The Ultimate Guide on Resume Structure and Questions to Ask in an Interview

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by

Krista
in

The current economy has been really hard on some people to land an interview after sending over 100 applications with no response. This guide is to help you increase your chances of getting your resume looked at.

How do I make my resume stand out?

Getting your resume to stand out amongst people who are overqualified, underqualified, and somewhere in the middle can be overwhelming for the applicant and can cause feelings of stress and anxiety. Below I have listed a checklist of what should be included on your resume to get eyes on it.

  • Unless you are currently in college and looking for part-time work or internships while in school, keep your graduation date off. This is heavily encouraged in FAANG companies as this pushes out the age discrimination bias and tells the recruiter to focus more on your experience and portfolio.
  • Keep your skill type labeled and simple. What I mean by this, is you need to keep your skills in categories and create a comma list. See the example below of how that will look.
Technical Skills: Python, SAS, SQL, HTML, CSS, XML
Soft Skills: Written & verbal communication, adaptability, teamwork, problem-solving, client-facing
Software Skills: Excel, Tableau, Power BI, GitHub, Microsoft Office, Salesforce

Skill type example

  • Include a career summary at the top of your resume. A career summary is usually between two and five sentences in length. it should include the years of experience along with a high-level overview of your skills and work experience. The reason why you should include one is most recruiters will spend less than a few minutes looking at your resume as they have hundreds of others to review as well.
  • Add your projects you have been working on or completed to your resume. Since most employers don’t look at your website showcasing your analytical skills, creating a title for your project and a brief summary will get the conversation started.

Download the resume template here to get started.

Where should I search to find companies that are actually hiring?

Going to job boards like LinkedIn or Indeed is a good starting ground, but most of the time those applications are old or reposted to give the illusion of hiring. LinkedIn also has an automated filter that give the best candidates the worst ratings on the employers side. However, you should update your profile to open to work and let only recruiters see it. The advantage of this is more of a long-term strategy but increases your chance at getting an interview.

What you need to do instead is find the job you feel is the best match for you and navigate to the company’s website and apply from there. The reason this method is more successful is because it’s not going to be filtered by a job boards automated rating system of candidates. Instead, you’ll see a higher rate of responses as most people don’t want to fill out these long-winded applications and would prefer to fast apply everywhere and hope you got the company’s attention at the right time.

Another method that works as well would be to create an account that data mines information regarding companies and the industries they work in. A website that I have used is called apollo.io, which allows you to have a free account to find these companies and reach out by either applying directly on their website or doing cold outreach, which in turn can lead to greater opportunities if you can explain why hiring you would benefit their company.

What questions should I ask in an interview?

Congratulations on getting an interview! The next step is to review the application and company website to figure out their values and what exactly they are looking for and how your skills can benefit them. The list of questions below is very general and may not work with every organization you interview for and is to help determine if working for this company will benefit you both.

  • How would you describe the work/life balance for this role?
  • What do the day-to-day tasks look like for this role?
  • How is performance measured in this role?
  • What does success look like for this role?
  • What makes an employee stand out in this role?
  • Based on my skillset, experience, and portfolio how do you think they would benefit the company?
  • How often do team-building activities take place for this role?
  • What values not listed on the website does the company believe/practice?
  • How is software/programming language used in this role?
  • What would your direct reports say about your management style?
  • How would you handle a situation where you and an employee have a disagreement on a project?
  • How is professional and/or personal development supported in the company?
  • What project is the team most proud of within this role?

These questions are a good starting point to help you get a feel for what the company will be like and to see if you’ll enjoy working there long-term. Always keep the interview positive along with explaining your analytical experience in a way that the hiring manager can see you on their team.

This method is taught to FAANG employees because it’s known to work, and it has from my own experience. If you need help getting your resume in order, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn or contact me through my website.

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