CodePath Career Workshops: VCF Resume Prep Workshop

I probably should have took that part out because you’re gonna you’re gonna submit your official and final resume next week, during when you’re gonna upload into the portal. So the one you submit it to me. I tell once you never submit a terrible resume, Granny, even though I probably Won’t Look at it.

Make sure you always submit him a resume that you’re proud of But next we’ll make sure that resume is an amazing condition. Yes, ken if you are like confused whether they complete. It completed the interest form or not, because they didn’t get a confirmation should they go ahead and complete it again.

No So So I want to say for the first maybe 4 or 500 students. You didn’t get a confirmation email and what and what prompted me to go Add that confirmation email was a student for reaching out like, hey? I’ that’s submitted there.

Their interest form none of them got confirmation emails. I added it little for the rest, for the other 800. The actually is the don’t worry about that let me know if you all don’t get a welcome email next Tuesday.

That’s gonna say, if you actually submit it the form or not if you don’t, then just shoot me a a deal. And I can just add so the quarter that way can they email Vcf that CodePath, if they want someone to confirm before them There’s only one Anthony thank you for answering all those questions, though, and for being here with us today. So an example, I might use math works as a company.

As an example today. If I’m talking about like tailoring your resume, because I just saw them, and I know they’re coming to Vcf. So like.

For example, I know math works will sponsor for graduate level positions, but they will not sponsor for undergrad, and I clarified that with them. So when those companies come to Vcf and post the positions with us through clarifying that on the back end, and we have all of the matching that we do based on the information that you give us so like we’re taking many many factors into consideration. You’re not required to submit the Vcs.

Interest. Form again. But it will be open up on Monday.

You’ll be able to update your resume and that’s why we’re having this resume session today, after a lot of you have submitted your resume already. However, Vcf is not your only. It is not like.

This is the only recruiting opportunity I’m doing ever and if I don’t get something from Vcf. It’s like over for me no this Oh, it doesn’t accept python that’s really annoying So some people like math lab. Some some people like math, too.

But what I will say is this session that we’re going to go through today should be helpful for you, no matter what you’re submitting. Your resume for I’m going to keep vcs in mind, because that’s what we want you all to be really prepared for. But we’re talking about casting a wide net with your resume we’re talking about submitting your resume to a portal, or not directly to a company yet.

Some of these companies may say, Hey, we really liked meeting you let’s have this 15 min conversation from this we’ll send you a special link right to apply again. So you might have another opportunity to update your resume I don’t know. We don’t know what’s gonna happen so that’s Why, we want the resume to be broad like obviously a technical resume, because these are technical positions right?

We want it to include as many details. As possible for a variety of positions. But you may have an opportunity to submit an updated one later.

But this is like I guess I’m gonna call this like career for your recipe. I’m gonna get to adding CodePath to your resume. That was another thing that math work said they wanted to see because math works, partners CodePath is one of the nonprofits that math works specifically partners with They go around like.

When I was at this event, they had all of these universities that they recruit from right. I was not from a university. I was from Code pass, so they were like, We go to like these ribbon universities that were there.

You mass Well, as we mit like Boston you whatever and CodePath, because CodePath is another place that they come and we’re still like, I think we’re still getting companies for the fear we’re trying to get as money for you all and that’s probably why we haven’t released any information on them yet. Anyway. Let’s jump in to keep your questions in the chat.

I’ll try to get to as many of them possible after I’m not going to be looking at the chat too much. While I’m going through the presentation, and I am recording so let me scooch this window to the side share my screen. We are going through something that hopefully most of you have seen today, which is the resume checklist.

Let me pull my chat and things to the side. If you haven’t seen the rest of my checklist you all know where it is. So someone I can drop it in the chat.

Super helpful and a lot of words. But I wrote the words so I promise if you if you read the words. It will be helpful.

I don’t I try to only write helpful words. So let’s go through this so a resume is a as a marketing tool. It is.

I like to think about a resume is like I Don’t know why I like to think about it like this, but like this is gonna sound like such a weird metaphor if you’ve heard it before. It probably sounded weird before, too. But if you’re like a serial box on a shelf, and like the front of the serial box, is the resume.

It’s like what is going to make someone like pick you off the shelf which you’re not a box of serial. I’m not trying to make you food or whatever but It’s like if someone sees a snapshot of your experience or a movie trailer, a movie trailer might be a better metaphor. What is going to make someone want to watch the full movie, or like watch a little bit of the movie watch part.

One of the movie bring you in for an interview. Basically. You’re going to be matched with some of these with these companies at Vcf.

Right. But so then they will have your resume once you’ve matched with them. But what is going to make them like want to progress you through next steps?

You’re not gonna have a lot of time with them. What if you’re in a group interview with this company or a group session? What is going to make you stand out.

So in your resume we want to kind of check as many boxes as we can from what these companies are looking for. So check the boxes. If I is checking the same boxes, all the resumes are the same.

Right. But we wanna make sure that you check the boxes, and then that we also highlight. What makes you unique or different from everyone else, that this company is seen, and that is not to make it feel like a competition between You all were competition, but but it is a competition between you and all of the other.

Resumes right. Your recipe is going to be in competition with other people until you can get in front of these companies. When it’s you and that is the same for your school’s career affairs, it’s the same for any future network team event.

You owe it to yourself to to quickly show the company what you have to offer to check their boxes, and also to offer like what is different about you. Why should they pick? If all the serial boxes on the shelf are the same like, why should they pick your box of cereal?

So okay, going down. This is also, I see some questions about like, Can I have a font size 11 or a font size 10 if you say 11? This is like, Consider this a guideline for like or like a recipe.

If you want a solid just like crowd, please her as much as possible. Resume. I was working with a student, the other day who said that they emailed a recruiter and we’re messaging a recruiter who reached out to them, and that recruiter was like, Oh, I don’t like bullet points like I prefer paragraphs of text and not bullet points.

And I was like, Okay, Well, you can update your resume for that recruiter. Send them the paragraphs of text because that’s what they want. But if we’re trying to please as many people as possible for most people, bullet points are easier to read.

Convey your value and skills more quickly. And that’s what we’re going to do for most people. But if you have a opinions, if you have like a unique circumstance, these are not rules.

I don’t want you to say like Oh, I I have to do it this way. This is again a recipe for a good resume. It is supposed to make it easier for you.

But you can go offbook. You can improvise you can it’s your resume and it’s supposed to be conveyed who you are so. But if you want the easiest way like honestly if I were like, I just don’t wanna deal with creating a resume.

We’re trying to wonder if it’s good or not I sorry. I would probably just follow these instructions. Okay.

Going. I. I also have a visual person, and so I love a an easy But also I love to see what this might look like.

Going down. You can also create copies of these documents put your information in here. This is going to be the kind of format or structure for most people, and I’m gonna move these bullet points over to the side.

Cause. I need to fix things when I see them We want to show relevant course work for a lot of positions, especially if you’re going for an internship. Because some of these internships may say, Oh, we need someone who has had data structures in algorithms.

We need someone who has taken some solid computer science course work and they want to feel confident in your ability. There. So you do want to put relevant course work But you don’t need to list like every course you’ve taken like intro to computer science or stuff like that that is pretty that they can assume that you’ve taken you don’t want to include high school stuff after your sophomore year.

So if it is something really notable like I don’t know if you won a like a national spelling me, or you received some national award, or I don’t I don’t know one high school State championship, and where the captain of the team something like that. You can include that because that’s cool but see our bullet points are really the opportunity to showcase your skills. So I I didn’t write bullet points here but I did link an article at the bottom.

That has some really awesome bullet points, so this article at the bottom is one of my it’s not my favorite resume in the world. But it has really strong project bullet points, and it also has a list of verbs in this article, too. So I really like this article specifically for the project bullet points.

Words like developed, created, designed, integrated, incorporated, are going to show that you had technical like. Show your technical experience, even if someone is just giving those bullet points. And we have some of those words here, too.

And show showing results as much as possible. So results are most easily shown through numbers. But not everyone is going to have numbers right?

So if you don’t have a number, you can say words like improved improve performance of accelerated like grew a team or increased decreased words like that show some sort of outcome or result, without having a specific number to back them up. But sometimes numbers are just helpful, like if you part a class, if you like. If you were the person who brought code back to your campus and you grew your CodePath.

Student club course whatever from one student, yourself or 2 students that were interested to like 20 students, which has served like over 50 students who were course of 2 semesters. That is impressive. The fact that you brought that many students together.

So you might think that’s not that big of a deal because it’s not related to tech. But to me it shows someone who is influential, someone who is a leader. And those numbers really help just them to visualize what you were doing.

So you might not have. You might not have any technical experience, and so you might just want to include projects. But I would encourage you to show some sort of work experience, even if you’re only working experience with like let’s see worked your you You’ve only worked at a restaurant throughout high school.

And going into college. Can you move up from like just a waiter or a host to like a manager or shift manager, or whatever at a restaurant? And you don’t want to include that because Oh, it’s not technical, but working in a restaurant is like 1 one of the hardest jobs ever to.

It shows that you have worked there for a long time and you’ve like moved up positions. You don’t have to take up a ton of space to do it. You could have 2 bullet points, and one of those bullet points is like promoted from host to lead later.

I don’t know as one of those bullet points don’t have to take up a ton of space, or in a another example. You could have it written as one line like this: showing additional experience, and like another section with relevant experience, but not showing any work. Experience is always a red flag for me because I don’t want to be.

If I’m hiring someone, I don’t want to be the person who has to teach you how to work at a job, or teach you how to show up or teach you how to communicate you know so showing that you’ve had some work Experience Prior is always preferable even if we don’t take up a ton of space to do it. If you don’t have a ton of technical experience I’m. Also a fan of including the if you don’t have any work any experience at all.

Projects. Or showing that you’ve done a code pass force you know so show what you can. Maybe a lot of you are doing this CodePath course along with an internship from the summer.

And I think it’s like some students will just list CodePath and their certifications here like CodePath advance software engineering whatever I really like also showing the dates here, because so that would be like June 2022 to august 22. Right? I love showing the dates there, because the fact that you were doing CodePath over the summer along with your internship, and like chuckling those 2 things at once.

Is impressive to me. So I like seeing that that time overlapped, thinking about the story that it tells. It might not feel like a lot to you but think about like getting credit for all of the hard work that you’ve done, and like not letting those things just go without earning you some credit at least for like the hard work and things that you’ve accomplished I do like having skills close to the top.

So I don’t know why I also have it here. Sometimes I play around in these resources I like skills close to the top. If you don’t have a ton of technical experience because we’re gonna get those technical keywords like really really close to the top.

If you are a career changer and you’re really really worried about your lack of technical experience, you can put some key qualifications at the top, that summarize like a little bit of your past career, and how it led you to your first career for most students. For most code past students. I think this is going to be the correct order, but I just did want to give you all some options things that I love to see to make projects more of a frame this more of an experience.

I love a project title that stands out so a lot of you. I will give you I’ll get to the code pack options in a second. But I love a project title that is not like blank clone, like all of the projects that I see are like Twitter clone.

Or Instagram clone, or a clone of this or movie database, or to do list. And I see there’s a lot but I would at least like a cute, or like interesting name. I know you can’t like where I can still get that it’s like a clone of something or understand what it is, but something that feels a little bit more like a side project or a personal project, even though it wasn’t I know you may not have control over the name, for, like lots of things, but I would just love something that seems like you put a unique spin on it, which sometimes you all do put a unique spin on some of these and so just clean up with something that is like different, or you and catches my eye also, including the role.

So like. If you built the project by yourself, you call yourself a full stack developer. If it was a mobile project.

You can call yourself a mobile or android developer, or iOS developer. It is a project section so we’ll know it was a project. But if you were a team lead like, call yourself a team lead and make sure you say how many people you worked on a team with companies do like to see that you have that team experience, and then also like that.

You’ve built some stuff independently I also love to see a link to something visual about this project, so whether that is linked to the Github Repo or a demo like a quick demo video Did you present at a demo day is that on Youtube can I see it like I would much rather like click on something and see something more visual than like read a ton of resume words. Again. We’re trying to optimize.

For like ats and a human who eventually sees it right or so like a read meat or blog about the project. But we still want to not just have a description of like Hi, Bill A to do list with. With these technologies.

I want to see a little bit more like like what are the decisions that you made while building the to do? List that show me that you are an engineer and not just someone who, like follows instructions like, What decisions did you make? Is there anything that you did differently?

And why did you do it differently? So thinking about the thinking about building out these bullet points, and then include a ton of them here. But you can include more.

And finally, when we get to So everything like we, hopefully, we have a lot of technical experience up here, Right? We may not have all technical experience, but hopefully we have a lot. I want to ideally see that you’ve done something outside of building and work.

I love to see community involvement leadership awards Aren’t always my thing, because, like if it’s an award that is related to Gpa, and you’ve already included your Gpa up top I don’t really need to see more that is like academically related but I would love to see a leadership position. I would love to see a volunteer position. Even if you wanna change this section to like just community involvement, is another thing.

I normally call it I don’t like extra curricular activities. That not sounds a little like casefully to me but even if we just say that you’re like a member of the CodePath community like We’re an alum like you all are about to be alumni, right? So you could just say like, and this is outside of putting the course on your resume.

But if you just wanted to show that like you’re involved with the community, this is an option here. Like Some of you are very involved in slack and like very involved in helping other students, 20 another students in the right direction, you know. So like, I think you all are active.

A lot of you are active members of the CodePath community, and you link to CodePath, and you show like what CodePath is, and it’s a way that you all have become more involved in tech I’m committed to the industry my other favorite option is to This is actually a student, someone’s interest because sometimes I come in here, and I change them when I find like interesting ones. But you could include skills and interest at the bottom. I personally love an interest section because it’s just one line, and if the rest of your resume is like super technical I love something that shows that you do you do something outside of coding because while a lot of these companies are looking for, you know strong coders, strong builders, they’re going to see some of that in your coding challenge right?

Or that they will see it in your projects. They also want to know that someone can take feedback, that they can communicate that their committed to things outside of you know working which, like, if I were you I rule my eyes because I know that you all won’t have a ton of time for this stuff. But just like even something that feels not related, but is fun like a student I met with yesterday, who is really interested in in filmmaking in graphic design.

Get credit again. Get credit for those things that you do that make you interesting. And that showcase just another quick side of yourself.

So here we are to the options for listing CodePath. Experience. Keep throwing your questions in the chat, and I will take time for questions.

At the end, and also to see resumes if I have the time for that. Okay, so you can include it in the education section like this. This is not my favorite way, but if you need more things to take up space on your recipe, this is a good way to highlight it, and to get credit for it, and have it stand out a little bit.

More. You could also include it under relevant portfolio. This is best.

If you don’t have a ton of space and if you have other things that you want to showcase more on your resume. In all of these cases I normally recommend hyperlinking over CodePath to the CodePath website, because I don’t think the hyperlink ever hurts And sometimes CodePath, like CodePath, is a fairly recognizable name. But sometimes people can wonder when they see it.

Oh, is that that nonprofit that we have heard a lot about Or is that a like a local coding boot camp like they might not know. And they’re not gonna go Google it right so if you include the link there. It’s really easy for them to go get more information this is one of my favorite ways of showcasing it in a skills and certification section, because I think it’s like What is this certification?

And people get interested in it? Kind of stands out in a technical spot. But again, I actually like putting the like the whole dates that you did it here.

So that they can see you were doing it with your courses, or whatever another option is relevant training. If you’ve taken a lot of like employer sponsored courses, and you want some of those employer names on your resume, you could include it in a relevant training section, If you were a tech fellow a group or like a founder of a course at your campus or like you’ve done You’ve kind of gone above and beyond done some CodePath like volunteered for some code past student panels we’re doing some blogs for us stuff like that. You could list it as either.

Well tech fellow could be relevant experience, but you could also call it like leadership experience. So there are lots of different options, and pick the one that is best for you. But the key is that you do want it on your resume.

And you obviously want it in your LinkedIn as well, which you are linking to from your resume. I in the announcements channel and actually like pinned in our summer channel, you should find tips for linking it on your LinkedIn. But that’s fairly easy.

Let me see if there’s anything. If you really struggle with definitely put your resume through, Gregory, really. But if you really struggle with coming up with bullet points and you have Microsoft word, you can actually use Microsoft words.

Resume assistant to help you come up with bullet points, or I actually, personally, I just prefer going to other people’s like LinkedIn and looking at their poll points and getting ideas from that so let me check my questions in the chat. Okay, and hopefully, I will have time for some resume feedback Okay. Lots of questions.

I think I’m gonna go from the bottom and go back up because I think that will be easiest for me. Desmond, this is it: A must have a LinkedIn page 4, Unless you have a strong reason why you don’t want to have LinkedIn Page. The recording will be sent to you if you have to run that’s fine.

This is not mandatory, I’m not like taking attendance or anything. I will post the recording in the summer 22 channel. And I will get to as many questions as I can with it in rest ways.

With the time that we have left Okay, I’m gonna start with Desmond and go up, and then I’ll come back down. Is it? Must have a LinkedIn page it is not but it is kind of like It’s kind of like when you can’t Google someone it like LinkedIn is unless you have a strong strong feelings about like not having a LinkedIn, I would say that it is best to have one just because it’s nice to have it is almost like confirmation that, like this person exists.

And they’re not like a spam resume they’re like a real person, and I can find them and it it feels consistent whenever you can. Hat establish consistency and credibility. Between your resume LinkedIn like I get your resume.

I go to your LinkedIn I see the same things on your LinkedIn. That kind of instantly makes you more consistent, incredible person. And I know from talking to the math works recruiters.

They were like, Oh, yeah, we looked up everyone on LinkedIn If for me as a career coach, and if if I were a hiring manager or hiring people, LinkedIn is just easier for me to go to as a more visual experience. So normally a resume is something that I’d have to collect or to have like at s screen system. Read it, and then from there it would filter up the recipes that I like need to look at, or that meant my requirements, or I might look, whatever us may depending on how many people I get.

But then LinkedIn is is kind of like where I go to like. See more about that person, and like, Did they include the same things on their LinkedIn? Or do they have nothing on their LinkedIn If they then have nothing on their LinkedIn that’s a little bit of a red flag.

So I’m sure you all do kind of the same thing, and I know we compare the job search to dating a lot. But if you have a date with someone like like a blind date, or whatever like, I would probably Google them right, because I just wanna know like, who is this person? Am I gonna like feel safe with them like that kind of stuff?

So it just establishes consistency. So yes, I would have a LinkedIn We also have a LinkedIn checklist and We have lots of students code pass students on LinkedIn or check out their profiles because there are a lot of great ones up there. Okay.

Okay, utilized in Project section. Yes, you can. You can move these around.

Honestly, my preferences on resumes like change all the time like, and it might change on my vibe, or how much space I have, or if I had a new project that I really want to include for this specific manager so none of this formatting is mandatory, but I do think it is for me right now. It looks like the cleanest and the best, and it is what I prefer to see. I also want you off like your resume, too.

You can use sub headings for skills like tools frameworks, languages, additional whatever for skills you can use sub-headings, especially if you have a lot any kind of Wanna group them. But if you, every time you have a sub heading, and it takes up a line of space, so a lot of these considerations are like a cost, benefit analysis and prioritizing, you can put publications in projects in the same section or you can call them out separately, especially if you’re aiming for, like more academic positions like in data science machine learning like that area, you might want to call out the publications separately Okay, relevant training is just a it’s just a consideration, and I would probably only use relevant training if I took a course that was not a project, and I kind of wanted to get credit for it like Let’s say you’ve done like an externship that is not really an internship. So you don’t wanna put it under work experience.

But it is a good name, and you like learned a lot, and it basically shows that you learn something, and you want to have some bullet points underneath of it. I would put it under relevant training. So I could expand upon it instead of just like one line under sort of vacations.

So a lot of these considerations are like, What do I want to expand upon and emphasize? And what do I want to minimize, but still have there to make sure I get credit for it. You can include links for other things on your resume, but only include links to the things that you want to them to click on and to show them.

So like if I like intern for gap and people know about gap, and there’s nothing really, I know by them going to gap’s website, and seeing it are probably not linked to that But I would link to code pack because I want them. To know, like, hey? It was this legit thing that I did, and they have a really pretty legit website is why I would link to it.

Yeah. Yeah, I Right now, I I coach students to put the intermediate software engineering down the Intro to software engineering and the advanced software engineering. If we change our guidance.

Obviously, a technical interview Prep. Does not sound as great, but I think you know the fact that you’re doing like a 3 month long training over the summer. In addition to the other things like you’re trying to get better.

You’re trying to learn as much as you can I think Code pass mission, and that’s why I like linking the CodePath to is like our whole. Deal is that you don’t really get this kind of training in your Cs. Degrees like at least not everyone you know so the fact that you’re seeking out this additional thing.

You apply if you got accepted you’re here you’re doing it like I would want to get credit for that. So, even if you do listed as technical interview Prep: like what is so bad about doing technical interview like? Obviously you’re doing it.

Hmm I like seeing your face I’m looking at the face in your presentation questions right now. It helps us feel I would any time you can have someone like see you honestly and be reminded that you’re a real human, not just applicant number like 427, you know, but like a person with he smile. Who is ready to work, who also did this demo and is like demoing it on Youtube and led this team.

We’re like up here, on my LinkedIn which I like and we’ll embarrass up I actually put pictures of me like doing a presentation which just like a still picture. Of me. But it shows like, Oh, Kelsey really is who she says she is.

Here. She is doing a presentation, which is the thing that she said she did in that bullet point above, you know, and it helps make me real to people, not just an online proof. I’ll not just a resume, but like a real candidate in person.

So I think, senior, your face like works for you most of the time you’re not allowed to put it on your resume. In the Us. It’s not a thing that We do we because of like possible discrimination.

But I don’t think it hurts you when you can have it like linked to or or other profiles. Have you shown in your right? It will be on your GitHub, and your LinkedIn probably you don’t need to.

You don’t need to indicate that a project is an academic project. An academic project, doesn’t really normally work for you a side project, or a personal project does if it was something that you did completely on your own. So if you want to have a separate section for, like the things that look really good, or if you call it assigned project or personal project, or like an open source contribution, those are kind of the things that take more time and energy and like show that you we’re like putting yourself out there, so if you have one of those I would indicate it either in a separate section or like parental parentheses beside it.

I would try to call it out Otherwise I would not call out like this was a CodePath project, or this was an academic project. I would just kind of like not say that part If you’re only experiences businesses student assistant researcher I think that’s fine. That’s good that’s good experience what if you have technical experience or not programming related.

Put it down. Put down what you have. It tells some sort of story like making a part of your story.

Say, maybe while you were in that experience, you got exposed to coding and knew that you wanted to go in more of a coding direction. Do not. Good.

Good question. Do you not mention that a job is full time or part time on your LinkedIn? You can do that, too.

It really doesn’t matter it’s like what part time is still 30 h a week technically right. If it was a contract or temporary position, and it was like for a set number of months like let’s say it was a 3 month project. You might want to click that it was contract so that they know It’s not like you started the job and then left after 3 months.

I love me and a Cs content creator on Youtube It doesn’t matter if you haven’t made any money doing it. It’s experience, and I think it would look really cool especially if you’re Youtube, looks cool and legit. But or you could just link to your Youtube at the top.

If you wanna save space, you could just link to that channel. For experience using the term account can cover kind of volunteer experience. Paid experience, leader issue, experience whatever work experience to me implies that it’s paid experience.

So when I say work, experience, I try to make it paid although, like if you just haven’t been paid yet, because you haven’t made money, yet like you could put that under work experience, if you want, but just own and like control, what those headings are called to make sure that everything in that category goes along with it. If you have experience in a certain area. Okay, if your internship experiences in like full stack.

But you want to go into Mobile obviously emphasize the mobile skills. So like if you don’t put I recommend not putting dates I’m gonna share my screen again I recommend not putting dates beside projects some people put these beside projects. I don’t think it’s.

Not important and I would want you ideally to be able to order these projects in terms of most relevant to least relevant. So I would love to see like put your mobile projects up here. In your skills section like maybe you wanna highlight mobile skills first.

Or call out your iOS skills. Maybe you want to and an additional education section. Maybe you highlight your code pack.

Ios. Course here it’s just about making those things then more visible. If you’re trying to highlight certain skills and maybe you only do that for mobile positions and you have like you don’t work as hard to emphasize it when you’re applying to lots of things I’m gonna do a quick skim of these questions, and I do want to emphasize that for Vcf.

Yes, you will want to have your cameras on for Vcf. So. And if you have any questions on I’m going to try to do a quick loom video for you all about setting up your space.

Obviously blurring your background if you need to, So you can get prepared to that. Okay, what does the checklist mean by no objective? Have you all seen a resume objective before it’s like kind of old school.

Some people may still recommend for you to do it It is I don’t know how to explain it. It’s like there there’s an objective statement at the top. That is like I am applying for I want an internship as a software engineer for summer 2023 that’s like what it says.

And obviously, if you’re applying like in our quarrel you’re going to select that. So you don’t need to take up the space for an objective it’s not a must have a web portfolio, if you have one, then put it down. If it is a not great one, so like, if it some, you all are not designers right?

If it is a portfolio that you’re like slowly building and like you haven’t like done the styling on it yet, and it looks just looks kind of clunky, but honestly all of your projects are still amazing I would not put the clunky portfolio on there. Because I would just send them to your GitHub. Read me so they can see your GitHub projects, and let me actually show hey, Github!

With pinned projects. Get I can have this not and projects I’m trying to find former student of mine This is former student of mine, so you’ll see that He has 6 pin projects. He has lots.

He loves emojis, which is why I love his profile. But you can just send someone to your proof file, and they can see your projects up here. Portfolio was just like another way of showcasing that.

You have objectives as single bullet points under your projects. That’s the objective of the project, So that’s fine. But I would just make sure that you’re using that space Well, am I gonna do a live review I’m gonna try to so object objective hire me that would be funny.

Okay, let me okay. The whole thing about waiting for Vcs to send them your application on your website. You don’t know if You’re going to get matched with that company during Vcf.

For most companies, I would say, apply to them now if their applications are open, and you have a good resume. For some of them. They will have a special link that you can use.

And then I would ask the recruiter, I would say I was so excited about this that I applied before. Am I also able to apply now using this link? This is honestly what I would do.

Another thing that you could do is directly reach out to these recruiters and ask them, because I did ask math works this as well, and math works said like math work. Said, We want you to apply when you’re ready to accept basically And they’re more worried about students not knowing who they are before they apply. So they said we’d rather we’d rather have students wait until they’ve like, seen us been to the info session like, know something about us, and then they can use that information to poop I directly but that’s math work so it’s a little bit different.

Math works is like please don’t apply to us thinking, not knowing what we do or not knowing what software we build right. And so it’s helpful for people to know who they are before they apply. If you know who they are right now, and you know that native is cool or whatever like it doesn’t hurt each to apply.

Now it’s just going to like you may then want to think about. Do I actually want to then prioritize matching with them during Vcf. And this is just like, Honestly, this is like a little too much strategy to get into.

I would try to simplify it for yourself and and just if you have the energy in a good application. Now apply and if you don’t then wait okay. If you had to follow tutorials for your side projects as long as you added something additional onto it, I would say that’s a side project But when you’re doing projects that have tutorials do you try to do something that’s a little like above and beyond and it’s fine if you don’t have personal projects yet.

You all are like still in school. This is these are stretch goals. In the loom video that I send out I’m going to try to tell you all to how to take advantage of Vcf.

My biggest, biggest advice for Vcf. Is, be present. So show up with your camera on like you’re showing up for an interview.

Because it is an interview, and to like make the most of whatever opportunity you are given. I mean, Probably my top piece of advice is to Google. These companies before you apply for them.

If you come to meet with a company that we’ve matched you with through the portal, and one of your questions at the end of your interview, or conversation with them, is like what you all do or where are you, or like the things that you could have found out from their website? That makes me cringe a little bit and so I don’t want that for you, and if you know who they are, and why you would want to work for them that instantly makes you like top 10% of candidates, So that’s my biggest feedback right now. Okay.

If internships have optional cover letters, Should we write them? That’s also another good question. I say in my cover letter guide that only submit a cover letter if it is required, or if you were motivated to Honestly, I don’t think I’m I think I’m not best at interviews.

I get really nervous. I forget my name. Forget fun facts about myself all of that.

So I like covered letters because I am better at communicating through writing, and I’m less nervous and I can write a cover letter quickly. This is the exact same format that I would use for a cover letter. Something in here that explains I that tells the company.

I know who you are in This is Why, I’m applying and bullet points with a quick story. Honestly like these are things that you can reuse you. But you want like, okay, like if math works like problem solving and teamwork and people who are mission driven, I’m like, Hey, math works.

I heard about you from my career coach at CodePath, who said that I should look into you? And when I found out that you bill Mac lab or whatever I was so excited to apply because I’ve been using this software since freshman year of college, whatever I talked to an alum who works there, and I couldn’t be more excited to submit my application here’s a quick highlight of what I can bring. I’m good at solving problems.

Here’s an example of a time I solved a problem I’m good at working on teams. Here’s an example of that I’m mission driven and know that you all care about social impact like I could write this cover letter in 15 min. If you’re gonna spend an hour like a session over like my cover letter, and not somebody in your application, I would rather you just submit your application, because you never really know if someone is going to read your cover letter although it smaller or mid-size companies.

They tend to do that. However, if this is basically a bad cover letter is worse than no cover letter at all. I could have just said that.

Yes, the cover Letter Guide. Okay, Does anyone want their to share their resume with the time that we have left? And I’m going to a meal cause I think I’ve seen Kevin’s in seams before.

But if you want to share your link and I’m going to turn off the recording, I can Stop sharing just let you know I I have a updated it since.