My Five-Step Process for Writing a Striking Resume

“I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” ― Thomas Jefferson.

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“I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.” ― Thomas Jefferson

I have been fortunate enough to volunteer as a Mentor in a Mentoring program where mentees receive guidance on career planning, interpersonal communication skills, networking, CV-drafting, job-interview preparation, and leads to open hi-tech positions.

In fact, one of the first barriers any student will face is writing an impressive resume(including myself when I was a student), and here’s why…

To be honest, writing a great resume is not an easy task; As a student, the hard parts tend to be knowing your strengths and knowing in advance what employers are looking for in your resume. On the other hand, the more you are experienced, the more likely you will struggle during the process of shining the spotlights directly on your top qualities.

But don’t worry!

In today’s article, I’m sharing my five-step process that will help you write a striking resume so your next employer will have no other option but to invite you over for an interview.

Let’s dive in.

Each modern resume should consist of the following parts:

1. Contact — The obvious part.
2. Profile — The part where you should shine.
3. Skills (hard/soft)— The first part your employer might inspect.
4. Work Experience — The part where you should impress.
5. Education — The part where you prove you're worth it.
6. Volunteer work — The part where you socialize.

During this process, you will assemble your resume part by part, and hopefully, by the end of the process, you will have the perfect resume.

1. Prepare a draft.

When you begin working on your resume, the very first thing you should do is write up a draft of all the bullet points you would like your employer to see, e.g., projects, achievements, courses, volunteer work, etc.; this step is a freestyle step, so feel free to elaborate as much as you want on any of the topics you’ve picked, you can think of it as a brain-storming stage.

But first, beware. Your employer does not care if you like Beethoven or you don’t, but might be interested in a volunteering project you have joined in Engineers Without Borders-International to help with the engineering of a water cleaning device.

So, be cautious and pick the right topics to write about. To add some clarity, the best way is to limit yourself by sticking to the skeleton, particularly parts 4, 5, and 6:

4. Work Experience — The part where you should impress.

5. Education — The part where you prove you’re worth it.

6. Volunteer work — The part where you socialize.

For example, a relevant work experience bullet point draft would be:

“I have worked to solve performance problems of the video editor, during the investigations done by the scrum master, it was found that the software had thousands of calls to storage devices per minute, which caused some latency, and using a C++ caching level that prevents unnecessary calls to storage devices the problem was solved, which I did in a very clever way using C++ features like boost’s variant and optional that served to produce a clean design, I worked closely with my QA colleagues to help achieve a fast delivery.”

2. Know your strengths.

Cool! You are 1 step closer to writing a great resume.

Knowing your strengths is a key element of writing a great resume; your resume is your industry entrance card. If you don’t reveal enough potential or don’t make it to the trending section of candidate resumes, you are less likely to be invited to an interview.

Now that you have the bullet point draft that tells your story, it is time to polish it slightly by highlighting and revising.

Let me explain.

Highlighting: start scanning all the bullet points you have written. Highlight each achievement, technology, competency, or value you see.

For example,

“I have worked to solve performance problems of the video editor, during the investigations done by the scrum master, it was found that the software had thousands of calls to storage devices per minute, which caused some latency, and using a C++ caching level that prevents unnecessary calls to storage devices the problem was solved, which I’ve implemented in a very creative way using C++ features like boost’s variant and optional that served to produce a clean design, I worked closely with my QA colleagues to help achieve a fast delivery.”

Highlighted technologies: Video Editing, C++, Boost.

Highlighted Achievements: clean design, fast delivery.

Highlighted competencies/values: collaboration, creativity.

Great, once you have performed that step repeatedly on all the bullet points, you should have the needed material to assemble parts 2 and 3:

2. Profile — The part where you should shine.

The profile section is a chance to convey your message as effectively as possible, why are you a valuable candidate, what are your qualities and competencies.

For example,

“Experienced Software Engineer, adept in all stages of software development. Equipped with a diverse and promising skill-set. Proficient in Linux, C++/C#. Experienced with Git and Agile development. Able to effectively self-manage during independent projects, as well as collaborate as part of a productive team.”

3. Skills (hard/soft) — The first part your employer might view.

Both your hard and soft skills should be highlighted already.

Here’s an example.

Hard Skills: C++, Video Editing, Boost.

Soft Skills: Collaboration, Cope with work stress, Creativity.

What about revising? You might be wondering…

Scan the skills list, and ask yourself, did I forget something?

If the answer is yes, add the skill to the list and revise the bullet point that should include this skill, although it is totally fine to have a skill that does not appear in any bullet point.

3. Know your audience.

Almost there, the hard work was done already; now it's time to clean and polish.

In this part, it is vital to be in the employer's shoes; imagine you are the employer, and you are getting loads of resumes daily to review. Would you have time to read the entire resume? Would you have time to look up keywords? Would you bother to search for answers? The answer is always no!

So, What does this mean for you?

1. Be precise; choose your words carefully, and remove unnecessary words or sentences whilst keeping the main message.
2. Keep your skills very clear and reachable instantly; usually, resumes are processed in the HR department first, before reaching the hiring manager, so they are reviewed for a few seconds to check whether you have the required skills for the position; that's all.
3. Answer all possible questions the recruiting manager might have. If you have a gap in your resume, try to fill it; if you mentioned a technical or academic term that is not universal, try to explain it briefly, etc.

Here’s an example.

This paragraph is way too long for 1 project, and it must be summarized into 2–3 lines.

“I have worked to solve performance problems of the video editor, during the investigations done by the scrum master, it was found that the software had thousands of calls to storage devices per minute, which caused some latency, and using a C++ caching level that prevents unnecessary calls to storage devices the problem was solved, which I’ve implemented in a very creative way using C++ features like boost’s variant and optional that served to produce a clean design, I worked closely with my QA colleagues to help achieve a fast delivery.”

Not very easy? I know, I’ve been there too.

“Worked productively with the QA team to solve the video editor's performance problems using a creative C++ caching level that prevents unnecessary calls to the storage.”

4. Pick a nice template.

Amazing! You are 2 steps away from having the perfect resume.

Now it is time to pick a nice template, depending on your role.

In case you are a backend developer — you might want a clean resume.

Check out this resume that is included in Microsoft Word:

Blue grey resume

Although I would remove the picture, replace the hobbies section with skills, and then fill the page with volunteering work.

In case you are a frontend developer — you might want a colorful resume.

Something like:

Timeline infographic resume

5. Get some feedback.

Congratulations! Almost the perfect resume.

The last step would be to send your resume to colleagues, friends, or even professional recruiters and ask for their feedback.

Feedback is very important. In our case, my Mentee and I, we've sent the resume to a professional recruiter at one of the top-notch companies in the industry, and we got very positive feedback.

The End

If you follow the five-step process in this article, your resume will be not less than impressive.

I wish you the best for the bright future that lies ahead of you.