The tech resume that gets past FAANG recruiters
How to structure a software, data, or infra resume for high-signal tech screens — with the impact-bullet template that gets past initial review.
Big-tech recruiters see thousands of tech resumes a week. The ones that survive the first sort all share a shape: a dense skills strip up top, three to five roles with impact-first bullets, and links that let the recruiter verify you shipped what you claim.
The skills strip (top of page one)
One dense block, sorted by category: languages, frameworks, infra, data. Don't rate yourself — 'Python (expert)' looks amateur. Just list what you've shipped with.
- Languages: Python, TypeScript, Go, SQL
- Frameworks: React, Next.js, FastAPI, Django
- Infra: AWS (ECS, Lambda, RDS), Terraform, Docker, Kubernetes
- Data: Postgres, Redis, Kafka, Snowflake, dbt
The tech-bullet template
Every bullet has three parts: what you built, what tech, what impact.
- 'Built real-time fraud scoring service (Python, Kafka, Redis) processing 12k requests/sec; cut fraud loss $4.2M/yr at 42ms p99.'
- 'Migrated 180-table monolith to sharded Postgres + service mesh; p95 API latency dropped from 900ms to 140ms.'
- 'Rewrote client-side rendering to RSC; LCP improved 2.1s → 0.8s, mobile conversion up 11%.'
Links recruiters actually click
Add these to your header in this order:
- GitHub (pinned repos matter more than total stars).
- Personal site or portfolio (screenshots + one-line write-ups per project).
- LinkedIn (matches your resume exactly — mismatch is a red flag).
- One artifact per major claim (blog post, RFC, conference talk, patent).
System design signal for senior roles
For Senior+ roles, include one bullet per role about architecture or systems work: 'Owned event bus design serving 3 product teams; specced back-pressure, replay, and schema evolution.'
FAQ
Do I need to list every technology I've touched?
No — only things you'd be comfortable being interviewed on. Recruiters will ask.
Are personal projects worth listing?
Yes, if they show a skill your work doesn't (e.g. ML side project when your day job is backend). Cut them once you have 5+ years of relevant work experience.
Should I include GPA?
New grad with a strong GPA (3.5+), yes. Everyone else, no.
Put this into practice.
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