- Sahil Dua taught himself the basics of software engineering in college.
- Dua shares the resume that helped her land her first job, a software development position in Amsterdam.
- He also highlights the importance of gaining visibility, both in person and online.
Sahil Dua’s journey in the field of software and IT began with a robotics competition.
During his first year of college in Delhi, where he studied electronic engineering, he started building robots with friends. He soon realized that he was more passionate about software than hardware, which led him to learn outside of the classroom.
“Everything I learned in computer science is actually what I learned in my spare time, in addition to my studies in electronics,” he told Business Insider.
Over the next three years of college, Dua taught herself coding and learned about different operating systems and networks. He applied these lessons during several technology internships and by co-founding a startup.
While Indian students often seek internships at their university, Dua has also been proactively applying for jobs on his own, including opportunities abroad.
It’s the resume he used to land a position in a software development graduate program at Booking.com in Amsterdam right after graduation. He later used an updated version of that resume – with the same template – for a software engineering position at Google, where he worked for more than four years.
Dua is currently a Senior Machine Learning Engineer at Google’s Zurich office.
BI verified his employment history.
The CV template Dua used to apply to Booking.com in 2016. Sahil Dua
Looking back on the document, Dua said two items on his resume helped him in his job search. It would also change two things if he was now a junior developer.
Focus on projects: Dedicating a section to projects and listing them helped give interviewers starting points for discussion before he had much work experience, he said. “These projects would stand out to me because they demonstrated that I had practical experience, even when I was looking for a job straight out of college.” Dua said he applies the same principle to his LinkedIn profile, where he lists 26 projects.
Use unique formats: Dua wanted a model to serve two purposes. First, he found that a single-column resume wouldn’t give him enough space to list everything. “The second reason was I wanted my resume to stand out,” but also not be “extreme to the point of looking weird to look at,” he said of his two-column template. He found this model on GitHub.
Although he would make some changes, such as removing links to his personal Twitter account and reducing the emphasis on education, there are now two other ways to improve his profile.
Building a Personal Brand: Dua said he would revamp the “accomplishments” section of his CV to include projects such as giving talks at technical conferences. Speaking at events such as the Python-focused PyCon conference gave him exposure within the industry, even in the early years of his career, and gave him the opportunity to write a book.
Appointment available online: Dua adds links to her online profiles on her CV and takes steps to increase her online visibility. “Every time I take an online course, I make sure to post it on LinkedIn as a certificate,” he said of learning new skills like machine learning. This ensures that “my profile gets clicks or shows up when people search for these fields.” On LinkedIn, he uses his current employment section to say more about his role and accomplishments than his one-page resume allows.
Career experts recommend Dua’s approach to improving LinkedIn profiles to make them more search friendly.
Recruiters actively search for candidates using keywords, said Nick Shah, the 26-year-old founder of Peterson Technology Partners. technical staffing agency based in Park Ridge, Illinois.
“Job seekers should search for keywords relevant to their industry and incorporate them into their profile to increase their chances of appearing in search results and attracting the attention of recruiters,” Shah previously told BI.
Shah said job seekers should clearly define their roles in the Professional Experience section of LinkedIn and provide examples and accomplishments, much like what Dua does on her profile.
Do you work in technology, finance, or consulting and have a story to share about your personal resume journey? Email this reporter at shubhangigoel@insider.com.
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