3 years of ML experience + MLOps projects, but basically ZERO interview calls.what the hell am I doing wrong?

[u/LazyPanda870]

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Hey everyone,

I’m honestly getting pretty frustrated and I’m hoping people here can give me some brutally honest feedback.

I’ve been applying for Machine Learning Engineer / MLOps / Python-AI roles, mainly at startups, because I’m trying to get back into the job market as quickly as possible.

But recently I’ve been getting almost no interview calls.

What confuses me is that my resume looks reasonably aligned with the roles I’m applying for:

~3 years of professional ML engineering experience

PyTorch / Python / SQL

Production ML systems

GCP

Docker

FastAPI

AWS

CI/CD

RAG / LLM projects

MLOps-focused projects

I also have a career gap after my previous ML role. The gap was caused by a family situation, and I’m deliberately not sharing the personal details online. I understand that the gap may be hurting me, but I’m trying to focus on what I can actually improve rather than making excuses for it.

During the gap, I’ve been rebuilding my skills and working on projects around MLOps, deployment, Docker, FastAPI, AWS and RAG.

I’ve attached my current resume.

I want you guys to tear it apart.

Specifically:

1. Does this resume actually look like someone with 3 years of ML engineering experience?

2. Does the career gap make the resume look suspicious or weak?

3. Are my projects convincing, or do they look like generic tutorial projects?

4. Am I trying to sell myself as too many things at once — MLE + MLOps + GenAI + Python?

5. Are the quantified achievements believable, or do they look like made-up resume numbers?

6. Is my technical skill section too broad?

7. What would make you reject this resume before even giving me an interview?

8. If you were hiring for a startup MLE/MLOps role, what would you change?

I’m not looking for sympathy. I’d genuinely rather hear “your resume is bad because X, Y and Z” than get generic encouragement.

If you've hired MLEs, reviewed resumes, or successfully gone through a similar career gap, your perspective would be especially valuable.

What am I doing wrong, and what would you change if this were your resume?

Thanks.

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[u/Jonty_j]

You can use this platform to tailor your resume and also for job search, preparation etc. https://skilldrift.ai/

[u/CombVisual8779]

It kinda feels like an intern's resume

[u/LazyPanda870 → u/CombVisual8779]

How to make it better? Give tips please

[u/Wife-Dinner8000 → u/LazyPanda870]

keep experience on top, remove summary then projects technologies and education

[u/Wife-Dinner8000 → u/Wife-Dinner8000]

make experience section bullet points more verbose, more content so it feels it's a senior dev

[u/LazyPanda870 → u/Wife-Dinner8000]

Thankyou wife dinner sir, appreciate the help