Module 4: Career Readiness - LinkedIn + Resume

In the Career Readiness modules of Units 1, 2, and 3, we established the format of your resume and began building out each section. Now, in this final career readiness module, we will finalize your resume and fully integrate it with your LinkedIn profile.

This module focuses on creating a cohesive professional brand across both your resume and LinkedIn profile, ensuring they complement each other and effectively communicate your skills, projects, and professional value to potential employers in the data science field.

Resume Building and Integration with LinkedIn

In this guided project, we'll review the key components of an effective technical resume and ensure alignment with your LinkedIn profile.

If you need the BloomTech Resume Template to get started, you can access it here:

Resume Heading

Your heading contains incredibly important information for a future employer. If they don't know how to contact you - they can't move you into an interview process. Here is the information that should be displayed in your heading:

• First name (use the name you prefer to be called)
• Last name
• The title of the role you are applying for
• City, State
• Phone number
• Email
• Link to your GitHub
• Link to your LinkedIn

Technical Skills Section

A technical skills section on your resume allows for a reader to quickly scan your tech stack and gain a high-level understanding of what you have experience with. It's also an easy way for ATS systems to catch key technical skills they may be filtering for.

Add the skills you've learned up to this point at BloomTech:

Front End: React.js, Redux, Hooks, Context API, Jest, Cypress, Yup, Axios, JavaScript, HTML, CSS

Back End: Node.js, Express, SQL, PostgreSQL, Docker, Python, Git CLI, GitHub, VS Code, Vercel, Heroku

Additional: Agile Project Management, Algorithms, Architecture, Debugging, Deployment

Projects Section

The projects section of your resume is a crucial component that allows you to showcase your practical skills, creativity, and problem-solving abilities to potential employers. As a current learner and soon to be recent graduate, highlighting relevant projects can significantly enhance your resume and make you stand out from the competition.

Step 1: Select relevant projects

• Academic Projects: Throughout the entire BloomTech program you will be completing Guided Projects, Sprint Challenges, etc. These are all projects that can go on your resume!
• Personal Projects: Side projects are invaluable complements to what you are already doing here at BloomTech. They provide hands-on experience, reinforce learning, and allow you to explore your interests beyond the curriculum's scope.

Step 2: Format your projects

Include essential details such as project title, description, your role, technologies used, and outcomes achieved. You will need to include:

• Title of the project
• Your role on the project
• The tech stack you used
• 2-4 bullet points to highlight key accomplishments and contributions
• Link to the GitHub repo
• Optional: Link to the website if it's deployed

Step 3: Write your bullet points

Project bullet points need to indicate your direct actions and highlight examples of your hands-on dev work to validate and showcase your knowledge, skills, and abilities thus far.

Experience Section

Even if your professional experience isn't directly related to data science, your previous roles highlight important transferable skills that employers value. Make sure to focus on relevant accomplishments and how they connect to your current career goals.

Education Section

In the education section, be sure to include your BloomTech education along with any previous degrees or relevant certifications. For BloomTech, highlight the specific skills and technologies you've learned.

Review and Finalize

You've now completed all the required sections of your resume, congrats!! Throughout the last four units, you've learned to craft a compelling and professional resume that effectively showcases your skills, projects, and experiences.

Now it's time to review your resume for any grammatical errors to ensure it's ready for submission when you enter the next Sprint. At this point you'll receive detailed feedback to ensure your resume is job search ready!

Aligning LinkedIn and Resume Content

Your LinkedIn profile and resume should tell the same story, but they don't need to be identical. LinkedIn offers more space to expand on your experiences, skills, and achievements, while your resume needs to be concise and targeted.

Key Integration Points:

• Consistent Branding: Use the same professional headshot, headline/title, and summary/objective across both platforms.
• Skills Alignment: Ensure the skills listed on your resume match your LinkedIn skills section, prioritizing those most relevant to your target roles.
• Project Showcase: Feature the same key projects on both platforms, but LinkedIn allows for more detailed descriptions and media attachments.
• Experience Details: Keep employment dates, company names, and job titles consistent between resume and LinkedIn.
• Education Verification: Make sure educational credentials are identical on both platforms to avoid discrepancies during background checks.

Remember to use your resume as a targeted document you can customize for each application, while your LinkedIn serves as your comprehensive professional profile that showcases the full breadth of your experience and skills.

Finalize Your Resume and LinkedIn Integration

For this practice activity, complete the following steps:

1. Review your resume for completeness, making sure all sections are properly filled out:
   • Heading with contact information
   • Technical skills section
   • Projects section (2-3 projects minimum)
   • Experience section
   • Education section
2. Check that your LinkedIn profile includes all the same information as your resume, plus any additional details or media that enhance your profile
3. Ensure consistency in how you present yourself across both platforms
4. Have a peer review both your resume and LinkedIn profile for feedback
5. Make final edits based on feedback received

By the end of this activity, you should have a polished, professional resume and LinkedIn profile that work together to showcase your skills and experience to potential employers.