Interviewing at GHC — The Resume

I have been attending and speaking Grace Hopper Conference since 2015 and this year I presented my 5th workshop at GHC on the topic of “Writing Effective Self and Peer Evaluations”. In addition to being a speaker, GHC has given me a chance to listen to some great speakers, network with many amazing women at the conference and yes… successfully interview with several companies.

This post is part 1 of a 4 part blog series.

You can read part 2, part 3 and part 4 here.

Step 1: The Resume

Start with your resume… a good resume makes a case for you when you are not present to make a case for yourself…

A good resume says a lot about you. It determines whether you would be contacted for an interview or not. Think of your resume as an advertisement targeted towards your future boss. Here are some tips for you to consider while building your resume.

• Make targeted versions of resume. Have more than one version of your resume ready. It’s good to have a generic resume that you can share with most employers, but if you can, identify your top companies and prepare targeted resumes for your top 2–3 choices. Many recent grads are open to more than one field like software engineering, data engineering, quality engineering, program management, etc. If you are in that boat, take time to prepare different versions of resume targeted to each role to maximize your chances.
• Think about what story and values you are trying to communicate. Your resume is not merely a chronological order of every job you have ever had or a list of coursework you have done. If needs to tell your journey, what you are looking for and what you have to offer in terms of competencies, values and impact in a clear and concise manner.
• Be honest. Some people exaggerate their accomplishments on their resume. I have seen candidates lie outright on their resume when it comes to title, responsibilities and skill set. I have seen someone trying to pass off as a product manager when in reality they were a QA engineer. Not only is this the wrong thing to do, it also erodes trust and your reputation with both the employer and your network if you get caught.
• Some things are better left out. You should be able to defend whatever you put on your resume. When it comes to skill set, many people are tempted to put all the skills they ever interacted with (even years ago) on their resume to appear more competent and match with more jobs. If an employer asks you a simple question a technology listed on your resume and you cannot talk credibly about it, it makes them question if you really know anything you claim to know. The same holds true for projects. You should be able to talk comfortably about every single word on your resume. I understand that it is not possible to remember details of every thing you have done in your career or school, but if you cannot explain your work, you should consider removing it from your resume.
• Focus on impact, not job description. When mentioning past work, focus on what you were able to accomplish and influence instead of listing all the job responsibilities. Wherever possible, quantify the impact. Its better to say “Reduced customer support calls by 30%” than “improved customer satisfaction”.
• Limit the length of your resume to 1–2 pages and no more. The resume screener at the career expo booth will have just a minute or two to scan your resume (while listening to you speak or asking you questions) before deciding whether to engage you further. They can barely register some key pieces of information during that time, like your current employer / school, your career / title progression history (if you are an industry hire) and your skill set if there is a section. If you are a student or fresh graduate, you probably do not have enough details to fill more than 2 pages anyways.
• If you are trying to transition into a new career, rewrite your old resume with a new point of view. Let’s say that you are a software engineer who is trying to become a data scientist. Go through your work and for each project / role on your resume, think what aspects of your contribution overlap with a data scientist role and emphasize them. Similarly, if you are trying to transition into product management, highlight any work you did in your projects that dealt with understanding customer pain points, competitive research, setting success metrics etc. This not only gives you a chance to show some hands on experience, it also communicates your understanding of the expectations of your target role.
• Get feedback on your resume and iterate as needed. If you are a student, get inputs from your counsellor, professors and fellow students. Reach out to alumni who recently went through job seeking process and ask for feedback as well as referrals. If you are already working, seek feedback from mentors, past colleagues and friends, while letting them know that you are looking for a change. There is also a free resume review available when you submit your resume to GHC database. I used it and found it to be helpful.

I am often asked how many resumes one should take to GHC. If you are really focussed on job search during GHC, you should take about 50 paper copies of your resume to the career expo the first day and have a digital version on you that you can email / upload on demand. More and more booths at expo now use a digital resume management software and prefer to either take a picture of your resume or have you fill some details on the handheld tablets and link to your resume. But there are still several that would accept paper resume. At the end of each day, estimate how many resumes you will need the next day and print more from business center of your hotel accordingly.

Click here for part 2 of the blog series.

Step 2: Get connected to and noticed by the right people before you go to the conference.

About the Author

Shilpa Vir is an engineer turned product manager, avid public speaker, first-generation immigrant, a woman of color and first in her family to pursue engineering and career in tech. She is passionate about supporting women in tech and product management, has served on leadership positions in women in technology organizations, and often speaks at various industry events. Connect with Shilpa on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram.