Engineer shares how she landed jobs at Google, Microsoft with 2-page resume

Sonakshi Pandey's two-page resume helped her land jobs at FAANG companies and Microsoft. (LinkedIn)

Many people dream of landing jobs at FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google) companies but its not an easy path. However, Sonakshi Pandey landed a job at not one but two of them – Google and Amazon and even received an offer from Microsoft. How? According to report in Business Insider, it was her 2-page resume that showed what she was capable of in detail.

Pandey got a job as a software engineer at Amazon straight after her Master’s in computer science. “I was very shy, very introverted. I used to wear my headphones and code for eight hours straight,” she told Business Insider. One day, she stumbled upon a YouTube video where a tech expert was speaking about databases in depth. She admired his confidence. “I want to exactly do what this guy is doing: I want to go on a stage and I want to talk confidently in front of a bunch of people,” she said.

So, Pandey switched roles from software development to solution architecture at Amazon Web Services, a job that required more public speaking and client presentations. After five years at Amazon, Pandey applied for roles at Google and Microsoft in 2021.

Sharing her resume with the outlet, she talked about the two things that made her stand out the most – writing for company blogs and her volunteer work.

During her stint at Amazon Web Services, she wrote blogs for Amazon's cloud computing page. According to her, blogs on a bigger medium like the company website helps underline one’s expertise.

Meanwhile, her volunteer work exceeds the typical one-page requirement for resumes, but adding that section is a non-negotiable for her.

"I feel this is very important to have and is a piece of me that I want to share with everyone wherever I go. And that's why I was like: It doesn't matter if it's two pages, this needs to be here," she added.

Sonakshi Pandey is currently a data and product manager at Google's Seattle office, according to Business Insider.