The Perfect Resume For Entry Level Infosec

The speaker, who stepped in for a scheduled presenter, draws on years of running an internship program at IBM X-Force that received hundreds of resumes for roughly ten slots. He frames the resume as a teaser whose only job is to earn an interview, not to present a complete work history.

He covers common mistakes. Candidates often list every class they took when they should describe projects instead, and they pad documents past one page. Other habits he criticises include listing references, adding photos, using decorative layouts that hide information, stuffing keywords to satisfy automated filters, and uploading cover letters into sections that do not exist. He recommends listing any job, even unrelated work, along with competitions, bug bounty participation, volunteering, conference attendance, military service, and public code. He also notes that reviewers rarely have time to inspect GitHub projects, and that keeping a plain text and Word version helps because formatting often breaks in applicant systems.

He closes by pointing out that advice shifts for candidates with several years of experience, who may need tailored resumes and cover letters. The unifying principle he leaves the audience with is to show concrete things you have actually done rather than a list of topics you were taught.