How to Write a Resume that Doesn't Suck
Tags: job, resume
Published: 2024-06-21 16:35:59

What’s up fam!! I survived my third year at Render, and it was another stellar year. Hats off to Justin Samuels and the crew for putting on a BANGER of an event. They already have 2025 up and running for tickets and they are SUPER cheap so go ahead and buy them ASAP.

I do want to plug another amazing event I caught wind of from my dear friend Chris DeMars. You know I’m all about a virtual networking conference and this has the makings of a good one! It’s Digital Ocean’s yearly conference that is FREE and they are creating virtual spaces (hubs) where folks can come in an engage with the community, speak to solution architects about building on DO, partnerships hub etc. If you want to sign up head over to: [https://do.co/4cxzdUf](https://do.co/4cxzdUf)

Finally - I am on baby watch!! Me and the wife are 2 weeks out (July 4th) of having our second kid. CAN’T WAIT FOR ALL THE SLEEPLESS NIGHTS. But for real, we’re pumped. If you don’t hear from me next week you know why! 

Been really into doing live’s/podcast episodes by myself again to go over pretty tactical job search stuff. Let me know if you like it just me or with guests! Here is an overview on how to write a resume that doesn’t suck! And if you’re a visual learner, I walk you through what a good resume looks like [here](https://www.youtube.com/live/GLSJxpzpVsE).

But my best advice is that if you’re looking for resume help try to stay within your industry. And if you think you’re going to take a short cut and pay someone to write it or send it through ChatGPT… I mean you do you, but it’s pretty easy to spot a generic template that has a little personal info dropped in it.

Here’s my quick advice:

**Leverage the Header space**

This is where you’re going to throw your name and contact info. Remember we’re trying to get as much on the first page as possible.

Make sure you can manage whatever contact info you include. So if you don’t want to be fielding surprise calls, maybe just include your email.

You can also link to your LinkedIn or GitHub here. But remember, you don’t want too many links so it doesn’t get tossed when going through certain ATS.

**Professional Summary**

Outline your career as it relates to the job you’re applying to (as best as you can). It’s not really feasible to adjust your resume for EVERYTHING you apply to, but if you have the time I’d recommend it.

This is your quick grab highlight reel. You should be writing things like “8+ Years of Python development” not full sentences.

**Professional Experience**

Use clear formatting

Bold should be use to break of the major text blocks, not every other line.

Company mm/year - mm/year

Title 

Location (or Remote)

First Bullet Point:

Give me an overview of what the company does mainly around revenue and/or sort of idea of how big or important the company is. I’m not going out of my way to Google your company.

Second Bullet Point:

Give me an overview of why you were hired and what your main responsibility is.

Rest of the Bullet Points:

Start with action words (managed, ran, created, etc)

A little less tasks, a lot more action.

Talk about quantitative things YOU have done.

Get the actual stats.

I’m sure you’re team is nice and all, but this resume should be all about you.

Keep each line to one sentence/line. This is going to be a challenge for some of y’all, but it makes your resume so much easier to read.

Rinse and repeat until you’ve built our your full resume. Length wise, I say keep it three pages or under. I promise you can do it. Another big thing to note is your resume is probably going to be read on someone’s phone. So when it comes to formatting, no one is going to want to read your three column wide text block. Keep it short, keep it concise, keep it clean.