Feedback on my resume and portfolio, please

Hey guys,

I’m at the point now where I’m applying like crazy for jobs. I wondered if some people would give me some feedback on my resume and my portfolio. Plus there is a SV job fair coming up for which I want to be ready.

I already have some criticisms myself:

Resume

  1. It needs an Objectives section. I’ve tried for a long time to keep my resume to one page, but it looks like now I need to go to two pages.
  2. It’s been pointed out that the verbs in the job descriptions should be more active, talking about what I accomplished.
  3. I need to brand myself better. I need a web address and email that are specific to web dev.

Portfolio

Keep in mind that this is just temporary prortfolio. I was working on Mega-Portfolio but realized that while I was working on that, I was missing out, so I did this one up quickly as a stopgap. But any advice on little changes that could improve this stopgap would be appreciated.

Here are my portfolio and resume.

Regards,
Kevin

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Portfolio looks good, but the navbar hides a portion of the top sections when scrolling, at least it does on my machine, I’d increase the margin between the navbar and the top of the sections. Also, your recipebox link is broken, it’s because of a misspelling in the href , recipbox => recipebox

Best of luck in your job search

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My feeling is that the layout is a bit wide for the amount of content - especially the paragraphs that are filling the whole width of the screen. I would wrap the content in a div with a max-width (maybe about 1000px) and have a margin on each side - something like a Bootstrap container.

Also think that your descriptions of the apps should be more technical. What particular challenges did you overcome? What makes each app interesting? Showcase your skills a bit more.

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Are you making sure you use semantic elements for your page structures? I’m not seeing <header> or <main> tags in the website you built for your client.

You could try using flexbox flex-grow or flex-shrink on your portfolio gallery to avoid that empty space when there is an overflow. It would be nice to also have my cursor turn into a pointer when I hover over scripted buttons so I know they are clickable. You can do this with the cursor: pointer; property in a style.

Finally, increase your left and right padding in your containers to no less than half your to and bottom padding. It makes the content look cramped in a container. I’d even go as far to say if anything you should have more padding on the left and right sides of a container.

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Hey, Kevin! I have some thoughts on your resume.

Most of my hiring experience has been hiring for e-learning jobs in higher ed, so I can’t speak to what tech companies in particular are looking for in a resume. I’ll also leave your portfolio to be reviewed by those more suited. However, I’ve learned a good deal of resume best practices along the way that I hope can help.

Education

  • I would move this section to the bottom. Your work experience is more important, and what employers will want to review first.

  • You don’t need your high school info.

  • The Portland State/Portland Community College part is confusing. I’m not sure exactly how to reconcile it without knowing the situation, but it might have some recruiters scratching their heads. I found a good blog post on how to address this. Either way, I think you should list these two colleges separately.

Work History

  • Self-employed Tutor/Writer: I look at this job description and my first thought is, “How has this person supported himself with such a position?” I think that because I don’t understand enough about the position itself and what you did in the position. Since you’ve held the position since 2005, I’m sure you have a lot of accomplishments and specific duties that aren’t listed here, so you’ll want to add those. While positions applicable to the jobs you’re applying for are best for increasing your chances of an interview, other positions are fine in the resume too as long as you can clearly demonstrate how you were successful in the position. This goes a long way no matter the position. You list a lot of different subjects you tutor high school and college students in, plus your work writing grant proposals, and this leads me to believe you had a substantial business here that allowed you to do a lot of different things and help a lot of people. As the description is now, though, this isn’t clear. Accomplishments, such as number of successful grant proposals written, number of students per semester, grade increase percentages for students, etc. should be here.

  • Self-employed Professional Guitarist and Instructor: Again, it seems like you have a substantial business here too, but there aren’t any accomplishments listed. How many bands have you worked with? How many albums or songs have you contributed to and made all on your own? Anything about sales numbers, students taught, business growth, etc.? Any other duties related to managing these job duties?

  • Intel Corp. Module Technician: Since this is the only tech related position, this one should really shine on your resume. Again, specific duties and accomplishments should be here. Both individual and team accomplishments work great. Expand on your work in the Emergency Response Team and the “computer programming work” you did as well. To me, this is the critical work experience for the jobs you want, so it should be clear to recruiters the work you did (clear but brief explanation of duties) and how you did it (methods used, accomplishments).

Certificates

  • Could you make the FCC certificates links to their descriptions? This might be helpful just in case the recruiter/company doesn’t know much about FCC.

Technologies/Skills

  • I would combine these into one section called “Skills.”

  • For tech, I would list the tech you’re the most familiar with/most enjoy and the tech that’s standard or most widely used. Maybe you could even put a few under categories for types of tech or put the tech into categories based on your experience levels (beginner, intermediate, advanced). When I see long lists of software or tech in an applicant’s resume, I’m usually wary. Anyone, feel free to disagree, but a long software/tech/skills list says to me that the applicant has general knowledge in a lot of different tech but hasn’t concentrated on anything. Being able to generalize is great, but I’d want to hire someone who has dedicated themselves to becoming an expert in a few things or even one thing. It implies a certain maturity, discipline, passion, and skill level with whatever those few things or one thing are/is.

  • You might also want to tailor this section for each application to target just the specific tech/skills the company uses. That way your resume isn’t too long and doesn’t mention tech the company isn’t interested in.

  • I would remove the narrative under “Skills” and just list the tech you mention here as bullet points with the rest of the tech you have under “Technologies.” I don’t think the narrative is necessary.

Languages

  • Personally, I would cut this section unless it’s specifically applicable to a job you’re applying for. I’m not sure these are skills companies are looking for in programmers, but feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.

Objectives

A lot of people may disagree, but regarding objectives, I personally don’t find them necessary in a resume. If you apply for a job with my company, I assume your objective is to get that job. I also assume you have some sort of aspirations for growth beyond the position you applied for, but that kind of thing is better discussed in the interview (growth opportunities is always a good thing to ask when it’s time for you to ask the interviewers questions). If there are certain technologies you want to learn or learn more deeply, I’d rather hear about it in the cover letter.

I hope this was helpful. Good luck on your job search! From what I’ve seen of your FCC forum activity, you’d be a great asset to any company that hires you!

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Just one question: are you from the future?

“In February of 2107 I began the program at Free Code Camp…”

Figured I’d point out that minor mistake, otherwise I’m woefully unqualified to comment on your portfolio and resume.

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