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Danny Ramos for New Relic

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Launchies - Resumes and Cover Letters! 🚀

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@chloecondon | https://www.linkedin.com/in/chloecondon/ | https://linktr.ee/ChloeCondon

Chloe Condon is a Senior Developer Relations Engineer, previously working at Microsoft, Sentry.io, and Codefresh.

Before entering tech, she got a degree in Drama from San Francisco State University and worked in the Bay Area as a musical theatre actress, while working 9-5 in various admin roles. She's worked in tech in roles ranging from video game customer support, virtual assistant, office manager, executive assistant, and recruiting. A Hackbright graduate and mentor to many non-traditional background folks in tech, she's passionate about bringing more artists into tech and more tech into the arts.

Performers, unite!

Are you a theater nerd, or a nerd in general? Oh wow, that's amazing because this is the episode for you! This is the beginning of a journey for you, for us, for the pod. The interview is a performance, which Chloe knows all about, and this episode aims to help you in that first initial process - who you are on paper 😅.

Being able to speak with Chloe was a lot of fun and gave me the opportunity to look over my own resume and cover letter. I love how authentic she is and took every little work experience she had as something to be proud of like her time at the Disney store. I know for me, as someone who also has an untraditional background, I did what I could to show that my previous experience only enhance my abilities as a developer.

Screenshot from Danny's resume. Description of work at Costco Business Center

I could have easily said “E-commerce supervisor” and “Part of original opening team” but you always want to add metrics and specific duties. Lauren does a great job of this in her resume from her time at Amazon.

Screenshot from Lauren's resume. Description of work at Amazon

The initial process will be a lot of work but creating a “standard resume” that can be updated or changed on the fly will be your best bet. Like Chloe shared in the interview from her friend Nemo, “have a standard resume and get them out. It's a numbers game.”

Below are my and Lauren’s resumes and you can see how different they are. However, we both used Canva 😏. Make it your own by adding your own bit of personality to it. This could be with your projects, i.e Podsmack (a combination of Podcast and Godsmack lmaooo what was wrong with me?), or with Lauren’s colorful theme.

Image of Lauren and Danny's resumes

“Be the resume you want to see in the world” - Chloe Condon 🎀

We love a performer!

Don’t be afraid to show your true and authentic self. Much like Lauren casually dropping a NASA book before her Blue Origin interview. Bold? Yes. The best idea? Maybe not so much but she truly wanted to express how interested she was in space and the company.

The thing is though in this community, and much like many other spaces, you’re constantly learning. Much like Lauren and I learned that my hook for my cover letter was actually pretty good 😎. As silly as it is, my goal was to stand out in the middle of the hundreds and hundreds of resumes a recruiter goes through.

Two years ago, after finishing an 8-hour shift in a large warehouse, I walked into an old, dingy, dive bar to try stand-up comedy for the first time. I repeatedly failed, standing alone on a stage in front of an 11 pm weeknight bar crowd. I wouldn’t say it was the most fun I had, but I knew the only way to get better was to continue working on it. Fast forward to now, I am a Comedy Works New Faces semi-finalist finding myself putting the same determination and grit to use when learning how to code. I had a great conversation with one of your software engineers,_____, and she spoke very highly of the team at ____ in particular the engineering team. For this reason, I would be delighted to be considered for _____ opening.

“You literally need your resume to stand out!” - Chloe Condon via The Goofy Movie

Call To Action 🤡

Write us on Twitter New Relic, Lauren, and Danny!

  • What is something that you included in your past resume that you wish you could take off? Or keep!

  • Write a hook for your cover letter that grabs the attention of the recruiter and or hiring manager.

Join the New Relic Community Slack!

👉 Follow Launchies, Lauren, and Danny on Twitter!

🚨 FutureStack 2022 call for papers is now open! 🚨

Here is a picture of Torty 🐢💕

Torty the tortoise

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