u/wasmiester

Been out of work since April 2024 and it's been rough. Applied to probably a thousand+ jobs at this point and get almost no callbacks. I had the gap listed as "Freelance Contractor" but since I couldn't land any actual contracts I didn't know how else to explain the empty year.

A family friend who climbed the ladder pretty fast and now hires his own engineers took a look and gave me a bunch of feedback, which I mostly implemented, but some of it has me second-guessing myself. Curious what this sub thinks:

1. Metrics: He told me to cut most of my numbers/percentages. Everyone else always says quantify everything, but his point was that if you can't explain exactly how you got that number when someone asks, it makes the whole resume look inflated. Anyone actually had this backfire in interviews?
2. Summary section — Another friend says ditch it completely, but every recruiter I've talked to says keep it because it gives you an opportunity to frame yourself quickly without the reader coming to there own conclusion. So which is it lol
3. Years of experience — This one's got me stuck. I had a part-time job at my university during undergrad that turned full-time over the summer, plus a year at a mid-size data company after I graduated. I was counting the school job as a full year of experience and adding it to the other year for "2 years total," but got told that's shaky since I was a full-time student at the same time, so it might not really count as real professional experience.

brutal honesty welcome, I'd rather get roasted here than keep getting ghosted by recruiters. Thank you again for your time

The video is of taking the lid off a steaming pot