Resume:

 

• The Importance of the Resume: Your First Impression to the Recruiter

  • 6 Second Glance: Recruiter can ‘swipe’ right or left, next steps or rejection

  • They only look at your resume for ~6 seconds

    • Google gets 2M resumes per/year

 

• How to Pad a Resume when you are early in college before Industry experience (sample):

  • List your Courses

  • Include Projects from Courses

  • Personal Projects​

    • Plenty of online tutorials, follow and make your own (and push project code to Github)

  • Hackathons: Attend them, pick up new languages, have a project to demo

  • Put in any TA experience

 

• Refer to Guides and Tips for Tech Industry Resumes (Esp. from current recruiters at companies)

  • Panel With SWE Recruiters at Atlassian, VMware, Honey, Intuit

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Takeaways:

 

• TECH INDUSTRY SPECIFIC:

  • Cover Letters are NOT Read. Just too many applicants. Your Resume should convey everything at that point in the process.

  • You will need a Cover Letter only in cases like: you are coming from another field and need to explain the transition.

 

• Recruiters decide to move you forward in the interview process or not based on a quick scan of your resume (6-10 seconds).

 

• 1 Page Resume for Internships/Entry level.

 

• Colors are ok to help you stand out, but nothing overbearing or crazy design choices.

 

• Work experience should be Tech-relevant (don’t include restaurants, etc). TA’ing is great though!

 

• If you don’t yet have internship or related work experience, change the section to “Relevant Experience” and highlight your personal projects, hackathons, etc.

 

• Include your graduation date (Example: Spring 2024)

 

• Do not include soft skills. Skills section should be languages (Java, Python), frameworks (Express.js, Node.js), databases (MySQL), etc.

 

• Only include GPA on Resume if 3.5 or above 

  • Most opportunities in Tech require only a 2.8 or 3.0, but the point is not calling attention to it if it is below 3.5, so you should omit it from Resume

 

• Successful Resume Sample from Clark Sophomore with no prior internships​

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LinkedIn:

 

• Should be your “Full” Resume. 

  • Take advantage of every section, have a strong bio as well

  • Professional Profile Picture

 

• Reaching out to Recruiters:

  • Recruiters encourage you to reach out via LinkedIn, and prefer it to cold emails. 

  • Send it as a message as part of a connection request or thru InMail if you have Linkedin Premium

  • Search LinkedIn for “Tech Recruiter at [Company]”

  • Short, sweet, and personalized messages over long-winded and templated:

    • Example:

 

 

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• Connect with other clark students, alumni, etc., to build to 500+ connections

 

• Keep the skills section up-to-date, endorse classmates and back

 

Cover Letter:

 

• TECH INDUSTRY SPECIFIC:

  • Good news….not only are cover letters rarely required, but they aren’t read even if you include one, so you don’t need to write one!

  • Recruiters at tech companies will readily admit this. Case studies: 

    • Google: 2M Applications a Year

    • Honey: 2 Recruiters reviewing thousands of applications for 40 intern spots

 

• Rare situations where they may be needed:

  • You need to explain a change of field/role

  • If you need it, refer to this resource

 

Internship Openings:

 

• For summer 2022, they have begun opening now (April 2021) until early spring 2022. The peak is late summer: August - October.

• They are all over the internet

  • LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Jumpstart, Wayup, Company Career Sites, Compilations

 

ClarkTech Apply:

 

• Goal is to make life easier + give Clark Tech students a competitive advantage

 

• Listings sourced from LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Jumpstart, Wayup, Company Career Sites, Compilations - updated daily

 

• Progress tracking through interview stages

 

• Based on Spreadsheet model, of getting internships first

  • Spreadsheet Results from Last Season: Google, Oracle, Intel, National Grid, Markel, TIAA

  • How did we do it?

    • Found opportunities first, before they were posted to LinkedIn, and other places

  • Scanned hundreds of career sites

  • Being amongst 5 or 10 applications helps so much compared to among hundreds, especially when you don’t go to a “target school”.

    • Apply as soon as you see posted

 

• Check out clarktechapply.com

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Interview Prep:

 

Ongoing Prep:

 

• Software & IT Positions: Practice for coding interviews

  • Leetcode

  • Study Guide with Links to Leetcode problems by topic

 

• You should stay ‘in shape’ with your coding problem-solving ability until you’ve secured an offer.

 

• In addition to coding problems, general technical questions can be asked.

  • Examples: 

    • Object Oriented Programming principles

    • What is Polymorphism?

    • Inheritance vs. abstraction

    • What are the key differences between Java and Python?

    • Java is compiled, Python is interpreted

 

• Data Science Positions:

  • Your coding questions will likely look a bit different:

    • A good thread

    • Know SQL queries, some modeling, etc

 

• Cyber:

  • You may get put into the coding track like the first section on Software & IT for initial screenings, but later interviews will likely probe your brain about topics in Cyber rather than coding.

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Once you get an interview at company X:

 

• Before you even take a hirevue screener, you need to do basic research on the company, figure out why you want to work there, and prepare to answer the common behavioral questions.

  • Answer Behavioral questions using the STAR method

 

• Pro Tip: Prepare a document like this, with sections on the company, the positions, potential questions of all categories, a fleshed out explanation on why you want to work there, general behavioral questions AND ones you find have been asked in intern interviews before through glassdoor’s interviews section of a company.

  • Example Document

 

Referral:

 

• A referral is good to have.

  • BUT applying early is even better. Thus, either have a referral ready beforehand or just apply without one (as soon as it opens). 

    • It is not worth waiting to get a referral after the opportunity has opened.

    • Being one of the first resumes submitted is your strongest competitive advantage, time and time again.

 

• If you have your eyes set on a company and their applications haven’t opened yet, look up the company on LinkedIn, and see if you can connect with an alum who works there, or even connect and introduce yourself to a recruiter at that company.

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Follow-Up:

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Reach out to Recruiters & Keep in Touch:

 

• After you apply to an opportunity, it is a good idea to connect with a recruiter at that company on LinkedIn.

  • Attach a note to the connection request.

  • Example Note: 

 

“Hey, I just applied to this ____. It is an opportunity I am very excited about and I think I would be a great fit. If you get around to reviewing my application, could you let me know how it is, or how I can improve my candidacy?”

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Interview:

 

Once you get an interview at company X:

 

• Before you even take a hirevue screener, you need to do basic research on the company, figure out why you want to work there, and prepare to answer the common behavioral questions.

  • Answer Behavioral questions using the STAR method

 

• Pro Tip: Prepare a document like this, with sections on the company, the positions, potential questions of all categories, a fleshed out explanation on why you want to work there, general behavioral questions AND ones you find have been asked in intern interviews before through glassdoor’s interviews section of a company.

  • Example Document

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Offers:

 

You usually receive a phone call before you get any written confirmation (offer letter).

 

WHILE APPLYING TO JOBS, ANSWER EVERY PHONE CALL, WHILE IT MAY BE SPAM IT ALSO MAY BE AN INTERVIEW SET-UP CALL OR THE OFFER!

 

People have missed out on opportunities by ignoring unknown numbers

 

• If you receive an offer from a company, it will come with a deadline to accept. 

  • If it is your first offer, and you are not expecting any other offers within the timeframe (even though you are still interviewing/applying elsewhere), we recommend accepting it just so you have it in the bag.

  • If something better comes along later, you can always ‘reneg’ the offer.

    • May burn bridges at the company that you originally accepted the offer at, but if it is for something better, usually they really don’t blame you.