LaTeX resume: \\ before itemize leaves a blank gap

In a LaTeX resume, ending an entry header line with \\[-1pt] (or \\) right before \begin{itemize} makes an extra empty line between the header and its first bullet, even with enumitem topsep=0 and parsep=0. End the header with \par instead and the bullets sit directly under it. Separately, the user cared most about bold on the 1-3 job-relevant terms per bullet and monospace for code identifiers. Uniform plain-text bullets read as 'awful' even when the content was fine.