I Love Failure
I was able to land a six-figure role at Google as a global product lead and Meta as a business planning and operations lead. I also made it to the final rounds at highly competitive tech companies like Amazon, Uber, and Spotify — not because of an Ivy League education or a stellar background, but because I perfected the craft of creating an impactful résumé to sell myself.
While there may come a day when your LinkedIn profile, personal website, or X account is all you need to land a job, your résumé is still the standard document required for the majority of jobs today.
A résumé is often the first point of contact between a job candidate and a company — they'll usually review it (for an average of six to seven seconds) before speaking with you, so it's crucial to have everything in order and avoid common mistakes that most people don't realize they're making.
Here's the résumé template I used.
Courtesy of Andrew Yeung
Remember to nail the essentials: Make your résumé a one-page, black-and-white PDF with a clear name (e.g., "Andrew Yeung's Resume"). Use well-formatted bullet points, proofread for typos, and include your contact info, LinkedIn profile, and personal website (if you have one), and make sure the layout is clean and visually appealing.
Nothing else matters if you don't have the fundamentals in place.
During my job search, I created three distinct résumés tailored to the roles I was pursuing: strategy and analytics, product management, and sales. Each résumé included specific verbs, phrases, and concepts that were relevant to the role I was applying for, often pulled directly from job postings.
Most job seekers send out the same résumé everywhere, but recruiters and managers can easily spot the "spray and pray" approach. Even worse, applicant tracking systems may even flag your profile and auto-reject you if your résumé isn't relevant enough.
Don't just do what everyone else does on their résumé: list their responsibilities. Instead, emphasize the impact of your work by using the following format:
"Achieved [insert impact] by [quantitative metric] by doing [insert activity]."
Example:
The hiring manager and recruiter will often have much less context than you do on your previous experiences. They will know far less about your specific projects and initiatives, meaning you will have to simplify concepts, explain technical jargon, and elaborate on acronyms.
When in doubt, start by generalizing a concept to make it widely applicable, then narrow it down as necessary.
Example:
The easiest way to spot a rookie résumé from an experienced one is by evaluating how many numbers are included.
Rookies leave numbers out. Pros try to quantify the impact of everything because they recognize the value of a P&L and know that is how business decisions are made.
Quantifying your impact not only proves you made a difference but also demonstrates good judgment and critical thinking. For every line item in your résumé, ask yourself: "How does this impact the bottom line of the company?"
If you're great at working with clients, prove it by including line items on your client management and customer service skills, and your coachability.
If you're a data wizard, include line items about your analytical abilities, excel prowess, and technical coding competence.
If you're a rigorous operator, include line items about your project management, leadership, and communication skills.
Recruiters and hiring managers will form an impression of you based on your résumé. It's your job to shape that impression.
Though your résumé is an important piece to the puzzle, you can't solely rely on it for a successful job application. You need to build your network, often before you need it (see: career cushioning). Learn to pitch yourself effectively, master the interview process, and find sponsors within the target company.
Take the time to polish your résumé, and you will see a significantly higher response rate from hiring managers and recruiters at your target companies.
Good news: Once you've perfected your résumé, you likely don't have to do it again for a while.
Andrew Yeung is a former Meta and Google employee who now throws tech parties through Andrew's Mixers, runs a tech events company at Fibe, and invests at Next Wave NYC.
