Disclaimer: Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.
I’ve been at Google for over 4 years and I remember how challenging it was to create a thoughtful and effective resume when I was applying. There are a lot of opinions out there around which design is best, what colors to use/not use, and so many other tips/pointers/hacks/suggestions. I found it a little overwhelming, and I procrastinated on actually typing the damn thing because I was so focused on finding the perfect format. I hope these tips help you if you’re feeling that way. From time to time, I help students and professionals with their resumes. Most people focus a lot on the content and structure of their resume and not enough time on the actual story of their interests and experiences. I’ll touch no storytelling and common errors in this piece as they are related for resume structure and hygiene. Below is my exact approach I use for effective resume writing along with some common errors I see.
This article is in two parts.
The 1st section contains the most common errors and some general tips for those with existing resumes that already follow a storyline approach.
The 2nd section details the importance of a storyline and my approach to finding your story and crafting a resume from scratch.
Lets jump in —
Let’s start with the easy, low hanging stuff for those of you who already have a solid resume and a good story to back it up:
Generally speaking for most industries: it needs to be 1 page. There are industries for which this rule does not apply, only go over 1 page if you happen to be in one of them
If you’re starting from scratch, begin by using a resume template. Starting with a blank page and trying to figure out the formatting on your own is a terrible strategy, please don’t do it. There are a ton of websites that offer free templates. Heck, even the generic ones in Word and Pages (mac) are a great starting point. Don’t worry, this will not be how it looks by the time you’re done with it. However, a template is necessary for the following very important reason:
When creating a new resume: Obsess over the content, not the format. Focus on the headlines, descriptions, & bullets of your resume before perfecting the format. You want the content to dictate the type of design and formatting that is best, not the other way around.
Simple is better for most business (strategy, sales, operations, etc.) roles. Again, pick a simple design that is easy to work with– this can all be changed later.
Don’t ignore spell check, and consider a tool like Grammarly to help with the not so obvious errors. Recruiters, hiring managers, and bots don’t look favorably on obvious errors. This reflects poorly on your attention to detail and they may even reject your resume altogether.
Make sure your contact details are accurate and you are reachable through them.
Include the following contact details: Phone number, personal email, and Linkedin url (remove the “https://www.” in the url.)
Should you include a mailing address? I don’t– I don’t think it matters, honestly. Putting the City/State should be fine as well if you don’t want to share your full address.
Use an email address that you will always have access to.
If applying to internships, it might make sense to use your university email address. Beyond that, I think its best to use a personal email address as you will likely lose access to your university and employee inbox when you leave.
This might be obvious, but make sure your personal email address is professional enough to go your resume. If not, make a new one and just have any emails forward to the account you check most often.
Even if you don’t get the job, recruiters will sometimes reach out to previous candidates for future opportunities and openings. You want to make sure they can contact you in the future.
Use %’s and #’s to support your achievements and to provide credibility
This one might also be obvious but talk about the impact you drove and use a number to support it. You want to talk about the cool stuff you’ve done and but make sure to tie it to some underlying business metric. Anchoring the what you did with basic business metrics like sales, growth, cost…etc will help showcase your impact and is a best practice that is often overlooked.
Tip: Make sure you’re using consistent formatting for things like dates and numbers. I sometimes see people use, for example, $22K and then go on to put $42,000 in another part of their resume. Pick one formatting type and stick to it.
When it makes sense, use their words.
Silicon Valley companies are known for their use of acronyms and abbreviations. This goes a step further within these companies as many have their own set of acronyms which can sometimes sound like a foreign language, even to those who work in the same industry. That said, it’s a good idea to use language and verbiage of the industry you are applying to. Recruiting roles within big tech companies are highly sought after jobs and these employees can be quite tenured. Therefore, you’ll have a better chance of making it through an initial resume screen if you speak in their language and know the industry lingo and use it tastefully throughout your resume.
Just like writing an effective essay or book — know your audience and speak to them.
Remember to use straightforward language. Go easy on the fluff.
And now onto the deeper stuff:
You want to create a story, not a highlight reel.
In my opinion, this is the the most important and most overlooked part of the journey. I’ve made several references to storytelling and writing throughout this article. I truly believe this whole process will be much more fun and impactful .
I remember when I was applying to Google. I had some experience with internships and summer jobs in banking, tech, and academics. None of felt connected and I definitely didn’t feel like I had made any impact on those organizations nor did I feel like I learned something profound or important in those jobs. Worst of all, none it felt connected as I was pretty much taking whatever internship or job seemed like a good choice. In short, there was no story and my pre-Google resume was just a list of what I had done and some generic bullet points. I didn’t really know I needed a story but I was reading Simon Sinek’s, Start With Why, at the time and happened to be thinking a lot about my own story.
Use this time to reflect and to think about how you got to this point and where you’re going. You will feel way more connected to . Trust me, I didn’t really think it would be valuable and it almost seemed unprofessional to some degree. I promise you it’s worth it, and your energy and purpose will come through during your interviews as well.
Here’s the step-by-step approach you can use to create a story from your seemingly unrelated experiences:
- Start with the list of your experiences.
- Put a few bullets about each and maybe what you learned
- Sit back, look at it, start with your earlier experiences and work towards where you are now.
- Ask yourself how you went from the day you were born to making the choices that you see in your list of experiences. How does it all connect? Why did you choose to pursue those things? What makes you interested in those things? You wont include these in your resume nor will you be able to answer all these questions but search for a connection, it’s there. It may even help to start with unique characteristics about your upbringing that may serve a role in the choices you’ve made. For me, my parents were small business owners and I grew up working alongside them as they built their American dream. In this, I’ve always had an interest in working in fast paced environments and I enjoy having the autonomy to work across job functions and across different stakeholders.
- Keep doing this until you have a really cool story about your journey up to this point.
- Then, write your resume and use your why as a sort of framework. Don’t write out your why literally. Instead, use the impact and experience of your previous roles to tell the story.
What do you think? Was this helpful?
