Been a systems/Windows engineer for 3 years, want to move into kernel/driver development but can't get past resume screening. How do I break in?
so I've been working at a company doing Windows systems stuff for about 3 years now. Built a low-level disk inspection tool in C++ using Win32 APIs that reads raw sectors directly (bypasses the filesystem entirely), worked on multithreaded installer components, diagnosed replication and cluster issues at the TCP level. stuff I'm genuinely proud of.
but whenever I apply to roles that say "kernel developer" or "device driver engineer", I either get ghosted or get a "you don't have relevant experience" rejection. and I get it, kind of. my work is adjacent but I haven't written an actual kernel-mode driver.
my background is all C++, Win32, some concurrency work, low-level storage stuff. the foundation feels right but my resume doesn't have the magic words.
I'm thinking of building a personal project like a storage filter driver or a minifilter using WDK/KMDF and putting that on my resume. but honestly I don't know if that actually moves the needle for these roles or if hiring managers just ignore personal projects entirely when the JD asks for X years of driver experience.
has anyone here successfully made this transition? did a personal project actually help get you interviews or is it just resume filler unless you have the work experience to back it up? and if a project does help, what kind specifically, is a minifilter enough or do I need to go deeper? Also another thing that is going in my mind is, whatever project that I do, should I add it as a personal project or a work project since I am going to develop the whole thing as well so there won't be knowledge gaps when it comes to the project.