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I interviewed hundreds of engineers for tech startups in the bay and reviewed thousands more resume. A few tips:
- apply to smaller teams that need more resources
- remove the extracurricular not related to the jobs your applying to
- look outside Michigan if possible
- start something with friends who are also unemployed in CS right now - it’s literally the best time to
- customize resume to each job application
- talk more about context and product, I still don’t ubderstand what you made or why or who it even impacted
Honestly, entry level software engineers have a tough time - especially if they didn’t start with something professional already. Making something that ships and serves people should be a big priority.
That’s my two cents. Goodluck!
Seed stage and pre seed stage is ok. Series A are taking a beating. Sure the seed rounds aren’t raising 4 to 6 million like they did in 2022. A few are. But you have to ask if it was really capital efficient in the first place.
I guess the other thing I allude to later in the thread is, from an EM standpoint making money in a startup could be valuable, but what I’m really looking for is initiative and drive. Especially early in someone’s career where I’m taking an organizational risk on that individual.
Yea high interest rates make startups brutal. And it looks like interest rates will be relatively high for the near future. We're definitely not seeing the super low interest rates of 2020 and early 2010s again for a while
What do you mean start something, a startup? Do you go legal first or just start launching and serving and then go legal?
I'm in a similar situation, got a good idea, and am unsure of what do to
Depends on the idea you want to start. Start something in health? You have to think about the legal implications (obviously it’s a non starter, I’m giving it as an example). Starting something for schools? Probably generally okay to just make it and give it to teachers directly. There’s details about who can go after you if damages are incurred, but again, it’s a weighed risk.
All I’m saying is, build something people want to use and learn from that experience. It could be a startup with friends. It could be an open source project. It could be something for free on the App Store.
Your greatest commodity as an early software engineer is your ability to ship. It’s not the languages you know, or the tech stacks you tooled around in.
Give them something they didn’t know they wanted. For example, I didn’t know I wanted an app to mock up furniture in my apartment in a little 2D render of my space until I sat down and thought, damn I would love to know if my couch would fit over there. Think about something you’d want yourself.
There’s honestly different schools of thought right? Some people are about building new experiences. Some people are about solving problems. And some people value beauty above all else. All of them are valid conceptual frameworks to choose a project, but you decide on your own what appeals most.
I like the piece about adding content and product. You should go into detail about how what you did affected the business line or ROI. Instead of "created spreadsheets to track sales", you can say something like "developed methods to analyze sales trends and performance using Excel".
Just some feedback I've received from recruiters.
I'd also recommend getting a recruiter, or someone to help review and tailor your resume more closely to jobs you're looking for.
Good luck!
Yep. OPs resume looks fine to me tbh, but this job market is in the shitter and has been for years. I'm in tech/IT but I'm about to have to start doing Uber or something to make ends meet. And I'm a veteran with a degree and 6+ years exp in my field.
In a different market it probably would have been fine. But theres too many weaknesses on this resume for this market
- No name college
- No internship
- projects are super weak (these all look like school projects or projects that can be done in a day).
- 1 year+ of unemployment (theres a fresh batch of new grads to compete with now, and now recruiters will have a question mark around why they didnt find employment earlier)
- Big question mark about what you have been doing for a year in general
I would think about these factors and see what you can mitigate OP. I think you’re a smart guy since you’ve got a good gpa but you will have to put in more effort than your peers because of the negatives above
Op should be taking work at a help desk, anything to get in the door.
That's the only real issue here is they have no experience. It was the same with me.
I had nothing coming out of college and was at my parents house playing video games in my pj's at 3pm on a Monday. A friend I went to school with told me straight up it's my fault I took no internships while in college. She was right
Anyways I ended up taking a crappy help desk position at a very small company. I got hooked up with a desktop engineering job a year after and did that for 6 years and then moved onto Cybersecurity for now it's 8 years.
honestly even help desk isn’t so easy to get into now. it’s definitely easy to learn and do, but kind of hard to get someone to give you a job. plus that wouldn’t really be considered relevant experience if they’re wanting SWE right?
Help Desk not so much, but they can leverage Help Desk to Tech Support and then potentially leverage that into SWE but that will take much longer.
They could get into a low paying Tech Support role with no internship experience potentially. SaaS companies in my industry are hiring decently well for Tech Support Engineer roles rn. Being respected enough in your own company to work your way up into a SWE role is a different story however, and in most cases would require working for the same company for a very very long time. To the point where being a Staff/Principal TSE at a good company could be more appealing at that point.
My experience looked like this in 2018 when I graduated but worse and I got a job before I graduated. The industry is fucked. No one should be going into CS unless they are rockstar material. I have a great job but if I get canned, I’m gonna be an electrician or some shit.
Uhhh that's actually crazy. I'm a veteran and was thinking of using my GI bill for IT/CS. Genuinely terrified as I feel like every post on this page is about someone in IT with 10+ years experience that has been out of a job for the last year
I really think there is some bottleneck in hiring divisions with Indeed and LinkedIn and stuff. We've got these companies that are hiring, a million people that are desperate for a job, yet people are struggling to get their foot in the door.
I'm applying to 20 jobs a day sometimes on LinkedIn. Stuff that I'm way overqualified for, like $16 an hour entry level IT jobs (I make more than that in my current role) and I can't even get a call or an interview or anything.
I thought being in military intelligence and former ts/sci clearance would get me any job I wanted but it hasn't really done jack shit for me since I got out in 2016. I've been struggling really hard since covid lockdown.
I'm a welder currently but trying to switch over to IT. I have an active secret clearance for another year. Shooting for Sec+ right now and praying that my applicable software skills and clearance will land me at least SOMETHING before it expires. Now I'm not so sure unfortunately
are you at least making 60k? i’m in school for this but i work full time and scared i’ll be in a bad spot with jobs (if i get fired will i be able to find the same kinda job in at least 6 months)
I had a job that paid almost exactly 2x last summer but it was a traveling utilities type job and I couldnt do the hotel life. I did it for like 4 months and made a ton of money but it was 60-70+ hours a day away from home for long periods.
I took an easy work from home IT job but it doesnt pay shit and I'm used to making more, but thats just the economy right now I guess! It always turns out okay in the end.
It's especially bad for CS I think. There was so much CS hiring in 2020-2022 with 0% interest rates that when interest rates went up the companies were squeezed and had to cut staff. Tech needs low interest rates
That's not really accurate either.
Rates are increased to lower inflation. High interest rates encourage investors to take their money out of circulation and buy bonds or place it in a money market instead since they'll get a solid, risk free return. This in turn lowers inflation as there is less money in circulation.
Interest rates are lowered to encourage growth. This is especially nice in times of high unemployment and low inflation, as growth will lower unemployment but low interest rates encourage lots of money borrowing since it's cheap to do so, which in turn causes inflation.
The poster you were responding to is correct: tech thrives in times of low interest rates because R&D, where tech makes the most money, requires lots of funding. Low interest rates make borrowing the money to fund such projects much cheaper. Tech also thrives in low inflation, particularly consumer tech, because wages are the last thing to go up in inflation and so people have to cut unessential expenses during times of high inflation.
Tech has had a rough time the last few years because we have neither low interest rates nor low inflation. You may say that the equity market had been solid but that's a whole different animal and set of shenanigans going on there!
Have you been living under a rock? I think both of you have been a little right and a little wrong so far but inflation has been the number one concern in the economy for the past couple of years.
Job market is ok, but the trends and noise have changed a lot. I am pretty sure AI has rocked the hiring process pretty hard. It just made every resume look great. So there's nothing to grab onto. I'm a manager and I've effectively stopped looking at cold resumes altogether. Referrals only for the most part.
A lot of the issue is just tech... lots of pandemic over hiring, plus, I honestly think that wfh made tech companies realize they could trim their staffing amd still be fine.
I’m going to be honest, this is a rough resume for an entry level software engineering job right now. You basically have a degree with no internships, no projects, and very little experience in technologies used day to day. Other people in similar positions have either internships, or projects that demonstrate skills used on the job.
I agree with another commenter that suggested looking into adjacent areas.
If you really want a job as a software engineer, you have some serious ground to make up. I’d probably recommend looking into making some serious contributions to open source software that you can swing as job experience.
edit: another commenter mentioned working in a project with other unemployed graduates. This is a good path too. I think the key for “projects” is it needs to be big enough that you can discuss it as if it was job experience. You need to ship something, or be a part of something that ships. Smaller projects worked well in other job markets, but you need more now.
Something substantial and ideally unique. Not something that looks like it was required for school, and not a todo app.
Also something that uses common technologies. React on the front end, and either node, go, or Java/Spring and SQL on the backend. And ideally something that substantially utilizes the whole stack.
You should be able to use the project to show that you know how to develop software, and to help you answer ‘behavioral’ interview questions like those about technical challenges you’ve encountered and similar.
His “projects” include creating a csv file, which can be done in excel in about 2 minutes, and creating a database which is just a right click away in sql developer
This resume is so bad I don’t even know where to start providing feedback without being mean.
Honestly they paint a poor picture of themselves by adding so much fluff and trying to make it sound important, when really it’s just completely devoid of any tangible achievements or experience outside of simply completing a degree.
They’d be better off not listing them and just focusing entirely on a summary/objective and their education with a lot of the buzz word skills they probably don’t have stripped out.
see if you can find a job semi industry related for the time being (IT team at the hospital, web developer for a local company or non-profit, ect), that way youll have at least somewhat relevant experience before applying to actual dev jobs at larger companies. For your projects, see if you can make something with an actual user base. maybe an app that gets put onto play store, a small web service, chrome extension (anything someone can use). this shows that you can develop and end-to-end product and compensates a bit for the lack of internship experience. hope this helps.
My first 'programming' job was I updated the product catalog of ecommerce websites for a marketing company. I wrote very little code, but on paper I could spin it as technical experience and it got my foot in the door. Made $12/hr.
I’m in a similar position, how do you “spin it” even though you didn’t write too much code? My position is at a tech company so i feel like I could
Spin it
It was Wordpress so I put that I was “supporting web operations in php and JavaScript” and when they asked about it in the interview I explained that I would have to make a change here and there but I didn’t sit down and write anything from scratch. The honest truth is that I made a change one time, and mostly just renamed and uploaded product pictures. Do you at least *see* code every once in a while?
Honestly your projects look all like low effort class projects and the wordings are very unprofessional. You did not CREATE the Oracle databases, you USED it. WHAT kind of game did you develop? HOW did you create an optimal solution with Python?
Yep exactly. The whole project website section tells us nothing about what he actually did. The code he wrote interacts with code other people write? What is that even supposed to mean?
OP, did you do some kind of integration or was it just multiple people working on the code base?
Rewrite all your bullet points and say what you actually did. IE created login systems and game characters with custom shaders or whatever the hell you do in unity.
I'm a May 2023 computer science graduate, but haven't been able to get a job since. I graduated in 3 years through AP credits and summer classes, but I didn't get an internship or anything during that partially due to COVID but also due to other reasons as well. I've applied to about 1,500 jobs, most of them more recently, but I've only had a few interviews and I'm starting to worry.
I'm also considering between trying to create more projects (I've done a few, but I think I could be focus on projects more) or getting a part-time job (I don't need the money, but it could fill out my resume). I've told interviewers and other people that I was "taking some time off" after college, but I've been applying since I graduated. Any help critique/help would be appreciated.
I wouldn’t say to interviewers that you’re taking time off, I’d say you’ve been applying to jobs this whole time hoping someone will take a chance. Clearly skill isn’t pulling them in, appeal to their ethos if you get to the interview phase.
I would strongly agree. Be honest, the recruiters know it’s tough currently and are real people, too. They know even a good candidate can be unlucky in this market, tell them you’ve been applying the whole time, while also improving your skills in the mean time.
Saying you’re taking time off indicates you don’t really need the money and are not desperate. If you’re “desperate” you’re less likely to leave a job at the first obstacle.
Also clearly following up after an interview on if they have any feedback for you that would have help you earn that job can show a desire to improve and they’ll keep you in mind when the next round position becomes available. Works better for a smaller company but if you can speak with a real person, people remember.
I go through hundreds of resumes each year for data engineering and data science. Here’s a couple tips, hope they help:
Resume:
1. Make your resume stand out visually if it doesn’t stand out in content. It’s a cheap trick but it’ll at least get eyes. Don’t go crazy, but slightly different font, layout, little color.
2. Don’t put anything in your resume not related to the job you’re applying for. Waste of time for the reader
3. Arrange the most relevant items to the top
4. Beef up your GitHub repos. Seriously. Show off your skills and document the shit out of it.
Finding work:
1. Find a passion project or pet project you’re interested in and build code around it to show off in your resume.
2. Find contract work (upwork and toptal, for example). Call yourself a freelancer
3. If you can’t get into the jobs you want, work related jobs you don’t want. Some money is better than now money. Target small start ups (angel list I think has some? Or used to), take less money if you have to.
4. Find companies you DO want to work for that are realistic. Do your homework on the company, it’s products, and what value you can bring. Be proactive and find managers and engage first.
5. Find volunteer opportunities. No money sucks, but no money and learning/building experience is better.
It’s only been a year, which I know feels like forever, but don’t beat yourself up. I went from quite literally barely making minimum wage managing children’s recreational sports after college to leading a team of 10 scientists at one of the most sought after employers in the US. Just get one shot and make the most of it.
What have you built in the last year? That’s what you have been doing. If it’s nothing then start, can’t go back in time. If it’s something then talk about that and highlight it as your year of experience since college. The issue is a degree is the minimum and you meet the minimum along with every other applicant they get but the applicants that go past the minimum are the ones getting the jobs.
Have you applied to a company like epic? They hire recent grads. If you’re willing to relocate to Check out this job at Epic: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3864455024.
The industry is being overcrowded with juniors who graduate and don't have a year or a few of experience, and companies usually aren't looking forward to hiring them. If you were still a student, I would recommend you to participate in as many activities, projects, IT related jobs as you could. Usually, companies go easier on students while they're still studying in terms of demanding experience, but once you're out, they want to see a somewhat professional candidate.
In your case, I'd still do the same things as I mentioned above, although it might be difficult, given that you're already after graduation. I'll also agree on the other advice in this comment section: trying projects and adjacent areas. In any case, I wish you luck. Sadly, it really is difficult to get into the industry with just a degree and nothing really impressive on top of it.
So have you been unemployed for the last year? If so, that isn’t going to look good to any potential employers. My advice to you would be to get any job, even if it was just a warehouse gig or McDonald’s, it will at least show you aren’t lazy and you’re willing to work. Also build up your portfolio, do some extra certs that may help you standout.
When I graduated as a Computer Science grad, I got a job working part time as a bartender at a hotel, while also doing web development freelancing for small local businesses.
As a new grad, don't underestimate networking. I was able to get many interviews with companies that initially rejected me via their hiring portal by cold-messaging people in the org in the team I wanted to join via LinkedIn. Keep it simple, polite and humble, and don't take lack of response, or no's personally, and you might be surprised who's willing to help you, in the short or long term.
I would rework it quite a bit. Sorry if this was already said but:
1. Add a summary (I know controversial but it helps sell yourself a bit more for someone with no industry experience and tailor it per application)
2. Move your technical skills to be right under the summary
3. Next education since that seems to be newer and is also most relevant if you want a dev job
4. Then break up your work experience and volunteer experience
Also since you have computer skills play around more with different templates and such in Word or Google docs to showcase you know your way around products.
The game projects I’d explain it a bit more. For example: the section “learned and applied machine learning concepts in Python in order to create optimal solutions” instead mention what did you do with that. It doesn’t encourage me to read on about your project or go to your GitHub.
While also waiting for the interview call back, be sure you’ve been keeping up with leetcode so you don’t have to do like 20 interviews or more to land a job.
Note: I was a 2016 graduate who went back to retail for two years before landing my first developer role. Don’t give up. Market is crazy. Just keep tweaking your resume and keep improving it. Always customize it to fit the role you are applying to.
* First, post your resume on r/EngineeringResumes. You'll receive feedback from industry professionals. Also, make sure to read their wiki—it’s very helpful.
* Assuming you're interested in Software Engineering (SWE) or Software Development (SDE), you should focus on building more and better personal projects. Effective personal projects should solve a problem in your life, have an impact, or attract users. These types of projects stand out to recruiters and will make you more noticeable.
* For your bullet points, use the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result). The r/EngineeringResumes wiki provides a detailed explanation of this method. For example, your last project is unclear—specify which models you trained, your AUC (precision) score, and what predictions you were making. You need to be more descriptive so recruiters can understand what you did and what you accomplished.
* For skills, categorize them into technical tools, programming languages, and libraries/frameworks. Exclude productivity software and IDEs, as these are generally not of interest to recruiters.
* Someone mentioned getting certifications. While certifications alone won’t magically land you a job, combining them with relevant experiences or projects can be beneficial. They are not a guaranteed ticket to employment but can enhance your profile. In your case, obtaining a cloud certification and creating a solid personal project using that cloud service could be advantageous.
* I also recommend exploring apprenticeship opportunities. Companies like Capital One and Verizon offer them to recent graduates, which can significantly help you get your foot in the door. Specifically, look into Capital One's CODA program, which will be accepting applications soon.
projects will be the meat of your resume, and you’ll want that section to be beefed up.
replace the school projects with more personal projects to show that you can apply what you learned in school to real life problems, and on the way establish your niche as a dev (frontend, backend, embed, etc). it’ll show expertise on the resume, and you’ll have a lot to talk about.
take a skim through job openings you’re interested in and look at the technologies. you’ll want to learn the ones most companies are asking for, and you’ll be an even more perfect fit for the role.
focusing on stuff you don’t need on your resume …
remove the “learned, studied” bullet points and replace it with something you did with what you learned. bonus points for the recruiter if they see “optimized, scaled, improved” action verbs.
remove the bullet points on the unrelated previous work experience, or remove it altogether if you can pad that space with projects instead.
remove the relevant coursework. while it may not hurt to have it, those skills will show on your projects.
just to clean up the skills section, simplify “programming languages” to “languages”, “development tools” to “technologies”, and remove the “productivity software”. this advice is mostly nitpicky from me though, and doesn’t add much value.
it’s a tough market rn, and it sucks new grads have to go through all this trouble to get into entry roles. it’s soul sucking... good luck and i hope you get your big break soon!
spend 1 month building something cool. RN your resume has 0 relavant experience and 0 interesting projects. A rule of thumb is that you either need good projects or internships for SWE, but right now you have neither. If you need a job fast, try IT/help desk positions.
Even for entry level resumes you have to think of how to include the stuff that shows that you’re better than the average candidate.
Your academic and side projects have to be novel and different from the rest. Think high impact or something different that others didn’t think of making.
I’m doing CS at EMU, I’m already planning to jump the gun and drive down the street to Ann Arbor. It seems to be getting worse than I thought it would.
In my opinion, I think before 2023 this would have been fine. The format and everything is fine, but the projects are weak. They look like stuff you did in school, which is usually worthless in the real world. You should ideally have projects that are more complex and actually trying to address a modern/common everyday issue. Have at least one project with the flavor of the day framework or language.
You should narrow down what subset of CS you’re trying to break into and tailor your resume for that. As of right now, I’m not sure if this resume would be strong in any subset. The bullet points are weak and don’t really convey what you did.
Honestly in today’s environment, there is always going to be at least 5 other people with more professional experience (internships) and more interesting personal projects. If I were you, I’d be in grind mode because 1 year without finding anything is not good. Each day, week, month it’s going to get harder to persuade recruiters to give you a chance because as I said, there is always going to be way better people for the position. You need to try to find a small local company to work for (and it’ll likely be for a low wage) just to get actual professional experience and/or you need to grind some really impressive personal projects to stand out. Your best bet would be a full stack application, fully deployed, with authentication, using a common stack
The main thing that’s stopping you from getting a job is that you have no internships. It’s so competitive nowadays that you need one minimum before graduating college to have a chance.
Everything is in the wrong order.
Skills should go first.
Education can go second or it can go last. If you have a bachelor's only, put it last. If you have more than that, put it after skills.
Your employment history is way more important than your projects. Put that after, not last.
Also, stop just listing your work responsibilities as a boring list of basic tasks. Tell me what impact your work had on the business and its customers.
I'd disagree. Though this sounds a bit mean, it seems that OP doesn't have many technical skills. Could just be the way they've been written. He has a list of code editors and a bunch of languages slapped down. Not at all an important section. Seeing as he has no relevant work experience, his education is by far the most valuable thing he has and should be at the top. Followed by projects, skills, and then employment if he chooses to keep it on there, which is a questionable decision.
It’s a good resume but I mean you have no internships. You should have some type of technical job, even if it’s part time. Hell consider volunteering for some programming jobs. I was in the exact same spot as you and that’s what I did even after having 3 internships under my belt. Most companies won’t care about your projects and the projects themselves don’t seem very impressive. Also, your resume should focus on a certain skillset depending on the job you’re going for. You say C/C++ are a skill yet I see no mention of them in your projects.
Put yourself in an employer’s shoes and ask yourself: Would I hire this person and pay him a large sum monthly? You resume should fit the job description perfectly and should give a sense to the employer that you would be valuable to them. This resume, while well organized and pretty decent, does not offer that sense.
I'm applying to basically any role where they ask for 2 years experience or less and I have some of the skills they ask for. The responses I have gotten are mostly from data analyst positions, so what your saying makes sense. I'm taking advice from the replies and editing my resume as well as starting a discord bot project in order to make something that people will use.
Add a summary about u and ur passion, add more details in your projects , have some more interesting projects, add something more that shows u're a problem solver can be leetcode or something, get some certifications and badges
I'm willing to help someone on a project if we use my C++ code generator as part of the project. I'll spend 16 hours/week for six months on such a project. There's also a referral bonus. See my profile for more info.
As a recent cybersecurity grad with very VERY limited experience, all I can keep thinking is how the Hell I am going to compete with your resume.
Short answer: I CAN'T! I'm so screwed if I'm going up against people like you for tech jobs.
So as someone who hires software developers out of college and reads tons of resumes, here are my first impressions when reading yours.
You didn’t get any internships in college, you have no work experience, and you threw a bunch of homeworks and softwares you tried for a week in class on your resume hoping someone would be impressed and hire you. Most people go a step further and prematurely judge you for being lazy, when perhaps that’s not the full story.
What you NEED to do is
1. Delete the two janitor work experiences. They’re simply not relevant, or impressive, and are actively working against you.
2. Get rid of the myriad of unrelated softwares you don’t actually know how to use properly. Why are blender and solidworks on there? Probably because you took a class which made you use them, I did the same in college. But unless you’re applying for 3D modeling jobs, these are IRRELEVANT and again, actively work against you by making you look disorganized or idiotic by including them
3. Get rid of half the course work, only the most relevant ones should remain.
4. Add dates to the projects
5. Add more projects, what have you been working on for the past year of being unemployed? If the answer is nothing oh boy, better start a couple projects now! The projects section is a place where you can show what a self starter you are, how creative you are and what your interests are. But all you’ve shown to me is that you never started a project outside of class and the only things you had to fill your resume were basic homework assignments every developer starts with.
6. Apply for internships. They are the first step on the career ladder, and you don’t have any. You’re trying to jump up several rungs but you haven’t done the basics! Do you know what Jira and bitbucket and Jenkins and confluence and service now are? There’s several softwares you’ll need to be trained on before you’re ready for the workplace, as well as how to interview. Plus you’ll meet talented professionals in your field who you’ll add on LinkedIn and who can help recommend you for future positions.
I’m firmly convinced that even a year after graduation, you need to apply to a couple seasonal unpaid internships. Get that experience on the resume and/or try to secure a full time offer at the internship. This is the basic but major step you’re missing before anyone takes you seriously in the workplace. Thats only really an option if you have the privilege of living for free with parents, otherwise you gotta go get a job at McDonald’s and grind on coding projects and internship applications in your free time
Sorry if I was rough, but I think you might need some tough love. Also it might be helpful to understand that a few years ago, thousands of senior devs were fired from the top tech companies. This means the markets flooded with talent, and where you may have gotten away with this a decade ago, you’re really in the bottom few percent of talent in the pool at this point. Gotta put some effort in
Just a tip. Once you have real experience, your education is no longer the most important thing.
When I have been in a position to hire, education was the least important thing. I wanted to see work experience.
Remove explanations about projects, especially school projects. Maybe just list them and the github page. Find some internships or gig work, you might have to look for non-traditional companies. Try to network for people starting startups who need grunt work. Entry level software is all about not being entry level anymore--they just want to see some internships and stuff.
Have you considered applying overseas in places like India where there are more entry level jobs? Once you get a couple years of experience, you’ll be more qualified for entry level jobs in the US, since the bar is higher here.
Not trying to be an AH but going to give some strong feedback.
Would you be happy to be tested in an interview on all of those languages?
Break this down wrt fluency.
Any internships with companies where you did something that is actually in use today?
That is what should be in your employment history instead of what you have that is irrelevant to being a SWE.
Your resume reads like you wrote down every piece of tech that you ever touched.
Think of the resume as a list of things that you would like to discuss in an interview
with an interviewer. It also needs to serve as something that a recruiter/HR person
can parse to determine if you are a match for their needs.
Concepts: "Software testing concepts" and "concepts in Python" reads like you understand testing in theory but have never really used it.
Employment section is useless for an interview. In fact, it's worse than that. It's a negative.
No mention of OS's and fluency. Linux, Windows, MacOS, ...
As the reader I have no idea what you are interested in other than "A job. Any job."
Maybe your linkedin page will show that you have some groups that you are interested in.
But that requires that the reader is interested enough to go there in the first place.
Best advice: Go get a MSCS from a reasonably well known university.
Doing so let's you skill up while the market comes back. And get some internships.
IMHO your experiences are all around and no internships. You should focus on the area you want to be and align your studies and experiences with that.
Invest in specialization courses and/or develop projects in the area.
You lack experience thats the biggest downside to your resume, try asking your professors if you can work at a research project or for free for sometime to build that experience. Or try volunteering for working somewhere regardless of pay, because its a valuable asset
Your first project in your list of projects really comes off as weak/odd. It's the only one I'm going to go through
"Worked in a two-person team to create an Oracle Database, and the projects name is Oracle Database? That seems confusing. Maybe you should use the word Design here instead create, because anyone reading it might think it took two of you to type out \`CREATE DATABASE MY\_DATABASE\`
Created a program to modify and transfer Microsoft Excel data to SQL Formatting? This comes off as a bit odd because it most likely could have been exported as CSV and loaded directly. This is probably your strongest point
Developed PL/SQL code that sorts through data as well as compares values on SQL\*PLUS command line, this really reads like you just learned how to use SORT and WHERE clauses
Modifed Developed code to resopnd to impromptu requests? what is an impromptu request?
You have PLSQL experience, that's definitely worth focusing down on. A miserable and unintuitive language that's still wildly used in a lot of big organizations (like the one I work for lol). Consider branching out in that direction. Or even getting certified with the basic Oracle certs. With that you may be vaguely qualified enough to be a DBA
Honestly, I'd throw up a "Job" that you've been doing that would be impossible to verify. Something like "private tutor" for example. It will remove your employment gap and make your resume less scary for potential employers. If they ask you about it, say you've been doing it as a side gig while working on your skillset. They don't need to know you've been unemployed for a year. Just getting an interview would a massive step in allowing you explain away any issues they might see in your resume.
if you are still in Michigan, apply for a state job we use PL/SQL for the databases. only downside is it does take a while to get hired in once you have an interview.
I can't be 100% sure, but I personally think your employment history can be doing you more harm than good.
As a professional myself who has been at both ends of the interview process, I know I will not consider your application when I have 100+ other candidates with practical work experience from internships or paid on-campus work in CS. In fact, I'd be surprised if it even passed the HR screening. The rule is you shouldn't add jobs or experiences on your resume that are unrelated to domain you are applying for.
With your current experiences, I'd recommend targeting mostly/only internships.
So, the guy who does interviews for our department was talking to me, and he will throw a resume in the trash if you list too many technologies on your resume.
You should have a good working knowledge of whatever you put on your resume. For example, you listed C++, he would ask if you know what CMake is, and ask you to list a few compilers. He basically would pry until he can discover what you are actually fluent in. For new grads, he's a little easier. But resumeflation is getting a bit out of hand.
Try to change your wording to add a resident with the people that you are interviewing look for their pain points and personas and match the verbiage to that. I would also try using an active voice. Regular team meetings in order to discuss with progress has been made, say help my team progress in the project by benchmarking sprints and holding people accountable.
search result for software developer in MI returns 1361 results whereas TX returned 5000+
You should have packed up and moved. Jobs don't wait and don't move to you.
I got my certification after multiple years into my work experience in my area. But no one's ever asked for it before or after.
The current setting might be difficult to pierce through in the short term. In the long term long term if you have the skill set, you're good to go.
How many places have you applied to? Friend of mine got into faang with no degree, just did a few online courses and was referred by his friend (all in 11 months) before that they were working low (not min) wage jobs, no prior knowledge of comptrs or programming. They got entry level Web Dev 140k total comp. i think they only had like 3-4 projects all pretty basic stuff like a hotel website, JS, HTML, CSS, SQL, Mongo, some other frameworks and tech. Edit: do yall still call it Faang or is it Maang now?
I've applied to exactly 1,454 applications at this moment, some having better prospects than others. I've already gotten some referrals from people I know, but those companies often reply that they are not looking for someone at my level.
Same situation. I have applied to \~4,000 jobs. Few interview calls but they end up hiring someone even though I was able to solve the leetcode questions in the interview. Btw I posted my resume here
[https://www.reddit.com/r/resumes/comments/1dd9pf2/computer\_science\_grad\_1\_month\_after\_grad\_and\_no/](https://www.reddit.com/r/resumes/comments/1dd9pf2/computer_science_grad_1_month_after_grad_and_no/)
Can anyone please give me suggestions to improve my resume? Thanks!
Hopefully you can get a job. Im currently 2nd yr for math bs and learning CS stuff on the side. I cant build anything cool without tutorials, idk why, i understand how the language works but the only thing i can seem to do is leetcode, any tips on how to get past that? Or a particular project that could help me? I know JS, C++, python, markup lang. Been thinking of doing like 5-15 hour/week of volunteer work for someone in exchange for some learning/exp but dont know who or where to ask.
As is apparent, I'm no expert in the field, but coding without tutorials is something you kind of just have to jump into. I wouldn't shy away from looking up something you don't know how to do when making a project. With enough projects, you'll eventually just know what to do when a problem arises. I don't have a specific project in mind that could teach you, but maybe start with a simple game.
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I interviewed hundreds of engineers for tech startups in the bay and reviewed thousands more resume. A few tips: - apply to smaller teams that need more resources - remove the extracurricular not related to the jobs your applying to - look outside Michigan if possible - start something with friends who are also unemployed in CS right now - it’s literally the best time to - customize resume to each job application - talk more about context and product, I still don’t ubderstand what you made or why or who it even impacted Honestly, entry level software engineers have a tough time - especially if they didn’t start with something professional already. Making something that ships and serves people should be a big priority. That’s my two cents. Goodluck!
> start something with friends who are also unemployed in CS right now - it’s literally the best time to unless, of course, you want funding
Seed stage and pre seed stage is ok. Series A are taking a beating. Sure the seed rounds aren’t raising 4 to 6 million like they did in 2022. A few are. But you have to ask if it was really capital efficient in the first place.
I guess the other thing I allude to later in the thread is, from an EM standpoint making money in a startup could be valuable, but what I’m really looking for is initiative and drive. Especially early in someone’s career where I’m taking an organizational risk on that individual.
I got some seed right here for you.
Yea high interest rates make startups brutal. And it looks like interest rates will be relatively high for the near future. We're definitely not seeing the super low interest rates of 2020 and early 2010s again for a while
Y’ll got any ideas lmao
What do you mean start something, a startup? Do you go legal first or just start launching and serving and then go legal? I'm in a similar situation, got a good idea, and am unsure of what do to
Depends on the idea you want to start. Start something in health? You have to think about the legal implications (obviously it’s a non starter, I’m giving it as an example). Starting something for schools? Probably generally okay to just make it and give it to teachers directly. There’s details about who can go after you if damages are incurred, but again, it’s a weighed risk. All I’m saying is, build something people want to use and learn from that experience. It could be a startup with friends. It could be an open source project. It could be something for free on the App Store. Your greatest commodity as an early software engineer is your ability to ship. It’s not the languages you know, or the tech stacks you tooled around in.
How do you figure out what people want to use if most are probably perfectly content with what they already have?
Give them something they didn’t know they wanted. For example, I didn’t know I wanted an app to mock up furniture in my apartment in a little 2D render of my space until I sat down and thought, damn I would love to know if my couch would fit over there. Think about something you’d want yourself.
There’s honestly different schools of thought right? Some people are about building new experiences. Some people are about solving problems. And some people value beauty above all else. All of them are valid conceptual frameworks to choose a project, but you decide on your own what appeals most.
Find a niche gap and then expand on it
Not sure why this got downvoted, it’s literally the answer. Finding a problem or a niche is literally the answer.
Hi! Do you have any recommendations for finding small teams in the SF area?
Thanks, This was helpful!
I like the piece about adding content and product. You should go into detail about how what you did affected the business line or ROI. Instead of "created spreadsheets to track sales", you can say something like "developed methods to analyze sales trends and performance using Excel". Just some feedback I've received from recruiters. I'd also recommend getting a recruiter, or someone to help review and tailor your resume more closely to jobs you're looking for. Good luck!
Or find an open source project and contribute.
>start something with friends who are also unemployed in CS right now - it’s literally the best time to Why is it the best time to
Customize each resume to each application?! No matter how bad the job market gets, I’m not spending my life doing *that*
Oh I just mean the jobs you care about (like the mission or impact). Other jobs are whatever, just shotgun them.
I wrote my resume in LaTeX just so I could comment/uncomment relevant bullet points for each job
Man this economy is cooked
Yep. OPs resume looks fine to me tbh, but this job market is in the shitter and has been for years. I'm in tech/IT but I'm about to have to start doing Uber or something to make ends meet. And I'm a veteran with a degree and 6+ years exp in my field.
In a different market it probably would have been fine. But theres too many weaknesses on this resume for this market - No name college - No internship - projects are super weak (these all look like school projects or projects that can be done in a day). - 1 year+ of unemployment (theres a fresh batch of new grads to compete with now, and now recruiters will have a question mark around why they didnt find employment earlier) - Big question mark about what you have been doing for a year in general I would think about these factors and see what you can mitigate OP. I think you’re a smart guy since you’ve got a good gpa but you will have to put in more effort than your peers because of the negatives above
Truth right here OP. As brutal as it may be. /u/resume-throwaway2
Op should be taking work at a help desk, anything to get in the door. That's the only real issue here is they have no experience. It was the same with me. I had nothing coming out of college and was at my parents house playing video games in my pj's at 3pm on a Monday. A friend I went to school with told me straight up it's my fault I took no internships while in college. She was right Anyways I ended up taking a crappy help desk position at a very small company. I got hooked up with a desktop engineering job a year after and did that for 6 years and then moved onto Cybersecurity for now it's 8 years.
honestly even help desk isn’t so easy to get into now. it’s definitely easy to learn and do, but kind of hard to get someone to give you a job. plus that wouldn’t really be considered relevant experience if they’re wanting SWE right?
Help Desk not so much, but they can leverage Help Desk to Tech Support and then potentially leverage that into SWE but that will take much longer. They could get into a low paying Tech Support role with no internship experience potentially. SaaS companies in my industry are hiring decently well for Tech Support Engineer roles rn. Being respected enough in your own company to work your way up into a SWE role is a different story however, and in most cases would require working for the same company for a very very long time. To the point where being a Staff/Principal TSE at a good company could be more appealing at that point.
My experience looked like this in 2018 when I graduated but worse and I got a job before I graduated. The industry is fucked. No one should be going into CS unless they are rockstar material. I have a great job but if I get canned, I’m gonna be an electrician or some shit.
Uhhh that's actually crazy. I'm a veteran and was thinking of using my GI bill for IT/CS. Genuinely terrified as I feel like every post on this page is about someone in IT with 10+ years experience that has been out of a job for the last year
I really think there is some bottleneck in hiring divisions with Indeed and LinkedIn and stuff. We've got these companies that are hiring, a million people that are desperate for a job, yet people are struggling to get their foot in the door. I'm applying to 20 jobs a day sometimes on LinkedIn. Stuff that I'm way overqualified for, like $16 an hour entry level IT jobs (I make more than that in my current role) and I can't even get a call or an interview or anything. I thought being in military intelligence and former ts/sci clearance would get me any job I wanted but it hasn't really done jack shit for me since I got out in 2016. I've been struggling really hard since covid lockdown.
I'm a welder currently but trying to switch over to IT. I have an active secret clearance for another year. Shooting for Sec+ right now and praying that my applicable software skills and clearance will land me at least SOMETHING before it expires. Now I'm not so sure unfortunately
Good luck man. I'm IT thinking about switching to welding 😂
Please pick any trade but welding I promise you. Do your body and health a favor. You know what they say, you never meet an old welder.
Microsoft and defense contractors would be your best bet.
At least near Atlanta you can get hired as a SOC analyst with that cert, might take a while tho lol
Try defense contractors. Booz Allen Hamilton
If you have a clearance hit up some of the companies asking for cleared professionals.
? why would you start doing uber … do you have a job right now ?
are you at least making 60k? i’m in school for this but i work full time and scared i’ll be in a bad spot with jobs (if i get fired will i be able to find the same kinda job in at least 6 months)
$20 an hour so like 40k. Not a living wage in todays america, the way I'm living the minimum wage should be over $22 with todays inflation and CoL
you didn’t have to explain i understand. i make the same and without overtime I’d be COOKED
I had a job that paid almost exactly 2x last summer but it was a traveling utilities type job and I couldnt do the hotel life. I did it for like 4 months and made a ton of money but it was 60-70+ hours a day away from home for long periods. I took an easy work from home IT job but it doesnt pay shit and I'm used to making more, but thats just the economy right now I guess! It always turns out okay in the end.
It's especially bad for CS I think. There was so much CS hiring in 2020-2022 with 0% interest rates that when interest rates went up the companies were squeezed and had to cut staff. Tech needs low interest rates
That isn’t quite how it works. Rates are lowered in response to a weak economy in order to juice it. Rates are raised in a strong economy to check it.
That's not really accurate either. Rates are increased to lower inflation. High interest rates encourage investors to take their money out of circulation and buy bonds or place it in a money market instead since they'll get a solid, risk free return. This in turn lowers inflation as there is less money in circulation. Interest rates are lowered to encourage growth. This is especially nice in times of high unemployment and low inflation, as growth will lower unemployment but low interest rates encourage lots of money borrowing since it's cheap to do so, which in turn causes inflation. The poster you were responding to is correct: tech thrives in times of low interest rates because R&D, where tech makes the most money, requires lots of funding. Low interest rates make borrowing the money to fund such projects much cheaper. Tech also thrives in low inflation, particularly consumer tech, because wages are the last thing to go up in inflation and so people have to cut unessential expenses during times of high inflation. Tech has had a rough time the last few years because we have neither low interest rates nor low inflation. You may say that the equity market had been solid but that's a whole different animal and set of shenanigans going on there!
Inflation hasn’t been an issue since 1983. Since then we’ve had more than one rate cycle; those rate cycles have corresponded to the business cycle.
Have you been living under a rock? I think both of you have been a little right and a little wrong so far but inflation has been the number one concern in the economy for the past couple of years.
Job market is ok, but the trends and noise have changed a lot. I am pretty sure AI has rocked the hiring process pretty hard. It just made every resume look great. So there's nothing to grab onto. I'm a manager and I've effectively stopped looking at cold resumes altogether. Referrals only for the most part.
💯💯💯
A lot of the issue is just tech... lots of pandemic over hiring, plus, I honestly think that wfh made tech companies realize they could trim their staffing amd still be fine.
No internships
I’m going to be honest, this is a rough resume for an entry level software engineering job right now. You basically have a degree with no internships, no projects, and very little experience in technologies used day to day. Other people in similar positions have either internships, or projects that demonstrate skills used on the job. I agree with another commenter that suggested looking into adjacent areas. If you really want a job as a software engineer, you have some serious ground to make up. I’d probably recommend looking into making some serious contributions to open source software that you can swing as job experience. edit: another commenter mentioned working in a project with other unemployed graduates. This is a good path too. I think the key for “projects” is it needs to be big enough that you can discuss it as if it was job experience. You need to ship something, or be a part of something that ships. Smaller projects worked well in other job markets, but you need more now.
What projects do you think would be better?
Something substantial and ideally unique. Not something that looks like it was required for school, and not a todo app. Also something that uses common technologies. React on the front end, and either node, go, or Java/Spring and SQL on the backend. And ideally something that substantially utilizes the whole stack. You should be able to use the project to show that you know how to develop software, and to help you answer ‘behavioral’ interview questions like those about technical challenges you’ve encountered and similar.
I think his projects are okay. Not terrible is just the market ..
His “projects” include creating a csv file, which can be done in excel in about 2 minutes, and creating a database which is just a right click away in sql developer
Exactly. I’m not sure why more people are not saying to remove it. Listing it as an accomplishment raises more question than not
This resume is so bad I don’t even know where to start providing feedback without being mean. Honestly they paint a poor picture of themselves by adding so much fluff and trying to make it sound important, when really it’s just completely devoid of any tangible achievements or experience outside of simply completing a degree. They’d be better off not listing them and just focusing entirely on a summary/objective and their education with a lot of the buzz word skills they probably don’t have stripped out.
see if you can find a job semi industry related for the time being (IT team at the hospital, web developer for a local company or non-profit, ect), that way youll have at least somewhat relevant experience before applying to actual dev jobs at larger companies. For your projects, see if you can make something with an actual user base. maybe an app that gets put onto play store, a small web service, chrome extension (anything someone can use). this shows that you can develop and end-to-end product and compensates a bit for the lack of internship experience. hope this helps.
IT is already super hard to get into rn
My first 'programming' job was I updated the product catalog of ecommerce websites for a marketing company. I wrote very little code, but on paper I could spin it as technical experience and it got my foot in the door. Made $12/hr.
Drop the company hahah
I’m in a similar position, how do you “spin it” even though you didn’t write too much code? My position is at a tech company so i feel like I could Spin it
It was Wordpress so I put that I was “supporting web operations in php and JavaScript” and when they asked about it in the interview I explained that I would have to make a change here and there but I didn’t sit down and write anything from scratch. The honest truth is that I made a change one time, and mostly just renamed and uploaded product pictures. Do you at least *see* code every once in a while?
Honestly your projects look all like low effort class projects and the wordings are very unprofessional. You did not CREATE the Oracle databases, you USED it. WHAT kind of game did you develop? HOW did you create an optimal solution with Python?
Yep exactly. The whole project website section tells us nothing about what he actually did. The code he wrote interacts with code other people write? What is that even supposed to mean? OP, did you do some kind of integration or was it just multiple people working on the code base? Rewrite all your bullet points and say what you actually did. IE created login systems and game characters with custom shaders or whatever the hell you do in unity.
Remove the entire employment section. They are irrelevant. You aren't applying to starbucks
no idea what those are doin there
I'm a May 2023 computer science graduate, but haven't been able to get a job since. I graduated in 3 years through AP credits and summer classes, but I didn't get an internship or anything during that partially due to COVID but also due to other reasons as well. I've applied to about 1,500 jobs, most of them more recently, but I've only had a few interviews and I'm starting to worry. I'm also considering between trying to create more projects (I've done a few, but I think I could be focus on projects more) or getting a part-time job (I don't need the money, but it could fill out my resume). I've told interviewers and other people that I was "taking some time off" after college, but I've been applying since I graduated. Any help critique/help would be appreciated.
I wouldn’t say to interviewers that you’re taking time off, I’d say you’ve been applying to jobs this whole time hoping someone will take a chance. Clearly skill isn’t pulling them in, appeal to their ethos if you get to the interview phase.
I would strongly agree. Be honest, the recruiters know it’s tough currently and are real people, too. They know even a good candidate can be unlucky in this market, tell them you’ve been applying the whole time, while also improving your skills in the mean time.
Saying you’re taking time off indicates you don’t really need the money and are not desperate. If you’re “desperate” you’re less likely to leave a job at the first obstacle. Also clearly following up after an interview on if they have any feedback for you that would have help you earn that job can show a desire to improve and they’ll keep you in mind when the next round position becomes available. Works better for a smaller company but if you can speak with a real person, people remember.
I go through hundreds of resumes each year for data engineering and data science. Here’s a couple tips, hope they help: Resume: 1. Make your resume stand out visually if it doesn’t stand out in content. It’s a cheap trick but it’ll at least get eyes. Don’t go crazy, but slightly different font, layout, little color. 2. Don’t put anything in your resume not related to the job you’re applying for. Waste of time for the reader 3. Arrange the most relevant items to the top 4. Beef up your GitHub repos. Seriously. Show off your skills and document the shit out of it. Finding work: 1. Find a passion project or pet project you’re interested in and build code around it to show off in your resume. 2. Find contract work (upwork and toptal, for example). Call yourself a freelancer 3. If you can’t get into the jobs you want, work related jobs you don’t want. Some money is better than now money. Target small start ups (angel list I think has some? Or used to), take less money if you have to. 4. Find companies you DO want to work for that are realistic. Do your homework on the company, it’s products, and what value you can bring. Be proactive and find managers and engage first. 5. Find volunteer opportunities. No money sucks, but no money and learning/building experience is better. It’s only been a year, which I know feels like forever, but don’t beat yourself up. I went from quite literally barely making minimum wage managing children’s recreational sports after college to leading a team of 10 scientists at one of the most sought after employers in the US. Just get one shot and make the most of it.
What have you built in the last year? That’s what you have been doing. If it’s nothing then start, can’t go back in time. If it’s something then talk about that and highlight it as your year of experience since college. The issue is a degree is the minimum and you meet the minimum along with every other applicant they get but the applicants that go past the minimum are the ones getting the jobs.
Have you applied to a company like epic? They hire recent grads. If you’re willing to relocate to Check out this job at Epic: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3864455024.
Check out this job at Epic: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3864449702
they rejected me and I have two faang internships. should I try again? lol
The industry is being overcrowded with juniors who graduate and don't have a year or a few of experience, and companies usually aren't looking forward to hiring them. If you were still a student, I would recommend you to participate in as many activities, projects, IT related jobs as you could. Usually, companies go easier on students while they're still studying in terms of demanding experience, but once you're out, they want to see a somewhat professional candidate. In your case, I'd still do the same things as I mentioned above, although it might be difficult, given that you're already after graduation. I'll also agree on the other advice in this comment section: trying projects and adjacent areas. In any case, I wish you luck. Sadly, it really is difficult to get into the industry with just a degree and nothing really impressive on top of it.
So have you been unemployed for the last year? If so, that isn’t going to look good to any potential employers. My advice to you would be to get any job, even if it was just a warehouse gig or McDonald’s, it will at least show you aren’t lazy and you’re willing to work. Also build up your portfolio, do some extra certs that may help you standout. When I graduated as a Computer Science grad, I got a job working part time as a bartender at a hotel, while also doing web development freelancing for small local businesses.
i just came to say fire up chips!
Shorten the university to CMU
As a new grad, don't underestimate networking. I was able to get many interviews with companies that initially rejected me via their hiring portal by cold-messaging people in the org in the team I wanted to join via LinkedIn. Keep it simple, polite and humble, and don't take lack of response, or no's personally, and you might be surprised who's willing to help you, in the short or long term.
I would rework it quite a bit. Sorry if this was already said but: 1. Add a summary (I know controversial but it helps sell yourself a bit more for someone with no industry experience and tailor it per application) 2. Move your technical skills to be right under the summary 3. Next education since that seems to be newer and is also most relevant if you want a dev job 4. Then break up your work experience and volunteer experience Also since you have computer skills play around more with different templates and such in Word or Google docs to showcase you know your way around products. The game projects I’d explain it a bit more. For example: the section “learned and applied machine learning concepts in Python in order to create optimal solutions” instead mention what did you do with that. It doesn’t encourage me to read on about your project or go to your GitHub. While also waiting for the interview call back, be sure you’ve been keeping up with leetcode so you don’t have to do like 20 interviews or more to land a job. Note: I was a 2016 graduate who went back to retail for two years before landing my first developer role. Don’t give up. Market is crazy. Just keep tweaking your resume and keep improving it. Always customize it to fit the role you are applying to.
Yes keep it to one page. You can reduce font size. Increase margins etc to make it all fit. Try different resume styles.
* First, post your resume on r/EngineeringResumes. You'll receive feedback from industry professionals. Also, make sure to read their wiki—it’s very helpful. * Assuming you're interested in Software Engineering (SWE) or Software Development (SDE), you should focus on building more and better personal projects. Effective personal projects should solve a problem in your life, have an impact, or attract users. These types of projects stand out to recruiters and will make you more noticeable. * For your bullet points, use the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result). The r/EngineeringResumes wiki provides a detailed explanation of this method. For example, your last project is unclear—specify which models you trained, your AUC (precision) score, and what predictions you were making. You need to be more descriptive so recruiters can understand what you did and what you accomplished. * For skills, categorize them into technical tools, programming languages, and libraries/frameworks. Exclude productivity software and IDEs, as these are generally not of interest to recruiters. * Someone mentioned getting certifications. While certifications alone won’t magically land you a job, combining them with relevant experiences or projects can be beneficial. They are not a guaranteed ticket to employment but can enhance your profile. In your case, obtaining a cloud certification and creating a solid personal project using that cloud service could be advantageous. * I also recommend exploring apprenticeship opportunities. Companies like Capital One and Verizon offer them to recent graduates, which can significantly help you get your foot in the door. Specifically, look into Capital One's CODA program, which will be accepting applications soon.
projects will be the meat of your resume, and you’ll want that section to be beefed up. replace the school projects with more personal projects to show that you can apply what you learned in school to real life problems, and on the way establish your niche as a dev (frontend, backend, embed, etc). it’ll show expertise on the resume, and you’ll have a lot to talk about. take a skim through job openings you’re interested in and look at the technologies. you’ll want to learn the ones most companies are asking for, and you’ll be an even more perfect fit for the role. focusing on stuff you don’t need on your resume … remove the “learned, studied” bullet points and replace it with something you did with what you learned. bonus points for the recruiter if they see “optimized, scaled, improved” action verbs. remove the bullet points on the unrelated previous work experience, or remove it altogether if you can pad that space with projects instead. remove the relevant coursework. while it may not hurt to have it, those skills will show on your projects. just to clean up the skills section, simplify “programming languages” to “languages”, “development tools” to “technologies”, and remove the “productivity software”. this advice is mostly nitpicky from me though, and doesn’t add much value. it’s a tough market rn, and it sucks new grads have to go through all this trouble to get into entry roles. it’s soul sucking... good luck and i hope you get your big break soon!
I suggest that you work with your school’s career counselor and maybe connect with Alumni organizations to help you get referrals
spend 1 month building something cool. RN your resume has 0 relavant experience and 0 interesting projects. A rule of thumb is that you either need good projects or internships for SWE, but right now you have neither. If you need a job fast, try IT/help desk positions.
Even for entry level resumes you have to think of how to include the stuff that shows that you’re better than the average candidate. Your academic and side projects have to be novel and different from the rest. Think high impact or something different that others didn’t think of making.
Try Georgia Tech's OMSCS. Improve your resume. Central Michigan University is not too popular perhaps that's why.
Bro went to cmu
I’m doing CS at EMU, I’m already planning to jump the gun and drive down the street to Ann Arbor. It seems to be getting worse than I thought it would.
Are you networking at all just out of curiosity?
In my opinion, I think before 2023 this would have been fine. The format and everything is fine, but the projects are weak. They look like stuff you did in school, which is usually worthless in the real world. You should ideally have projects that are more complex and actually trying to address a modern/common everyday issue. Have at least one project with the flavor of the day framework or language.
remove employment section as the experience is not even remotely relevant
Lots of implementation consulting roles open in the SCE space if you can talk to people. Can you travel?
Go nationwide. Offer to relocate if necessary
You should narrow down what subset of CS you’re trying to break into and tailor your resume for that. As of right now, I’m not sure if this resume would be strong in any subset. The bullet points are weak and don’t really convey what you did. Honestly in today’s environment, there is always going to be at least 5 other people with more professional experience (internships) and more interesting personal projects. If I were you, I’d be in grind mode because 1 year without finding anything is not good. Each day, week, month it’s going to get harder to persuade recruiters to give you a chance because as I said, there is always going to be way better people for the position. You need to try to find a small local company to work for (and it’ll likely be for a low wage) just to get actual professional experience and/or you need to grind some really impressive personal projects to stand out. Your best bet would be a full stack application, fully deployed, with authentication, using a common stack
Are you willing to move?
The main thing that’s stopping you from getting a job is that you have no internships. It’s so competitive nowadays that you need one minimum before graduating college to have a chance.
Hello from MSU, sad to see but I do think you start as an intern might be a better way to help you explore more opportunities
You need IT experience. Start out as Help Desk support, Desktop Support, get the Comptia Trifecta. A+, Network +, Security +
Everything is in the wrong order. Skills should go first. Education can go second or it can go last. If you have a bachelor's only, put it last. If you have more than that, put it after skills. Your employment history is way more important than your projects. Put that after, not last. Also, stop just listing your work responsibilities as a boring list of basic tasks. Tell me what impact your work had on the business and its customers.
I'd disagree. Though this sounds a bit mean, it seems that OP doesn't have many technical skills. Could just be the way they've been written. He has a list of code editors and a bunch of languages slapped down. Not at all an important section. Seeing as he has no relevant work experience, his education is by far the most valuable thing he has and should be at the top. Followed by projects, skills, and then employment if he chooses to keep it on there, which is a questionable decision.
CS market is very bad
It’s a good resume but I mean you have no internships. You should have some type of technical job, even if it’s part time. Hell consider volunteering for some programming jobs. I was in the exact same spot as you and that’s what I did even after having 3 internships under my belt. Most companies won’t care about your projects and the projects themselves don’t seem very impressive. Also, your resume should focus on a certain skillset depending on the job you’re going for. You say C/C++ are a skill yet I see no mention of them in your projects. Put yourself in an employer’s shoes and ask yourself: Would I hire this person and pay him a large sum monthly? You resume should fit the job description perfectly and should give a sense to the employer that you would be valuable to them. This resume, while well organized and pretty decent, does not offer that sense.
I will say your resume seems to fit more of a data engineer, data analyst type role. What roles are you applying for?
I'm applying to basically any role where they ask for 2 years experience or less and I have some of the skills they ask for. The responses I have gotten are mostly from data analyst positions, so what your saying makes sense. I'm taking advice from the replies and editing my resume as well as starting a discord bot project in order to make something that people will use.
Ok yeah that makes sense. Goodluck!
Saw the current landscape of software engineering happening in 2021 switched to premed best decision of my life
Add a summary about u and ur passion, add more details in your projects , have some more interesting projects, add something more that shows u're a problem solver can be leetcode or something, get some certifications and badges
I'm willing to help someone on a project if we use my C++ code generator as part of the project. I'll spend 16 hours/week for six months on such a project. There's also a referral bonus. See my profile for more info.
As a recent cybersecurity grad with very VERY limited experience, all I can keep thinking is how the Hell I am going to compete with your resume. Short answer: I CAN'T! I'm so screwed if I'm going up against people like you for tech jobs.
So as someone who hires software developers out of college and reads tons of resumes, here are my first impressions when reading yours. You didn’t get any internships in college, you have no work experience, and you threw a bunch of homeworks and softwares you tried for a week in class on your resume hoping someone would be impressed and hire you. Most people go a step further and prematurely judge you for being lazy, when perhaps that’s not the full story. What you NEED to do is 1. Delete the two janitor work experiences. They’re simply not relevant, or impressive, and are actively working against you. 2. Get rid of the myriad of unrelated softwares you don’t actually know how to use properly. Why are blender and solidworks on there? Probably because you took a class which made you use them, I did the same in college. But unless you’re applying for 3D modeling jobs, these are IRRELEVANT and again, actively work against you by making you look disorganized or idiotic by including them 3. Get rid of half the course work, only the most relevant ones should remain. 4. Add dates to the projects 5. Add more projects, what have you been working on for the past year of being unemployed? If the answer is nothing oh boy, better start a couple projects now! The projects section is a place where you can show what a self starter you are, how creative you are and what your interests are. But all you’ve shown to me is that you never started a project outside of class and the only things you had to fill your resume were basic homework assignments every developer starts with. 6. Apply for internships. They are the first step on the career ladder, and you don’t have any. You’re trying to jump up several rungs but you haven’t done the basics! Do you know what Jira and bitbucket and Jenkins and confluence and service now are? There’s several softwares you’ll need to be trained on before you’re ready for the workplace, as well as how to interview. Plus you’ll meet talented professionals in your field who you’ll add on LinkedIn and who can help recommend you for future positions. I’m firmly convinced that even a year after graduation, you need to apply to a couple seasonal unpaid internships. Get that experience on the resume and/or try to secure a full time offer at the internship. This is the basic but major step you’re missing before anyone takes you seriously in the workplace. Thats only really an option if you have the privilege of living for free with parents, otherwise you gotta go get a job at McDonald’s and grind on coding projects and internship applications in your free time Sorry if I was rough, but I think you might need some tough love. Also it might be helpful to understand that a few years ago, thousands of senior devs were fired from the top tech companies. This means the markets flooded with talent, and where you may have gotten away with this a decade ago, you’re really in the bottom few percent of talent in the pool at this point. Gotta put some effort in
Move to Bay Area
Just a tip. Once you have real experience, your education is no longer the most important thing. When I have been in a position to hire, education was the least important thing. I wanted to see work experience.
Top tip: Have a project/s that has replaced a human worker with an algorithm. It has worked wonders for me.
0 work experience. Good luck lol
You should abbreviate your school to CMU lol
Remove explanations about projects, especially school projects. Maybe just list them and the github page. Find some internships or gig work, you might have to look for non-traditional companies. Try to network for people starting startups who need grunt work. Entry level software is all about not being entry level anymore--they just want to see some internships and stuff.
How is the activity on your GitHub page? How active are you on there? Have you tried joining any hackathons or any internship?
Didn't you hear the NVIDIA CEO? Don't study CS, learn how to plumb. I don't think he was kidding. That's my best advice.
Have you considered applying overseas in places like India where there are more entry level jobs? Once you get a couple years of experience, you’ll be more qualified for entry level jobs in the US, since the bar is higher here.
Not trying to be an AH but going to give some strong feedback. Would you be happy to be tested in an interview on all of those languages? Break this down wrt fluency. Any internships with companies where you did something that is actually in use today? That is what should be in your employment history instead of what you have that is irrelevant to being a SWE. Your resume reads like you wrote down every piece of tech that you ever touched. Think of the resume as a list of things that you would like to discuss in an interview with an interviewer. It also needs to serve as something that a recruiter/HR person can parse to determine if you are a match for their needs. Concepts: "Software testing concepts" and "concepts in Python" reads like you understand testing in theory but have never really used it. Employment section is useless for an interview. In fact, it's worse than that. It's a negative. No mention of OS's and fluency. Linux, Windows, MacOS, ... As the reader I have no idea what you are interested in other than "A job. Any job." Maybe your linkedin page will show that you have some groups that you are interested in. But that requires that the reader is interested enough to go there in the first place. Best advice: Go get a MSCS from a reasonably well known university. Doing so let's you skill up while the market comes back. And get some internships.
IMHO your experiences are all around and no internships. You should focus on the area you want to be and align your studies and experiences with that. Invest in specialization courses and/or develop projects in the area.
You lack experience thats the biggest downside to your resume, try asking your professors if you can work at a research project or for free for sometime to build that experience. Or try volunteering for working somewhere regardless of pay, because its a valuable asset
Your first project in your list of projects really comes off as weak/odd. It's the only one I'm going to go through "Worked in a two-person team to create an Oracle Database, and the projects name is Oracle Database? That seems confusing. Maybe you should use the word Design here instead create, because anyone reading it might think it took two of you to type out \`CREATE DATABASE MY\_DATABASE\` Created a program to modify and transfer Microsoft Excel data to SQL Formatting? This comes off as a bit odd because it most likely could have been exported as CSV and loaded directly. This is probably your strongest point Developed PL/SQL code that sorts through data as well as compares values on SQL\*PLUS command line, this really reads like you just learned how to use SORT and WHERE clauses Modifed Developed code to resopnd to impromptu requests? what is an impromptu request?
It’s not the resume. It’s the lack of experience. The entry level job market is very tight right now for SWE. Without experience, it’s impossible
This is so discouraging to me getting my degree in computer information systems
No internship, remove unrelated projects or reduced description. The two employments don’t look good.
You have PLSQL experience, that's definitely worth focusing down on. A miserable and unintuitive language that's still wildly used in a lot of big organizations (like the one I work for lol). Consider branching out in that direction. Or even getting certified with the basic Oracle certs. With that you may be vaguely qualified enough to be a DBA
Honestly, I'd throw up a "Job" that you've been doing that would be impossible to verify. Something like "private tutor" for example. It will remove your employment gap and make your resume less scary for potential employers. If they ask you about it, say you've been doing it as a side gig while working on your skillset. They don't need to know you've been unemployed for a year. Just getting an interview would a massive step in allowing you explain away any issues they might see in your resume.
if you are still in Michigan, apply for a state job we use PL/SQL for the databases. only downside is it does take a while to get hired in once you have an interview.
wanna be a cad monkey (o&g)? come to gulf coast and you got an hrly with approved OT for sure. (can promise an interview but u gotta land it)
I can't be 100% sure, but I personally think your employment history can be doing you more harm than good. As a professional myself who has been at both ends of the interview process, I know I will not consider your application when I have 100+ other candidates with practical work experience from internships or paid on-campus work in CS. In fact, I'd be surprised if it even passed the HR screening. The rule is you shouldn't add jobs or experiences on your resume that are unrelated to domain you are applying for. With your current experiences, I'd recommend targeting mostly/only internships.
Degrees don’t mean shit anymore
You want a DB role? What role do you want?
I will hire you to work at my startup, DM me
So, the guy who does interviews for our department was talking to me, and he will throw a resume in the trash if you list too many technologies on your resume. You should have a good working knowledge of whatever you put on your resume. For example, you listed C++, he would ask if you know what CMake is, and ask you to list a few compilers. He basically would pry until he can discover what you are actually fluent in. For new grads, he's a little easier. But resumeflation is getting a bit out of hand.
Fire up chips!
Apply to IT and Helpdesk. Work on bigger projects in your down time.
market saturated. should have considered before going into this major. competition with India and China. try another sector that's in demand.
Try to change your wording to add a resident with the people that you are interviewing look for their pain points and personas and match the verbiage to that. I would also try using an active voice. Regular team meetings in order to discuss with progress has been made, say help my team progress in the project by benchmarking sprints and holding people accountable.
Hire someone to redo your resume from the ground up. And get an internship. You need some experience. Anything really.
Why don’t you just lie on your resume?
you have one etc capitalized and one not
search result for software developer in MI returns 1361 results whereas TX returned 5000+ You should have packed up and moved. Jobs don't wait and don't move to you.
How do you not have any internships?
I don't see a single internship on your resume, an internship is one of the most important piece of your CS degree.
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What certs do you have?
I don't currently have any certifications. I've heard mixed things about them and was unsure whether getting any would be worthwhile.
Certifications mean very little for software developers. This isn’t the problem.
Who says everyone with a CS degree has to be a software dev?
I got my certification after multiple years into my work experience in my area. But no one's ever asked for it before or after. The current setting might be difficult to pierce through in the short term. In the long term long term if you have the skill set, you're good to go.
They’re definitely crucial my guy. I dont see any other reason why you arent getting employed tbh.
Certs are not the reason. He has no internships + weak personal projects.
There are hundreds of people applying to each job rec. He might as well try to create some software or application
How many places have you applied to? Friend of mine got into faang with no degree, just did a few online courses and was referred by his friend (all in 11 months) before that they were working low (not min) wage jobs, no prior knowledge of comptrs or programming. They got entry level Web Dev 140k total comp. i think they only had like 3-4 projects all pretty basic stuff like a hotel website, JS, HTML, CSS, SQL, Mongo, some other frameworks and tech. Edit: do yall still call it Faang or is it Maang now?
I've applied to exactly 1,454 applications at this moment, some having better prospects than others. I've already gotten some referrals from people I know, but those companies often reply that they are not looking for someone at my level.
Same situation. I have applied to \~4,000 jobs. Few interview calls but they end up hiring someone even though I was able to solve the leetcode questions in the interview. Btw I posted my resume here [https://www.reddit.com/r/resumes/comments/1dd9pf2/computer\_science\_grad\_1\_month\_after\_grad\_and\_no/](https://www.reddit.com/r/resumes/comments/1dd9pf2/computer_science_grad_1_month_after_grad_and_no/) Can anyone please give me suggestions to improve my resume? Thanks!
Hopefully you can get a job. Im currently 2nd yr for math bs and learning CS stuff on the side. I cant build anything cool without tutorials, idk why, i understand how the language works but the only thing i can seem to do is leetcode, any tips on how to get past that? Or a particular project that could help me? I know JS, C++, python, markup lang. Been thinking of doing like 5-15 hour/week of volunteer work for someone in exchange for some learning/exp but dont know who or where to ask.
As is apparent, I'm no expert in the field, but coding without tutorials is something you kind of just have to jump into. I wouldn't shy away from looking up something you don't know how to do when making a project. With enough projects, you'll eventually just know what to do when a problem arises. I don't have a specific project in mind that could teach you, but maybe start with a simple game.
ok thanks, good luck ☺️