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PD Intro & �Resume Workshop

BE Mod 3

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Agenda

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What’s in store this inning?
Professional Pitch Review
Activity: Who do you interview?
How to stand out
Tools for Resumes

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What’s in store this inning for PD?

Resumes

Take your drafts, turn them into living documents that you’ll be able to update easily
Feedback in weeks 3-4

Cover Letters

Create a draft based on a real job description
Feedback in weeks 4-5

Application Process

Dive into the process of finding & applying for your first/next tech job!

Job Shadow!

Week 4, Tuesday
A chance to learn from & observe developers on the job; opportunity to ask questions of HR and devs about success in the job hunt; initial networking steps and possibly find a mentor.
Learn More Here

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What’s in store this inning for PD?

Other Opportunities

Small group / 1:1 coachings available upon request

DM instructors in Slack
Mentors
Jeff - small groups (more in M4)�

Continue networking!

MeetUp events, Coffee chats
New grads/rocks/mentors�

Slack channels

#employment-commons
#employment-round-one
Specific group channels like

#big-tech
#teachers-union
#gaming-careers

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Warm-up: Professional Storytelling

Keep it short (~30 seconds)
If you haven’t written it down yet, do so now! Keep it in a handy place, you’ll use this a lot.
Introduce yourself in one sentence
Share one memorable achievement or key result
Express enthusiasm for the person you're meeting
Remember: this is to build relationships

Not time to share your whole story

Hello, I’m Juliet. I’ve been working in the tech industry as a developer and an educator for about 7 years.

With a background in language learning and refugee resettlement, I’m particularly interested in efforts to expand tech education to diverse communities. As an instructor at Turing, I’m able to support folks who are diving into the tech industry from all sorts of backgrounds and professional experiences.

It’s been incredibly fulfilling to collaborate with these developers in shaping the culture and trends of our industry. I’m excited to learn more about your company and how we can work together!

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Paired Work

Time to practice:

Take 5 minutes to review your story & tweak your elevator pitch.
Practice different scenarios:

"Tell me about yourself.”
“Why’d you get into this field?"
“I know X about you, tell me about Y.”

Template

I've been working in [industry/skill area] for x years�
Recently I .. [key result, accomplishment]�
And I’m excited to [learn about you]

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Storytelling Tool: Resumes

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Telling Your Story

Storytelling

As a new software developer, what kind of story do you want your resume to tell about you?

Specialist? Generalist?
Team player? Independent?
Other…?

Also, how do you know which kind of story to tell?

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Welcome to the

6-Second Resume Challenge

According to one famous study, hiring managers only take�an average of six seconds to decide whether to keep or skip your resume.

Does that seem possible? Let’s test it out!

The 6 Second Resume Challenge

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BE Resume Workshop

In groups of 3-4. You are now on a hiring committee for a junior engineering position at your company. You need to select 1 out of the 3 resumes listed here to decide who will move on to an interview.

Things to consider:

For the sake of this activity, the position is language-agnostic
All of these resumes are from Turing alumni.

As a soon-to-be alum, you should consider how you can use your resume to stand out amongst others with similar skill sets

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Activity: Who do you interview?

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Breakout Rooms: 10 min

What is your first impression of this candidate?
What would you hire this person for?
What do you know about this candidate's technical abilities?
What questions do you have about this candidate?
Would you choose to interview this person? Why or why not?

Discuss:

Candidates:

Resume #1 - Stephanie
Resume #2 - Erika
Resume #3 - John

(Note: Phone #s and Emails have been hidden; assume they are “real”.)

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Who would you hire?

Who was chosen to move to an interview? Why?

What follow-up questions would you ask?

What stood out to you about these resumes?
What are your takeaways about effective resumes?

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Resume: How to stand out!

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Bullet points on your resume also help to fill in the “gaps” of your professional story.

What did I own?
Why did I do the work / what was the problem I solved?
What was the impact?

Show that you completed tasks on time
Initiatives led
Value you provided the company (or the customer/end user) in that role

METRICS: Identifying your key results and Impact

Example:

Before: “Taught kids in the classroom with quizzes and short tests”�

After: “Enhanced student performance with customized quizzes resulting in a notable� increase in their test scores by an average of 15%.”

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Start with Action Verbs (List)

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Review: How to Stand Out

Resume: How to Stand Out

How do I come up with data?

Think about the position/role you’re applying for, and what your past experience can bring to that role. Always start with their job description.

Range

“Supervised 8-10 team members…”

Frequency

“...on a biweekly basis…”

Scale

“...resulting in improvements of 20%...”
“...affecting 2,000 daily customers…”

Starting with an action verb, then add data! �Reference: How to Quantify Your Resume Bullets (When You Don't Work With Numbers)

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ATS Resumes

Resume: How to Stand Out

ATS:

Applicant Tracking System

The first step on your resume’s journey after applying

A necessary evil, but we can still make it work for us! We’ll talk more about this later this inning.

For now, you should create an ATS-friendly resume and optionally a prettier/creative human-friendly resume. (The only one to turn in now is the ATS resume.)

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ATS? It’s so ugly though…

Must be easy to read (scan), simple font/layouts and labels.
ATS will find & “grade” for specific keywords per job posting.

ATS vs. Human-facing

When applying first, send your ATS-Friendly resume
When sending directly or listing on your website, use Human-facing/pretty version

PD: ATS-Friendly Template

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Tools for Resumes

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The benefits of using ChatGPT in your job search

When used correctly, this tool can…

Save time: Generates quality resumes, cover letters, and job search materials quickly, sparing hours compared to starting from scratch.
Enhance material quality: Aligns with recruiter and hiring manager expectations.

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ChatGPT Guidelines

ChatGPT Prompts for Resumes

Be Role-Specific: Choose prompts tailored to the position you're applying for to create targeted materials that showcase your skills and experience for the role.
Customize for You: Adapt ChatGPT prompts to match your unique experiences and achievements, adjusting tone, style, and length to resonate with your story.
Use Multiple Prompts: Generate a variety of responses by using multiple prompts, ensuring your job search materials align with your career goals.
Edit and Proofread: Carefully review materials for flow, accuracy, and professionalism, just as you would with any other content before submission.
Supplement, Not Replace: While ChatGPT assists, rely on your own creativity and insights. Use prompts as suggestions, not as direct replacements, to infuse your personal touch.

TEAL, 2023

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Example Prompts

ChatGPT prompts to use

Write a professional summary for my resume and keep it under 100 words. [Copy/paste your existing resume]
Create a compelling professional summary for a job application using my resume and the job description below as a reference, and keep it to 500 characters or less. [Copy/paste your existing resume and the job description.]
Based on my resume below, write a professional summary that includes metrics and total years of experience, and keep it shorter than 500 characters. [Copy/paste your resume.]
Based on my resume below, write a professional summary for a [TITLE OR LEVEL]'s resume that includes metrics and total years of experience, and keep it shorter than 3 sentences. [Copy/paste your existing resume]
Create a professional summary under 500 characters that showcases my skills and experiences relevant to a [TITLE] role in [INDUSTRY]. [Copy/paste your resume.]

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Note:

Your mileage may vary!

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Mod 3 PD Site
Turing Community Calendar - PD events

BE Resume Lesson
ChatGPT - idea tool
Grammarly - writing tool
Action verb list
How to Quantify Your Resume Bullets (When You Don't Work With Numbers)

Additional Info

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Takeaways & Next Steps

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What are your takeaways from today’s discussion?
As you build your resume this week, what will you focus on?

Any additional questions?

Reminders for PD work time this week and next:

Continue resume work - due Friday of Week 2
Continue to polish LinkedIn