How To Create A Radically Effective Web Developer Resume
FACT: Most resumes never actually make it to a human recruiter.
Those that do make it are quickly thrown into the bin after just a few seconds of assessment.
Google alone receives 50,000 resumes in a week. That’s almost 7,142 resumes per day.
When you’re up against those scary numbers, what can you do as a web developer to ensure that your resume actually gets seen? And more importantly, actually lands you the job that you want?
In this article, we’ll do a deep dive into how you can craft a radically effective web developer resume that works.
The Purpose of Your Resume
A resume is not about you. A resume is not about your life’s history or career objectives.
It’s all about the employer and their needs.
Your resume is about showing your experience to the employer so that they understand you’re the one that can solve their problems.
Many times you already have the skills and experience that they’re looking for, it’s just about how you phrase your experience.
As you begin writing your resume, the most important thing to understand is what exactly the company is really looking for.
Are they looking for a react native expert? That means they need their apps to work on mobile.
Are they looking for a CSS expert? That means they just need their websites to look good regardless of the browser.
Don’t focus on specific technologies. Instead, look behind it and think about what problem do they need solved?
Organize your entire resume around answering that question.
It’s amazing how changing you answer when you write your resume can dramatically give you better results.
Style & Layout For Your
There’s a big trend recently of resumes that have complicated layouts, sidebars, graphics, and images.
I’m 50% good at PHP! I’m 25% good at JavaScript! And I’m 100% good at making up numbers ;)
From my experience hiring freelancers, getting hired as a freelance web developer, and working remotely this is not what works.
The most important thing for an employer is, “Can you help me solve my business problem, fast?”
How is knowing that you’re 50% good at PHP going to help them answer that question? All it will do is help them think, “Well, if you’re only 50% good at PHP why should I hire you?”
You’re not presenting your skills in the best light when you present it like that.
So, what can you do instead? Before we dive into the answer, let’s talk about another main problem here…
The Robots That Scan Resumes All Day Long
Most resumes aren’t even looked at by people first. They are looked at by a menacing robot called Applicant Software Tracking System®.
This robot will just be scanning your resume for text.
It’s not going to look at all those fancy elements that you’ve put in your resume.
In fact, it can make it harder for it to find the information on your resume.
So, what you should do?
Choose one font. Make it professional and easy to reads. A font such as Arial or Times New Roman should work just fine.
You can keep black text on a white background. Don’t add any fancy logos, images, or graphics.
Just text works best.
The Sections of Your Resume
Let’s talk about the different sections of your resume and what to include in them.
Name and Contact Details
The first section of your resume is your name and contact details. They should be right at the top and easy to find.
Here are my top tips:
Make your name Big and Bold so that it stands out, and it’s clear who you are.
Include your email address and make sure it’s a professional one. Don’t use the warlordcrusher888 email address that you created when you were 13.
You don’t need to add your mailing address in there either. No one is sending you post.
Include the city that you’re based in and also the timezones that you’re available to work in.
This is imperative if you’re applying to a remote position. Employers want to know if you’ll be available during their business hours many of the times.
Professional Profile
This is one of the most important sections of your resume. This is where you are going to summarize your experience. This is going to be one of the first things the recruiter reads, and it’s really important that you grab their attention right there and then. Remember, that it’s about helping the company / recruiter know immediately how you can help them solve their business problem, fast.
Do not write a career objective
Do not tell them why you want the job or what kind of job you are looking for. Instead, tell them why they should hire you. This should be your sales pitch, focus on that. Many of the times, employers aren’t really concerned about what your career objectives. Keep that for yourself, your friends, and your family.
Use the following 3 techniques to help you structure it:
- What you are going to do for their company — The Futur
- What you have achieved in the past that can prove that you can do it — The Past
- Why you’re ready to take on this position now — The Present
Get this part right and you stand a great chance of being selected for an interview.
Your Work Experience
My best recommendation is to just include a link to your LinkedIn profile. That way employers can just go there to see your work history presented in the best way.
But, if you don’t have a fleshed out LinkedIn profile here are some tips you can follow to still do a great job…
First, write it in reverse chronological order. That means your most recent experience is going to be first.
The second tip is to write it in the past tense. Focus on things you have accomplished in your role, not in your responsibilities. Sentences that are talking about results have much more impact than sentences that just talk about what you are responsible for.
What to do if you don’t have a lot of experience yet
But what if you are an entry-level web developer with no significant professional experience to mention?
Well, believe it or not, but having years of experience does not make sure that you are fit for the job for which you are applying.
If you can successfully show the that you have the right attitude for the job then it can be enough.
Are you a junior developer and want to learn more about how to present yourself? Read my article on that here…
How To Curate Your Professional Experience
Include the good projects that you have done in your freelance career.
Mention your GitHub profile and code that you have posted there. Include links to specific pieces of code that you can talk about as well.
Mention all of the open-source projects that you have been a part of.
Write any programming competitions that you have won or write about local developer meetings that you have participated in. Include links to any YouTube videos that you have created.
Education
As a general rule, you want to consider what information is going to get you the job.
Remember, your resume is a sales tool; it’s all about creating your personal brand and selling and marketing to the employer.
So, with your education, if that’s the most important thing, maybe, you have just finished University, then that can actually go higher up your resume above your work experience.
But if you’ve been working for a long time, it might not be relevant anymore.
How much information to include in your education? For this, just evaluate what is really relevant. So, for fresh graduates, you might include a lot of details, but those who are working for longer, you can keep this section quite brief. Space on your resume is valuable, so don’t use it up with stuff that is not going to be interesting or relevant for the job that you’re applying for.
Also, it’s worth only including the last two stages of your education. Anything more historical is just that its history and it’s really not relevant for your job.
Hobbies, Interests and Volunteer Experience
Now, what about hobbies, interests, and volunteer experience? Do you need to add that to your resume?
Is it going to enhance your application or make you look like you don’t like to work?
If you have some interesting hobbies that are related to the web developing job, then it is quite relevant. But if you just enjoy watching Netflix and going out with friends, don’t bother adding it; it’s not really going to enhance your application.
The same is true for volunteer experience. Especially for fresh graduates, this can be a great way to demonstrate some skills and initiative on your part. But if you have been working for a long time, it might not be that relevant anymore.
As a general rule, if it enhances your chances, include it, if it is going to distract, leave it. It is not mandatory to have hobbies, interests, and volunteer experience on your resume.
Avoid Spelling and Grammar Mistakes
Use apps like HemingwayApp and Grammarly to make sure your resume is free of errors and grammatical errors.
After you’re done crafting the resume, get it proofread by someone qualified if you can.
If you want to write a resume that will land you to a job interview, refrain from using words like I and me and also make sure that you don’t use present tense verbs on past tense positions.
Conclusion
We covered everything you need to write a radically effective web developer resume.
Having a good and well-written resume increases your chance of being called for an interview.
The guidelines for writing a good resume are simple and require no rocket science.
If you want to get your dream job, the very first step of the ladder is writing your resume that is well-written.
That starts by answering the question, “How can I help the employer solve their business problem, fast?”
We hope this article was helpful to you, and we wish you good luck for your job seeking endeavors.
