6 Ways to Write an Awesome Developer Resume

It can be frustrating and time consuming to write a developer resume. A resume is more than just listing every single thing you’ve done on a page. It’s important to carefully consider what to include, what not to include, and what to highlight. Just knowing what not to do is a big part of writing a good resume. Here are six ways to write an awesome developer resume:

Include a Summary

Start your resume with a summary – it should be four or five sentences long. Touch on things such as your soft skills, technical skills, and your ability to work as part of a team. Talk about how long you have been working in the industry. Discuss tech programs completed in your position. Your main goal is to outline a resume with no padding, focusing on your quantitative results, things that show the HR manager you are up to the job. This bit is dedicated to grabbing their attention as soon as possible, so include the most fascinating information about you. Hiring managers don’t have as much time as they did in the past and you should put your focus on sparking their interest in this part.

Education

You don’t need to go into a lot of detail – just give the recruiter the information they need. State your relevant degree, along with your institution and graduation date. List degrees in reverse chronology, but only if they pertain to the job you are applying for. Only include extra details if they are quite interesting and important, such as your thesis being related to the position you’re applying for – i.e. you are applying to be a data analyst and your thesis was on new and effective way of data mining.

However, formal education isn't that important nowadays, with a great number of courses, bootcamps and programs out there to hone your development game. For a developer, what really matters is showing that your Computer Science skills are strong and your understanding of the job is good. Include the various ways in which you’ve educated yourself over the years – and show your projects on GitHub.

Technical Skills

“It’s not necessary to list every single technical skill you’ve acquired,” advises Evelyn Rice, resume writer at UKWritings. “It’s more important that you demonstrate your technical abilities when describing your experience with past projects and positions.” Only include skills in which you are strong and knowledgeable. Don’t include redundant skills. For instance, if you state that you are experienced with CSS3, you don’t need to also include that you know CSS. You also don’t need to mention that you are proficient in basic computer skills like Microsoft Office or Adobe – that will be taken for granted. You also don't need to state your years of experience on each project, because years often don't matter as much as showing how good you are at working in a program. Weed out any skills that are no longer relevant or used. Also, try to only include skills that are relevant to the job – don't include Java, for instance, if that is not what the job requires you to know. Hiring managers are flooded and they don't have time to read long resumes. Restricting your resume to one interesting and concise page removes a lot of redundant information.

Showcase Your Past Freelance and Side Projects

Demonstrate your determination and interest in the field by talking about some side projects you have finished or are working on. Create a section where you discuss these, including the client or organization, and how your work benefited them. If your projects are available online, include links. You can also include interesting school projects. Let these speak for you – describe what they do, what your role in the project was, etc. These will represent your skills much better than anything else. Instead of listing your skills, you could add, for example, the information that you have developed a banking application using C# and ASP.NET code. Also, use power words and action verbs to best get the message across and really impress the hiring manager.

Get Help Writing Using Online Tools

Writing doesn’t come naturally to everyone, so don’t be afraid to get some help from the professionals. Here are some good resources to get you started:

• StateOfWriting and Simplegrad: These are grammar resources you can use to check over your resume for grammatical errors. Sloppy grammar mistakes are a good way to have your resume discarded.
• BoomEssays and EssayRoo: These are proofreading tools, recommended by BestAustralianWriters in BoomEssays review. You can use to make sure your resume is polished and free of errors.

Resume Don’ts

There are a few things you just never want to do on your resume if you want to remain in consideration. Don’t list all the jobs you’ve had since high school. Don’t quantify your skills with words such as “good” and “expert” – let your skills speak for themselves. Avoid using an abundance of buzzwords such as “docker” and “batch-streaming”. Don’t spend a bunch of time explaining something you consider interesting that is ultimately irrelevant to the position. Don't just tell the hiring manager what you’ve done – they know all the specifics of a developer's job. What they need to know is how you contributed to the company, what your specific accomplishments are, how your work improved the company you worked in. Don't just send the same resume for each job position – tailor your resume to each job and you'll show that you care.

Conclusion

There’s definitely an art to writing a developer resume. Luckily, it’s an art you can master by following some basic rules. Curate your resume well and only include relevant information about your technical skills, experience, and education. Don’t give the recruiter a bunch of irrelevant information to sift through, they probably won’t bother. Just follow these six tips and you’ll be able to write an awesome developer resume.