Resume

Simple guidelines for creating an industry focused, engineering resume.

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CV is not the same as a resume.

A CV is typically used in academia and research, to document a person's entire career history. It is much longer than a resume and includes publications, presentations, and other academic achievements.

This document is focused on resumes, which are typically used in industry and are much shorter than a CV.

Specifications

• Page Size: US letter for US and Canada, A4 for the rest of the world
• Page Margins: 0.5 inches on all sides
• Number of Pages: $\lfloor 1 + n/10 \rfloor$ page(s), where $n$ is the number of years of experience
• Word Count: 350+ words
• Font Family: Serif font such as Times New Roman, Georgia, or Cambria
• Font Size: 10 points (10pt)¹
• Font Weight: Bold (700) for sub-section heading², Regular (400) for all other text
• Section Spacing: Half a line (0.5rem)

Formatting

• Location: City, State for US and Canada, City, Country for the rest of the world
• Date Format: Month YYYY - Month YYYY for work, Month YYYY for education
• Bullet Points: Use • (U+2022) for bullet points
• University Name: Use the full name of the university, without abbreviations

Resources

• VMock
• MIT CAPD - Resume Action Verbs
• resumes.fyi: A collection of software engineering resumes that landed interviews at top tech companies.
• CookedCareer: likewise, but with paywall.

References

• Reddit

Footnotes

1. If a resume needs 11 points font to fill a page, it is too short. 9 points is the lowest acceptable font size. ↩

2. This is typically key information such as university name or company name ↩