Resume Toolkit

Unlock the Secrets to Crafting an Exceptional Resume

Navigating the challenging waters of job hunting? Seeking to make a lasting impression on top-tier companies like Google? Introducing our comprehensive Resume Toolkit: your ultimate guide to crafting a resume that stands out.

Instead of generic templates, we delve deep into the nuances of what makes a resume truly exceptional. Discover insights from real resumes that have succeeded in securing positions at these industry giants. Learn the essentials, from layout to language, and understand the subtle elements that catch the eye of hiring managers and pass algorithmic screening.

Armed with this knowledge, you can confidently refine your resume, emphasizing your unique strengths and experiences that set you apart from the competition.

If you're aiming to explore real-world resume examples that have made a splash at industry giants such as Google, Tesla, KPMG, and more, consider subscribing to our guide. Plus, when you share this toolkit with a couple friends, you unlock access to these exclusive resume samples, giving you and your friends valuable insights into what these top-tier companies look for (See Bottom).

Itinerary

1. Before Diving In

2. Resume Fundamentals

3. Fine-Tuning For Your Industry

4. Resume Template (Download)

5. Resume Examples That Secured Jobs at Google, Tesla, KPMG, and Amazon

6. Crafting the Ideal Resume Header

7. Highlight Your Education

8. Tailoring Your Professional Profile

9. Illustrating Your Professional Experience

10. Show Off Your Projects or Interests

11. Wrapping It Up

Before Diving In

If you're leaning on a boilerplate resume, you're missing the mark. If you're handing out the same resume for different roles, you're on the wrong path. Dive in to learn the best strategy for crafting a compelling resume.

Ensure that every resume you submit is customized for the specific role, sector, and company you're targeting.

To craft a tailored resume that stands out, tap into your analytical abilities to evaluate the following components (among others) as you compose your resume:

• Resume Design: What's the right "look and feel" for the position you're tailoring your application for?

• Resume Layout and Style: This needs to be in sync with the industry you're aiming at. Investigate on your own to identify the best layout for the position you're interested in.

• Creative and Personal Additions: Not every field likes bright colors, unusual fonts, or unique designs. Look into what resume style fits the standards of the industry for the job you're applying for.

• Skills: Make sure the skills you highlight align with what the company you're applying to is seeking.

• Other: When determining what to add or leave out on your resume, you might be considering factors like specific roles and experiences you've had. Are they relevant to the job you're aiming for?

You'll often find yourself grappling with various questions as you draft your resume. For instance, "Should I mention my hobbies in an interests section?" or "I've got noteworthy experiences from high school; are they worth including?" or "Would a profile section at the beginning of my resume be beneficial?" This introspection is a typical phase of the resume-writing journey. Notably, critical thinking and clear written communication are key skills you'll lean on throughout the process.

Take the reins when you're shaping your resume.

To craft a compelling resume, aim to:

• Research: Conduct research to grasp the role and industry: various industries have distinct preferences, and there are multiple resume styles tailored to cater to each.

• Build Your Network: Establish relationships (preferably 3-5) with individuals already working at the organization. This will help you tailor the skills you highlight to match what they're seeking. LinkedIn is a good starting point.

• Use Critical Thinking: Draw upon your critical thinking skills to decide which details to showcase, which to leave out, and how to effectively arrange the content of your resume.

• Give Yourself Time: Allow plenty of time to draft your resume; beginning one from scratch can take anywhere from 5-10 hours!

• Customize Your Resume: Ensure your resume aligns with the industry, specific role, organizational brand, and style of the position you're targeting.

• Understand Your Industry: Some industries have preferred resume styles. For example, fields like Accounting, Finance, and Consulting usually like straightforward formats. Tech roles, such as Software Development or Data Science, prefer short, tech-centric resumes. In these fields, it's best to keep things simple and content-focused, avoiding too much creativity. Conversely, fields like marketing can appreciate a glimpse of your creativity and personal touch.

Resume Fundamentals

A complete, professional resume should include the following sections:

• Header: Share your contact info.

• Profile/Technical skills: Summarize your top skills targeted to the position you are applying for.

• Education: Detail important courses, accolades, grades, and other achievements.

• Work experience: Show off your skills and accomplishments.

• Volunteer and extra-curricular experience: Describe your unpaid experience and what you learned.

• Projects (Tech): Describe projects you have worked on and what you have learned.

• Skills and interests: Set yourself apart and add a personal touch.

The following sections should not be included on your resume:

• References: If employers require references, they'll request them separately.

• Objective: It's generally understood that your goal is to land the job!

Even with excellent content, a difficult-to-read resume will most likely be overlooked. Proper resume formatting is essential.

Best practices for resume formatting include:

• 10-12pt font size.

• Margins of at least 2cm wide on all edges.

• Make sure to leave enough white space so recruiters can find what their looking for. It will be difficult to scan if your resume looks like a big block of text.

• Save in PDF format to guarantee consistent appearance across all screens and devices.

Fine-Tuning For Your Industry

Speak the language of your audience: Each industry has its distinct terminology. In business, terms like “ROI” (Return on Investment) and “market penetration” are frequently used. Meanwhile, in tech, phrases such as “APIs” (Application Programming Interfaces) and “machine learning algorithms” prevail. Beyond sector-specific terms, many corporations possess their unique lingo. For example, Google refers to its ambitious initiatives as “moonshot” projects, while Amazon mentions “two-pizza teams”. To truly resonate with your audience, it's essential to grasp and use their specific language.

Optimize your Resume for Applicant Tracking Systems: When applying to large companies, your resume often first encounters an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). This electronic system scans for specific keywords, skills, and experiences, helping recruiters sort through vast numbers of applications efficiently. With many companies relying on ATSs to pre-screen candidates, it's crucial to craft your resume in an ATS-friendly manner. This ensures it's not only appealing to potential employers but also navigable by the electronic systems that pre-filter resumes. While it's hard to pinpoint every company using an ATS, a good rule of thumb is that major corporations, especially those with their own application portals—like Fortune 500 firms, big tech companies, or banking institutions—likely use one. So, when applying to such entities, prioritizing an ATS-friendly resume is a smart move.

Guide on creating an ATS-friendly resume:

• Make your resume in MS Word or another creator first (then change it to a PDF before you send it).

• Resumes with a single column are usually more compatible with ATS systems.

• Try not to use any tables, columns, headers, and footers.

  • Avoid putting your main details (like name, email, etc.) in the resume's header section. ATS systems often struggle to read this part, and there's a risk they might miss important contact information from your application.

  • Instead, include your 'header content' like your name and email within the main body of your resume, not in the header section. This way, your essential information will be in the main part of your resume, not in the header.

• Don’t embed any text within images or shapes as this text will probably be missed by an ATS.

• Add words from the job description to your resume. ATS systems look for these skills that recruiters want, so it's a good idea to use the same words in your resume to increase your chances of getting noticed.

• Check how your content will look to an ATS:

  • Convert your Word document or PDF as a “Plain Text” (.txt.) file by re-saving it or exporting it.

  • Open the .txt file.

  • Verify if any crucial information is missing or is out of order.

Resume Template

Click here to access our resume template. Consider it your foundation, but remember it might require tweaks for various sectors. Check out the illustration below for insights and highlights regarding our template's features.

Resume Examples That Secured Jobs at Google, Tesla, KPMG, and Amazon

After reviewing the resume template we've provided, you might be wondering how to further optimize it for top-tier companies. If you're aiming for internships at renowned firms like Google, Tesla, Amazon, KPMG, and more, we're here to guide you to the next level. Instead of just relying on templates, we offer you examples of real resumes that have successfully navigated the strict selection processes of these giants. By understanding what they truly value, you can draw inspiration to refine and elevate your own resume. If you find this valuable and think others might too, consider sharing our newsletter. By sharing our newsletter with your referral link at the bottom, you and your peers can gain access to these exclusive resume packages for free.

Crafting the Ideal Resume Header

Ensure your contact information is easily accessible.

The header, also known as the letterhead, sits atop your resume and presents your contact details with elegance and professionalism.

It should include:

Your Name

Emphasize your name by bolding it, using uppercase letters, or introducing a distinct color.

If you use a nickname or a preferred name that's different from your official name, here are a few suggestions:

• You might list your chosen name alongside your surname on your resume, for instance, "Alex Lee." This is a common choice among students who wish to be addressed by their preferred name.

• You also have the option to display both your official name and your chosen name, using parentheses or quotes.

  Often, students who are indifferent about being called by their legal or chosen name opt for formats like:

  Alex (Chris) Lee

  Alex “Chris” Lee

Your contact information:

• The city/country you live in.

• Professional email address (Should be one that includes your first and last name, not an email you made when you were younger).

• A phone number. Ideally with a proffessional voice mail message

• Your LinkedIn handle

• A relevant personal website or social media accounts (optional)

• (Tech) A link to your GitHub that showcases previous work (optional)

If you provide contact details from a city different from the job location, employers might question your willingness to attend interviews or relocate for the position. To avoid confusion, it's wise to directly communicate with the hiring team about your intentions. If you list an out-of-town address, consider clarifying your relocation plans in your cover letter.

Highlight Your Education

"In structuring your resume, lead with your Work Experience if it aligns closely with the job. The order—whether Education or Work Experience comes first—depends on the job's demands. Here are elements to include:

Education:

• Degree: State the degree name, any specializations, the institution, and the date of completion. If you participated in an exchange or had distinct academic experiences, note the location.

• GPA: Consider including your GPA if it's notably high (usually 80% or more). However, its significance varies across industries. Prioritize highlighting skills and experiences resonant with the job and the company's ethos.

• Relevant Courses: Include up to three courses directly related to the position. If you achieved high marks (over 80%) in these subjects, it's worth mentioning. If not, simply detailing the courses is enough.

Specialized Training:

• Mention any credentials or training sessions pertinent to the job role. This can encompass software certificates, courses in data analysis, or qualifications in business strategy.

High School Diploma:

• While it's common to omit high school details, especially beyond the early years of undergraduate study, you might consider including it if there were significant leadership experiences or achievements directly applicable to the job in question.

Always bear in mind, the objective is to provide a brief but effective summary that demonstrates how your skills and experiences align with the job's expectations.

Tailoring Your Professional Profile

Consider adding a profile or key competencies section to your resume, unless you're aiming for roles in finance, accounting, or consulting. In those fields, recruiters want to dive directly into your educational background and work history.

For other sectors, including a profile can:

1. Highlight specific skills and experiences.

2. Make you stand out from other applicants.

3. Emphasize parts of your resume you deem most important.

Your profile, being the first thing an employer sees, should link your background to the job you're eyeing. It ought to give a snapshot of your resume, a short intro, and a teaser of the details to follow.

Craft your profile by blending your skills, core values, trainings, certificates, expertise areas, languages you're fluent in, and tech skills.

Stay on point: Choose carefully what you put in your profile. Exclude what doesn't tie to the job. Adopt the jargon of your field and prospective employer to make a strong early impression.

Give evidence: Even with limited space, make your case. Saying "proven leadership abilities through leading student groups" is more impactful than just "excellent leadership abilities."

Illustrating Your Professional Experience

Show You're the Best Choice: If your contact address is in a different city than the job's location, the hiring team might wonder about your willingness to travel for interviews or relocate for the position. In such cases, it's beneficial to directly engage with the recruiting team and emphasize your intentions to move if you're applying from another city. Your intention to relocate can also be clearly expressed in your cover letter.

Detail Your Achievements: Accomplishment statements give insight into your work and volunteering roles, showcasing your talents. These statements can spotlight instances when you significantly contributed to your job, economized for a group, were acknowledged with an award, or conducted a memorable event. It's your opportunity to promote your expertise.

Craft these statements in past tense, directly, and without excess words:

For instance, instead of saying "materials were developed by me", simply state "developed materials".

Effective accomplishment statements are particular, personal, pertinent, and provide measurable metrics. When you can, illustrate your statements with specifics like dollar figures, percentages, group numbers, and so on.

Examples:

• Initiated and launched a university-wide initiative for Vancouver Food Bank, gathering and donating 3,000 pounds of staple foods.

• Attained a 100% precision rate by deeply understanding 50 medicinal drugs and efficiently dispensing over 300 prescriptions.

• Maintained cordial client communications and handled disagreements professionally when addressing companies about unsettled bills.

Each accomplishment statement should begin with a robust verb like "directed", "improved", or "developed". Other robust verbs to consider include: Attained, Decreased, Saved, Generated, Exceeded, Maximized, Surpassed, Enhanced, Eliminated, Minimized, Improved, Optimized, Increased, Reduced, Created, and Established.

Arrange your experiences with the most recent ones at the top and proceed in reverse chronological order.

The Rats Model

R - What was the outcome? How did your actions make things better for your company? The best results can be counted, like boosting involvement by 30% or raising earnings by $3,000. But results can also be about quality, like getting promoted to a team leader or getting great reviews from clients.

A - What specific action did you take? What was your contribution? What skills did you use?

T - What was your task? Did you improve something or solve a problem?

S - What was the situation? Be detailed: was it a work setting, organization, team, course, and so on?

Note: The RATS model is a guideline.

• Use the RATS method for most (around 75-80%) of your bullet points. But, always be honest. Don't exaggerate or make things up. It's okay if you can't always use numbers or the RATS formula for every point.

• If you can't use numbers for a statement, it's still good to show the skills you used and how they helped your team or made things better.

• You can change the order of how you list your achievements. Just make sure they have a strong impact.

• Pick what feels right for you. Think about how your past jobs and skills make you perfect for the new job. How can you show the cool things you did and how you led in past roles?

Show Off Your Projects or Interests

Highlighting your projects and interests provides a multifaceted view of your character, blending your professional expertise with your personal passions. In job interviews, these can serve as vibrant conversation starters, offering potential employers a chance to assess both your technical prowess and your cultural fit.

List your tech projects, general interests, and hobbies that demonstrate collaboration, dedication, creativity, and alignment with your desired role. For instance:

When detailing your projects and interests, specificity is key. Instead of saying "developed a website," specify "developed an e-commerce website optimizing user experience." Such clarity can elicit richer conversations and showcase your passions more vividly.

You might also highlight any specialized workshops, seminars, or unique training related to your projects or interests, ensuring they are contextualized appropriately in your narrative.

Wrapping It Up

Crafting an impactful resume is more than just listing out qualifications and experiences; it's about weaving a narrative that showcases your professional journey in its best light. As you step through each phase of this process, remember that your resume serves as a bridge between your past accomplishments and your future aspirations. It should not only reflect who you've been but also hint at what you're capable of achieving. Tailoring, refining, and illustrating your credentials ensures you resonate with potential employers, making them see the value you bring. As you finalize your resume, always prioritize clarity, relevance, and precision. In this competitive job market, a well-curated resume can be your strongest advocate. Here's to making a lasting impression and paving the way to your next professional venture!

Continue reaching for the stars and remember, the best is yet to come.

Warm regards,

Intern Insiders Team