A Podcast Review: How Do Tech Companies Read Your Resume?

"The challenge of life, I have found, is to build a resume that doesn't simply tell a story about what you want to be, but it's a story about who you want to be. A story that’s not just a collection of titles and positions but a story that’s really about your purpose." These are the words that I remembered from Oprah Winfrey on her Harvard Commencement Address in 2013. I have been using this as my guide whenever I update my resume.

I have just changed career, from being technical support to web and software developer. I am now in the process of applying for an internship and I have revised my resume multiple times because I do not know how will I describe myself as a programmer in one page. That is why an audio in podcast entitled, “How do tech companies read your resume?” caught my attention. It’s a 45-minute interview to Eddie Washington, an in-house recruiting lead at Genius.com.

 In the first 15 minutes, he explained the difference between agency recruiters and in-house recruiters. After that, he enumerated what are the things that he is looking for in developers. For junior developers, he pointed out that the way to make yourself different is to show that you have built something different. He added, “Just don't, definitely don't just build clones of everything, like oh, I got an Airbnb clone, I got a so-and-so clone - that's not exciting to a recruiter for a junior role. You want us to think that you're thinking about something creatively and specific to you. Like, why did you build this, was this a convenient app? Whatever is cool that you can speak to that you've done that nobody else has done, and why it makes you excited, and just being curious and passionate about it.”

 In the second 15-minute part, Eddie said that they are using LinkedIn in finding people. He said, “We all have LinkedIn Recruiter Seats - our productivity is very dependent on LinkedIn, everybody's on LinkedIn, if you're not on LinkedIn, you should get on LinkedIn, especially if want just exposure to recruiters who are constantly on LinkedIn.” After that he added, “Prioritize your paid work over just projects.” For new ones who did not have paid work, you need to include a link to your projects because that is the only evidence that you can actually code. Then, he discussed about the automatic disqualifier. “If you're junior, or if you're making a career transition, and your resume and your LinkedIn, you're highlighting irrelevant experience that has nothing to do with coding, I'm like no. Like, I understand why people do that, it's like, yes, I'm a working professional, I'm competent, I've had a job before, but again, for a recruiter that's very scoped-in and know what they need to see, they're automatically like, you're not ready so I'm declining you, respectfully.”

 For the last 15 minutes, he mentioned what he wanted to see on LinkedIn, “I have to see that you love coding. This shows me that you like coding - you're probably going to be fun to mentor on the job. You'll be fun to have on the team, because you like doing the thing that I'm hiring you for.” He also said that having recommendations on LinkedIn is also good. Next, the topic was about money or budget. Eddie said, “What you're not going to do is start negotiating before you have an offer. That's definitely not what you're going to do. But when you finally do have an offer, it is not unreasonable to counter once.” Then, they went to talking about self-taught programmers and how they are evaluated. They have ended the talk by giving advice for people who are currently on the job hunt, so Eddie Washington said, “The more roles that you go for, the more targeted that you are, the more thoughtful that you are in your approach to the job search, the more you increase your odds to finding that job.”

I am really glad that I listened to this recorded interview of Eddie. He was able to explain how companies evaluate application and what are the ways I can do to increase my chances of being lined up for an interview. Now, I have to edit my LinkedIn and to create my online portfolio, so that I can apply what I have learned. I have to prove and show that I can code, and express how much and why I love programming.

Source:
https://www.codenewbie.org/podcast/how-to-tech-companies-read-your-resume