Getting Interviews
The best interview prep in the world does not matter if you cannot get the interview. A few high-leverage habits that make a real difference.
Use an LLM to audit and rewrite your resume
Run your resume through an LLM and ask it to act as a recruiter reviewing candidates. Have it identify the top 5 red flags a recruiter would notice within the first 10 seconds. Then ask for 10 keywords that should be on the resume but are not. Finally, ask it to generate a revised version with all of that addressed.
One thing that made this dramatically more effective: feed your Project Doc as context alongside your resume. That is the document from the Projects section where you wrote out your work using the STAR format. The LLM will take your raw technical details and shape them into the kind of storytelling that actually lands on a resume. The raw material is all there, it just needs to be framed differently.
"Act as a senior technical recruiter. Here is my resume and a description of my most significant project. First, list the top 5 red flags you would notice in the first 10 seconds. Then list 10 keywords missing from my resume that a recruiter or ATS would expect to see for a senior backend role. Then rewrite the resume incorporating all of this."
Stop forcing it onto one page
The "everything fits on one page" rule is outdated and does not apply to senior and staff engineers. If you have a real work history, two pages is not only acceptable, it is expected. Trying to compress a decade of meaningful work into one page usually means cutting the very details that demonstrate seniority.
The one rule that matters: list everything in reverse chronological order so your most recent and most impressive work appears on page one. Two pages is the ceiling unless you genuinely cannot help it. Three pages starts to work against you.
Network
Reach out to former coworkers on LinkedIn, especially anyone who is currently at a company you want to apply to. Even if they have since moved on, they might still know someone there or be willing to make an introduction. People are generally happy to give referrals. At a lot of companies they receive a monetary bonus when a referred candidate gets hired, so you are often doing them a favor too. Do not overthink it. The worst they can say is no.
A warm referral will get your resume in front of a human faster than the application portal almost every time. It is worth the 30 seconds it takes to send a message.
Tailor your application per role
Before applying anywhere, paste the full job description into your LLM and ask whether there are keywords or requirements you should reflect in your resume that you are currently missing. ATS systems filter on exact language, and a small adjustment to how you describe something you already did can make the difference between getting screened in or out.
If the role asks for a cover letter, use the LLM to write it with your resume, your project doc, and the job description all in context. If you have time to hand-craft it, by all means do. But once you hit a basic bar of quality, volume will get you more interviews than perfecting any single application. Get good enough, then get moving.