Writing a Great CV for Your First Technical Role — Part 1
Contact Details, Intro, Technical Skills, and More
In the past few years, I’ve helped multiple entry-level job seekers improve their CVs as they have been looking for their first roles in the industry. This series of articles is based on tips I’ve shared with people throughout the years, hoping they will be useful for you as well.
With the right guidance, your skills and experience can stand out. All you need to know is what to emphasize, and how.
So, let’s break it down
File Name and Document Title
Some people tend to neglect this part, and forget this is the first impression your reader gets.
Make sure to have your file name is clear and relevant, and looks professional.
A bad example of a file name would be “resume v2.pdf”, and a good example of a file name would be “Ellen Goldstein — CV”.
It is also encouraged to include at the beginning of your document a title such as your name + CV / resume, and the role you are looking for. For example “ Ellen Goldstein — Backend Developer” or “Ellen Goldstein — Resume”.
I prefer to include the role’s name, as it makes it clear which role you are pursuing, but this might be less suitable for you if you are looking for an entry-level position, and open to various opportunities.
Contact Details and Personal Details
What to Include? Phone, Mail, and Important Links
Your phone number, email address, and links to your professional profile should be included in your CV. Also, make sure there are no typos 🙂
Additional notes to keep in mind:
- Attach links to your professional profiles such as LinkedIn and GitHub.
The links should be clickable, which can be done by marking them as hyperlinks. - Your profiles should look professional. When you attach links to LinkedIn and GitHub, you expect the interviewers to visit those pages and assess you by them. Here are some references explaining how to do that:
Linkedin Profile Tips — The Muse
7 Tips to Improve Your GitHub — PitchMe
These are two references I liked, but I invite you to investigate this topic further yourselves. - Are you searching for your next position abroad / internationally? Add your country code to the phone number
What to Omit
There are two types of details we want to exclude from the CV:
- Irrelevant details — no added value to the application
- Sources of biases — might decrease the chance the interviewer will get back to you
Irrelevant Details — Example
- Having a driver’s license. As we are discussing applications to technical high-tech roles — this is an irrelevant detail
Sources of Biases — Examples
- Marital status and number of kids
- Birthdate / age
- Address — partial or full address is not relevant. If you are looking for positions in a specific region — you can mention it in the intro paragraph, of which we will discuss in the next section.
- Gender
- Profile picture. I will discuss this topic further in part 3 of this series
Biases are there, and even interviewers who are highly sensitive to biases and try to avoid them when making decisions — attest they sometimes fail to do so. Write your CV in the most bias-neutral way, to enable your interviewer to assess you mostly by your skills and experience.
Intro Paragraph / Objective
The purpose of this section is to promote the added value you bring to the role you are applying for and to clearly define what you are looking for.
The added value you bring would most often be your technical skills, experience, and maybe something that differentiates you from others.
Make sure to keep this paragraph concise and easy to read — up to 3–4 lines should be ideal.
Let’s look at a few good examples and bad examples for such intros, and then analyze them.
Good Examples
- Junior Software Developer, and third year B.Sc. Computer Science student at New York University, GPA 86. Experienced with Java and C++, familiar with Python and SQL. Looking for a student position in Manhattan, NY, or around.
- Industrial Engineering student, looking for a full-time entry-level position as an Analyst, QA, NOC, or another technical field in East London. Experienced with analyzing data with SQL and have high attention to detail.
- A Biologist shifting to the high-tech industry, looking for an entry-level position in Silicon Valley. Previously a laboratory researcher, experienced with analyzing data using R language. I am a meticulous and organized person, and love working with data.
Good Examples — Analysis
All candidates emphasized their technical skills that are relevant for the position they are applying for. Note that none of the candidates above has previous work experience, so when they write “experienced with” or “familiar with” — they refer to the experience they gained with academic and side projects, hackathons, and so on.
Also, all candidates explicitly mentioned what they are looking for — which type of role they are interested in, which regions of the country are relevant for them, and if they were looking for a student position — they mentioned it as well.
Most roles are full-time, so if you are looking for a part-time job — make sure to mention it explicitly.
Also, if you are a student but available for a full-time position — make sure to clearly state it as well.
Bad Examples
- I am a highly motivated person, always love learning new things, and expanding my horizons. Looking for my first opportunity in the industry
- Looking for a software developer position
- I am a B.Sc. Computer Science student, highly motivated, hard worker, with great interpersonal skills.
My technological stack includes Python, Pandas library, Java, C++, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, SQL, and MongoDB. I am also familiar with Git, Jira, and Sumo Logic. Additionally, I devote my time to volunteering at an animal-care shelter, and participate in the university’s debate club. I am looking for my first opportunity in the high-tech industry, preferably in a position of 2–3 days a week. - Not writing an intro paragraph at all
Bad Examples — Analysis
Example #1 analysis — the candidate focused on their motivation to learn and grow, but that’s it. The issue is that anyone can attest they are “great” — everyone is a fast-learning, motivated, eager to succeed person. But is that true? How can the recruiter tell if the candidate has what it takes to succeed in the position?
“Actions speak louder than words”. Are you indeed a motivated person? Engage in an open-source project to improve your technical skills and add them to your CV.
Are you a fast learner or a hard worker? Look for an excellence award you received somewhere you volunteered or worked at that you can mention in your CV, or any other achievement to serve as a signal for your recruiter.
Example #2 analysis — this candidate didn’t mention skills and experience that are relevant for their application.
Example #3 analysis — the text here is too long, and includes some irrelevant details, or ones that should be mentioned elsewhere. The extracurricular activities can be removed, the technical skills part could do without the “familiar with” sentence, the search after an “opportunity” could be replaced with a “position” or a “role”, and the personal attributes at the beginning may also be removed.
On the other hand, there is no mention of the roles the candidate is looking for, or the geographical area. If all entry-level roles are good — it’s cool. But better to mention that.
Example #4 analysis — not writing an intro at all is a missed opportunity.
The Secret Sauce of Great a CV — Plan & Work In Advance
As you probably noticed, all candidates in the good examples bring something to the table. They are either students, have previously participated in hackathons, and / or worked on side projects. This should be a given when you are applying to your first role with no prior work experience.
The competition is fierce, and while there are many open positions in multiple companies — there are also many candidates applying for those roles.
Working on a great CV starts long before you begin writing them. Work on side projects, participate in hackathons, work on meaningful academic programming projects, and more, to make your CV stand out.
Technical Skills Section
Some of you have probably gained some experience in a variety of technologies before deciding to apply for your first position. Since we aim to keep the intro paragraph readable and concise, we won’t necessarily mention 100% of those technical skills there. So, adding a short section that puts your relevant skills upfront could be useful.
Good Examples
- Python | Flask | Pandas | SQL | MongoDB | git | HTML | CSS
- Experienced with: HTML, CSS, JavaScript
Familiar with: Java, C#, Matlab, SQL
Order of items — I suggest ordering the skills from most experienced to least experienced, and also giving some weight to skills that are more relevant to the roles you are applying for.
That’s It for Today. In the next parts of this series, we will dive into the rest of your resume. We will see how to present the academic and side projects you have been working on, what to write in the education section, whether or not to mention hobbies, how to make the general appearance of your CV seem welcoming to the reader and so much more. Hop on to article #2 in the series to read further.
I hope you found this article useful, and that you will make use of the next ones as well.
