Resume Advice

This page was last updated: April 9, 2025

My Resume Advice:

If you ask 100 different people for resume tips, you will get 100 different and conflicting combinations of advice. Makes sense. We all have different experiences to bring to bear. Here is mine. Feel free to ignore it.

• I once read an article that talked about what recruiters do when they are looking through a pile of resumes. The article said that, on average, that person spends 6 seconds on each resume. The article claimed that what they are doing is not evaluating the resumes right then, but triaging them, that is, sorting them into three piles:
  1. definitely go back and look at in more detail
  2. look at in more detail if we don't get enough in pile #1
  3. shred when done
  So, if you believe this, then one of the goals of your resume is to get it into pile #1 after only 6 seconds of perusal. In 6 seconds, they are not going to get below the top 4 of inches. This means you should have enough information right up on top, and displayed so visibly, that they will want you for the top pile!

• I have heard from a lot of recruiters that they really like to see an Objectives or Professional Summary section first thing. That tells them what you are interested in, and if it is something they are looking for, helps promote your resume to the top pile. But I also recommend that people have 2-4 different versions of their resume with different Objectives. Don't lie, but we are all interested in multiple things. Just be sure the right resume gets to the right company. (Many people also give resume advice that says recruiters hate Objectives sections. Your call. But, it might really help the 6-second issue.)

• Next should come your Education section. Give your best estimate of graduation date (month/year) so they know when you will be available. And don't use the word "Expected". Show confidence.

• In your Education section, be sure to include your GPA. To not do so invites suspicion.

• If you have a LinkedIn account, list it up on top. If you don't, get one! I have heard from a number of students that they have been contacted by companies they've never heard of because of their LinkedIn page succeeding in a search. If you have a LinkedIn page, be sure it has all the keywords that describe what you are interested in, and any really unique skills you have. And be sure to check the "Looking For Work" box.

• Hyperlink your email address, LinkedIn page, github, etc., but also spell them out in the link. What if you give someone a paper copy? What if someone photocopies your PDF? You still want them to know what those links are.

• When talking about your past jobs and projects, try to think in terms of accomplishments rather than just what you did. See if you can find ways to begin a sentence with "I improved" or "I achieved" or "I initiated" or "I improvised" or "I collaborated", or other things like that. If you can't, don't try to force it.

• If you have a Skills section, it's OK to include skills you are learning in class right now.
  For CS 475/575, that would mean: OpenMP, SIMD, CUDA, OpenCL, and MPI.
  For CS 450/550, that would include: OpenGL, modeling, texturing, lighting, and animation.
  For CS 457/557, that would include: vertex, fragment, geometry, tessellation, and compute shaders.
  For whatever class you are in right now, you will have acquired these skills by the time you are on the job.

• It's OK to list those menial fast-food-type jobs (Taco Bell in my case) as long as you can find ways to describe them in terms of things that all companies need: initiative, quality customer service, efficiency, reliability, teamwork, etc. Recruiters call these sorts of things "Transferrable Skills".

• Spelling and grammar count in creating a good impression! Be especially wary of those words that sound correct, have a correct spelling, but are the wrong word. This includes examples like: their/there, hear/here, role/roll, and its/it's. (it's = it is ; its = possessive)