“ How do you get interviews?”

12. The number of interviews just kept adding up before Grace Hopper Celebration 2017.What makes my resume stand out that all of these companies would be knocking at my door? Luck? Maybe. But not really..

Let’s talk, what are these companies are looking for? Getting interviews is almost like getting a date. The recruiters go on a Tinder called Resume Database. They look at your bio, where you are from , and how attractive you are for the company. So how attractive are you? In my case, I would say not so much. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What experience do you have that would benefit the company? How do you work under pressure, expressing this through your GPA? Do you even care about how you could impact the community through what you're doing?

These are all key characteristics of what recruiters look for. They’re human, they’re looking for humans, not robots. It doesn’t matter how well you can code, if you can’t hold a nice conversation about your passions. Your resume is your key presentation. Are you rememberable?

That is the key….

Being remembered. Most of my interviewers would remember my resume. All it took was a bit of color. This was my way to showcase my design and front-end focus, and it showed through my resume. How can you be remembered? There are many ways.

Ways to be remembered:

1. Add some color, but do not distract the recruiters/interviewers from reading your experience
2. Your experience!!!!! Probably the most important of them all. Your internships and projects should have specific data that showcases how you have improved a certain task. For example : “Had an efficiency that saved the time of the process by 9 seconds in total.”
3. Extracurriculars. You aren’t just a coder, you’re a person. Recruiters want to see that side as well. At the end of the day, you getting an offer is also affected by your culture fit with the company.

Your GPA does not have to be a 4.0. You do not have to be from Stanford or MIT to get selected for interviews with Google. What you do need is to not be shy. Talk with people, email recruiters, send your resume to EVERYONE. They want to hire you, they really do. Do not be afraid to try. Even if you feel like you might fail, practice makes perfect. You might fail the first few times, but the more you interview, the easier it gets.

Goodluck with your upcoming interviews!

Please email me if you would like more guidance on the subject :)

cbuln004@fiu.edu

Cesia Bulnes

Florida International University