Resume Tips That Actually Get You Interviews

Your resume has one job: get you an interview. That's it. Not to tell your life story. Not to showcase every technology you've touched. Not to explain your career philosophy.

Most engineering resumes fail at this one job. They're packed with irrelevant details, written in passive language, and optimized for nobody. Then candidates wonder why they're applying to 200 positions and getting 2 interviews.

Let me show you what actually works.

The 6-Second Rule

Here's the reality: I spent 6-10 seconds on your resume during the initial screen. Sometimes less. I'm scanning for signals—evidence that you can do the job. If I don't see those signals immediately, you're in the "no" pile.

This isn't because recruiters are lazy. It's because we're screening 300 resumes for 5 interview slots. Speed is survival.

Your resume needs to be scannable. The most important information—your impact, your skills, your trajectory—needs to jump off the page in those first 6 seconds.

The Anatomy of a Great Tech Resume

Let's break down each section and what actually matters:

1. Header: The Basics

Keep it simple. Name, location (city/state), email, phone, LinkedIn, GitHub (if you have meaningful repos).

Don't include: Objective statements (waste of space), full address (privacy + useless), headshot (this isn't LinkedIn), age, marital status, or quirky email addresses.

2. Experience: Show Impact, Not Duties

This is where most resumes die. Engineers list what they were "responsible for" instead of what they actually accomplished.

See the difference? Specific, quantified, focused on outcomes. Every bullet should answer: "So what? Why does this matter?"

3. Skills: Strategic, Not Comprehensive

Your skills section shouldn't be a laundry list of every technology you've touched. It should be strategic—highlighting what's relevant for the role you want.

Pro tip: Put your strongest, most relevant skills first in each category. Recruiters scan left to right. If the job requires React and you list it fifth after jQuery and Angular 1.x, you're signaling the wrong thing.

4. Education: Keep It Short

Unless you're a new grad, education is a footnote. List your degree, school, and graduation year. That's it.

Don't include: GPA (unless it's 3.8+ and you're a new grad), coursework (nobody cares about Data Structures 101), high school (seriously, stop), or "some college" if you didn't finish (just omit it).

The ATS Reality Check

Before a human sees your resume, it goes through an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). If the ATS can't parse your resume or doesn't find the right keywords, you're automatically rejected. Here's how to pass:

Test your resume: Copy/paste it into a plain text file. If the formatting breaks horribly, the ATS will struggle too. Simplify.

Tailoring: The Unlocked Cheat Code

Here's the secret most people ignore: you should never send the same resume to different jobs.

I know, it's more work. But the response rate difference is staggering. A tailored resume gets 3-5x more interviews than a generic one.

How to Tailor Effectively (15 Minutes Per Application)

1. Read the job description carefully. Identify the must-have skills and requirements.
2. Adjust your skills section. Reorder to prioritize their tech stack. If they want AWS and you buried it, move it up.
3. Rewrite 2-3 bullet points. Emphasize experience that's most relevant to this role. Use their language.
4. Mirror keywords naturally. If they say "microservices architecture," use that phrase instead of "distributed systems."
5. Update your summary (if you have one). Make it specific to this role and company.

This isn't lying or embellishing—it's highlighting the most relevant parts of your true experience for each opportunity.

The Numbers Game: Quantify Everything

Recruiters and hiring managers love numbers. They're concrete, scannable, and impressive. But most engineers struggle to quantify their work. Here's how:

Can't find exact numbers? Estimate conservatively. "Served ~1M users" is better than "Served many users." Just don't lie—you'll get caught in the interview.

Common Resume Killers

The GitHub/Portfolio Question

Should you include a GitHub link? Only if your repos are impressive and actively maintained. A GitHub full of abandoned tutorials and forked repos with zero commits hurts more than it helps.

Good reasons to include GitHub:

• You have well-documented, original projects
• You contribute to major open-source projects
• Your code demonstrates skills you're claiming on your resume
• You're a new grad trying to show practical experience

Skip it if: Your repos are mostly forks, class assignments, or haven't been touched in 2 years. Better to leave it out than to give us a reason to question your skills.

The One-Page vs Two-Page Debate

Here's the real answer:

• 0-5 years experience: One page, no exceptions
• 5-10 years experience: One page preferred, two if you have genuinely impressive accomplishments that don't fit
• 10+ years experience: Two pages max

The constraint forces you to be selective. If you can't prioritize what matters most, how will you prioritize on the job?

Action Verbs That Actually Work

Start every bullet with a strong action verb. But avoid overused, weak ones like "helped," "participated," or "was involved in."

Your Resume Checklist

Before sending your resume, verify every item on this list:

The Truth About Resume Success

Your resume won't get you the job. It gets you the interview. That's the only goal. Don't try to tell your entire story—just give them enough to want to talk to you.

Most engineers overthink their resume because they're trying to make it perfect. Perfect doesn't exist. Good enough to get interviews does. Focus on: clear impact, relevant skills, scannable format, and zero errors.

Do that, and you'll get more interviews. Then the real work begins.