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Comment by i_am_toaster | Hacker News Reader

I don’t agree on a few of these.

I wouldn’t personalize your resume for any company, nor do I recommend writing a personalized cover letter for any of them — you have no idea the skill set that will be valued by the person reading the resume, as they are an unknown random variable. I feel it’s just a time waste and there is no proof that this sort of thing is fruitful.

Also fuck leetcode. I’ve refused to do the leetcode and still gotten the offer to do an interview without it. Imo, we should all show some backbone and stop accepting all this superstitious mumbo jumbo as the accepted form of recruitment.

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> I wouldn’t personalize your resume for any company

No one wants to read a multi-page resume, so you have to leave things out. Some of the things you normally leave out might be super-relevant for a particular role, due to the industry or business domain.

OP here. I agree with not customizing the resume, that's not sustainable for a necessarily high-volume job search. I'm lucky enough that my background is in a relatively popular field, so it's a much better strategy to just apply to places that are already a good fit for my existing resume. Definitely not going to do micro-tweaks to a resume based on whatever happens to be in the listing. Keep in mind recruiters spend literally seconds per resume. However a simple cover letter is generally a good idea and also a good place to add or highlight skills that may be especially relevant but not in the resume.

Strangely enough, despite what you might think from HN, I haven't run into a ton of LeetCode algorithm-type puzzles at the places I've been looking.

I wrote above that I don't understand _not_ customizing the resume, but I understand why it would seem not sustainable for a high volume job search.... can't say I wouldn't force myself to do it though as I think not doing it increases the chance of having to apply to more jobs.

It depends on what we mean by customizing. If you're strong in two different areas, for example both web development and devops, and you're open to both types of positions, you should have two resumes. However once you have these resumes, you should look for positions that fit the resumes and not vice versa.

Beyond that I don't think it's worth tweaking a resume for each ad, for example modifying word order. Nothing wrong with it exactly, but the gain is minimal because no one reads your resume that closely, and I think it encourages the wrong mindset for what is unavoidably a numbers game.

I don't understand not considering tweaking your resume for each application. I could write a novel on what I've done in the last year - how do I narrow that down for a resume? I can't buy into the idea that I could write 5ish bullet points today and think it would be the best way for me to represent myself to every position I might apply for.

I don't know what proof you need this is useful - you're selling yourself, so make sure to sell what they're trying to buy.

I don't customize my resume, but if a recruiter asks me to highlight a particular technology, I will temporarily add it to my resume if they legitimately think it will help.

For shotgunning applications, I don't customize. Way too much effort.

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