Module 4: LinkedIn + Resume
Module Overview
In this module, you will complete your LinkedIn profile and create a professional resume that effectively showcases your skills and experiences to potential employers. You'll learn how to tailor your resume to specific job postings and present yourself as a compelling candidate.
Learning Objectives
- Complete a polished, professional LinkedIn profile
- Create a well-structured technical resume that highlights your skills
- Understand how to tailor your resume to specific job descriptions
- Create compelling descriptions of your projects and experience
- Learn best practices for formatting and organizing your resume
- Identify key skills and keywords to include in your professional documents
Career Readiness: LinkedIn + Resume
Creating a professional resume that showcases your skills effectively.
Resume Best Practices
A strong technical resume should include the following elements:
- Contact Information: Your name, email, phone number, location, LinkedIn URL, and GitHub URL
- Professional Summary: A brief overview of your technical skills and career goals
- Technical Skills: List of programming languages, frameworks, tools, and methodologies you're proficient in
- Projects: Descriptions of relevant technical projects, highlighting your contributions and the technologies used
- Experience: Work history with emphasis on technical responsibilities and achievements
- Education: Your educational background, including your BloomTech training
Optimizing your LinkedIn profile for maximum visibility to recruiters.
Resume vs. LinkedIn Profile
While your resume and LinkedIn profile should be aligned, there are important differences:
- Resume: Typically 1-2 pages, tailored for specific roles, formal language, focused content
- LinkedIn: More comprehensive, includes recommendations and endorsements, can showcase media, conversational tone
Your LinkedIn profile should expand on your resume, providing more detail about your projects, skills, and professional interests.
Resume Template Set-up
We'll begin the resume creation process by making our own copy of the Bloomtech template.
BloomTech Template: Backend Development Resume Template
Naming your Resume: You want it to be clear and descriptive not only so you can easily find it but so ATS systems and recruiters can easily find and access it. Ideally Firstname_Lastname_Resume.
Note: For now you can leave the content that is currently on the resume. This will serve as a guide to you as you start to add your information.
Tailoring Your Resume
Analyzing Job Descriptions
When applying for jobs, it's essential to customize your resume for each position by:
- Identifying key skills and requirements in the job posting
- Highlighting relevant experience that matches those requirements
- Using similar terminology to what's in the job description
- Quantifying your achievements where possible (e.g., "Improved performance by 30%")
- Prioritizing information that's most relevant to the specific role
ATS Optimization
Many companies use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to screen resumes. To ensure your resume gets through:
- Use a clean, simple format without complex design elements
- Include relevant keywords from the job description
- Avoid using headers, footers, or text boxes as ATS may not read them
- Use standard section headings (e.g., "Experience" rather than "Career History")
- Submit files in .docx or .pdf format