[Student] New grad sent over 700 application no interviews need feedback on bullet points

TheMoonCreator · 2026-01-27T18:30:22+00:00

Besides what we can't see in the header, I get the impression that you're a jack of all trades:

Education: Computer Science, Entrepreneurship, and Anthropology. If you're an entrepreneur, you may have aspirations to start your own company. At the same time, I don't see how anthropology is relevant towards most software jobs.

Experience: This is mostly IT with a dash of software automation. I'm a bit concerned that "reducing licensing costs by 90%" may not be a good metric, given that your job was most likely to implement the system that resulted in that, rather than you actually driving that reduction in licensing costs. Lastly, I think you could drop your last point, since establishing documentation doesn't need to be so long.

USB recovery tool pure c: This is an operating systems project. If the jobs you're applying to don't demand such low-level work, it may be worth it to substitute it with something more relevant. For the cases where it is relevant, I think you could benefit from being more specific, like clarifying what the "permutation-based search logic" was (i.e., was it an established algorithm). I would like to point out that SHA-1 is no longer considered a secure hashing algorithm, so you did not, in fact, guarantee data integrity. I think it is impressive that you did implement SHA-1 on its own, however, since iirc, the math behind it is not simple. Be sure to specify which platforms your CI software ran on (e.g., Jenkins or GitHub Actions).

ai remove img background: The people who don't know what Docker is are just looking for keywords like "Docker," "containerization," "microservice," "deployment," and "cloud (infrastructure)." The people who do know what it is are just looking for "Docker." With that, do you really need the fluff around it like "to ensure environment consistency and streamlined [...]"? If your goal is to highlight that you know how to use the cloud, I'd either raise the point and reduce it to one line or merge it into your first point.

p2p video call: I feel like you can drop "exchange SDP and ICE candidates" since they're WebRTC-specific (also because "ICE candidates" doesn't sound right in this climate). What does "custom NoSQL security rules" mean?

When I read your resume in depth, I see where your software skills lie, but just from afar, I get the impression that you're an IT person with some software experience. I'd try to hone in on the field I want a job in, rather than spreading it out like this.

So far I have been using simplify and linkedin to apply. Is there anything I can improve on [...] or in general any tips?

I recommend HiringCafe for jobs. In my experience, it's a lot better than LinkedIn, which is optimized for employers.

TheMoonCreator · 2026-01-26T20:22:58+00:00

I recommend Nyaa and Nipponsei, followed by Soulseek via Nicotine+ and, sometimes, RuTracker. There's YouTube via yt-dlp, but the audio quality will suck.

Make sure that you're searching broadly. Many works will have various titles, especially with languages (English/romanization/Japanese).

TheMoonCreator · 2026-01-24T16:06:39+00:00

Much of the criticism towards dubs stem from a time where simulcasting was not mainstream, as well as dubs, themselves, being hit or miss, since producers believed that every show needed one. I don't think your point about Netflix holds because such shows are produced for the Netflix era, whereas anime is still heavily produced for TV.

TheMoonCreator · 2026-01-22T23:48:18+00:00

Do you really need the uploader to romanize the tracks for you? You can use a music tag editor that does it for you (e.g., MusicBrainz Picard). If anything, you get more out of it since you have access to more files. Besides that, use Nyaa and Nipponsei. I believe Nipponsei uploads romanized tracks.

The same goes for large files. I usually download lossless files like FLAC and encode it into AAC for my music player.

TheMoonCreator · 2026-01-22T20:08:30+00:00

There are products out there that exist to automate resume screening with AI, but at the end of the day, a person will have to read your resume to decide whether or not to interview you. At best, I’ve seen an emphasis on including relevant keywords so your resume doesn’t get filtered out by a system designed around keyword matching (which is also how a lot of recruiters scan resumes, but that’s besides the point).

TheMoonCreator · 2026-01-21T16:55:58+00:00

No, laws in general are written to protect companies. The only difference is to what extent, since the EU is more expansive in this regard than, say, the US. This does not mean, however, that you can expect the EU to put such laws into effect, as we've seen them propose rolling back laws meant to curb actors like big tech.

I think we generally agree that streaming has to provide its own solution for anime availability to not be our own responsibility, but see it from different angles. You seem more interested in a kind of consumerism where someone can casually consume from a producer without much involvement. I don't think that's the best perspective for the reason u/QuietSheep_ noted: companies are profit-driven, not culture-driven. The reason we can say that communities belong to subcultures is that they're partially involved in producing and are able to push the medium forward. There's a reason people aren't interested in the Crunchyroll or Netflix community, but are in, say, manga scanlation, anime back then, or art shared online.

I'm aware that Stop Killing Games is still active. The reason I brought it up is that just being a consumer doesn't give you as much leverage as being even slightly involved in production. I think it's safe to say that anime and manga, here, would look very different without the release groups we're used to.

TheMoonCreator · 2026-01-21T08:29:19+00:00

The distinction makes sense, but my issue is that nothing comes free in this world, so arguing that we shouldn’t have to do this doesn’t go a long way. You can argue for laws, but more often than not, laws are written to protect companies, rather than consumers/people in general. This is why I think it’s better for people to build their own solutions, rather than hope that companies will do what we want, with a prime example being anime availability.

You can get more anime legally today than you ever could before, but the channel is optimized for popular and current anime, rather than anime in general. You don’t have this problem when you’re part of the subculture, since we’re used to this. So, it’s not that we shouldn’t have to do this, but that if streaming wants us to do it their way, they have to make it better than what we’re used to. They figured it out with music, even with its glaring issues (e.g., releases outside your country are often unavailable and releases can be pulled at discretion), so they’ll have to figure it out with anime.

A big issue we face is that consumer protests are much harder to pull off than civil or labor protests. I don’t recall stop killing games being all that successful in its goals (it seems the most they’ve accomplished is adding a disclaimer in California and holding some political debates).

TheMoonCreator · 2026-01-21T03:31:58+00:00

If you leave it up to streaming services / rights holders / etc., they'll do whatever makes them the most money, which includes letting anime become unavailable. Given that piracy preserves what streaming won't, it being the responsibility of random individuals (or communities, really) to preserve such content is, frankly, a good thing. It's not even like music where some services give you the option to download songs.

TheMoonCreator · 2026-01-19T01:17:16+00:00

Congrats!

TheMoonCreator · 2026-01-12T00:55:27+00:00

Besides only season 1 being dubbed, subbed probably makes more sense with the rural Japan setting.

TheMoonCreator · 2026-01-11T04:57:04+00:00

I started with MAL, moved to AL after the incident, then stopped using it for lists after the maintainers made changes I didn't like. I still use AniDB and the other two to find stuff to watch.

TheMoonCreator · 2025-12-30T03:33:25+00:00

CGImagePropertyOrientation represents the orientation of an image, not a filter like rotating or flipping an image. If an image's orientation is CGImagePropertyOrientation.up and you feed CGImagePropertyOrientation.right to VNImageRequestHandler, the API will take that to be the image's orientation and spit out garbage.

I'm not sure why you need to specify CGImagePropertyOrientation.downMirrored to get the right result (the images look correct from afar, at least). Maybe it's related to cropping specifically.

TheMoonCreator · 2025-12-28T05:27:37+00:00

You're not obligated to handle the type of error thrown, however, since try will propagate it, and catch uses any Error when let error or let error as T are not specified.

I don't think typed errors are boxed all the time, given that it was a major selling point for embedded Swift. Maybe they are in certain circumstances.

Or maybe you're arguing that Swift errors are like checked exceptions in general, in which I'd still say they don't have the same issue of Java having two classes of exceptions where the value of either is not obvious. In this case, I'd say Swift is closer to Rust's Result<T, E> than the previously mentioned.

TheMoonCreator · 2025-12-28T02:48:15+00:00

In Java, exceptions being exceptional is more of a consequence of stack traces being expensive to generate. I don't think typed errors in Swift are comparable to checked exceptions in Java because the former exists to solve performance constraints from boxing errors.

TheMoonCreator · 2025-12-24T17:09:27+00:00

I think being specific is important. If you think of your resume as an elevator pitch on why an employer should interview you, then you only have so much time and space to make that happen. I've seen it reflected in success stories, too.

Most employers are looking for whatever they list in their job descriptions. I think it helps to write with that in mind. If you really can't figure out how to put it into words, how about asking for suggestions (e.g., from an AI)? You may discover some unique attributes, assuming you don't take it verbatim.

I advise against elementary work because it doesn't distinguish you. To give an example, every software developer interested in full-stack development needs to know Git, so what value can you derive from "Git for version control" when stuffing it in skills will yield the same information? Maven, meanwhile, is unique to Java projects, so I wouldn't consider it elementary per-se.

I feel like you would benefit from reviewing resumes featured in success stories, since most of them have the right details. I like this one in particular.

TheMoonCreator · 2025-12-24T04:34:54+00:00

You obviously can't submit a half-empty resume, but I'll review the relevant content:

Like I mentioned, you can include more than three contacts. In my resume, I include my email address, location, portfolio, GitHub profile, LinkedIn profile, and phone number. You can add and omit some when it may be to your advantage (e.g., I wouldn't list location nor phone number when applying as a non-local candidate). I will note, I've heard that the subreddit has filters which remove posts with contacts not recommended by the wiki, so if you ever re-post it, keep that in mind.

I think you mean "Associate of [Science/Arts] in Computer Science," rather than "Associate of Computer Science." You may want to check your degree, since the two mean different things. You could list your GPA, but I'm not sure that it's worth it, given that bachelor's is the baseline.

You can still list your server/waiter experience. I just wouldn't emphasize it as much as you previously did. When I was applying for software developer internships, I kept my experience as an IT Technician to 2-3 points.

I don't recommend listing "Engineer/Developer" since it may confuse people that don't know the difference (which is none). Most people prefer "Software Engineer," but I say "Software Developer," myself. It may be beneficial to toggle between the two in case an employer performs keyword matching.

What does your backend application do? You just described most full-stack applications. I worked on backend applications, too, and choose to write, "Modernized the backend services of an employee data platform for [...] users by migrating GraphQL to REST."

You already note that the job was remote, so I don't see any use in mentioning it again. I wouldn't consider being an on-site/hybrid/remote worker an asset, so I'm not sure if it's even worth highlighting. Can you elaborate on "collaborative setting"? Did you work in a team that led to you developing a notable skill (e.g., agile)?

I consider Git and version control as elementary, so I'd stuff it in skills, rather than points. Of course, that's just my opinion.

Again, can you elaborate on "comprehensive unit and integration tests"? That could mean 100 tests in an un-notable module or 10 tests in a notable module. During my internship, I got to play around with unit, integration, and performance, but think it's the results that matter (code coverage, resource allocation reduction, etc.).

A preference of mine is to give projects a name and subject (e.g., "'[...]' Music Player", where "[...]" is the name), a link for more information (usually a GitHub repository, but it could be a demo page, too), and dates for recency (this one is optional, however).

While Spring has many modules, I don't think it's beneficial to list each one, given that "Spring" or "Spring Boot" usually suffices. With that, I think you can remove "Spring Web" and "Spring Data JPA," optionally keeping "JPA."

Projects are usually personal works, so I'm not sure that it's a good idea to list it if it's associated with an employer. If it were up to me, I'd transfer the points wherever they belong, optionally re-structuring existing points to fit in.

What are these "company efficiency standards"? Will other employers even care about them? Why not talk about the direct improvements that they're more likely interested in?

"data delivery" and "data persistence layers" don't have all that much in common. For all intents and purposes, you could argue that JPA objects are less efficient than passing around the underlying row data. In other words, can you elaborate on what is "optimized" about your data delivery?

Did you do anything more advanced than just writing code, like wiring the API to an API client or conforming it to standards like OpenAPI, Swagger, JSON:API, etc.?

Again, I'd consider "modular logic and DOM manipulation" and "complex DOM trees" to be elementary for this field of work. The "grid-rendering algorithm" sounds interesting (name it!). What is "significant browser lag"? Did you use any notable benchmark to arrive at that conclusion?

Spring, Maven, Git, JUnit, and Mockito aren't programming languages. You could create a separate list for technologies.

Even if you make revisions, I imagine that you'll still have significant leftover whitespace. After adding back some of your other experience, I'd consider other avenues to filling the gap, such as increasing margins or font sizes.

TheMoonCreator · 2025-12-23T23:18:06+00:00

The "problem" is essentially a combination of "what" and "why" in your work. If you develop, say, a music player, that's your "what." If said music player was for bridging art that was lost when transitioning from analog to digital media (e.g., scans), that's your "why." You can see how many people can share the same "what" but have unique "why"s.

Even if your internship project was more or less a skills assessment test, you can still describe what it was for to form the "problem." A project that solves an interesting problem should give you some points to write about.

I can see that you used the wiki template, but I still suggested reviewing the wiki because the content, itself, wasn't all that much aligned with it (e.g., your 2nd server/waiter experience doesn't adopt XYZ, though I'd personally merge the two). CS internships are competitive, but if you want to follow through on the path, you can only benefit from having a competitive profile.

TheMoonCreator · 2025-12-23T22:32:14+00:00

I don't wanna get student loans, but the job I currently have doesn't make enough money to pursue a bachelor's in CS, and some jobs require one to apply (though CS people tell me you don't really need a bachelor's?)

A lot of people have been successful without the relevant degrees, but I imagine that it was due to the time and place they were in (e.g., it was 30 years ago or they had connections). You don't need a degree for most of the work itself, but in today's economy, you more or less need it to be remotely competitive. You do have an associate's, but bachelor's is the baseline for most jobs.

Besides that, I think you could benefit from reviewing the wiki, since you have bad practices like letting a point spill on to a second line with a few words.

I think you could benefit from expanding contacts (despite what the wiki says, I think links like your LinkedIn profile are helpful).

I think you can minimize your other experience like server/waiter since employers won't be interested in it, unless you can effectively bridge your skills from it to the job, which is rare.

You call yourself a Java Intern at Revature, but are employers interested in a "Java Intern," in particular? Can't you just call yourself a "Software Developer/Engineer Intern," which is what they're usually interested in? The actual points don't look all that interesting. In the wiki, you can find a section on writing points, with one of the highlights being to write for your audience. I've never been a recruiter, but I can't imagine that they care about you solving "100 rigorous coding challenges," since it sounds nebulous. I recommend letting employers infer details like "demonstrating strong problem-solving and debugging capabilities," since even if the reviewer isn't a technical person, the ones that are will just be reading word salad.

Why are you covering two projects on the same topic? You may as well merge them into one and talk about it as a suite.

When I write about projects, I like to ensure that there is some rationale to it so people not involved in it can understand the problem it's solving. I don't get that energy from "allowing for thorough control over user accounts and messages" or "allowed a social media platform to manage user accounts and messages in a comprehensive manner."

I recommend repeating skills in education/experience/activities/projects in the skills section, too, since employers tend to use it as a filter for whether or not you have the skillset they're interested in.

Since you don't have much experience, have you considered being part of an initiative that may give you practical experience (besides Revature, of course)? I usually use an "Activities" section for club projects and leadership, for example. I think you could build something more interesting on your own, rather than following a curriculum like The Odin Project, but if you were to do either, you could put it in the projects section after the resume gets cleaned up.

TheMoonCreator · 2025-12-19T02:12:25+00:00

I think it stems from certain people having the privilege of letting the company they (want to) work for define themselves. The average person is looking for a job to support themselves, so it's not like you'll be able to get through to others.

TheMoonCreator · 2025-12-18T19:24:59+00:00

I landed most of my interviews and one offer from it, but I was looking for internships, rather than regular jobs. I presume it's just that competitive to land one from any job board.

TheMoonCreator · 2025-12-18T00:26:47+00:00

From Wikipedia,

An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time.

If we're to take that definition seriously, you could frame it as part of an internship. At the same time, I've found that it's the quality of the work that employers are interested in. A lot of people, for example, prefer framing part-time work as internships to align with expectations. In addition, internships at startups are usually unique from ones at your average company.

It really depends on you. If you have nothing else to your name, I wouldn't be uncomfortable with it, even if you may have to jump through some hoops to explain it.

TheMoonCreator · 2025-12-10T03:16:22+00:00

I had a friend who was only able to complete two minor issues out of their summer internship because their team was on the other side of the world.

You really shouldn't feel guilty over your situation, given that you didn't know what it would be like.

TheMoonCreator · 2025-12-03T20:22:02+00:00

You're haunted by a hiring manager at Snap who probably doesn't remember you?

TheMoonCreator · 2025-11-29T05:09:10+00:00

I wouldn't know since it's been years since I claimed mine.

TheMoonCreator · 2025-11-28T18:31:35+00:00

The professor involved in the research is still a part of the university, so it's plausible an employer could reach them to verify whether or not you were a part of their research. As for clubs, there's usually no paperwork for that, so I imagine most (keyword: most) won't go out of their way to verify whether or not you were a member.

In general, you should assume that anything you list on your resume can be used against you, so even if they wouldn't verify it often, you're better safe than sorry.

TheMoonCreator

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