Ask HN: The Expected Style for Tech Résumés | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: The Expected Style for Tech Résumés

12 pointsxook7 comments

The recent Reddit thread posted here about buzzword-filled resumes getting more results got me wondering: What does HN consider a decent résumé when it comes to font choice and graphics?

There are many different styles, and presumably, some are better than others for different career paths. However, I wonder what the technology- and engineering-focused groups think is a "stand-out" résumé.

For example: While at college, we were informed that a resume should be–aside from consistent–bare bones without any unexpected fonts (only Times New Roman or a basic Sans), styles, or coloration. It should be black text on a white background, no pictures, no styling outside of headings, and so forth. On one hand, it wouldn't be distracting, but would it not be wise to stand out in some way than to "blend in," as it were?

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Your resume is the last thing they will give a shit about. The resume is really for the recruiter more than the hiring managers.

Small tip, read the job description and just mimic it back (eg ‘Should have experience with GQL’, Mimic back ‘Comfortable with GraphQl’ if it’s true). That will get past the recruiter.

This resume template is perfectly fine:

https://www.overleaf.com/articles/bert-de-vriess-cv/cgvbdmdz...

Find more here:

https://www.overleaf.com/gallery/tagged/cv

Latex resumes let you just focus on the content instead of the template, go with that (many of us do).

I have something very similar to this one:

https://www.overleaf.com/articles/vidushi-wahals-cv/wpcddryd...

^ I’d make the professional summary shorter, and use it to just briefly outline your core skills.

Don’t try to stand out, instead try to present yourself in a standard and classy way. That stands out more than overtly doing lame shit like using colors, pictures, etc.

I have enjoyed learning LaTeX to create my résumé.

I have a love hate relationship with my resume being in LaTeX. It's annoying cause I find myself having to relearn LaTeX (I've never used LaTeX professionally since uni) when I need to make changes to it, sometimes I wish it was just in Word but the cost of migration is too great .

But it's great because if I need to customise it for a specific application, I can just comment out sections and regenerate it, all my work history is there, just hidden, so when I need to recall dates it's great. It also looks decent and different from Word resumes with minimal effort.

Some hiring folks won’t even look at a resume but use work product samples instead

If you're applying to a job in Europe, the Europass format is a godsend.

https://europa.eu/europass/en/create-europass-cv

IME the Europass format is only useful if you're applying to some kind of government/public sector or adjacent job. It's insanely verbose, it's a government thing, so it obviously defaults to having every possible box, option, etc.

It also looks like garbage.

I've been advised against having Europass resume by a recruiter in Tech when I started.

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