The Art of Resume Writing with Hafiz Khoja and Ruby Tamber

Hafiz Khoja attended the original Women in Leadership class as an MBA student at CSUEB. As Program Director Asha Rao recounted, he had no idea what he was getting into on day one — but once he found out, he stayed. Now in Talent Acquisition at Facebook, he came back to share some words of wisdom with the class, along with his coworker and fellow alum Ruby Tamber.

Together, they shared the scoop on how sourcers and recruiters look at resumes in different industries and the all-important LinkedIn profile. The information they shared wouldn’t fit in this article, so here’s a snapshot of just some of their tips for hopeful applicants.

Does my resume need to fit within one page?

It does not! According to Ms. Tamber, it’s okay even at entry level to go up to two or three pages. “If it’s more than five pages, that’s when it’s questionable.”

How many years of experience should I include?

“In reality, it’s as much as you want to be on there.” Mr. Khoja advised including at least ten years if you’ve been working that long. Focus your resume on experience that’s most relevant to the job you’re applying for; remove anything irrelevant.

Should I bother applying if I don’t fit every criterion?

“We’ll be transparent with you: the more qualified you are for the role, the better,” Mr. Khoja said. However, “If you meet at least 80–90% of what the job is looking for, then they’ll see if the other 10–20% is something that they can work with.”

Does it look bad to have spent less than 18 months at a position?

“Honestly, there are contract jobs out there that are six months,” Ms. Tamber noted. If you have a good reason for leaving the position, put it in parentheses. “As long as there’s an explanation, I think that should be okay.”

Mr. Khoja noted that it depends on the industry. Engineering, for example, is full of contract work, so job-hopping is expected.

The same is true for gaps in your work history. This can give the wrong impression if left ambiguous, but a short explanation should be all you need, whether it was due to the pandemic, caring for a family member, a medical concern, or something else.

Should I list all the positions I held at a given company, or just the most recent?

Whatever is most relevant to your next opportunity, Mr. Khoja answered. For instance, you might include multiple positions to show that you were promoted, or only include your highest-level position to emphasize your skill in that area.

The presenters were adamant that a strong presence on LinkedIn is a must.

“Your LinkedIn is your first impression of you, and what we see from there is going to kind of determine whether we should reach out to you and ask for your resume,” Mr. Khoja said. “I was not a fan of it either until I graduated. I like to laugh, I like to do funny things — I was like, ‘there’s no way I can maintain my image on there correctly.’ But I found out the power of it, and now I’m here, preaching the opposite.”

Should I submit my resume as a Word document or a PDF?

WIL Professor Rupal Hollenbeck chimed in, noting that Word documents pose a danger of being accidentally edited by the recipients; PDFs are unchangeable. On the other hand, Mr. Khoja noted, some staffing agencies reformat resumes to fit their system, so they’ll ask for it in Word. It depends on what the submission criteria ask for.

The presenters broke down the essential parts of a resume as follows:

Must-Have Categories:

• Skills, Education, Certificates/Licenses, Work History, Tools/Technologies, Accomplishments

Must-Have Info:

• Data, Metrics, Additional tasks/roles not in your job description

Optional:

• Leadership Projects, Personal Summary/Objective, Internships

A recommendation: Include the months, not just the years, in your work history. “2017 could mean January 2017 or December 2017; that’s almost a whole year’s worth of a difference.”

Tools and Technologies could be under Skills, Mr. Khoja noted. Accomplishments can include patents or awards.

Data and Metrics could include having managed a 20 million dollar budget, or saving a couple million dollars on a given project. “I’m not sure if you guys are aware or not,” he said, “but most of the companies now are data-oriented. Numbers tell a huge story.”

As someone who graduated college later in life, should I include my graduation date on my resume?

“It’s totally up to you,” Mr. Khoja said. “If you want to not have it used against you, don’t list it.” Just don’t lie about the year, since it will show up in the background check.

It’s also fine to include an anticipated graduation date. “Personally,” Mr. Khoja said, “when I was in school, I left it on there, because I thought I could leverage that. I would say ‘I’m working, I’m going to school at the same time, and I’m trying to expand my skill sets.’”

As the presenters explained, sourcers and recruiters have many, many resumes to go through for a given position — each one could be rejected in seconds. That’s pretty daunting. But they also made clear there’s no secret ingredient that determines who succeeds. The task of the applicant is to make sure resumes are neat, make them readable, and show why they’re great for the job… and then roll the dice.

For more information on the program, please visit Women in Leadership Program, CBE.