Resume tips for young professionals
How to improve your resume
On the intro paragraph: Get rid of your paragraph at the top. That’s what the intro phone screen is for. It’s so unlikely that this paragraph actually changes what resume screeners perceive as your strengths and whether or not you’re a fit for a role. Everyone thinks that they are a “hard-working and motivated individual,” so mentioning something like that provides little signal.
On “Education”: If you’ve been working in industry for 1+ years, don’t put “Education” at the top of your resume. Show what you’ve accomplished at work first. Sure, your school might have been a good heuristic for entry-level positions, but people are far more interested in what you’ve actually done rather than where you spent four years. If the company that you’re applying to is focusing more than a second on the school that you went to… then you probably don’t want to be working for them anyway.
On GPA: If you’ve been in industry for a few years, you also don’t need to mention your college GPA, save for a few instances. Your success in your college business classes has little to do with how good of an operator you are. College marketing probably has little to do with how good of a marketer you are. Your grade in Algorithms probably has little to do with how good of a full-stack engineer you are. However, if you’re an aerospace engineer or a quantitative researcher, where your college curriculum might have comparitively high transference to skills in a job, then it probably makes sense to describe your success in college. Also, everyone gets As in humanities classes. Focus on the things that matter.
On not having enough: If you haven’t done a lot in your current role, embellish it a little. You need to do a bit of selling. Everyone’s doing what they can to sell themselves.
On bullet points: So you have “Presented a deck to managing partners regarding a potential investment opportunity.” But what was the outcome? What did you do that was unique? What impact did you drive? Show that you were proactive in your bullet points; show that your action A led to outcome B. Most employers - especially at startups - want action-oriented people that drive the bottom line.
On resume length: Keep it to 1 page. This isn’t your academic CV. If a CFO candidate with 10+ years of experience can fit their work accomplishments into 1 page, then you can too. 1 page is easy and simple, and causes you to focus on what’s most important.
On the third person: And on the LinkedIn front, if Keith Rabois can write about himself in the first person, then you can too. Writing about yourself in the third person comes off as boastful.
If you’re looking for a new role, I’d be happy to briefly review your resume.
helpful tips, thanks for sharing!
Great Article