Latest / The Tech Career Podcast with Fexingo: Engineering Jobs, Interviews, and FAANG Career Strategy / What FAANG Recruiters Look for in a Resume
Transcript
- Lucas: Let's talk about the moment before the interview — the piece of paper that decides whether you even get one. I'm talking about the resume, and specifically, what FAANG recruiters actually look for when they scan yours. Luna: And by 'scan', you mean like three to six seconds, right? Lucas: Exactly. Former Google recruiter Nolan Church once said the average screen time is about six seconds. So you have six seconds to communicate that you're worth a phone call. Most people waste that window on things nobody reads. Luna: Like the objective statement. I feel like that's the classic space-waster. Lucas: Absolutely. 'Seeking a challenging position where I can leverage my skills.' That tells a recruiter nothing. In fact, a hiring manager at Meta told me they skip the top third of the page entirely if they see a generic objective. They scroll straight to experience. Luna: So what should be in that top third instead? Because that's prime real estate. Lucas: A tight summary of your technical identity — two to three lines max. Think of it as a headline, not a mission statement. Something like: 'Backend engineer with 8 years building distributed systems at scale. Specialized in Kafka and real-time data pipelines. Led teams that processed 10 million events per day.' That communicates role, stack, and impact in one breath. Luna: And it's keyword-dense for the automated parsers. Because let's be honest, a human might not even see your resume if the ATS doesn't flag it. Lucas: Right. The applicant tracking system is the first filter. At Amazon, I've heard that up to 75 percent of resumes are rejected by the ATS before a recruiter ever lays eyes on them. So you have to optimize for both the machine and the human. Luna: How do you optimize for the machine without sounding like a keyword-stuffed robot? Lucas: You use the exact terms from the job description, but you embed them naturally in your bullet points. So if the posting says 'AWS Lambda' and 'serverless architecture', you don't just list those as tags — you write a bullet like 'Migrated 12 microservices to AWS Lambda, reducing serverless infrastructure costs by 30 percent.' That phrase passes the ATS check and proves you actually did it. Luna: Let's talk about bullet points themselves. There's a classic format — action verb, what you did, the result. But I've seen a lot of debate about whether you should lead with the result or the action. Lucas: Great question. I've coached a lot of engineers, and the data I've seen from ex-Google recruiters suggests you should lead with the result if it's a big number. So instead of 'Optimized database queries to improve page load time by 50 percent', you write 'Reduced page load time by 50 percent by optimizing database queries.' The number catches the eye first. Luna: That makes sense. The human brain is drawn to numbers, especially if they're large or have a percent sign. Lucas: Exactly. But here's the nuance: the number has to be meaningful. Saying 'improved performance by 50 percent' is okay, but saying 'reduced latency from 200ms to 100ms, saving $2.4 million annually in compute costs' is better because it ties the metric to a business outcome. That's what senior-level resumes do. Luna: So for a senior role at FAANG, they want to see impact on the business, not just technical contributions. Lucas: Hundred percent. At the senior level, your resume should demonstrate that you understand the trade-offs between cost, speed, and reliability. A bullet like 'Designed a caching layer that reduced database load by 60 percent' is fine, but 'Designed a caching layer that cut database costs by $300K per quarter while maintaining 99.99 percent uptime' is better because it shows you think about money and operations. Luna: What about the education section? I know some people stress about not having a CS degree or having a low GPA. Lucas: FAANG has softened on that. Google, for instance, officially removed the GPA requirement years ago. But here's the reality: if you have less than two years of experience, your GPA might still matter because there's less to judge you on. For experienced hires, nobody cares about your GPA. They care about what you shipped. Luna: So if you have a low GPA but five years of solid experience, just leave the GPA off entirely? Lucas: Yes. And if your degree is unrelated, like a history degree, still list it, but lead with your experience section first. The exception is if you're applying to a role that specifically requires a CS degree, like some research positions at DeepMind. But for most engineering roles, experience trumps education. Luna: One thing I've heard is that FAANG recruiters look for 'faang like' experience at other big tech companies. Is that a bias? Lucas: It's real, but it's not insurmountable. A recruiter from Meta told me they weight experience at companies with high engineering standards — Microsoft, Uber, Stripe, even some well-known startups. But if you're coming from a non-tech company like a bank or a retailer, you need to explicitly show that you worked on large-scale systems. Use metrics that convey scale: millions of users, billions of requests, petabytes of data. Luna: So you need to translate your experience into the language of scale. If you worked at a bank, you might have dealt with millions of transactions — that's relevant. Lucas: Exactly. Frame it that way. Don't say 'Worked on payment processing system.' Say 'Designed a payment processing system handling 5 million transactions daily with 99.999 percent accuracy.' That sounds faang relevant. Luna: Let's talk about the one-page rule. Does it still apply for senior engineers with fifteen years of experience? Lucas: Stick to one page unless you have a very specific reason not to. I've seen exceptions — like a principal engineer with a long list of patents or publications. But for most people, one page forces you to prioritize. If you have fifteen years, you don't need to list every job. List the last ten years and summarize earlier roles. Luna: What about using a template? There are a lot of resume builders out there. Lucas: Use a simple, clean template. No columns, no graphics, no icons. The ATS can't parse columns reliably. I recommend the 'standard' format: name and contact at top, summary, experience, education, skills. Use a standard font like Arial or Calibri at 10 to 12 points. And save it as a PDF unless the application specifically asks for a Word doc. Luna: Okay, I want to pause here because I think this is a good moment to mention something. You know, we keep this podcast ad-free and that's something we're really proud of. But it only works because listeners like you choose to support us directly. Lucas: Yeah, and if today's conversation gave you something usable — maybe a rewrite idea for your own resume or a new way to think about bullet points — and you want to help keep this show going, you can do that at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: Every contribution, no matter the size, helps us stay independent and focused on content that actually helps engineers, not on selling ads. So thank you to anyone who's already supported us. Lucas: Alright, back to the resume. Let's talk about a specific case — a real before and after rewrite I did for a friend who was targeting a senior SDE role at Amazon. Luna: I'd love to hear that. What was the original like? Lucas: It was typical: an objective statement, then a list of responsibilities at each job. For example, at his current company he wrote: 'Responsible for maintaining the user authentication service and fixing bugs.' That tells me nothing about his impact or the scale. Luna: So what did you change it to? Lucas: We rewrote it as: 'Owned the user authentication service serving 2 million daily active users. Reduced login failures by 40 percent by implementing a Redis-based session cache, cutting support tickets by 500 per month.' Now it has a number, a technology, and a business outcome. Luna: That's a huge improvement. And that's exactly the kind of bullet that would catch a recruiter's eye at Amazon. Lucas: He ended up getting the interview and eventually the offer. But the resume rewrite was step one. Without that, his application probably would have been filtered out. Luna: One more thing: what about the skills section? Should you list every programming language you've ever touched? Lucas: No. List only the languages and tools you're proficient in and that are relevant to the job. If the role is for a backend Java position, don't list HTML and CSS unless you want to look like a junior developer. And order them by relevance, not alphabetically. Luna: And should you include a 'soft skills' section? Lucas: Generally no. Soft skills are better demonstrated through your bullet points. For example, 'Led a cross-functional team of 5 engineers to deliver project on time' shows leadership better than listing 'Leadership' as a skill. Luna: That's a good rule of thumb. Show, don't tell. Lucas: Exactly. Another tip: make sure your resume is consistent in tense and formatting. Use past tense for past jobs, present tense for your current role. And use the same bullet style — don't mix dashes and asterisks. Luna: What about the file name? I've seen people send 'resume.pdf' which is not great. Lucas: Name it 'FirstName_LastName_Resume.pdf'. And if you're applying through a referral, include the referrer's name in the file name if the recruiter asked for it. Little things like that show attention to detail. Luna: Alright, before we wrap, any final piece of advice for someone who's about to submit their resume to a FAANG company? Lucas: Yes. Have someone else review it — preferably someone who works in tech or has hiring experience. And then read it aloud to catch awkward phrasing. Then test it by asking yourself: in six seconds, does this resume tell a clear story of who I am and what I've achieved? If not, keep editing. Luna: Great advice. And maybe run it through a tool that simulates an ATS scan. There are free ones out there. Lucas: Good idea. Use them. But don't obsess over a perfect score. The goal is to get a human to read it. Once a recruiter calls you, your resume has done its job. Luna: And then the real work begins — the interview prep. But that's a topic for another episode. Lucas: Exactly. Until next time, keep building and keep applying.