Interviews are Hard, but you got this

Life has humbled me many times, by not giving me what I want, may be you are are going through just that, and as Zakir Khan once said, "Bade logo ke saath aisa hota hai (These things happen to Big People)". So I will share with you, what I have found to be useful in my interviews.

I will break this into very simple sections, if nothing has worked, try these, there will be somethings that you should consider removing immediately, as well as you should consider adding at the bottom.

1. Make a Single page resume.

I don't care what your friend or uncle have said to you, that doesn't hold true in today's economy. A recruiter on average sees your resume for 6-8 seconds, we all know that stat by now, if you have many companies, then my dear friend, optimise it.

Cut corners in your resume, be sneaky, remove the summary about yourself, make font size a little smaller, remove tables, don't keep 10 points for one company if your have more than 2.

You still may feel like, creating atleast two pages, I have seen profiles getting rejected, because they were more than a Page, it's like a standard to filter out people.

So make it a single page, do yourself a favour, the system is rigged against us, we still go to play.

2. Add Stats to your resume.

Statistics very important, people looks for numbers, result. If those are not there in your bullet points, it make your experience look dull, we do not want dull now, do we?

Start following this structure, "I did X, using Y, that resulted in Z"

You can enhance this anyway you would like, "I did X, using Y, that resulted in Z, making A grow B% in a single quater."

Let's look at an example, "Replaced Transformer model with a simple Xboost model, which now produces the same result but in 80% less time, saving both compute and expenses upto 30-40% per use."

You can play with the structure, it's not too rigid, but this surely, makes your work look impactful.

Tip: Similar way you can fit skills into this, so that when your resume goes through a keyword based ATS, your chances of getting shortlisted get maximised.

3. Should you have Projects?

The answer to that is, "It depends."

Let's see where do you stand first, Are you a fresher, an Intern, or do you have only 1 company on your resume? if the answer to any of those is a "Yes", then yes. You should definitely add Projects.

How do you choose what Project?

Well, a to-do list, a library management system, or non functional clones, are so not going to do it for you now.

1. If you are a fresher, you can make something functional at the very least, try to see and solve a problem, make something that displays the niche of your skill set.

2. Make sure, whatever you make is deloyed somewhere, explore free option, backend - frontend, we have all options now, if it can't be hosted, add your code to github and make an in-depth readme.md file.

3. If you are employed, you can do the same as above, or you also have the hack of Adding one of your interesting use-case that you worked upon, just be ready to explain that in the interview, because obviously it is not externally deployed, the same goes for Experienced Interns as well.

If you have already worked at 3-4 places, you don't really need to add projects, it is just eating space on your resume, unless there is something ground break that your built and want to show it anyhow.

Note: Regardless of whether you have projects in your resume, you should definitely have them in your github or gitlab, if in today's world, are you really a developer if you are not experimenting with stuff?

5. Please remove tables from your resume

I am not going to explain this one, please just do it.

6. Does your Resume have a Picture of You?

No, Please no. Unless you are modelling, if yes, then please go ahead.

7. Did we talk about Profile Summary?

This is there just to fill the space on your resume mostly, if you and I are being honest, if you already have enough stuff, that talks about you, you don't need it.

But if you do end up writing it, what do you write into it?

Don't make it a generic one like you are an enthusiast of something, don't chatGPT it, come on, you can write 2-3 lines about yourself, have faith in you buddy.

Btw, that is all, 2-3 lines only should be there in the summary, max 4, but not more than that.

8. Is your Resume structured?

If you have done all of the above, and still nothing is working out, then lets do 1 more check.

Is your resume structured well? It should be separately in structures, if not already done, better follow a structure, that most eyes are used to by now.

Something like the below:

Btw you can get a free one, by signing up here - https://www.wonsulting.com/wonsultingai

9. Stuff you should definitely remove from your resume.

1. 10th/12th Schools and marks, passing out year.

2. Your Graduation and Master's passing out year.

3. Any tables, if there are any.

4. Pictures, of yourself and any other as well.

10. Stuff you should consider Adding.

1. Action words, like - Built, Developed, Lead, Architected. Google them you will find many more.

2. If you add any certs, or Projects, add their URLs as well, otherwise it's kind of meaning less.

3. If you have space, you can add your rewards and recognitions, otherwise, like we talked in 1st pointer, be sneaky and add then in you experience pointers.

4. Make the stats, skills, and impact Bold, so that they get noticed immediately.

11. Profile, Beyond a single page resume.

We can't have resume more than one page, I hope you got it by now, but then, what about what all we have done, that doesn't fit in the resume, Should you just let it go?

Definitely no, but you see that where, those Job portals, your portfolio, and resume comes in.

Fill those from tope to bottom, do not even leave an inch, so that when the SEO is looking for a match, that match is you.

This also, give you the opportunity to you about being able to talk about yourself, during your interview, we will talk about that next.

Let's close it off here for now.

Next we need talk about interviews, but I think, this is quite long already, so let's break if here, but before that, I have Bonus tip for you.

"DO NOT MAKE YOUR RESUME WITH AI".

Hear me out once, you can use AI to guide you, into improving your experience, but you should be the one who gave the experience details.

"DO NOT COPY PASTE, WRITE YOURSELF".

you have too defend, your resume in your interviews, if you just copy paste, you won't know what is written, what is not, so next time in interview you increase your chances of fumbling.

Also, did you know, AI add invisible characters, that makes it easy to identify, whether something has been written with AI or not, so you may get filtered out, without even and interview.

USE AI TO YOUR ADVANTAGE, DO NOT BE SLAVE TO IT.

Thanks for coming this far in the article. I hope I was able to explain the concept well enough. If you face any issues, please feel free to reach out to me; I'd be happy to help.

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