Having Trouble Getting Interviews, How to Improve Resume?
The problem:
I need help improving my resume and my profile to get a better paying job. I have probably applied to a few hundred jobs and received only three interviews (two gov't contractors and meta). I have been gradually trying to improve my resume. Luckily, I found a new job through LinkedIn at a small company but with 1/3 the pay in December. Unfortunately this job does not provide a high enough TC for me to pay all of my bills and mortgage without my parents helping me.
Background:
I resigned from my SDE job at Amazon in September 2024 after being placed on a pip (a few months after I received a meets the bar annual review). I tried to fight, but have been going through some tough family issues, and the new manager put the whole team in focus one by one until he found someone to force out. When it was my turn, I was beyond stressed out and basically became zombie by the end as I could not sleep. And the reasons listed were small misses the manager could collect over two months.
Could it be a grammar issue, lacking star format, job gaps, unnecessary stuff, or is it just that this a bad job market and I need to keep sending out more resumes?
- Should I finish a side project I am working on and list that? Is it worth it at this point in my career? (between school and work, it could take a few months to get that to a state where it can make money and show impact)
- Is it worth listing that I am working on a post grad degree? It's just a bridge cert to transition into a master's program for folks coming from traditional engineering degrees.
- Maybe my resume needs to be more focused on backend roles and I am listing unnecessary experience?
- Should I focus instead on finishing an AWS solutions architect cert and list that to be more backend focused?
- Focus more on getting referrals instead of cold applying?
- Something else?
The VP has told me that if I ever need to discuss anything then I should schedule a 1:1. Telling him my situation is something I have considered, but this was a job I only took to pay my bills and I feel like I need to move on asap.
![Senior Software Engineer [E5] at Meta company logo](/_next/image/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffirebasestorage.googleapis.com%2Fv0%2Fb%2Ftech-career-growth.appspot.com%2Fo%2Fcompany_logos%252Fmeta.jpeg%3Falt%3Dmedia%26token%3Da7a5bcc0-e178-4b5b-b71e-09bf6c6aefae&w=48&q=75){kind=small}
![Entry-Level Software Engineer [L3] at Google company logo](/_next/image/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffirebasestorage.googleapis.com%2Fv0%2Fb%2Ftech-career-growth.appspot.com%2Fo%2Fcompany_logos%252Fgoogle.jpeg%3Falt%3Dmedia%26token%3D780356ef-3efc-4728-9eb4-d909b75bb4a6&w=48&q=75){kind=small}
Discussion
(3 comments)- 3
14 days agoThoughtful TarodactylTaro CommunityWith 7 YoE plus 4 yoe at faang you should be getting more interviews.
- Remove the new job from your resume. Seeing 2 months of experience is probs a red flag
- I think your framing could be a lot better of the AWS experience. its definitely missing impact. I would break it down into specific projects you worked on and the impact of those projects and your specific contributions. Its not clear to me if you wrote code based on your bullets and its just very confusing what you did, what languages you used. It's a lot of "i did so and so" and not "we built this product that had this impact and this was my contribution"
- why is your masters set to 4 years in the future? thats probs a red flag
I would pay like 50 bucks on fiverr and get your resume professionally rewritten.
Send out another 100 apps and see where it goes
If not I would focus on a very tailored cold email approach. https://interviewing.io/blog/how-to-get-in-the-door-at-top-companies-cold-out-reach-to-hiring-managers-part-2
You definitely are well positioned to be getting interviews especially since you have FAANG prestige and youre not an entry level candidate
- 2
14 days agoI just work here @ RobinhoodInstead of paying the $50 on fiverr maybe you should pay me instead 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
The experience is okay enough where it should get bites, but the resume formatting is not that good.
First priority: if you're paying more than 1k yearly for the masters program and/or spending time regularly on it, drop it immediately. Your career is too late where a master's program will help out your career and it's sucking up time and money. If I were an employer: Stanford or bust. (Assuming you are a US citizen) No other school quite franky justifies the value for the "oh I want to do a Masters to make myself more marketable" route other than Stanford.
I read your work experience and honestly I just glazed over it. It's fairly verbose (in terms of the wording and the number of bullet points).
- Everbeat: number of bullets points is fine and you clearly wrote code for the stuff. But what was the impact? What does the company/your team do to provide value and how did your work further that?
- Amazon: there's a brazilion bullet points with lots of words. My mind pretty much shut down when I read this (code for "your resume is getting tossed"). Have less bullet points with simple, more concise wording. And focus on impact.
Honestly, just run your resume through ChatGPT for free and ask it to make the wording simple & concise and flatten the number of bullet points. That'd get you the most yield of your time and money.
- 114 days agoI just work here @ Robinhood
I would also recommend checking out Taro's resume course.
