DEV Community

Discussion on: I Asked DEV for Resume Advice and Here are 14 Things I Learned

Collapse
 
stereoplegic profile image
Mike Bybee • Edited

I disagree on 5. TBH I think it's a waste of space to have a "goal"/"objective" section. I removed mine about 8 years ago, putting in its place a "career highlights" section (similar to per-job achievement bullet points I allude to in point 3 below, but at the top with the most important ones from across my entire career - not the same ones used in the per-job highlights to maximize keywords), and my hits immediately skyrocketed.

The main things to have are:

  1. Name, city, phone, email, links.
  2. Keywords specific to the tech you have worked with and especially that you want to work with (you are most likely getting scanned by an ATS long before a human sees it), probably both in a "skills" section and per-job "technologies used" subsections.
  3. Achievements you can communicate in numbers for each role if possible instead of just duties performed.
  4. Education and/or certifications sections (though I'm beginning to push back on this, because neither my college education nor my certs have done me any good in my career, they tell you nothing about a dev's capabilities, and more companies need to recognize this... I realize many devs don't have the luxury of asserting this like I do).
  5. Keep it short (one page is nice, but just keep it below 3 absolute max, and free of fluff regardless).