Show HN: Leet Resumes – a free technical resume-writing service
leetresumes.com
leetresumes.com
We’re just starting out, so we can probably handle 1,000 or so resumes per week. Hopefully, as we automate, we’ll be able to handle more volume, but right now, there’s still humans in the loop to ensure quality at Leet Resumes: https://leetresumes.com/
If you’re interested in our internals, expertise and philosophy on resume optimization, I’ve written our detailed technical documentation here: https://leetresumes.com/blog/leet-resumes-technical-resume-d...
And some examples of “before” and “after” are here: https://leetresumes.com/examples It might or might not surprise you that multiple colors, multiple columns, and filling your resume up with stuff other than your accomplishments is bad.
We believe in being transparent, open, data-driven, and helpful, so let me know what you think!
For developer job market insights, aggregated data such as StackOverflow's annual Developer Survey are far superior to anything you could glean from a few thousand resumes: https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2020
I'm not as cynical as notretarded, but I do wonder how you'll eventually make money. It can't be cheap to manually edit 1,000+ resumes weekly, so it does make me wonder what the end goal is and what the paid services will look like. Maybe some AI/data play?
Your blueprint to good technical resumes is super useful though-- I run a technical interview course and mentor quite a number of software engineers, will definitely share out.
I used to use the ladders all the time when looking for jobs, so thanks for creating that service too.
The plan is to become a trusted partner to engineers and technologists - helping to update their resume yearly, produce better resumes by having a deeper insight into their performance. That trust and that relationship will be super valuable and I'm sure we'll find the business model.
As mentioned in FAQs -- "In the future, we will offer additional upgraded services for purchase such as resume distribution, hosting, tracking, salary negotiation, vetted job opportunities, recruiter outreach and cover letter writing." -- but at this moment we don't really know.
The core product today is writing resumes and building that trust. I think if we do that very well, we'll have a lot of opportunities to make a successful business out of it. If we do that poorly, we'll have nothing.
By their nature, the things hiring managers look for on a resume are very similar to what they look for in performance reviews, so having that material always up to date is a good practice.
We're intending to have a regular check-in to collect facts throughout the years that we then save until you're ready to update your resume. We've also thought about how we could be helpful in 1-on-1s, promotion reviews, and annual performance reviews.
I personally grokked it when I was writing up some peer review. I thought I was making a compelling case: I showed where he had solved a tough problem, how he worked through problems, resolved it and thought I was establishing that the guy was on an upward trajectory.
My manager kicked it back and was trying to explain what he needed. We went back and forth, and finally he said, "look, I'm going to be in a room full of other managers, and I need ammo to get Chris a promotion."
That was when it clicked. I had learned persuasive writing in an environment where it pays to spend a lot of time making your case. But on a promotion board, there might be a dozen managers trying to get a word in edgewise, so they need to make their case with simple, unambiguous facts.
So it's a matter of it being a writing style that meets a specific need, and which engineers aren't trained in.
Any reason why you are restricting users having experience in US/Canada alone? I am from India and I do need help creating a resume.
From the privacy policy, under How We Use The Information We Collect: "To send [...] information about jobs and third party products and services in which we think you may be interested."
So you may not be selling my information, but you're definitely selling access to it.
Seems like the hidden cost is another source of spam email.
From our research, devs aren't looking for another LinkedIn spam machine, so we're going to build something better than that. Our thought is that if we do that well, and we update users' resumes for them each year, then it will work out well. If we do that poorly, then we can't update users' resumes annually, and it won't work.
But it is free, no hidden cost, no hidden spam. And if we aren't adding value to your career, then it's easy for you to simply opt out permanently.
I know a number of people looking for new jobs that are currently employed. Not a matter of needing the money; more wanting a better work environment.
The demand for tech professionals is extraordinarily high, and sharp career-minded technologists know that keeping in touch with the market can lead to dramatic increases in their cash compensation.
That 94% of people who would use a bad resume through their interviews and job search really bugged me though. Hence… Leet Resumes. I'd prefer to see 100% of people with a great resume, as it makes such a difference.
Of course, resume writers can't guarantee that, and I am in a position that spending $200 or $300 on something that won't return isn't worth it.
"You hereby grant to Leet Resumes a non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, fully paid-up, worldwide license (including the right to sublicense through multiple tiers) to use, reproduce, process, adapt, publicly perform, publicly display, modify, prepare compilations and derivative works of, publish, transmit and distribute your User Content, or any portion thereof, and to publish, transmit, distribute and sell compilations and derivative works of your User Content, in any form, medium or distribution method now known or hereafter existing, known or developed, without compensation to you."
"The plan is to become a trusted partner to engineers and technologists - helping to update their resume yearly, produce better resumes by having a deeper insight into their performance. That trust and that relationship will be super valuable and I'm sure we'll find the business model.
As mentioned in FAQs -- "In the future, we will offer additional upgraded services for purchase such as resume distribution, hosting, tracking, salary negotiation, vetted job opportunities, recruiter outreach and cover letter writing." -- but at this moment we don't really know.
The core product today is writing resumes and building that trust. I think if we do that very well, we'll have a lot of opportunities to make a successful business out of it. If we do that poorly, we'll have nothing. "
That's why we need a fully paid-up worldwide license.
May i asked where you found it ?
Edit: it's the blue one (-;
On zety its listed as a good example tho!
I'm very sorry to say that it is an ineffective design. To understand why, you can see my interview with the CEOs and technical experts from the top 5 resume parsing companies here: https://www.theladders.com/career-advice/resume-parser-ceos-...
Thanks!
no worries, i'll definitely incorporate some of your advice into future versions.
This kind of value prop ("email is clickable, job description is parseable by random job parsers") is probably not what I'd lead with.
However, these really don't reduce to nice, short bullet points on an examples screen! Thanks for your comment!
Do you mind if I share a link to it on social media?
More useful information will be published on the blog regularly: https://leetresumes.com/blog
>You hereby grant to Leet Resumes a non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, fully paid-up, worldwide license (including the right to sublicense through multiple tiers) to use, reproduce, process, adapt, publicly perform, publicly display, modify, prepare compilations and derivative works of, publish, transmit and distribute your User Content, or any portion thereof, and to publish, transmit, distribute and sell compilations and derivative works of your User Content, in any form, medium or distribution method now known or hereafter existing, known or developed, without compensation to you.
The question is "how many interview requests did I miss because of my bad resume?"
My company did the famous eye-tracking study that shows recruiters' first scan of your resume is 6 seconds long. In qualitative and quantitative research since then, we found what works best based on data.
Welp! Is there any reason why you are restricted to US and Canada? I can understand 2+ years requirement.
Our experience is based on successful hiring practices in North America. We don't have enough (read: any) data on hiring practices and resume review in Europe, Middle east, Africa or Asia. We really don't want to do any harm, so we are not yet able to offer our services there.
If you're based outside of US & Canada, but work remote for US or Canada office of a company, feel free to sign up. But if you're based outside of US/Canada and plan to work outside US/Canada, then we are not yet competent to handle your resume well.
Give us some time! :)
I'm based in Japan, and often look at remote job boards. It's frustrating when you have to spend time digging into the content of job posting to find out you're ineligible - it's not much time per post, but it all adds up and it's annoying.
So kudos for being upfront about it!
If possible, I'd explore finding a form system that allows using textareas.
But great feedback, and I'll add this to our product reviews.
I've heard that many resume screens are automated these days, which has led to my hearing stories of people trying to game this by cramming keywords in invisible font and other things like that.
Can anyone with experience in recruiting shed some light on this matter?
The basics are important - get a clean, standard, well-organized resume. Include numbers that show your ability to improve things. Be explicit about titles, capabilities, and achievements.
Unfortunately, a lot of urban legends have popped up over the years that really cause professionals a lot of grief for no good reason.
As far as scaling - I wrote an article on how we got our first 50k users here - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/0-50000-users-candid-look-cre...
Keep in mind:
• Success will come from your ability to execute on technology, design, branding, and finding a way to scale (SEO).
• Don't be discouraged by negative feedback if you believe in your idea.
• Build something that people care about - people will care about your mission or approach if the experience of using your product is memoriable.
• There's a lot of competition - So don't be discouraged by our progress
https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=jacob_rezi
thanks for the good advice.
As mentioned above, we're not selling your information, but hoping to use this as a means to grow into a trusted partner in dev's careers.
We have seen that job applicants leave so much simple improvements on the table, it is unbelievable :) The most basic thing: Give more details on your technology stack for every experience, be more concise and avoid fancy graphics and formatting.
The answer is: the ones with the most compelling presentations of the user's capabilities, accomplishments, and skills on the job.
People were consistently mispronouncing it - MeetLeek, for example :) - so we simplified the name to Leet Resumes.
I have absolutely nothing on a public GitHub. Does that make me a worse software engineer?
* See what your interests are.
* See what the general quality of your code is.
* See how you interact with other devs.
* Potentially see how you write issues and/or deal with PRs etc.
I Liked the process, waiting 7 days and I'm sure it'll look fine enough. I'll let it be known if I become an endless spam magnet for those still risk-adverse about it.
I did classified infosec for nearly 8 years in North America and wasnt able to make the cut for a resume. Awesome.
Our expertise is in experienced developers' resumes - two or more years of experience, up to 35+ years' experience. It's a different process, with different hiring teams at a company, and different resume product entirely from new graduates'.
So, unfortunately, for now, the answer is that we have no plans to add student resumes.
It's really best at this point to follow the guidance of your career services office.
"Our experience is based on successful hiring practices in North America. We don't have enough (read: any) data on hiring practices and resume review in Europe, Middle east, Africa or Asia. We really don't want to do any harm, so we are not yet able to offer our services there.
If you're based outside of US & Canada, but work remote for US or Canada office of a company, feel free to sign up. But if you're based outside of US/Canada and plan to work outside US/Canada, then we are not yet competent to handle your resume well.
Give us some time! :) "
All examples are real resume formats but fake names and representative experiences.
We wouldn’t ever show a user’s resume publicly without permission.
This was the case I was curious about. Thanks for the clarification.