CV writing for software engineers is one of the most challenging things I must say. Mostly programmers are isolated people who know how to write better code, but suck at content. We are intelligent people, I agree but we don't have good idea of how to present what we have accomplished in a better way.
Most programmers write good logic. Some don't (like me !) but they learn it in a couple of years in professional life. And also, they achieve many more in a short span of time. If you are committed to your goal, you can make a good project to showcase to your potential employer in a few hours. And normally good and hardworking programmers do this. You can too!
But the thing on which I want to focus is that presenting your skills to potential employers is also an art, which is not much difficult. With a few iterations of improvement, you can also understand where you should put particular things in the CV.
So,
There are three things which conclude my point of view :
i) Focus on Projects :
Projects are the (only) things which show your potential employers that you can do the job for which they are hiring you. And this goes for anyone. Whether someone is a novice or experienced one, my perspective is it's always good to list down your best projects under a separate projects section.
The things which you need to show in this section are :
- name of the project
- one-liner explaining it
- technology stack used in it
- 3 or 4 points listing what you did
Now, first 3 points are pretty much clear, but last one is not. I understand that. In the last point, you need to discuss what you did in the project i.e features implemented, key outcomes, result, what did you learn etc. You can also discuss if there's some difficult thing and you did it differently or efficiently.
ii) Show Achievements :
Second thing which I learnt is about achievements. If you are a newbie, then you should make your projects section so comprehensive that it covers all of your achievements.
But here from achievements, I mean achievements at workplace. If you have some work or internship experience how to present that. Normally everyone has work experience, experience or career summary sections in CV.I am referring to the points written in that part.
A good theme for points in experience section of resume is to follow 'Accomplishment-Measurement-Action' pattern. For example, it can be like 'Successfully reduced the loading time of web application, by 20%, by removing unused modules and only loading specific modules when they are needed'.
iii) Only Show relevant things :
Third thing which I have learnt is only to show relevant things in resume. For example, if you have experience of working as an assistant in hotel, then don't write it until some portion of your work is relevant to position you are applying for.
Same goes for projects. If you are applying for a data science position, then it may not be a good idea to include web development projects in your that CV. If it has a bit of data science work, then tailor the description a bit and only focus on data science related part.
Conclusion :
Last but not the least, make a separate version of resume for most jobs. Sometimes same resumes may work. Like if two companies have ReactJS positions you may use the same resume for both, if you don't have time.
Do you need to refactor your resume?
Do you feel your resume needs some improvement?
Feel free to ask me. I am here to help you.
Thank you for reading this!
Top comments (10)
Nice article...should posted a little template kkkk
Thanks for your comment. For a good template, see this article from a Tesla Engineer : freecodecamp.org/news/writing-a-ki...
Another question, how to become Software Engineer?)
Simple: you just need to program a lot. And always try to build better solutions: better algorithms, cleaned code, better design and architecture, better and more tests, better documentation, better tools and automation. To learn better ways you have to read a lot about software engineering and think a lot about software engineering and what you've read.
Nothing tricky, nothing magical, just time and effort. :)
Just work harder)
Not harder - just hard. :)
And smarter. :D
Will second Alexander on this. Apart from that freeCodeCamp is the best platform to learn programming for free.
Well written!
DM @saeed your github link is broken
Thanks. Fixed that.