Effective resumes for technical positions require the 'qualification format' rather than just listing keywords, meaning candidates must explain how they used specific skills, the business reasons behind their decisions, and the outcomes achieved. Recruiters have only 20 seconds to evaluate a resume, so information must be presented efficiently and prominently. Technical skills alone are insufficient; candidates must demonstrate practical application, business impact, and the ability to communicate technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
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Why AI Engineers CAN'T Get Jobs | Recruiter Reviews ResumeAdded:
Recruiter here to review your resumes.
The resume we have up first is an AI engineer and this resume is uh we don't know if it's good or bad. We're actually going to find out. So, what we need for an AI engineer is AI LLM NLP Python Tensorflow Pytorch Cloud Numpy R Matlab SDLC CICD DevOps and then one of Rag ML Langchain Skibidi Learn Pandas Agentic and uh a little bit more into each of those, right? Like I need I basically need you to pick a topic or two and then dig into those topics, but you still need the rest of this stuff. And this is critically important, which I failed to see in almost every single AI engineer resume is explaining complex topics to non-technical people. Part of your job as an AI engineer is going to be talking to people that cannot turn on their monitor and you need to explain how an agentic system can do whatever it is they want or I guess it wouldn't be agentic system, it'd be multi-agent systems. So, uh also I do more than tech, but right now the tech market is garbage, so like 90% of the resumes sent to me are tech, but I do do non-tech resumes as well. So, recruiters only have 20 seconds to find what we need. If we cannot find it in those 20 seconds, uh then your resume gets yeeted deleted.
So, 20 seconds is on the clock. Can I find this stuff? Let's find out and go.
This doesn't matter. This doesn't matter.
Uh where's your education? Okay, you did get an education. All right. Uh automated architect and deploy to production style multi-agent AI system.
That is not quite what I'm looking for.
Uh reducing blah blah blah blah blah doesn't matter. Uh design agent orchestration layers. That is something I would like by what? I don't care. All right. And time.
Yeah, this resume would get yeeted and deleted. This person said they're a member. What does that mean? That That's got to be a typo. And they're applying for fresher and entry-level positions currently in their final semester. Yeah, this This doesn't work. None of this resume works. So, first off, this is a nightmare to read.
The fonts on this is just I cannot see.
This is how you want your resume to look. This is the format you should use right here. The link is in the description below. The only people that don't want this are job hoppers and high-level directors, but everybody else needs this format. Is it ugly? Yeah, but it doesn't matter that it's ugly. It matters that it's efficient, and this is efficient. This is garbage. So, the problem is I did not find well, almost anything I needed. I am looking for 75% of this, and I found maybe one or two.
And the rest of this is hamburgers. So, let me explain what I mean by that, because most engineers fill their resume with hot dogs. Sorry.
Messed up my own metaphor. Most engineers fill their resumes with hot dogs, which is what this does, and I'm not looking for hot dogs. I'm looking for hamburgers. So, I want you to imagine that you are hungry, and you go to a restaurant, and you're like, "I'd like a cheeseburger with pickles and onions." And the restaurant person says, "Cheeseburger, pickles, onions?" You say, "Yep, cheeseburger, pickles, and onions." So, they go back, and they bring you a hot dog with cheese, pickles, and onions, and they say, "Here is your hamburger." And you'll be like, "Excuse me, this is a hot dog." And they say, "No, this is what you wanted. A cheeseburger has meat just like a hot dog. A cheeseburger has buns, ketchup, onions, and pickles just like a hot dog.
So, when you said you wanted a cheeseburger, what you actually meant was this hot dog." And you would look at them like they were crazy, and you would walk away without paying, because that is not what you wanted. And that is the exact problem that I have here. Reducing manual intervention by 60% improving operational efficiency. Hot dog.
Uh production-style multi-agent AI system.
Eh, I'd like a little bit more about Agentech and its tools. Design agent orchestration layer enabling blah blah blah. Hot dog. Develop vision-based inventory detection pipeline using Gemini. Hot dog. Enabled real-time decision for coordinated agent workflows. Hot dog. This is all that matters. And if it's not this, it does not matter on your resume.
Now, you're about to say, "Hold on, Lee.
What are you talking about? This person had it. They're right here. Look at this. This is everything you wanted.
This has LLM pipelines. This has multi-agent systems. Rag. This is everything you're looking for." And to that, I say, "No." Because we are not looking for keywords. We are looking for qualifications. And the difference between that is this is a keyword, which is what the hiring team needs. The problem is I cannot move you forward unless it's in a qualification format.
And a qualification is a keyword plus how you used it, plus the business reasons you used it, plus where you used it.
And skill sections do not tell me where you use it. They do not tell me how you use it. And they do not tell me the business reasons you use it. So, this does not matter and has nothing to do at all with your resume and does not count.
Same thing with this. Summaries don't count. There's only three times you would ever want a summary. You're relocating because you have to explain where you're relocating to. You're explaining a non-H-1B OPT visa. Or alternatively, you are switching industries. And by switching industries, I don't mean starting a new one. I mean going from a machine learning engineer to a basket weaver. You would have to let them know why you're doing that drastic change. So, this does not count.
So, all of this stuff does not count.
Also, again, your education should be up top. Uh and so, this doesn't count. And then we go down here and again, this doesn't tell me anything. All I see is AI. All I see is a single agentic. You know what I don't see? I don't see Python. I don't see TensorFlow. I don't see PyTorch. I don't see LangChain or LangGraph, which LangGraph you would want for multi-agent systems, and I don't see any of that. There are others, but LangGraph is one of the more common ones. I don't see cloud. I don't see NumPy. I don't see R. I don't see MATLAB. I don't see SDLC. I don't see CICD. I don't see DevOps. And I don't see more digging into agentic that are the actual tools you used. You know what I also don't see? I don't see explaining stuff to non-technical people. So, this might as well not exist. Then we go down to here.
Uh built ATS scoring engine.
It's not how ATSs work. Please stop doing that. I don't know why everybody's trying to do that. They have no idea how recruitment works on the internal stuff.
I swear, every single person that can't get a job tries to like give job advice of like how ATSs work, and I'm like, that's not how that works. So, this personally upsets me. And if I was looking at this as a recruiter, none of this is relevant to what I'm looking for. There's nothing here that I need, so it doesn't even count. Developed an AI okay, good driven recruitment system using LLM-powered multi-agent workflows.
Cool, what does it do? I don't know, you didn't tell me. I need to know the business reasons you did it.
Integrated Google APIs not again, hot dogs, not what I'm looking for.
Uh this designed threshold-based logic to automate This person can't get a single interview, and they're designing systems to make other people not get interviews. That's insane to me.
Uh reduce manual recruiter effort. No, that's also kind of illegal. You cannot score those resumes. It's not how ATSs work, otherwise your will get sued for discrimination.
Again, nothing here. There's like nothing in this entire resume. You have sent me almost an entirely blank resume.
There's no way they're going to scroll farther down. I need you to delete all of this and start again. I need you to make it look like this. I need you to tell me Python. How did you use Python to create that? How did you use SDLC?
How did you use DevOps? How did you explain technical information and non-technical people? You don't I don't know. And if I don't know that, then I can't move you forward because these are the only things that matter. And remember, they have to be in qualification format, not keyword format.
So, that's all I can do for this resume.
Before we go to the next one, I just want to say thank you to my members for supporting my channel. If anybody wants to be a member, they can join in the link below. You get access to videos a little bit early, but I just want to say thank you very much. I appreciate your support a lot. And to everybody else, if you ever need help, you can always join my live stream. That's where I get these. That's where I review the resumes every Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 11:00 a.m. PST on twitch.tv/headlessheadhunter and right here on YouTube. But thank you all for watching, and let's go to the next resume. This is a resume of a staff accountant. This person stated they have done 1,800 job applications. They've gotten 20 to 25 screenings, which led to a total of five interviews and no offers.
Which is not right. They have a CPA. The CPA market, last I checked, which again I needed double check, was hot. So, something is critically wrong in this resume if even with a CPA, they're getting See, 1,800, what is that? 1,800 divided by 25 is 72.
That's a 1 in 72. They should probably get better than a 1 in 72. Um All right. So, what we need for an accountant, staff accountant, is degree, CPA, which if you have that, that is a golden ticket. Microsoft Office, Excel, Outlook, manage multiple active projects and deadlines, GAAP, so that's generalized accounting generalized accepted accounting principles, attention to detail, good communication verbal and written, and nice to have is general ledger such as Oracle Fusion.
So, they actually probably have more than 20 seconds, but I'm just going to give this one 20 seconds anyway.
Uh so, 20 seconds on the clock and go.
Uh this has nothing to do with accounting.
Built a cat sitting business while earning CPA. Uh okay.
Uh supervised one to three teams on GAAP including revenue recognition, fair value accruals, cash flows, hot dogs, except for audits. Audits can be useful.
Conducted financial risk and audits for multi-billion entities. It doesn't really matter by partnering with management, hot dogs. Actually, this is not even a hot dog. That would be the equivalent of sushi, which sushi is amazing, but not in this case. So, why is it that I have to go all the way down here and the only thing I found is GAAP?
Which is correct and you you did write it correctly, but that's it. Why is that the case?
Because this is part of your problem.
So, here's where we need to change this stuff up. Your resume format is atrocious. I I need you to delete this and start again. I need you to use this format. This format will make it work.
Then for certs and education, certified public accountant, active to April. Just put this here, right? And then this needs to go up top. Remember, it should be here. And then under that is university and accounting. And then for the career break, you you you don't even need to do this. Like you don't even need to say anything cuz like you earned your CPA license in When did you earn it?
While you were earning it. You can just put like recently graduated with this or graduated in that.
Cuz as long as they know that you just got it, that's fine. And I I mean this is fine, but like why is this here? Why did you stop being an accountant to build a cat sitting business?
Now, there may be some like medical reasons that and health reasons, which you stated. And what you can actually say for this is just you know, career break You should just say health issues, right? Health issues and then under it say health issues are now solved and I'm able to go back to work. And you can say earned CPA while dealing with health issues as it was unable to do full-time work. Currently, I'm able to go back to work. Like you don't But this AI one is garbage. Like I don't know why you even would bother putting this cuz this is completely irrelevant. But you can just say like, you know, due to a medical issue, I uh was unable to work, but pursued my CPA. The issue was now solved and I'm able to work full-time again.
There we go. All solved right here on in a single sentence. And then we go down to here. But like look at this stuff.
Evaluated Sarbanes-Oxley. I don't care about Sarbanes-Oxley. Do I Do I actually care about Sarbanes-Oxley?
No, I don't. I don't care about Sarbanes-Oxley. I don't care about IPOs.
Uh I don't care about SEC filings. I don't see any of this. Why is it that I have to go all the way down here to find the second thing that I actually need, which is Excel?
And then you didn't even tell me why you used it. Like, your bullet points are garbage. This is one of the reasons you're struggling. Like, and even then you're not struggling a terrible amount.
Like, a 72 to one ratio is it's like a like a like a D, right?
Like, it fails, but it's close to passing, but barely fails. So, like, I need you to go back to the drawing board and make bullet points that are actually useful cuz you filled this to the brim with stuff that are is hot dogs. None of this is relevant. You know what I don't see is Excel cuz no one no one's going to no one's going to find Excel all the way down here. That's way too far down. You know what I don't see? Microsoft Office.
You know what I don't see? You manage multiple active projects and deadlines.
You know what I don't see? That you were able to communicate to staff and senior leadership. You know what I don't see?
General ledger systems. I am going to put audit cuz audit can be something you want to use. But, that's the stuff I'm looking for. You again, there's a big problem with people where they put stuff that sounds impressive, but people don't get hired based on being impressive. They get hired based on boring run-of-the-mill tools that you use every single day, like JavaScript, HTML, TypeScript.
CSS. Okay? So, I need you to delete this and I need you to start again and I need you to have bullet points that actually matter. Fix the formatting as well because you're you're not going to get maybe a one in seven, but the market, especially in where you're where you're located, is this is wrong and this is why is cuz this shows that in fact, you even title as an audit senior. I don't even think they know you're an accountant. So, I need you to fix this and make it very clear as to what you're actually doing. These things are the only thing that matters and fix your formatting. Next resume. This is a full stack software developer, which is the most common one. I think like 70% of the resumes sent to me are full stack.
So, for full stack, we need I don't remember if we did it this video, is degree, TypeScript, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, restful API, REST API, SQL, any cloud, AWS, GCP, Azure, backend, Python or C#.NET or Java, React, React.js, Angular, Node.js, Vue.js, DevOps, CICD, Agile or Git and Git. So, I need 20 the the 75% of those.
All right, this person says, "Hey headless headhunter." Everybody misses the head. They always say headless hunter. It's interesting. Not a big deal. I found you on YouTube and remade your resume according to your recommendation. This does not look like my formatting. I applied to 100 app last week and no responses. Yeah, this does not look like my formatting.
Um I am a self-taught developer and I'm looking for international remote roles.
Those do not exist.
Wait. Are you Okay.
I mean, they do, but they don't.
I don't have a CS background, that's why I didn't add it. So, there's two different types of remote roles. There are roles that companies are outsourcing to your area. You are able to get those. Then, there are roles that are remote from the United States.
You will not be able to get those. It doesn't matter how good your resume is.
There is a question they ask you every single time, which is, "Are you legally authorized to work in the United States?" And if you answer no to that, nothing else matters. And in this case, because you are located outside the United States, and I am going to make the assumption that you are not. Maybe maybe you're one of the few people that are able to, but it does not matter if it is a remote anywhere in the US, you will not be able to get that. Now, saying that, there are roles where they outsource to your country. So, the roles that they are outsourcing works, but at least in the US, it does not matter it it really won't matter if you're not like if you're not legally authorized to work in the United States and you are not located in the US, you are not going to be able to get a remote role in the US.
Because the taxes change depending on your state.
So, I just wanted to let you know that cuz those are different things. Uh so, 20 seconds on the clock and let's see what we have. Again, I'm going to judge this as if that they were in the US cuz that's just the way I can.
And go. Okay.
Uh lead front-end delivery. Okay.
And manage two juniors on timelines and code reviews. Why is this important?
Also, what do you mean lead? How did you use this? I don't know. Built real-time messaging using I don't care about this.
Uh That one's actually I like that one.
That one's good. Uh in introduced DevOps CCD to make testing. And time.
Again, this is not my This is my formatting. If someone says they followed my formatting and then it it looks like this, I'm going to assume you you didn't follow my formatting. So, yeah, I I do understand that you're not going to have the education. That's fine. You you stated that. But the rest of it should look the same and this doesn't look like this.
Those don't look the same. Uh lead front-end delivery using Don't don't put parentheses. Don't put slash. Just say lead our front-end using TypeScript, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to I don't know what else you did. You didn't tell me. This is very vague and I need more information. Also, you've only been there for like 3 months. You may want to even remove this because this is just not long enough. This looks like you're a job hopper. Uh senior architect February This one at least is sort of okay. Built an AI-powered chatbot.
Uh the rest of this I don't care about. Hot dog, mostly hot dog. There's like one hamburger here. I did say GCP hamburger.
And yeah, this is not written for a non-technical audience. So.
So wait, you were based in Bangladesh, but you're also did an on-site role in Florida. I'm so confused. This is not my formatting.
It's not the worst, right? Like I don't want to say this is a garbage resume, delete it. I mean, you may have to just cuz uh the formatting needs to be completely redone, but like the bullet points are not the worst. I just need you to go into a little bit more detail about how you did it and the reason and result for the business.
Um and and focus a little bit more on the hamburgers than the hot dogs.
Uh but some of this stuff is very confusing to me. So I mean, like I guess you were So you're on-site in Florida, and then you were remote, and then you were remote, and then you're still based there. So I'm very confused.
Uh but again, unless you're located in the United States, you're not going to get a remote role from the United States. It just doesn't happen. Now again, they can outsource it, but they're going to pay you in the currency of your area. You're not going to make those big US bucks, unfortunately. So that's all I can do.
It's not the worst. I just want a little bit more detail and a little less hot dogs. Next resume. This is a software engineering intern. And what we need for a software engineering intern is not a lot. We need a degree, right? We need to know that you are currently enrolled in college or some kind of education, preferably college.
Uh we need to know that you have a basic knowledge of the tech stack. So this is like language, library, SQL, cloud, just a little bit of AI, and restful APIs, and SQL.
But yeah, literally that basic. We need a very, very, very basic understanding of the tech stack. Not crazy, not I solved world hunger, just a basic understanding. We also need, specifically for interns, not entry-level, just only interns, the ability to work well with others and that you can take direction and criticism. Because there are plenty of interns that get to their first job and someone says, "Hey, you need to do X."
and they flip the table and walk away.
So, this person has a one in 100 ratio, so this is bad but not delete it and eat it bad. That means there's salvageable stuff. So, let's see what we can find in 20 seconds. They said, "I'm trying to find an internship, currently a senior in college, want to be a back-end developer." So, and go. This has no impact on what we're looking for. This doesn't matter. Education, uh computer to okay, this is good.
I don't this is fine. Experience built a lightweight data pipeline in Excel. That is not what I care about. Manage guest communications. Don't care about that.
Good. Oh, actually wait, wait, wait.
Manage guest communications I actually like that one. Hold on. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, that one's good. Managed guest communications by resolving inquiries, complaints and escalated service issues through phone, email and digital channels while ensuring a line with Universal Orlando's resort service standards.
That I like.
That I like.
That one I like.
So, that one I don't like. The one below that I do.
Uh then the you already mentioned that above, so I don't really care about that.
Again, I don't really care too much about this cuz you already mentioned it.
So, where's your tech stack? I don't see the Python, the Java, the JavaScript, the Node, the AWS, the SQL.
Uh Final Fantasy character creation system. Oh, I like Final Fantasy 14. I play Final Fantasy 14. I'm very excited for the new expansion to come out. Um but again, there's nothing there I care about but sequel. Engineer here's Java, finally a language. Uh engineer to Java character management with a dual swing and again, I don't care. I don't care.
Like you you got to focus this. So, you do show that you can work well together with others. The problem is I need to know more about this.
And I just don't I don't I don't see it.
I don't see it at all.
Um this is good for uh Android. This stuff actually is good for Android. I don't know if people can see it, but they have like Swift and MVVM. Um that's Android stuff. So, yeah, I need you to focus this and I need you to put what's in the skills section in the bullet points cuz right now this is why you're getting rejected about a hundred out of one times is you don't actually show me the basic knowledge of the tech stack or how you use it or the reason or result you did it for and you don't show me that you can You know what? You can actually You do show that you can do work well with others and take direction and criticism.
I want to say, despite the the garbage of the rest of this, um this is probably one of the best bullet points I've seen for working together with others and directions and criticism. So, whatever you do, keep this. This should be your only bullet point for this role.
Right? Like you should What you need to do, only have this bullet point.
Only have this bullet point.
Right? Nothing else on this job. Just have it. And then you're going to have it first and then you're going to have your project section.
So, this way they know that you can actually work well others and take direction and criticism.
So, that's all I can do for this one.
Next resume. This is a data engineer intern. Uh so, what we need for data engineer intern is degree. Need to make sure you're still enrolled. A basic knowledge of Python, SQL, ETL, and cloud. The ability to work well with others, takes direction criticism, and then these are nice-to-haves, but if you do not have them, it is not a deal breaker. And remember the extra credit nice-to-haves needs to go after all the other skills. Data pipelines, data visualization such as Tableau and Looker, Power BI, Git, and Databricks.
So, uh this person has an unknown ratio.
They say, "This is a new resume. The previous one didn't work well. I applied to 50, but no interviews." You're going to need to apply to close to like 50 a week. Well, you're probably in an area where it's not that. So, yeah, you're you're going to need to apply to a lot of jobs, and this is not enough jobs to apply to.
You're going to need to do to more than 50. Like, typically a good sample size is one in 50 per week for like two to three weeks. So, uh but let's see what does and does not work on this resume.
So, where did it go? There it is. And go. Okay, can't use anything here.
Education, okay, good. Why do you okay, too. Uh designed and orchestrated ETL, good, using Python, good, too. Don't care. Uh transformed and loaded PostgreSQL, good, but why did you do that? I don't know. Containerized, I don't care about that. Limited data, don't care about that. Used Git, again, nice-to-have, and you don't tell me the reason result. Build a Python-based baking, okay, that one's good, and time.
So, remember, nothing in the summary counts.
You only want to use it if you're trying to explain a visa or relocation or switching industries. Nothing in here mattered. Then, education. Okay, you need your resume to look like this. Just please please make your resume look like this.
I I feel like I don't know why it doesn't. It This is easy to read. This is a nightmare.
Well, it's not a nightmare. It's not great though. And then where is your other stuff here? Remember, skill sections don't count. And that includes putting it off over here in the corner.
That does not count as anything. That is wasted space. You might as well have not written anything there. Also, stop with these little lines and nothing should be bolded. Oh my gosh, I hate this formatting.
Uh so, the problem is why do I why did you do this? I don't know, you didn't tell me. But you said I did it to process. I don't care about the technical reasons. I care about the non-technical reasons. You getting a job is not predicated based on how good you are at tech. It is a lot of other stuff.
So, what was the non-technical reasons that you did that for? I don't know.
Um why did you use staging and core schemas? I don't know, you didn't tell me.
Why do you containerize a docker with CICD to automate to ensure reliable blah blah blah blah blah blah doesn't matter.
None of that matters. Used get for version control Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?
Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? You need to tell me the business reasons, not the technical reasons. This is filled with the technical reasons.
Uh and then built a Python-based banking system using OOP to simulate account.
See, this is better. I still want to know a little bit more about it, but this this tells me more cuz you tell me the like the business reasons. It was to simulate accounts, transactions, and reporting. Although I'd want at least one other keyword Well, two keywords cuz OOP is not it and something else. So, remember, this is the only thing that matters. And you know what I don't see?
I don't see your ability to work well with others. I don't see your ability to take direction and criticism. Like yeah, you have some of the tech stuff that you didn't write correctly, but I I don't see that you can take direction and criticism and I don't see that you can work well with other people. And if you do not have that for an intern, it's going to be a rejection. The best internship resumes show that you can work well with others. They show direction criticism because it's not all about tech. In fact, most of hiring is not tech. And when you get there as an intern, some interns are so focused on tech that they'll freak out if they get to a non-tech part. And I understand there's some kind of myth of like if you're just this crazy good coder, everyone will bow down to you and it's like no.
The best people there that fix all the systems, they still got the social skills. You need to put some of that.
And for an internship, I need to see you can do that cuz this is the first time you're going to work with another company. And if you don't show that, why would they hire you? Why would they hire a problem? And you need to prove that you're not by showing that you can work well with others and take direction and criticism. So, fix your formatting, fix your bullet points, delete the whole thing, start again. And I just want to thank you all for watching, liking, commenting, and subscribing cuz that's all I can do for this resume. And if you ever need more help, you can join my live stream every Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 11:00 a.m.
PST on twitch.tv/headlessheadhunter and right here on YouTube. And to all of my members who get access to videos a little bit early, I just want to say again, thank y'all for supporting me. It really means a lot. Thank you so much.
And that is all I can do for this video.
I will be back in the next one and I will help you all get ahead of your job search. Later.
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