Three years of web development, sent as a cover letter for four months
- On their ownAbout 90 applications in 4 months
- First interviewAbout 10 days after the rewrite
- With Magmira350 applications sent, 30 interviews
- OfferSoftware Engineer, $125K
Gudala was finishing a master's in computer science, with a thesis on a hybrid semantic knowledge system. Before that he spent three years building web applications at a large payroll and HR tech company, working in PHP, React, MySQL, and MongoDB.
Over four months he sent about 90 applications and got two callbacks, both for unpaid internships. He was close to graduating with no full-time offer.
What we saw on the resume
What he had been uploading as his resume was a two-page cover letter. His experience was written in paragraphs, so a recruiter had to read the whole thing to find one number.
What we changed
- Turned a two-page cover letter into a one-page resume.
- Rewrote his experience as bullets with numbers: 15% more engagement, 20% faster performance.
- Featured his thesis as AI/ML project work.
His first interview came about 10 days later.
“I didn't realize I was sending a cover letter as my resume for four months. Once it was actually formatted like a resume, I got callbacks.”
Where it ended
Software Engineer, $125K
30 interviews from 350 applications, with a mid-size SaaS company and a fintech.
Name shortened and employers generalized for privacy.
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