Word, Powerpoint, Excel really hurting you more than helping if you are applying to CS jobs. Would be helpful to see some electives there. I would imagine everyone these days studies algorithms and DS, "software development", and system fundamentals (at least we did 10+ years ago when I was in school).
Any special that shows your interests? Networking, computer security, graphics, AI?
Also its not going to help you get the actual job itself, but sometimes professors have an in with specific companies (through alumni or their projects). May express your search to a professor of a class you are doing really well in.
Also, do not be picky on internships at all if you are struggling to get one. Any company with tech experience is going to be better than none.
Use overleaf and follow the jake resume format. Place languages and skills at bottom. Do more projects/join project teams to replace chick fil a experience, i would suggest contributing to open source projects. Since you’re still a student, cold email prof for research positions.
Rhere’s a lot of open space and it could definitely be reformatted to copy some other CS resumes on this sub, but jts not terrible
Off the top of my head u dont need IDEs in technical skills and for your projects list anything quantifiable and the impact/results. For your text analysis it sounds cool but what was the purpose? give numbers? Same for the EMS project, how many clubs did you service? numbers?
But as a fellow CS major, not trying to be harsh but its unlikely u will find an internship with this lack of relevant work experience and not that extensive projects, esp with your graduation so soon since vast majority of big companies I’ve seen require going back to school following semester of internship. Technically this spring would be your last semester to find an internship (but smaller companies may waive the return to school requirement)
However, I’ve had friends with less CS experience, no connections, and like 1 project get internships based on their singular school IT job so it’s not impossible. I’d recommend just grind networking and just spam applying to lower-mid tier companies and local companies in Albany
In the meantime u need to start grinding more projects. These projects should be purposeful and try to solve a problem and not random slop like university projects
Please look at your student jobs and apply for any and all CS/ IT/ literally anything tech related to try and put some tech-relevant work experience down
Gpa?
Sadly it's just the market more than the resume. This is basically the median cs grad resume, and there's not nearly enough internships/El jobs to absorb them all. Have you considered tech adjacent internships like IT/sys admin?
The median resume just doesn't break into the industry anymore.
Ehhh across every graduating cs senior in all universities in the country I think it's pretty average in a bad way. I've been doing hiring interviews for EL where I am for a couple years now (standard boring non tech f100).
For swe I can say for certain a majority of domestic applicants don't have a paid internship at the resume screening stage. Of those that don't, if they don't list a gpa or have under a 3.4ish we dismiss the resume 95% of the time. Projects I'll look at only if they were probably getting hired already as a talking point during interviews. Otherwise we're supposed to assume they vibe coded/tutorialed/plagiarized them shrugs
I would put work experience first, then skills and projects, then education. But it would have to be experience relevant to the position you are applying. Keep looking for internships or graduate programs.
real helpful advice going around in the comments lmaoo
sorry op, your only hope is getting lucky on internships. you can try ”fixing” your resume all you want but without more experience, it won’t change the outcome, which is basically what everyone else here is insinuating.
A lot of rejections happen because resumes fail ATS screening.
I help optimize resumes using AI + recruiter-style formatting.
Happy to help if you want.
First off, there’s so much whitespace in your resume. Formatting is terrible (your sections aren’t even centered, and you aren’t supposed to do that) and it’s difficult for me to get a grasp of what am I reading at.
Education at the top as a current student is good, but there’s no reason for you to leave new lines for your major and minor. Condense that. If you did well in school and have a good GPA, list that metric as well.
Languages and skills are okay, but using IDEs is never a technical skill. List something more meaningful than a text editor. The same goes for Microsoft Office software, I’d expect software engineers to know how to use these.
Projects are okay, but it feels like an engineering checklist than a proper resume. Sure, designing and implementing a text analysis program is good, but what is the problem statement before that? What were you trying to solve, and what are the quantifiable and tangible results that came from this? Also, if these projects are insignificant (does not show significant accomplishment like winning a hackathon or getting some prize money), strike them off your resume — it doesn’t impress HR one bit.
And take out any irrelevant work experience from that work experience section. HR wants to see relevant experience from internships and full-time work experiences, not from your part-time gigs. Being a delivery boy or a fast food runner has no relevance to being a software engineer, and it will strike to HR that you do not have anything of value to bring to their company.
This will be a very easy toss if I was the one reviewing this resume in this job market. Was this harsh? Sure, but we need software engineers who can start on the go and bring value whenever they can. If you want to have a job, you will need to impress others with your resume in the first take.
These are all good points. However, OP mentioned looking for internships. In this context, the projects/experience expectations are somewhat unrealistic and not applicable to most students IMO. How would most CS grads show actual leadership, win hackathons or build pet projects with actual impact? These are all feats of the top minority, who aren’t looking for advice here anyway.
Many experienced people already in the workforce, especially in technical roles at big companies, wouldn’t be able to clearly identify, much less quantify, their business impact (i.e. avoid the engineering checklist). Not to say it’s a good thing, but yet there they are. Pure technical skills, zero care about the business domain, great career.
Again, I think your points are very valid and ideal to aim for. I even think they are mandatory for someone who wants to move to more senior roles and even moreso beyond the IC level.
But damn, poor OP is over there begging for internships in mom and pop shops and you’re talking to him like he’s applying for a FAANG tech lead position.
Absolutely, I think it’s definitely fine if you are not aiming for a F500 company internship. In these cases, openings are not competitive and it is possible to get into a small company without much trouble.
The problem, at least for me in a F500 company, is that when there are so many more applicants than openings I can offer in my team (especially in this job market), differentiators ought to arise from this. These are all good candidates from reputable universities, yes, and there have been instances when I asked HR to increase the number of openings (provided the budget allows) since the shortlisted candidates are that good, but it also means that employers get to be more picky with their candidates and the minimum standard has to be raised (as we don’t have an unlimited budget). If you took the extra step in school to do an external internship, showed initiative in your development work in university (like clubs), or studied for certifications, it not only gives me reassurance that you can add value to the team, but it also allows for me to fight for you against the higher ups when it comes to keeping our interns, or even offering some of them with a full-time offer.
I think for us, we ultimately pay better, provide more benefits, and have more resources than the smaller firms. It is fine if this isn’t what you want, but I don’t think there’s any wrong with following these recommendations since I have caught these from prospective candidates (which can definitely wow any employers). Cheers.
First off, if you are going for full-time roles that pays well under big reputable brand firms, you should not apply if you do not even have any relevant internships or job experience under your belt. Stick to smaller startups that may not pay that well for job experience, or take up an internship as a student to build up experience. You can always hop to another well-paying job later.
That being said, I understand that building experience can be daunting as a student, and it can seem to be a chicken and egg problem. I wouldn’t expect fresh graduates to have full-time working experience when they graduate, but your resume is also a place for you to list other achievements (projects, leadership positions in your university, or certifications) for me to evaluate you holistically. This is where most of our prospective candidates fumble, along with the coding and behavioral interviews. You may lack the necessary experience and it can be difficult to fluff yourself out of that, but if you show initiative and promise in your resume and interviews (led your school’s coding club by facilitating workshops, developed some actual tangible projects with impact and awards such as hackathons, or even studied and passed cloud certifications), I might take a gamble on you depending on the competition from your cohort and ask HR to do the same.
I assume being a frequent project lead in project classes would fall under this? Not sure why, but I was selected as one of the team leads for every project we did for a professor. I hated it because you were basically tossed in and told to figure it out haha. That was during my associates though; it’s a long story, but basically only a semester of classes carried over so I essentially had to restart. My university hasn’t had any project classes like my community college (at least none I have taken), but next semester I have my capstone that I can certainly try to volunteer as lead.
I would have more projects or more in depth projects that are complex and then replace the general work experience that you have. As you want it all technical. And not just complex projects that use technologies for keywords, but that you can be passionate about or solves a real problem
![[0 YOE, Undergraduate Senior, Computer Science Major, USA]](https://i.redd.it/ta01njcan99g1.jpeg){kind=link}
Word, Powerpoint, Excel really hurting you more than helping if you are applying to CS jobs. Would be helpful to see some electives there. I would imagine everyone these days studies algorithms and DS, "software development", and system fundamentals (at least we did 10+ years ago when I was in school).
Any special that shows your interests? Networking, computer security, graphics, AI?
Also its not going to help you get the actual job itself, but sometimes professors have an in with specific companies (through alumni or their projects). May express your search to a professor of a class you are doing really well in.
Also, do not be picky on internships at all if you are struggling to get one. Any company with tech experience is going to be better than none.
Use overleaf and follow the jake resume format. Place languages and skills at bottom. Do more projects/join project teams to replace chick fil a experience, i would suggest contributing to open source projects. Since you’re still a student, cold email prof for research positions.
Make bullet spacing consistent
I’m not gonna lie you’re cooked unless you have some good connections because you have no internships and the projects aren’t too crazy.
Why "Bachelor in Arts" if you major in CS
some schools offer both Ba and Bs in cs
No internship?
Rhere’s a lot of open space and it could definitely be reformatted to copy some other CS resumes on this sub, but jts not terrible
Off the top of my head u dont need IDEs in technical skills and for your projects list anything quantifiable and the impact/results. For your text analysis it sounds cool but what was the purpose? give numbers? Same for the EMS project, how many clubs did you service? numbers?
But as a fellow CS major, not trying to be harsh but its unlikely u will find an internship with this lack of relevant work experience and not that extensive projects, esp with your graduation so soon since vast majority of big companies I’ve seen require going back to school following semester of internship. Technically this spring would be your last semester to find an internship (but smaller companies may waive the return to school requirement)
However, I’ve had friends with less CS experience, no connections, and like 1 project get internships based on their singular school IT job so it’s not impossible. I’d recommend just grind networking and just spam applying to lower-mid tier companies and local companies in Albany
In the meantime u need to start grinding more projects. These projects should be purposeful and try to solve a problem and not random slop like university projects
Please look at your student jobs and apply for any and all CS/ IT/ literally anything tech related to try and put some tech-relevant work experience down
good luck gang
join/make a club (shows leadership and you stand out a bit), really try honing in on your projects and find a niche that you can excel at
try joining hackathons (displays teamwork, improves your abilities, networking)
once you do that, try and format your resume closer to Jake's resume
Look at small local companies like I mean real small your resume is not competitive in the current market unfortunately
Gpa? Sadly it's just the market more than the resume. This is basically the median cs grad resume, and there's not nearly enough internships/El jobs to absorb them all. Have you considered tech adjacent internships like IT/sys admin?
The median resume just doesn't break into the industry anymore.
Bro this is not the median for a cs senior sorry to say not trying to be mean 😭
Ehhh across every graduating cs senior in all universities in the country I think it's pretty average in a bad way. I've been doing hiring interviews for EL where I am for a couple years now (standard boring non tech f100).
For swe I can say for certain a majority of domestic applicants don't have a paid internship at the resume screening stage. Of those that don't, if they don't list a gpa or have under a 3.4ish we dismiss the resume 95% of the time. Projects I'll look at only if they were probably getting hired already as a talking point during interviews. Otherwise we're supposed to assume they vibe coded/tutorialed/plagiarized them shrugs
Go Great Danes!
I would put work experience first, then skills and projects, then education. But it would have to be experience relevant to the position you are applying. Keep looking for internships or graduate programs.
better use the next 6 months to network your ass off and finagle your way into some professional experience before you graduate 😭
real helpful advice going around in the comments lmaoo
sorry op, your only hope is getting lucky on internships. you can try ”fixing” your resume all you want but without more experience, it won’t change the outcome, which is basically what everyone else here is insinuating.
I agree. Personal projects and coursework are basically irrelevant if they weren't solving real world problems.
A lot of rejections happen because resumes fail ATS screening. I help optimize resumes using AI + recruiter-style formatting. Happy to help if you want.
First off, there’s so much whitespace in your resume. Formatting is terrible (your sections aren’t even centered, and you aren’t supposed to do that) and it’s difficult for me to get a grasp of what am I reading at.
Education at the top as a current student is good, but there’s no reason for you to leave new lines for your major and minor. Condense that. If you did well in school and have a good GPA, list that metric as well.
Languages and skills are okay, but using IDEs is never a technical skill. List something more meaningful than a text editor. The same goes for Microsoft Office software, I’d expect software engineers to know how to use these.
Projects are okay, but it feels like an engineering checklist than a proper resume. Sure, designing and implementing a text analysis program is good, but what is the problem statement before that? What were you trying to solve, and what are the quantifiable and tangible results that came from this? Also, if these projects are insignificant (does not show significant accomplishment like winning a hackathon or getting some prize money), strike them off your resume — it doesn’t impress HR one bit.
And take out any irrelevant work experience from that work experience section. HR wants to see relevant experience from internships and full-time work experiences, not from your part-time gigs. Being a delivery boy or a fast food runner has no relevance to being a software engineer, and it will strike to HR that you do not have anything of value to bring to their company.
This will be a very easy toss if I was the one reviewing this resume in this job market. Was this harsh? Sure, but we need software engineers who can start on the go and bring value whenever they can. If you want to have a job, you will need to impress others with your resume in the first take.
These are all good points. However, OP mentioned looking for internships. In this context, the projects/experience expectations are somewhat unrealistic and not applicable to most students IMO. How would most CS grads show actual leadership, win hackathons or build pet projects with actual impact? These are all feats of the top minority, who aren’t looking for advice here anyway.
Many experienced people already in the workforce, especially in technical roles at big companies, wouldn’t be able to clearly identify, much less quantify, their business impact (i.e. avoid the engineering checklist). Not to say it’s a good thing, but yet there they are. Pure technical skills, zero care about the business domain, great career.
Again, I think your points are very valid and ideal to aim for. I even think they are mandatory for someone who wants to move to more senior roles and even moreso beyond the IC level.
But damn, poor OP is over there begging for internships in mom and pop shops and you’re talking to him like he’s applying for a FAANG tech lead position.
Absolutely, I think it’s definitely fine if you are not aiming for a F500 company internship. In these cases, openings are not competitive and it is possible to get into a small company without much trouble.
The problem, at least for me in a F500 company, is that when there are so many more applicants than openings I can offer in my team (especially in this job market), differentiators ought to arise from this. These are all good candidates from reputable universities, yes, and there have been instances when I asked HR to increase the number of openings (provided the budget allows) since the shortlisted candidates are that good, but it also means that employers get to be more picky with their candidates and the minimum standard has to be raised (as we don’t have an unlimited budget). If you took the extra step in school to do an external internship, showed initiative in your development work in university (like clubs), or studied for certifications, it not only gives me reassurance that you can add value to the team, but it also allows for me to fight for you against the higher ups when it comes to keeping our interns, or even offering some of them with a full-time offer.
I think for us, we ultimately pay better, provide more benefits, and have more resources than the smaller firms. It is fine if this isn’t what you want, but I don’t think there’s any wrong with following these recommendations since I have caught these from prospective candidates (which can definitely wow any employers). Cheers.
I agree with these critiques but out of curiosity, what should be placed under experiences if you have no relevant experiences (job, internship, etc)?
First off, if you are going for full-time roles that pays well under big reputable brand firms, you should not apply if you do not even have any relevant internships or job experience under your belt. Stick to smaller startups that may not pay that well for job experience, or take up an internship as a student to build up experience. You can always hop to another well-paying job later.
That being said, I understand that building experience can be daunting as a student, and it can seem to be a chicken and egg problem. I wouldn’t expect fresh graduates to have full-time working experience when they graduate, but your resume is also a place for you to list other achievements (projects, leadership positions in your university, or certifications) for me to evaluate you holistically. This is where most of our prospective candidates fumble, along with the coding and behavioral interviews. You may lack the necessary experience and it can be difficult to fluff yourself out of that, but if you show initiative and promise in your resume and interviews (led your school’s coding club by facilitating workshops, developed some actual tangible projects with impact and awards such as hackathons, or even studied and passed cloud certifications), I might take a gamble on you depending on the competition from your cohort and ask HR to do the same.
I assume being a frequent project lead in project classes would fall under this? Not sure why, but I was selected as one of the team leads for every project we did for a professor. I hated it because you were basically tossed in and told to figure it out haha. That was during my associates though; it’s a long story, but basically only a semester of classes carried over so I essentially had to restart. My university hasn’t had any project classes like my community college (at least none I have taken), but next semester I have my capstone that I can certainly try to volunteer as lead.
I see! I'll certainly try my best to get those kind of experiences before I graduate. Thank you for the insight!
Good advice.
I would have more projects or more in depth projects that are complex and then replace the general work experience that you have. As you want it all technical. And not just complex projects that use technologies for keywords, but that you can be passionate about or solves a real problem
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