientist.

neat knot
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I think masters level projects would be something applying some major algorithms, building LLMs, wireless network sensors, full stack web apps, game algorithms, game engines, cyber attack simulations and defense demonstrations, etc. This all depends on what field you want to go into.

lucid arrow
neat knot
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yes i have a queue in my DMs right now but if you want to make another thread here or dm I will look at it when I get to it :>

neat knot
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FYI, I made this for all the people dming me & asking me about resumes:

#1279921533695033396 message

I can still review your resume but here are a lot of general advice / tips that I give. I know its an essay but usually my reviews are essays anyway so the right audience I am sure will read it.

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I was an art major originally with an extensive background in achievements of art. I had gotten a scholarship to an art college when I was 12, lots of art while I was in highschool in subject/judging competitions and museums.

When I became college aged, I decided to take some community college courses, do some acting, and I was working as well as a graphic designer and artist. I took a CS class thinking it was related to Graphic design but i was the only girl in the class and my professor honed in on me trying to get me to stay.

took a few classes, started tutoring after my professor tried to get me to do that for a few students

Then got a job doing it

won some hack-a-thon project competitions lol was sent to captain some hackathon teams

Then I officially switched to CS.

Now this was like 4 years of time lol. I was building projects that bothered me. Found my interests in web dev, game dev, UI/UX, project management, and graphics.

I had different resumes for each subject and still consider myself multi-focused. I had built/managed team projects around the above subjects outside of school. I work as a UX Framework Full Stack Software Engineer at a fortune 500 now and have worked previously on small game dev companies, teaching, and open source contribution 😄

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Granted i took my time it took me almost 7 years to get my BS

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Yep! I think I would have been happy doing any of those but i was part time in school so i had a lot of time to develop skills in all of those subjects.

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In your position now, unless you want to potentially spend a lot of time unemployed, I suggest finding one or two focuses max and focus on getting skills in them.

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The benefit of having a lot of time left to get a degree means a lot more time to build skills, you already have a degree and are almost getting your second. The time for exploring is a lot less if you intend to get employed in tech after graduating with your masters. It is also expected of Master's students as a general rule they already have a focus in mind so if we are being honest it comes off that you're behind

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That being said, if you're okay with potentially taking more time to build focus, that's okay. Not everyone is pressed for time. I didn't get a job my first year after graduating because i loved working at a pet store as a manager full time and teaching haha it just left for more time to hobby build too

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Unfortunately all fields are highly saturated right now. I would pick something you feel would be best for you in relation to your mental health and happiness.

Right now your resume doesn't stand out much at all compared to resumes I have gotten for intern levels much less new grad roles. Programming languages are needed for front end and back end. But the difference is one focuses on the user facing end, the other is more about the user information and app information. Its not an If situation its a you must situation. You need to get projects and marketable skills yesterday to better your chances

Cyber, Full Stack Web, embedded, game dev, etc. Are all over saturated right now there are no easy fields/options/roles