Free Software Developer Resume Review for Lemmies #1

This is one of the best resumes we've seen as far - If you paid for the service, you'd probably get refunded

• Great organization, clickable links, organization of skills
• (Very minor) For your personal projects, if any of them have a repo, make them clickable

The general trend for your bulletpoints is they're very good. The only feedback I have is your bulletpoints have a lot of Situation/Task/Action, but no Result. They also lack a lot of numeric data that measures the impact. I've made up the numbers/results in my example changes, but fill them out with similar real ones per your work:

Cytracom:

I.e change "Maintained Cytracom’s centralized VoIP configuration API server and several dependent microservices in a breadth of languages, such as PHP, Typescript, Elixir/Erlang, and Scala."

To: "Maintained Cytracom's centralized VoIP configuration API server and 4 dependent microservices in PHP, Typescript, Elixir/Erlang, and Scala"

Change "Implemented major quality-assurance processes in longstanding codebases including code review, CI/CD, and smoke testing, and unit testing."

To "Implemented major quality-assurance processes in 2 longstanding codebases including code review, CI/CD, and smoke testing, and unit testing, resulting in a 95% decrease in regression bugs in prod"

Change "Debugged and refactored VoIP integration with an open source WebRTC server (Janus) to maintain better connectivity for our web phone users."

To "Debugged and refactored VoIP integration with open source WebRTC server Janus to maintain better connectivity for our 30,000 web phone users/month."

Juniper Networks:

Mostly same feedback, if you add quantification these bulletpoints will have a lot more impact. Also missing results.

Change "Architected and implemented major components of the configuration [...]"

To "Architected and implemented 5 major components including oauth and feature2 of the configuration [...]"

Change "Maintained substantial automated test suite for the functionality owned by a broad-reaching team"

To "Maintained an automated test suite with 30,000 tests for the functionality of a 55 million dollar product"

Change "Worked alongside field engineers to provide root-cause analyses for customer issues and prompt bug-fixes"

To "Worked with field engineers for root-cause analysis on customer issues, with the [shortest average incident response time of 1.5 hours/satisfaction rate of 90%/29 bug fixes in a 12-month period]

128 Technology:

Same feedback, add numeric data and results ("[...] through 17 different microservices leading to an average 90x speed-up for on-site debugging", "Added over 20 features and fixed 70+ bugs to company's [...]")

Non-bulletpoint feedback:

• Your skills section has bad grouping

  • Take out Methodologies altogether
  • AngularDart isn't really a language
  • REST is not a platform

• I would recommend keep Lanugages pure, and do a second BP for technologies, i.e

  • Languages: Java, Kotlin, Python, SQL, Swift, [JavaScript], TypeScript
  • Technologies: Docker, Firebase, Google Cloud, gRPC, REST, iOS, Android, Git, Gradle, Maven

• Usually people have one for Libraries/SDKs which could help too, since iOS and Android could be moved there (with their SDK equivalents) and it would show off more skills

• Take out courses

• Make your projects reverse chronological order

• Put your start and end date for Education

Bulletpoint feedback:

Build iOS App for Local Bar:

• Apart from Apple pay and Firebase DB (which one?), you did not mention any tech stack you used

• You spent way too much focus on the "Situation/Task" with virtually no focus on "Action" and zero focus on "Result"

  • I.e "• Worked in agile team: collected user stories, scheduled regular client meetings, held twice-weekly scrum stand-ups • Allowed customers to order drinks, earn reward points in loyalty program, and view calendar of upcoming events • Enabled owners to modify menu items and events for customers to see"
  • Should all be one line: "Developed iOS app for order menus, loyalty program and events using [SDK 1, SDK 2] for [client X] via agile methodology"

• Then add one more line talking about results, if you have any (how many customers used it/how much scale the app can handle/anything numeric is ideal)

Craigslist-style Freelancing Job Platform, Android App

• Same feedback as above. Include more tech details on what tools you used, and give numeric data on the impact (Results)

Charity Database

• Include what tools and languages you're using.
  • I.e. "Designed frontend console UI to display query results in dynamically sized tables"
  • Should be "Designed frontent console UI with Bootstrap5 and AngularDart, supporting 15+ query results and dynamically sized tables"

Peer-to-Peer File Sync App

• This line is good - It could be written a little better, but you explain Situation/Task, Action, and Results: "Created decentralized file synchronization network running in Docker containers, written in Java. Scaled up to 200 nodes"

Contributor to open-source video game project

• "Contributed features to video game project on GitHub called RuneJS" - Do I know you lol? I'm an ex-2009scape dev. Anyways, include how many features - numeric data pops out.
  • I.e. change to "Contributed 10+ features to Github emulation project RuneJS"
  • Combine "• Implemented a system to play music depending on character’s location in-game, keeping track of discovered music • Added Jukebox functionality allowing users to manually play discovered music tracks by name"
  • I.e. "Implemented music system supporting area based activation and manual play"

Content around bulletpoints:

• Make your links clickable
• Great to see a vanity Linkedin URL
• Use a more professional email/Github name (Github can be renamed, make an email)
• The titles in your Experience don't mean anything - Were you a Software Developer, Data Analyst, or what?
• Take out your coursework (if you did something especially interesting in one of the courses, include it in your Projects section)
• Use spaces after commas
• Take out Atom, VSCode, IntelliJ, and Excel from your list of tools. It really dilutes your resume and raises the question of how well you know the other tools listed (like GCP)
• MySQL and React aren't programming languages (having awkward grouping like this brings into question how well you know what you're listing)
• Include Splunk API, Flask and Chart.js in your skills. It's listed in your bulletpoints, which only get read by recruiters if they like your skills

Bulletpoints:

Your bulletpoints in the experience section are better than your other content (they're actually quite good), which is rare. Great use of verbs, numeric data, and it tells the full Situation/Task, Action and Result.

There's still some changes I would recommend to increase impact.

I.e. change "Conducted Data Analysis on automation rates in various areas in the company and presented the findings to various stakeholders using PowerBI, PowerApps and Excel"

To: "Conducted Data Analysis on automation rates in various areas in the company [using R/SQL/whatever] and presented the findings with PowerBI and PowerApps"

I.e. change "Created an Alexa voice bot for quickly update stakeholders on service outages to their applications by using existing Natural Language Engines, AWS and Splunk API calls which increased reporting efficiency by 20%"

To "Created an Alexa extension using AWS and Splunk API to update stakeholders on service outages, decreasing incidence response time by 20%" (Fix grammar, remove fluff, specify where the 20% came from)

I.e. change "Developed interactive components for a user interface navigation, menus and changing between different types of graphs in JavaScript"

To "Developed interactive navigation components & menus for modifying graphs displaying data for XYZ, a 30M product, in React.js" (Mention more advanced tooling (which I assume you used), reword for exemplifying result a bit more, also added a random number to show you're still thinking about the big picture on the product you're working on).

I.e. change "Developed a website that helps display various datasets on a graph and to change the filters of the graph to display a specific range of values on the graph using the Flask framework and Chart.js"

To "Developed a website that visualizes [over 500 datasets/60GB+ datasets in under 0.5s] using Flask and Chart.js" (Add numeric data, remove fluff)

"Maintained student submission and attendance rates over 90% through engagement efforts that included automated remainders and accountability" - Want to shoutout that this is a fantastic bulletpoint - It's not worded the best or displaying the most amazing achievement, but the information conveyed for Action and Results is top notch.

Your bulletpoints in the "Project Section" and "Leadership" are much lower quality. Also make them start with past tense verbs-

I.e. change "Tracks your online spending by tracking which recurring subscriptions the user has purchased • Sets reminders to when the next recurring payment is due, and it has set limits to how much you want to spend on your subscriptions."

To "Created Javascript based recurring subscription tracking app supporting payment reminders, spending limits, deployed on [Firebase?]" (Also add Firebase to your list of skills)

Then your next line is great, because together it covers the full STAR.

Your Leadership bulletpoints have a lot of fluff and can be condensed into a 1 or 2 bullets then put under Projects to save space. There's also a lot of "Action" (i.e "sharpen [...] skills", "building relationships", "complete [...] assignments", "engage with mentor"), but no numeric data or results which means these words have no backing and are just resume filler.

Some quick feedback -

Non-bulletpoint Feedback:

• Put your education way at the bottom, recruiters quickly scan top and bottom to see if you have a degree
• Take out your Strengths

Bulletpoint Feedback:

• Your bulletpoints have a good mix of Situation/Task, Action and Result, but they very rarely touch on more than one at a time. In general it seems like some of them should be condensed or combined.
• For projects, start bulletpoints with "Developed website for .." rather than "A website for ..."
• Tie how you used different techs into your bulletpoints
• Add numeric data to your bulletpoints to show off results

i.e. "Created Account Aggregation Service resulting in instant customer account verification and faster loan journey."

Should be "Redesigned Account Aggregation Service in Kotlin and MongoDB resulting in <1 second account verification and 50x faster loan journey"

i.e. "Enabled faster courier journey and enhanced security through integration of items with barcode scanners." - This is actually good because it has some Action, but it can be better

Change to "Enabled 4% faster courier journey and enhanced security through item barcode scanners via [xyz] and PostgresSQL"

i.e. "Refactored backend code achieving a 20 times increase in performance of DB queries." - This line is great

i.e. "* Improved user experience by fixing bugs which caused silent failure in customer journey. * Improved consistency and reliability of the system by fixing bugs which caused duplicacy of customer applications."

Change to "Improved user experience by fixing 50+ bugs in customer journey and application portal over a 12-month period"

i.e. "Extensively used XP practices of pair programming and TDD to deliver quality and value." - What metrics do you have to prove value?

Change to something like "Fostered culture of using XP practices of pair programming and TDD to reduce regressions by 30% over a 6 month period"