👋 let’s quickstart your resume

Does my resume even matter that much?

Your resume is the biggest asset in your job search!

Before any interview, referral, or offer, it needs to get past the recruiter screen and Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS).

• a couple hours working on your resume can unlock dozens on interviews that you’ve been missing out on!
• your resume is often the first impression, so let’s make it count.

Resume Structure Overview

Recruiters skim resumes in 6–12 seconds. Top to bottom. Left to right.

So we structure by relevance, not chronology: Notice how the relevancy for internships is your education that is one of the things recruiters confirm and check first, so we put that at the tippity top. After graduating when you have more relevant experience, education goes below it.

1. Work Experience —> put below Education if you’re applying to internships
2. Education
3. Skills
4. Projects
5. Coursework
6. Leadership / Clubs
7. Awards / Certifications

Success Strategy: If you’re applying for internships, keep Education at the top. Intern recruiters care most about your school, GPA, and that you’re a current student. If you’ve interned at a FAANG company, lead with that!

alright let’s start with the basics

Resume Header: Your Name + Links

The header should immediately tell the recruiter who you are and how to reach you.

What to include (on 1–2 lines max):

• Full Name (large, bold)
• Email
• Phone number (U.S. only)
• GitHub
• LinkedIn
• Portfolio/Website (if relevant and active)
• Citizenship status in your headline if you have a non-western name

Common Mistakes

• Using .edu email (especially if you don’t check it)
• Not linking LinkedIn: recruiters actually click this!
• Including your full mailing address (obsolete)
• Hyperlinking text (just show the raw URL)

Education Section

Your Education section should be compact, clean, and front-loaded with the most important info, especially for internships.

What to include:

• University name
• City/State (optional unless applying local)
• Degree + Major (Minor is optional)
• Expected graduation date (critical!)
• GPA (if 3.5+)
• Relevant coursework: Data Structures, Algorithms, Software Engineering, etc.
• Honors/Awards (or leadership if none)

Important: Keep this to 2–3 lines max. It should never take up more vertical space than your biggest project.

👀 does your resume look like this so far?

deep dive: your bullet points

Bullet points are 90% of your technical signal.

Just lie… okay don’t actually straight up lie, but you can frame your experiences and bullet points to match the role as much as possible. Embellish it if you want, as long as you can defend it you’re good.

Bad bullet points = mid resume
Strong bullet points = legit internship-level resume

The XYZ Formula

Accomplished [X] by doing [Y], resulting in [Z]

how to make it better???

Engineered [X] with [Y technologies], increasing [Z] by [# metric].

Formula: This tells the recruiter what you did —> with what technologies (helps them look for keywords) —> actual impact that it had with a metric

Bad Example:

Made a multiplayer typing game using React and Socket.IO.

Good Example:

Developed a real-time multiplayer typing simulator using React and WebSockets, to support 50+ concurrent users with <50ms latency and persistent session states, resulting in 3,000+ matches played in the first month.

Bullet Point Guidelines

• Start with a strong technical action verb (Developed, Engineered, Optimized)
• Include a feature + tech used
• Explain why it mattered
• Include results or metrics if possible

Quick Tip: Stuck? Brain-dump what you did. Then rewrite it with the XYZ structure.

Bullet Point Self-Check

• Does it start with a technical action verb?
• Does it name at least one tool/tech?
• Does it show why that feature mattered?
• Does it include a number or result?

Work Experience Section

This is your core section if you’ve had internships, freelance gigs, research, or even volunteer engineering work.

Even without big names or even “legit” experience on your resume, you can still make this section look like an engineer’s, if your bullets are solid.

What to Include:

• Position title (make it sound technical!)
• Company/Org name
• Location (optional; use “Remote” if relevant)
• Start + End Dates
• 3–4 bullets using the XYZ method

Title Upgrades

Common Mistakes

• Vague bullets like “Helped with codebase”
• No tech/tools listed
• No outcomes or impact
• Using the same verb repeatedly
• 5+ bullets or one-line walls of text

Pro Tips

• Use LinkedIn job listings as inspiration
• Write long-term personal projects like jobs
• Open source = valid experience if team-based

TLDR: Don’t write like a student learning, but like an engineer.

Projects Section

Projects are your proof of work.

Frame your projects section like they are startups with the potential for real impact.

Most recruiters skim this, but hiring managers read it closely.

What to include:

• Project name
• 1-line tech stack summary
• 3–4 bullets using XYZ
• GitHub/demo link

Project Writing Rules

• Use strong action verbs
• Include tech stack
• Explain problem solved
• Show metrics/impact

Common Mistakes

• “Built a personal website using HTML/CSS”
• No bullets
• Generic verbs
• No tech
• No results

Pro Tips

• Think like a product engineer: What problem? Who used it? What changed?
• Reframe class projects like real-world features
• Use phrases like:
  • Secure backend
  • Real-time sync
  • Seed-based PRNG
  • Stateless scaling
  • GraphQL API

Skills Section

This section helps ATS match you to job descriptions and rounds out your technical profile.

For internships: include most technologies you’ve touched and can talk about

Caution: Don’t label groups — mix by relevance and strength.

What to Include (in 2–3 lines max)

• Programming languages
• Frameworks/libraries
• Tools/platforms
• Databases/cloud

Tip! I would just write down all the different technologies that you have touched before, even just a little bit —> feed it to ChatGPT and ask it to categorize it for you.

Common Mistakes

• Putting “problem solving” or “communication”, this isn’t LinkedIn
• Alphabetizing or randomly ordering, remember top to bottom & left to right

More tips, writing patterns, and examples coming soon…