Resumes

Resume writing is an art and it can be hard to get right

There are plenty of resources for how to write a resume online so I won't re-iterate the fundamentals of resume writing. Instead, I would like to highlight some advice I received or discovered after many iterations of resume writing.

For reference, this was the resume I had used when applying for internships for summer 2024:

81KB

Jiahao_Woo_resume.pdf

pdf

Recommended structure

1. Name

2. Contact information

3. Work authorization (if needed)

4. Education

5. Work experience

6. Extracurricular

7. Skills & Technologies

Key points

1. Include your GPA if possible (> 4 if you're from NUS/NTU or > 3 otherwise)

2. Split up the sections of "Skills" into "Skills & Technologies"

3. Remove any non-important non-technical sections like "Hobbies"

4. It is optional to include the location of where you worked before

5. Use short-form for months and keep this consistent across the entire resume

6. Work authorization

   1. If you are a Singapore Citizen, you are eligible for the H1B1 US visa

   2. If you have graduated from NUS or NTU, you are eligible for the HPI UK visa

   3. Do not include this section if you are applying to local companies

7. Prioritize your education at the top

8. Specify your intended graduation date

9. When writing points for each experience, focus on the WHY and OUTCOME, less on the HOW

   1. Include as much numbers and statistics as possible

   2. You can come up with a preliminary draft full of details and use ChatGPT to summarize these points, a prompt I have used is "Shorten this to a single sentence that can be used for a software engineering intern resume"

10. Always prioritize your technical experiences over non-technical experiences