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@farhan
75% of resumes are rejected before a human ever sees them. The culprit? ATS — Applicant Tracking Systems. These software tools scan your resume for keywords, formatting, and relevance before deciding if a recruiter should see it.
✅ Use standard section headings: Experience, Education, Skills
✅ Use .docx or .pdf format
✅ Use a single-column layout
✅ Use standard fonts (Arial, Calibri, Times New Roman)
✅ Include the exact job title from the posting
✅ Use bullet points (not paragraphs)
❌ Use tables, columns, or text boxes
❌ Put important info in headers/footers
❌ Use images, icons, or graphics
❌ Use creative section names ("My Superpowers" instead of "Skills")
❌ Use abbreviations without the full form (use "Amazon Web Services (AWS)")
FULL NAME
Email | Phone | LinkedIn | GitHub | Portfolio
EXPERIENCE
[Job Title] | [Company] | [Date Range]
• [Action verb] + [What you did] + [Measurable result]
• [Action verb] + [What you did] + [Measurable result]
• [Action verb] + [What you did] + [Measurable result]
PROJECTS
[Project Name] | [Tech Stack] [Link]
• [What it does] + [Impact/Scale]
• [Technical highlight]
EDUCATION
[Degree] in [Field] | [University] | [Year]
• Relevant coursework: [Course 1], [Course 2]
SKILLS
Languages: JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, Java
Frameworks: React, Next.js, Node.js, Express
Databases: PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis
Tools: Docker, AWS, Git, CI/CD
For each job application:
Architected Optimized Implemented Reduced
Engineered Automated Designed Increased
Scaled Migrated Refactored Deployed
Led Mentored Collaborated Delivered
❌ "Improved application performance"
✅ "Reduced page load time by 60% (3.2s → 1.3s) by implementing
lazy loading and CDN caching, improving Core Web Vitals score
from 45 to 92"
❌ "Built a REST API"
✅ "Designed and deployed a REST API serving 50K daily active users
with 99.9% uptime, handling 500 req/sec at peak load"
For engineers with < 10 years of experience, your resume must be one page. Period. If you can't fit everything, remove the least impressive items. A concise, impactful one-page resume beats a two-page resume every time.
Your resume is a marketing document, not a biography. Make every word earn its place.
