Things that make your application stand out
Over the past weeks, I scrolled through more than 200 applications for a single job opening on my team. This number is actually pretty low as compared to the other teams. As you can imagine, narrowing down this list is pretty damn tedious, so hiring managers tend to use some (very flawed) heuristics to do it.
Here are some of these heuristics, roughly following a hiring manager's journey from first glance to deep dive. If they sound arbitrary or unfair, that's because they really are. But perhaps understanding them can help you tweak your application to increase your chances of getting a reply.
Your application has been highlighted
When there are hundreds of applicants, hiring managers will gladly accept any kind of external help to focus their attention. Getting a referral from a colleague or a close friend is a major advantage. So is leaving a good impression during a networking event, or through a dev community (Telegram, Discord, Slack, etc.).
Your resume is parsed correctly by the ATS
All the major ATSs out there parse your doc/pdf resume automatically in order to create a sexy dashboard. We use Ashby at Bifrost, here's what it looks like:
Example from Ashby's website
As you can see, the last place of work or study is highlighted prominently. This dashboard looks pretty neat, but in reality about half of the applications are parsed incorrectly, so there are blank spaces everywhere.
This is not Ashby's fault; many resumes don't even try to be ATS-friendly. There are many tools out there to assess the ATS-friendliness of your resume, so if you don't use them and your resume is flawed in some way, your application will be overlooked.
Your previous company or education institution is recognisable
I pay more attention to applicants who worked at a company I recognise, like Stripe or NVIDIA. Or students/graduates from universities like Cambridge or MIT. I try not be to be "elitist", but this is the easiest thing to use as a quality signal as I scroll through the dashboard.
There's nothing much you can do about this, unfortunately.
Your resume goes straight to the point
Making the hiring manager's job easy leaves a really good impression on them.
Exclude meaningless things like how you "demonstrated excellent communication skills and ability to work well in a team environment", or how you are "detail-oriented with strong organisational abilities".
Don't quantify achievements just because LinkedIn influencers tell you to. Silly metrics like "increased dev productivity by 110%" or "cut build times by 10 minutes" are tiny red flags.
Relevant xkcd (2756)
Use simple words. Highlight the important parts. There's no minimum word limit that you need to hit on a resume.
Your website is neat and oozes personality
Everyone's got a website now. And with tools like Webflow and Framer, it's pretty easy to make one that looks good.
So the real way to stand out is in the content. You don't need to write cool blogs like pg or xeiaso; just be yourself. Having an authentic voice makes it easy for the hiring manager to imagine how you would fit in with the team.
Try not to rely too much on LLMs when creating content. ChatGPT's distinctive voice is quickly becoming a red flag for hiring managers.
Your public GitHub profile is great
It's okay to have nothing to show. If there's no GitHub profile in your resume, I won't search the internet for it. Pinky promise.
But if there is, I take that as an invitation to judge the quality of your public code. If your code is generally solid, it's an instant shortlist. If there are lots of things that I don't agree with, I move on to the next applicant.
Obviously this is all very subjective, so my general advice is to avoiding posting a GitHub link unless you have cool projects to show off.
The guy she told you not to worry about...
Bottom line
The job application process is inherently subjective, and hiring managers often rely on quick judgments due to the sheer volume of applicants. This sucks, but that's the reality of the employer's market.