But what are the most necessary computer skills to have? And when you acquire those skills, how do you showcase them effectively to prospective employers?

In this article, you will learn about some of the most important computer skills and software programs needed in the workplace.

You will also learn some of the most basic tasks you need to be able to complete to be competent in those programs.

Lastly, you will see some of the dos and don'ts for listing computer skills on your résumé.

Here is what we will cover:

1. Why computer literacy is important
2. Software skills guide
   • Knowledge of operating systems and of basic IT troubleshooting
   • Knowledge of web Browsers and web searching skills
   • Knowledge of Project Management Software
   • Knowledge of communication software
   • Knowledge of Email and digital calendar management software
   • Knowledge of Word Processing Software
   • Knowledge of spreadsheet software
   • Knowledge of presentation software
   • Knowledge of graphic design software
   • Knowledge of coding tools and databases
3. How to Include Computer Skills on Résumé

Why Computer Literacy is Important

We live in a digital world, and that doesn't seem to be changing any time soon.

On the contrary, each year, technological advancements and breakthroughs occur.

Despite the rapid growth of the Internet and technologies surrounding it, more than a third of the world's population doesn't have access to the Internet and has never used it.

Having access to it and owning a personal computer is a privilege in and of itself.

Many people also still lack the digital skills needed to use the Internet.

At the same time, there are unfulfilled jobs due to a lack of a skilled workforce.

The work we do – and will do in the future – relies heavily on digital media and tools.

So, basic computer skills are considered the bare minimum requirement by employers, with computer skills often being the top requirement listed in job postings.

And no matter the industry you are in, you will need computer skills.

Whether you work in healthcare, retail, finance, as an administrative assistant, or the HR department of a company, digital competency will be helpful.

Digital literacy will give you a higher chance of getting career opportunities and achieving growth in the modern workplace.

Software Skills Guide

Before continuing, I want to give a disclaimer.

In the sections to come, I will go over some of the most used software programs utilized in office jobs.

Depending on your job, or the career you want to transition into, you may not need knowledge of all of this.

For example, if you are an administrative assistant, you probably won't use the command line for your day-to-day tasks.

If you are a software developer, you won't necessarily be writing Excel formulas.

That said, knowledge of computer software will put you one step forward compared to someone lacking that knowledge.

So, even if you're not in tech, you can still benefit from using the command line to make repetitive manual tasks quicker. And if you are a software developer, you won't be writing only code all day. You will probably use a word processor for documentation and will need to know how to create presentations.

Another thing to add is that the list is quite long, with many programs included. It's not intended to be an exhaustive list. Instead, it's for providing a general idea of what could help make you more productive and competitive.

Learning all the software will take time, and you don't need to learn everything all at once. But you never know when this knowledge will come in useful. So, if you want to improve your computer knowledge, you can start slow and add one more tool to your toolbox each time.

With that out the way, let's see some of the most used software programs in the workplace.

Knowledge of Operating Systems and of Basic IT Troubleshooting

The first step to digital literacy is having a well-rounded understanding of operating systems.

There is no need to become an IT expert if that is not your goal, but instead, know their basic functionalities.

The Operating System (OS for short) manages all of the software and hardware on a computer and allows you to interact with the computer in the first place.

The three most widely used operating systems are:

• The Windows Operating System, which is owned by Microsoft.
• macOS, which is owned by Apple.
• Linux, which is an open-source operating system. In contrast to Windows and macOS, Linux is not proprietary software. No one company owns it. Anyone with the knowledge can contribute, make changes and improvements, and help maintain it.

In addition, it helps to have some at least basic IT troubleshooting skills. This knowledge will help you find solutions when you get stuck, and help you solve problems by yourself.

For example, some basic computer troubleshooting skills are:

• Recognizing network icons and knowing if the WiFi is on or off.
• Knowing what to do when a computer program has frozen.
• Knowing how to handle crashes.
• Knowing when and how to reboot the system.
• Knowing how to restart the computer or interact with Task Manager to handle unresponsive programs.
• Knowing what to do when the computer doesn't power up.
• Knowing how to solve issues with USB memory sticks and external hard drives.
• Knowing how to speed up a slow computer.
• Knowing how to perform basic network diagnostics.
• Knowing when to update system and when a routine maintenance is needed.
• knowing about user account management.

You'll use a GUI (Graphic User Interface) to make your way around a computer.

The different buttons and dropdown menus, the pointing and mouse clicks, and the different icons you see on your screen make GUIs easy to use.

However, there may be times when you will need to use a Command Line Interface (or CLI for short).

A CLI is a text-based program. You type commands in a prompt using keyboard navigation only and save significant time when performing repetitive tasks.

On Windows, the software program is called Command Prompt, and on macOS, it is called Terminal.

A shell (such as Bash or Zsh shell) is the interface between you, the user, and the computer's operating system.

You type commands in one of the CLI applications. The shell reads, processes, and interprets the commands and instructs the Operating System to perform the task.

Knowing your way around the command line will help you save considerable time. Some basic command line skills to have are:

• General system commands.
• How to create and delete files and folders.
• How to view contents of files and folders.
• How to open programs.
• How to use a command-line text editor, such as Vim, Emacs or Nano, to write to files.
• How to manage current working processes.

Knowledge of Web Browsers and Web Searching Skills

Knowing how to quickly and effectively find meaningful information to help you solve a problem, or to enable you to conduct research for a project, is a valuable skill to have.

For this purpose, you must know how to use a Web browser correctly.

Web browsers are application software that locates and presents to users the information requested on the World Wide Web.

Some of the most popular web browsers are:

• Google Chrome, developed by Google.
• Firefox Mozilla, developed by Firefox.
• Microsoft Edge, developed by Mircosoft.
• Safari, developed by Apple.

To use web browsers productively, here are some of the skills you need:

• Make sure you use modern and updated web browsers instead of older and unsupported ones.
• Know the navigational buttons. Go back to the previous page, refresh the current page, create a file and open the page in a new tab or window, and know your way around the browser's menu for extra functionalities, to name a few.
• Enter URLs (short for Uniform Resource Locator). URLs are a unique web address that you put into the browser's address bar.
• Know how to read a URL by understanding its different parts and recognizing when a website might be sketchy.
• Perform searches by using keywords and perform basic Internet research.
• Know how to apply filters for advanced searching techniques.
• Make use of tabbed browsing. With modern browsers, you can open, manage and switch between many web pages simultaneously – in the same browser window.
• Know how to restore tabs.
• Create and manage bookmarks with the browser's built-in bookmark manager. Bookmarks is another name for 'your favorites' – the websites you would like to save and keep for future reference. You can create folders and subfolders for a more organized bookmarking system.
• Know how to manage and delete browsing history on your system.
• Know about browser security and privacy issues. The first step is knowing the difference between HTTP and HTTPS, especially when making financial transactions across the internet. Next is using Incognito mode for protecting sensitive data when sharing a computer with someone else or using a public computer.
• Know how to clear browser cache and cookies to improve load time, save space, and reduce bandwidth.
• Know how to install extensions that have additional browser functionalities.

Knowledge of Project Management Software

When you become part of a team, you will probably need to use project management software.

Project management software is an interactive collaboration tool used for project task management and delegation.

They help keep teams organized, productive, and efficient, no matter their size.

Some of the most commonly used project management software are:

• Trello
• Asana
• Jira
• Google Tasks
• Evernote
• Notion

You can also use project management software for your personal projects.

They can help keep you motivated and visually see the progress you are making, all in one place.

The most common features to know when using such applications are:

• How to create a custom workspace for the team.
• How to plan, organize, and schedule projects.
• How to create a visual roadmap and timeline with kanban boards and user stories, to visualize the bigger picture of the project, and what the workflow will look like during the different stages of the project.
• How to create and view lists with tasks that need to get done.
• How to color code and label tasks to better organize and prioritize them into groups.
• How to update and edit the current status of tasks. Track progress of projects throughout the life of the project for all team members to stay up to date.
• How to mark and check off completed tasks as completed.
• Collaboration between team members. Individual team members can comment, add notes and their input regarding significant project updates, set reminders, all on the same page.
• How to allocate and assign tasks to team members. Easily visualize the assignments that each team member is working on.
• How to track time spent on each task and manage deadlines to ensure on-time delivery.
• How to create internal reports and project documentation.
• How to create and share project meeting notes.
• How to create and share a knowledge hub and wiki, with a curated dashboard of a library with resources related to the project.
• How to share accomplishments and project milestones.
• How to keep track of achievements that you can use as a reference in one-to-ones and reviews.
• How to keep track of budgeting, monitor the project's spending, and schedule invoices.

Knowledge of Communication Software

When you are part of a team, you need to communicate clearly and precisely with the rest of the team members.

Communication tools enhance a team's productivity, which in turn leads to better products and services.

These days, more people work remotely and teams are distributed theoughout different corners of the world and across different timezones. Because of this, teams rely on dedicated communication tools to collaborate, talk to each other, and stay in touch, no matter where they are.

Each team has its own communication style, but regardless of their preferences you would be expected to know how to use a digital communication medium.

These fall into different categories:

• Real time instant messaging platforms, which are a substitute for emails and provide faster exchanges with more communication features to choose from.
• Voice calling platforms.
• Video conferencing platforms to host meetings.

Some of the most popular ones used are:

• Microsoft Teams
• Skype
• Zoom
• Google Meet
• Slack
• Discord
• Loom

Some of the features you would need to know how to use are:

• How to privately message someone for direct communication.
• How to create group messaging chats that are either public or private.
• How to create and utilize custom channels for specific projects or topics.
• How to record meetings and talks. In this case, all participants need to be aware of the recording.
• How to host an educational webinar.
• How to share your screen to work through problems.
• How to utilise the 'raise your hand' feature.
• Know keyboard shortcuts for muting/unmuting yourself and turning your camera on/off.

Knowledge of Email and Digital Calendar Management Software

Emails are a fast way to communicate with your colleagues and send messages across the internet.

You need to know how to compose concise and well-organized emails using an email provider.

The most commonly used email software applications are:

• Microsoft Outlook
• Google Gmail

The basic knowledge you would need includes the following:

• Setting up an email account.
• Formatting, sending, and receiving emails.
• Sending an email to multiple people at once.
• Attaching document files, images, and voice messages to your emails.
• Using the address book for your contacts.
• Starring emails for organizing emails in a separate folder.
• Creating folders and sorting through emails.
• Creating labels and filters to search through specific keywords to maximize productivity.
• Knowing how to file, prioritize, and group emails for easier access and time efficiency.
• Forwarding emails.
• Idenitfying phishing emails.

Your email account will be in-sync with a digital calendar program.

For example, Gmail uses Google Calendar and Outlook uses the Outlook Calendar.

Knowledge of Calendly, a scheduling application, is helpful too.

You can connect it to your email account for scheduling appointments, meetings, and appointments.

The skills you need to have when using digital calendars are:

• Knowing how to block out your time and set up your availability.
• Sharing your calendar with a link so other team members can arrange events and meetings with you.
• Scheduling and arranging meetings.
• Inviting attendees.
• Canceling events.

Knowledge of Word Processing Software

Knowing how to write in an engaging way and format text documents is a necessary skill, no matter your industry.

You may need to write blogs and articles for the company's website. You may be in charge of writing and publishing the company's newsletter. You may need to compose and frequently update documentation on internal tools used in the company. You may need to write formal reports to stakeholders.

Whatever the case, knowing how to use a word processor is a must.

Some of the most commonly used word processors are:

• Microsoft Word
• Google Docs
• OpenOffice Writer
• LibreOffice
• Dropbox Paper

Here are some of the basic skills to have when using a word processor:

• Know how to create a new document and insert, edit, modify, copy, cut, and delete text. Know how to enable automatic saving to ensure you don't lose any work by accident.
• Know how to open an already created document.
• Know how to merge documents.
• Know how to change page view layout.
• Know how to utilize spell and grammar checker for correcting spelling errors and typos.
• Know how to create hyperlinks.
• Choose the correct font depending on the occasion.
• Know how to format and emphasize text. Knowledge of keyboard shortcuts (such as copy/cut/pasting, how to undo and redo work) to improve your touch typing speed.
• Know how to organize and split the text into sections with headings, subheadings, and indented paragraphs.
• For large documents, know how to create a table of contents so others can easily navigate to different sections.
• Know how to select, move and center align text.
• Know how to use pre-existing templates and create new ones.
• Utilize the find and replace feature.
• Collaborate with other team members by highlighting text and leaving comments in the document's sidebar with suggestions.
• Know how to share and protect documents by setting up password protection.
• Know how to save the document in different file formats (such as saving the document as a PDF).
• Know how to set up and print documents.
• Know how to insert columns.
• Know how to insert and format tables, text boxes, charts, graphs, and visual elements into text documents to visualize data.
• Know how to create, edit and format complex tables with data.
• Know how to import graphs and embed other documents (such as Excel worksheets).
• Know how to insert images and bookmarks.
• Know how to create, sort, and filter Mail Merges.

Knowledge of Spreadsheet Software

Many jobs require you to be comfortable working with smaller or even larger datasets.

You need to know how to store and organize data in a tabular format.

In this way, you'll be able to analyze and perform calculations on the data.

Some of the most commonly used spreadsheet softwares are:

• Microsoft Excel
• Google Sheets
• Apple Numbers
• LibreOffice Calc

Here are some of the basic skills to have when using spreadsheet software:

• Know how to perform data entry by setting up, creating, modifying, formatting, and saving worksheets.
• Know how to manage multiple worksheets.
• How how to merge cells.
• Know how to highlight columns based on conditions you set using conditional formatting.
• Know how to filter columns.
• Know how to create graphs and charts
• Know how to perform arithmetic calculations using functions. For example, know how to add individual values and find the total sum using SUM, Or being familiar with finding the average in a range of numbers using AVERAGE. Or, knowing how to find the highest and lowest number in range using MIN and MAX, respectively.
• Know how to use advanced functions such as VLOOKUP (or Vertical Lookup) to search columns.
• Know basic VBA (which is short for Visual Basic Application) to create Excel Macros. Know how to work with macros commands to create custom functions that automate repetitive and time-consuming manual tasks.
• Know how to create pivot tables and charts to visualize, compare and present large amounts of data using visualizations. Know how to generate reports with your findings.

Knowledge of Presentation Software

Knowing how to put together a presentation is a valuable skill to have.

You may need to give a presentation in front of a few team members and update them on the progress of a project. You may need to deliver a more formal presentation to stakeholders, or you may even need to give a talk at a large conference in front of experts in your field.

Either way, knowing how to create engaging slides will be necessary.

Some of the most popular presentation software programs are:

• Microsoft PowerPoint
• Google Slides
• Keynote
• Canva

Here are some of the basic skills to have when using presentation software:

• Know how to select pre-built templates and color schemes and customize them by adding content into the slide.
• Know how to design and format custom templates.
• Know how to add slide transitions.
• Insert charts, graphs, diagrams, and tables with data into slides.
• Create icons, animations, transitions, and a mixture of static and motion graphics.
• Know how to insert Clip Art.
• Add notes to each slide
• Make slides interactive by inserting hyperlinks.
• Know how to insert media such as pictures, pieces of music, audio and sound effects, gifs, short video clips, or full videos uploaded from the computer or embedded from Youtube.

Knowledge of Graphic Design Software

Knowledge of design software is not exclusive to designers.

You may need to create visual content for an email marketing campaign, create a poster for a company event, or you may want to add detailed and visually appealing infographics to a presentation. You may want to prepare and edit photos or create mockups to improve the User Experience of a company's website.

Some of the most popular design software are:

• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Illustrator
• Adobe InDesign
• Adobe After Effects
• Figma
• Sketch

Each of these programs above have a different use case.

In general, here are some of the basic skills to have when using graphic design software:

• Know how to import assets and set up a document from scratch correctly, with the appropriate width, height, size, and display setting for the project.
• Know how to open already existing image files.
• Know how to create and manipulate 3D objects and how to add visual effects from pre-existing and built-in styles.
• Know how to manipulate images, both static and moving, and add visual effects with animations
• Know how to prepare and get documents ready for print production.
• Know how to save and export files in the correct format and prepare them for other programs.
• Know how to make documents ready for use on the Web.
• Know how to create and manipulate interactive media.
• Know how to do basic photo editing, retouching, and enhancement and manipulate images by cropping and moving them.
• Know how to create graphs, charts, infographics, and interactive PDFs.
• Know how to create wireframes, prototypes and mockups, and User Interfaces for web design projects.
• Know how to create logos, icons, and artwork.

Knowledge of Coding Tools and Databases

Coding can help you solve problems and communicate with computers using a language that computers understand. And databases are programs for storing data and that allow programmers to retrieve the data using queries.

Even if you are not working as a developer, knowing the basics of coding can help make repetitive aspects of your job much easier.

Besides that, coding is one of the most fundamental technical skills you can have in the 21st century, not to mention that there is a high demand for applicants that know how to code.

Here are some of the basic skills to have for coding and interacting with databases:

• Knowledge of text editors and using the smart features available for writing source code. -Knowledge of code editors with IDE-like features – where IDE is short Integrated Development environment – such as Visual Studio Code, for writing and editing source code, compiling and running source code, using the built-in terminal and debugging, all under the same roof.
• Knowledge of the Git version control software to keep track of project changes and for collaboration. Create, push to, pull from, and clone a repository.
• Knowledge of more advanced Git commands, such as for merging and branching.
• Depending on the task at hand, knowledge of a programming language. If you need to work on the visual parts of a website users interact with (otherwise known as the client-side), learn frontend technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. If the task involves working on the logic side of things (or the server-side), analyzing data, and automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks, learn a server-side scripting programming language like Python.
• Knowledge of Linux commands and working with a Linux environment. Know how to set up a Virtual Machine and run Linux on your local computer.
• Know SQL (short for Structured Query Language) to interact with Relational Databases (such as Oracle Database, MySQL, and PostgreSQL). Know how to write basic SQL commands to perform CRUD (short for Create Read Update Delete) operations to query the database and manipulate the data stored.

How to Include Computer Skills on Résumé

Below are some key points to consider when including computer skills on your résumé:

• You could create a separate dedicated section, such as a sidebar on the résumé, reserved for only listing your computer skills by including a list with bulleted points.
• Include computer skills that set you apart from other applicants and are only relevant to the position. Just a note: don't list Microsoft Word as a computer skill if you are applying for a software developer role. Microsoft Word may be a tool you use for your daily work, but employers assume you already have that knowledge, and it's not what they are interested in seeing from your résumé.
• List skills you have familiarity with and are comfortable using. Employers will probably ask questions based on the skills and technologies you added, so don't mislead and be direct about your exact level of proficiency.
• List relevant courses and diplomas/certifications you have taken to advance your skills.
• Do not list your skills accompanied by a metric bar with a percentage of how proficient you are. For example, don't include 'I am 78% proficient in JavaScript'. Something like that could easily lead to confusion.
• Be specific. For example, don't just include 'Advanced knowledge in Microsoft Excel'. Instead, provide some examples of what you can do with Excel, such as naming the advanced functions and formulas you are proficient in.
• Instead of just only listing skills, focus on mentioning achievements, milestones, metrics, and how your computer skills helped a company. Employers are interested in seeing how your computer skills helped improve your team's productivity and increased sales and revenue in your previous jobs. For example, you could mention a task you automated by writing a Python script which saved significant time for your team.
• Make sure to keep it brief and get your point across in a concise way. Recruiters and employers don't spend much time going through résumés, so relevant information needs to stand out easily and in a summarized way.
• You can include links to articles, a conference talk you gave, a workshop you hosted, or a YouTube channel you have, where you explain technical topics in your field. This way, you show to prospective employers that you are engaged in your community, and you have the knowledge and expertise they are looking for.

Here's a guide to writing a résumé that hiring managers will actually read.

Conclusion

Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of what computer skills you should have if you're job hunting in today's market. We went over what you need to know to utilize software programs effectively, and how to present those skills clearly to employers.

Thank you for reading!

And as a developer, working on projects can improve not only your skills but also your résumé – which can increase your chances of getting that dream job.

Have you ever come across a job description that requires candidates to have a certain numbers of years of experience? I have – actually almost every job advert that I come across. These job descriptions can lower your self-esteem and make you feel underqualified, especially if you're a fresh graduate or just learning to code.

So, what happens when you don't have any work experience in the tech industry and you want to apply for a job? Well, the answer is simple – your portfolio is everything. You just have to use your past projects (and maybe build some new ones) to help you stand out.

In this guide, we will go through how to use experience from your projects to help you with your job applications. Our focus will be on some of the major Python projects that can help boost your résumé in a job environment.

Why Build Projects in Python?

You can use Python in many ways, including software and web development, machine learning, data analytics, and more. Knowing Python is a valuable skill for a coder. But if you're new to coding, it can be difficult to demonstrate your expertise on a résumé when you are applying for jobs.

Completing Python projects that you can clearly describe and that a hiring manager can look at is a great way to showcase your skills

If you aren’t sure how to write a résumé or your résumé needs a complete revamp, there are multiple resources online to help you out:

• Here's a handy resume template where you can easily input your details and add your Python projects as you complete them
• Here's a guide on How to Write a Résumé – Practical Guide with Example Résumé

Now, here are some ideas for Python projects that you can showcase on your résumé.

Python Project Ideas

1. Server Status Checker

A server status checker is a script that will let you monitor if your server is active and running. It can show you how much downtime your server has had and give you regular updates of its performance. It'll also send immediate alerts when server is down.

Some of the tools that come in handy when developing such a script include:

• Socket - helps with connection to different servers.
• SSL - required for wrapping the socket connection.
• Date & Time - Check what time server is active or went down.
• smtplib - Send email alerts when the server is down.
• Pickle - Saves the history of the server perfomance.

To give you an idea how to get started with such a project, here's some info to get you started.

2. URL Shortener

A URL shortener is a program that takes long URLs and converts them into shorter ones that users can easily remember. Some of the the most common sites offering such services include Bit.ly and Cuttly.

This is a functional, useful tool that a hiring manager can easily test out in order to verify your Python skills such as use of APIs.

Although there are many such tools out there already, you can build one that offers a specific feature like customizable short URLs.

Almost everyone has come across a long, clunky URL that isn’t user-friendly or easy to remember, so creating a URL shortener shows that you can identify common problems and engineer a solution.

To help you get started with the idea and concept check out this repo here.

3. Content Aggregator

This is a tool that gathers information such as articles, social media posts, videos, images and so on. Then it displays all that information under one page. This means that users don’t have to manually search each website for what they are looking for.

Creating one is another good way to showcase how you can use your Python expertise to create a useful tool. Content aggregators can be used for many purposes, but they essentially search large swaths of the internet to find specific pieces of information.

You could develop a general content aggregator or a more specialized one. For example, you might create a weather aggregator that pulls weather data from several of the top sources in your region to present a comprehensive weather report.

Working on a project like this you should be comforatble with concepts like:

• Python Basics
• How to make use of virtual environments
• Django fundamentals
• Basics of HTML, CSS and JS

4. Desktop Assistant

When speaking about an assistant, think about Alexa, Siri and Google's virtual assistant. Lately there have been a rise in development of smart assistants, take a look at your favorite website chances are very high it has a bot that answers common question asked regularly.

Some common tasks that can be handled in your local machine with the help of an assistant include:

• Open and close any application on your system.
• Search anything on Google, Youtube, Wikipedia and so on
• Get weather updates for any location asked.
• Tell current time & date
• Give calendar reminders on upcoming events.
• Send email through voice commands.
• Play or Stop music in our system.
• Solve any algebraic and mathematical problems.
• Restart, Sleep or Shut Down the system.

In order to build a desktop assistant, you might need some modules to help out. Some of the key ones include: Pyttsx3, Speech Recognition, Twilio, Subprocesses, Wikipedia, and a web browser.

A desktop assistant can perform a single task or a variety of tasks, depending on the complexity of your coding. The more advanced your assistant is, the more impressive it will be to potential employers.

Speaking from experience, this can be a really amazing project to work on. Although I wasn't able to explore more functionalities, check out my idea for a Desktop Assistant and implement more by adding your own ideas for features.

5. Task Automator

A task automator can be similar to a desktop assistant. But it can also be more specialized for specific tasks. To give an idea of how developers utilize Pytho,n here are some of the most common automations:

• Performing automated market tasks
• Sending out, replying to, and sorting emails
• Filling out PDFs and Excel files
• Converting images, renaming files
• Performing math equations
• Calculating exchange rates

You can use Python to do alot of more tasks, too – just think of the tasks you do on daily basis, not only on your computer but at home too. You just have to figure out the correct tools you’ll need, and how to write and run the script.

When we talk of tools, since Python is an open-source language, it means we have a ton of tools at our disposal, as well as many libraries and frameworks to help us get started. Some great tools that can help you out include:

• Selenium
• Beautiful Soup
• SMTPlib

A good resource to help out in the automation journey is the amazing book on how to Automate the Boring Stuff with Python. It is a practical guide on how to use various programming tools.

Again, the more unique and advanced your task automator is, the more impressive it will be.

6. Games or Apps

Python has many libraries available to help you build games, as well as cross-platform libraries for creating Android and iOS apps. Some of the common game library include Pygame, Pyglet, Panda3D, Pykyra, Ursina Engine, and many more.

Both games and apps can range from very simple to highly sophisticated, and creating either one can be a great way to display your personality, creativity, and Python skills.

If you want to be able to develop projects on this scope, you will need to make use of some Python modules and libraries. The most common ones include:

• Kivy - It is the most evaluated module for developing mobile applications using Python.
• Game development modules like Pygame, PyKyra, Pyglet, PyOpenGL and others.

Some skills you will be able to demonstrate after building this project include: mobile app programming and development, UI/UX, & API

To help you get started with this idea, here is a link to some of the most common games developed with python: Python Games.

7. Algorithmic Trader

Algorithmic or Algo traders can not only showcase your Python skills, but they can also make you money - if you write a good script, that is.

This is a more advanced project that will likely not be suitable for beginner coders. You’ll need to write a script that analyzes past and present stock values, and uses machine learning to predict future values.

Then, your trader will automatically buy or sell shares based on those predictions.

In order to work on such a project, getting comfortable with Python and some of it's major topics like Data Structures and Object-Oriented Programming will be necessity. Also knowing how to use external libraries like Pandas, NumPy, and SciPy will be helpful.

To help you get started with this knowledge, check out this course, Algorithmic Trading Using Python (and it includes some sample repos as well.

8. Sudoku Solver

A sudoku solver is another project that’s easy for a hiring manager to see and test. While of course the intent of sudoku puzzles is for users to solve them with brainpower, an automated sudoku solver demonstrates your thorough command of Python.

To work on this particular kind of project, being comfortable working with Python algorithms is really essential. These include:

• list comprehension
• recursion
• indexing and how to make use of loops.

9. File Manager

Another good project idea is to code a file manager that renames or organizes files, archives unused files, or otherwise automates tedious file management tasks.

This type of project is fairly easy, and it can be a good way to get started in Python.

Working with files and documents can vary with different projects, so you can build different scripts, like:

• A script to Auto Move Files,
• A script that will enable you to get folder/file sizes,
• A script to Delete duplicate files

To develop this kind of project, here are some of the modules you should know and keep in mind:

• Tkinter
• Shutil
• Os
• easygui
• Filedialog
• Imageio

So there are some ideas to get you started.

Below is a Twitter thread with more projects ideas that you can work on that will help boost your résumé:

How To List Python Projects On Your Résumé

Now that you’ve got some ideas for Python projects to add to your résumé, here’s how to actually list them effectively.

If you are a freelance developer or you are just getting started in the industry, you may find that it’s more effective to use a functional résumé rather than a chronological format.

Functional résumés are more focused on your specific skills and projects rather than your employment history.

To use a functional résumé, replace the work experience section with a projects section. You can break it up further into subsections if you have some professional projects as well as some personal projects.

Give each project a name, list the duration, and include technologies that you used to complete it. Under each entry, use bullet points to describe the project in more detail, outline your specific contributions, and summarize the purpose of the project.

If you have some professional experience as a coder but you also want to list your personal projects, you may wish to stick with a chronological résumé format that lists your work experience at the top, followed by your education, skills, and certifications.

Then, you can include a projects section later on in your résumé to highlight the Python projects that you’ve done outside of work.

You can also reinforce your Python expertise by mentioning it in your résumé summary or objective as well as in your skills section.

Here is a sample to show you how to present a résumé if you're a fresh graduate from school:

Wrap Up

It is important to remember that a project will be more successful if it communicates what it is supposed to communicate.

Whenever you work on one give it your all dedication. If you found one of these project ideas interesting, feel free to give it a try and you'll have a nice new addition to your résumé.

I appreciate your time reading. Enjoy Coding ❤.

The behavior seems consistent across college graduates, Bootcampers, and self-taught folks. When asking for a résumé review, they almost always get the answer "build more projects".

This is great advice, but you can do more to improve your odds. Better yet, you can do a few important things in parallel.

Here are some of the job-hunting hacks that really helped me, as a self-taught developer, land interviews throughout my career.

Build Your Personal Brand

Difficulty: 3/5

I like to think of us developers as a business of one. At the start of our career, we are a tiny startup that no one has ever heard of. We don't yet have customers (or experiences), and people are reluctant to give us a chance.

However, just like the modern business world, it is getting increasingly harder to be successful and unknown.

Let's look at the example of Shopify, which seems to be more aware of the importance of personal brand within recent years. Their CEO, Tobi Lutke, has become more public recently, hosting AMAs as well as hanging out in social channels like Clubhouse.

As another example, Quincy, the founding teacher behind freeCodeCamp, is also an active personality on Twitter.

Just as founders are responsible for shaping the narrative of their respective companies, we as individual developers need to be aware of our own brand with our tiny business of one.

How can you build your brand?

I have seen a 13 year old with 30k followers on Twitter building 10 projects within a year. We can all look at him in awe and stress about the importance of building your personal brand.

But finding your brand is a discovery process, and here are the things I have seen people successfully do:

• Build projects publicly and tweet about the journey (example)
• Interact and network with other developers on tech Twitter
• Create a YouTube channel and share what you have learned (channel example)
• Live stream yourself programming on Twitch

So many people have made valuable connections and have been offered job positions just by being active on social media. If you are just getting started in your tech career, having your personal brand can help tremendously.

You can use a link-in-bio service like Linktree to tie all your socials together. For developers, using your Twitter or blog is also common. Share it on social media, introduce yourself to recruiters, or link it when asking for referrals.

Having a personal brand is a strong indication of social proof, which leads people to trust you more, resulting in more opportunities.

Share Your Knowledge in a Developer Community

Difficulty: 1/5

Another way to network within the developer community is to contribute meaningfully as an active member.

This is similar to our first point of building your personal brand. But we are no longer solely trying to promote ourselves. Instead, we are genuinely producing good content to educate and help our peers.

The advantage is that this is easier to get started. You don't need to go through the hassle of building your audience as most of the sites will lend you theirs. It is the easiest way to get your voice heard.

How to start writing

Here are some developer-focused publications that I have found:

• dev.to: a blogging platform like Medium, but focused on developers
• daily.dev: a platform that curates other dev news
• freeCodeCamp: my favorite. numero uno.
• hackernoon: another big publication besides fCC
• hashnode: make your own dev blog. You need to build your audience, however.
• slip.so: build a programming course. You need to build own audience, however.

Writing makes your résumé stronger as you can dedicate a section of your résumé to your contributions. It can also kickstart your brand as you are positioning yourself as a domain expert.

Lastly, and perhaps the most important thing, is that it reinforces your own knowledge. By teaching others, you summarize the core concepts in your own words and test your own understanding.

How to start contributing to forums

Contributing and helping other developers on forums like Stack Overflow, Reddit, or the freeCodeCamp forum does not directly make your résumé better.

But, as a developer, you will most likely be working with a small team of other engineers, product managers, and designers. By helping others, you propel your team's success. You can gain valuable communication, debugging, and leadership skills that will be useful throughout your career.

Connect Directly with Recruiters

Difficulty: 1.5/5

This is one of the most underrated hacks. Recruiters are very, very busy people. Way busier than we are as developers.

They are working between 3-40 open positions at any given time, and have to screen thousands of résumés per position. If yours does not stand out, you have to think of other ways to get through the door.

How to connect with recruiters

You can skip the online application hell through cold-emailing, LinkedIn connections, or meeting companies directly to hand-deliver your résumé.

How to send a cold email to a recruiter

For cold-emailing, start by finding out the recruiter's email at x company. There are tutorials for this so I will skip through that.

You will then want to have a short-and-sweet email detailing the positions you want to be considered for, and what makes you stand out (hello personal brand).

Then, politely ask if they are interested in receiving your résumé. Be confident in your email. If they reply, then you know you have a good chance.

How to connect with a recruiter through LinkedIn

For LinkedIn, just send a connection request to recruiters working for x company. Send a short intro "I'm looking for frontend positions" on why you want to connect with them.

However, I have found the third method to be more direct, as you get to connect with recruiters in person.

How to connect with recruiters at career fairs

The third method is to attend career fairs. This is by far my favorite method, and why I started making equia.io.

We organize career fairs where you can deliver your résumé directly to the recruiter, so you can skip through the online application hell. It is 100% free for people from all over the world.

The seats are limited as I have limited bandwidth with my full-time job. However, I encourage you to register so you receive emails for the next available events.

I will talk about connecting with recruiters at in-person events more in the final section.

Contribute to Open Source Projects

Difficulty: 4.5/5

This can be a hard one to get into as a beginner. But it is rewarding, as you develop a sense of community and belonging. Some of the best developers are working on open-source projects that we use every day (like freeCodeCamp).

How to get involved with open source

You can start by finding interesting open source projects on GitHub or other dev communities. You should then look at the open issues, make sure to read the contributor's guideline, and make your first contribution.

Here's a helpful guide that details how you can start contributing.

I am only going to recommend some of the bigger projects here. We all have different interests, so I encourage you to find your own.

• freeCodeCamp: contribute to the curriculum, Chapter, or translate existing articles. I highly recommend that you check their Github out.
• Strapi: I discovered the project a while ago and fell in love with it. It is harder to get started, but the community is welcoming and it is written in Javascript + Node.js, which hopefully you have learned in the freeCodeCamp curriculum. They are building a modern CMS (like WordPress).
• React: We use it everywhere, so why not understand how it works and contribute to the most popular JavaScript framework? If you are interested, I highly recommend you reading this article about how you can make your own framework that works similarly to React

If you ever get stuck, most projects have a community and a public forum where you can ask for help.

Contributing to open-source might be hard to get into, but it strengthens your résumé more than any other project. It demonstrates your ability to contribute to large codebases, collaborate with other engineers, and persist through hard-to-debug issues.

Attend Live Career Fairs and Workshops

Difficulty: 0.5/5

I can't stress the importance of making connections when you are getting started. If we go back to the analogy of us being a business of one, you have to start meeting customers somewhere.

What events to attend as a developer

In the old days, you'd go to in-person meetups, career fairs, and conferences. However, the world has been disrupted by COVID. While I have no doubt these dark stay-at-home times will pass, we have to start looking elsewhere in the meantime.

Attend virtual conferences

Big gatherings are still mostly happening virtually. You can attend developer-focused events like Next Conf and GraphQL conf, hiring-oriented events like GHC, and business-centric events like Startup Grind.

You can meet high-profile speakers and like-minded developers. You can use sites like Eventbrite to discover what's happening.

Attend meetups

Smaller group sessions are the best way to meet new people. While you can always find local meetup groups on meetup.com, I have found that smaller, niche communities have better quality events.

Here are some websites where you can find virtual and local group sessions: Indie Hackers, Elpha (for women in tech), freeCodeCamp study groups.

Go to hiring fairs

I briefly mentioned equia.io, where you can attend live career fairs and deliver your résumé directly to recruiters. We typically organize monthly hiring fairs, with presenters from top tech companies like Calendly, GoodRx, and Facebook.

You can meet the hiring manager directly in a small breakout room, get referrals, and directly deliver your résumé to the recruiter. The seats are limited, but by registering, you will be invited to the next available events.

equia.io, virtual career fairs for developers

Wrapping Up – How Do You Market Yourself?

Let me say it again: as an aspiring developer, you are a business of one. A tiny startup that no one has ever heard of.

Companies are reluctant to give you a chance as you have not yet proven yourself. Named university graduates might benefit from existing internships or a strong alum network. But if you are from a non-traditional background, you have to work with what you have.

Whether it's through building a personal brand, writing for developer communities, networking with recruiters, contributing to open-source projects, or attending live career fairs, if you are persistent with your efforts you will get your first customer (or dev job).

I got my first internship by self-studying for 4 months and dropped out of college to get my first full-time job. I now have been in the industry for a while.

The world needs more builders, but some of the best ones are rejected during the résumé-screening phase due to factors like country of origin, college degree (or lack thereof), and lack of marketable experiences. This is why I am working on organizing live workshops and career fairs, free for everyone around the world.

I highly encourage you to join equia.io, and DM me on Twitter for any feedback you might have. We can work together to give more opportunities to people around the world from non-traditional backgrounds.

Before we get into more detail, let me share my experience. I have applied for lots of job that all required a professional résumé. But in the beginning, I had no idea how to write one.

So I would head over to the browser and search for online résumé builders. A list of a bunch of websites offering the services would show, but since am only human I would always choose the ones labeled FREE. I mean, who does not like free services – 'cause I do.

Just as Luther Vandross said: "The best things in life are free."

Then I'd craft my résumé on the site and it was always a good experience with amazing templates – until I reached the downloading point. Then they always asked for cash despite advertising that it would be free.

But don't worry – writing a good professional résumé does not have to be this difficult. Actually it should be easy and fun, because you are putting down your achievements down on paper.

The best way to make résumé writing smooth is to get some guidance on what you should include and what you should leave out. So that's what we will talk about in this article.

We are going to go through the steps of writing a professional résumé so that by the time we are done, you will want to show off your newly crafted résumé to the world. You'll also be ready to apply for that dream job you have always wanted.

Let's get started

What is a résumé?

A résumé is a document that provides a summary of your education, work history, credentials, accomplishments, and skills.

Your résumé will likely be the first document potential employers request and review when considering hiring you, followed by a cover letter.

Before we get any further, just a quick reminder that a résumé is different from a curriculum vitae (CV).

Types of Resumes

Most professionals résumé writers argue that there are three different types of résumés: Functional, Chronological and Combination

• Functional résumé - This type of résumé focuses on what you've done, and the experience you have gained from multiple projects.

• Chronological résumé - This is the most commonly used type of résumé, which focuses more on your work history. In this résumé, you list jobs in reverse chronological order, beginning with your most recent job back to the oldest.

• Combination résumé - Just as the name suggests, this is a combination of both the functional and chronological résumé types.

How to write your résumé

Your résumé should not be the same as anyone else's, because we all have different skills and experiences. But your résumé should still have the following sections and information in common regardless of what template you choose to use:

Header Section

This section is where you should include:

• Your name
• Phone number
• Email address
• Social links (social media and personal website/portfolio/GitHub)
• A headline that tells who you are as a candidate

All this information makes it easy for recruiters to know who the résumé belongs to and how they can reach you.

Profession Summary Section

This is a brief paragraph at the beginning of the résumé that describes who you are, what you do, and why you are perfect for the job.

This section is not all about what you want, but what your potential employer can expect from you. It can make or break your chances with your recruiters.

Here's a sample so you can get an idea of what a summary might look like:

Work Experience Section

This is the most important part of your résumé where you get to detail your work history.

This section should include the companies where you've worked, your employment periods, roles and titles you've held, and also the accomplishments you achieved. You'll definitely want to make this section stand out.

First you will need to list your experience from the most recent (top) to the oldest (at the bottom). If you are currently working at a certain company include the "[start month and year - current]"

Under this section, I highly recommend using bullets to list your role/duties from your past and current companies. I think 3-5 bullet points is ideal here.

Use action verbs to describe your tasks and accomplishments, and also remember to write in the past tense.

When listing your duties, include a measurable accomplishment with each role. This will give the recruiter confidence in your abilities.

Skills Section

This section has become more and more important to recruiters as they look for candidates with a specialized background.

When listing down skills you have, make sure to include both hard skills and soft skills.

By hard skills, I mean skills related to your field of study, the ones you have gained through work and study. Soft skills are more personal and related to your character, like being team-player, having integrity, excelling at teamwork, having the ability to focus, and so on.

You will want to balance both types of skills and not to rely on one type alone. Also remember to use keywords here, as companies use Application Tracking Systems (ATS) to scan through your résumé for ideal candidates.

Taleo is a common ATS that recruiters use, and for the top résumé keywords check out this resource

Education Section

Many jobs require a certain level of education. So if you have a degree or have completed a bootcamp or other certificate, it is important to include it on your résumé.

If you have just graduated, then your education section should go above your work experience. You should also include relevant course work and other voluntary work or projects you've done that support your application.

But you might be wondering – what if you don't have formal higher education? What should you include in this case?

Instead of listing a degree, you can highlight the different ways that you have learned and grown in that field. For example, high school education, bootcamps you've participated in, projects you've completed/worked on, and even internships. List them here if you lack a formal degree.

Awards, Certifications, and Accolades Section

You can include this section in your work experience section as achievements if you want. But I think highlighting it in its own section is better.

This section will increase your credibility, assuming you have things to list in it. Some certifications you can include are things like:

• Marketing certifications
• Education, coding bootcamp, and freeCodeCamp certifications
• Online course certificates
• Awards or grants you've received

Résumé Formating Tips

Now that you are done with the first step of building your résumé, you should make sure it's formatted properly.

Double check to make sure you haven't missed anything. A well-polished résumé will make it easy for recruiters to go through it and get the information they need.

How to write your résumé

✔ Be honest ✔ Use easy to read fonts ✔ Use simple words and action verbs ✔ Include unpaid internships to showcase your skills ✔ Limit your résumé to two pages max (one page if you're early in your career ✔ Write the résumé to suit the position you are applying for ✔ Proofread you résumé ✔ finish crafting and then start editing it

How not to write your résumé

✔ Don't include reasons for leaving your previous job ✔ Don't include references - instead say that references will be provided if requested ✔ Avoid using too many bullet points ✔ Don't save your résumé as a PDF unless asked to ✔ Don't use an inappropriate email address ✔ Avoid including unnecessary information like your age, weight, and so on. ✔ Avoid including your picture in your résumé - just let the recruiter focus on your skills.

Now that we've covered what you need to do to write a professional résumé, you'll probably want to actually make one.

If you're still finding it difficult to format your résumé yourself, don't worry – you're not alone.

There are easy ways to make your résumé look good. You can check out the sites below, but keep in mind that you will have to pay:

Résumé Builder Sites

The sites listed below offer different formats of writing résumés with templates to use. If you check them out they offer guidance on how to write résumés easily.

I would not suggest copying everything you see there, but you can follow their template guidelines and try to create your own résumé to match those templates.

Feel free to check out and try different templates and designs as you decide which one to work with for your résumé:

• Zetty Résumé Builder
• Résumé
• VisualCV
• Résumé Genius
• RésuméBuilder
• Résumé Baking
• Enhancv
• Canva

Conclusion

If you really want to improve your chances of getting a certain job, make sure you write your résumé so that it's tailored to each individual job application.

If you have a well-written résumé that matches the job requirements and includes relevant keywords from the job description, it'll help you stand out to recruiters.

This article was quite long, so if you have read this far, thank you!

Connect With me at Twitter | Insta | YouTube | LinkedIn | GitHub

Do share your valuable opinion, I appreciate your honest feedback!

Enjoy Coding ❤

Well, the answer isn't a simple yes or no. Turns out, it basically depends on whether you're in academia or not, and possibly where you live. But more on that below.

If you're job hunting, or just want to keep your credentials up to date, you'll want to make sure you have a résumé or a CV on hand.

Let's look at each document in detail. In this article you'll learn what a CV is, how it differs from a résumé (and when that distinction matters), and when you might need each one.

What is a CV?

A CV, or curriculum vitae, actually has two meanings, depending on the field you're in.

But first, what does the Latin "curriculum vitae" actually mean? Well, it means "the course of (one's) life". Which makes it sound like quite an epic document, depending on how much life experience you've had.

CVs in Academia

If you're in academia and/or are applying to an academic position, this makes sense. A CV in this case refers to a detailed document that explains your educational and professional background, any publications you have, research you've done and so on – in great depth.

You'd also use this type of CV if you're applying for large grants or fellowships, for certain jobs in medical and scientific fields, and so on.

CVs in Industry Jobs

On the other hand, in both British and American English, the term CV can be used to reference a short document that catalogues your education, career history, and skills. It's usually no more than a page (front and back at the most) and provides the most important highlights you want your potential employer to know.

Basically, in this case, a CV is what you'd send to a company for whom you want to work as a data scientist, programmer, business development lead, and other jobs like those ("industry" jobs). It would be the first thing the employer likely sees when considering your application, and they'd probably spend about 6 seconds reviewing it.

So, just to summarize:

• In academia, a CV refers to an in-depth personal and professional life summary that includes education, career history, publications, and other professional achievements and awards.
• In other industries – like tech or business – the term CV refers to the short education, career, and skills summary you submit with job applications.

CV vs Résumé – What Are the Main Differences?

The shorter CV might sound familiar – and that's because it's basically interchangeable with a résumé. In the United States and elsewhere, you can use both terms (CV and résumé) to refer to the shorter document you submit with job applications.

So what are the main differences between academic CVs and traditional résumés? Let's take a look at the primary components of each so we can better distinguish between the two documents.

What to include in an academic CV

As we learned above, a CV intended for the academic world includes more detail and generally more information than a résumé. Generally, you'll want to have sections for:

• Your professional qualifications – any certifications you might have
• Your educational background – your degree(s), any theses you've written, other courses you've taken
• Your work experience – jobs you've had, projects you've worked on, internships you've held, teaching positions you've had, research you've conducted
• Your accomplishments – any awards or honors you've received, fellowships or grants you've been awarded, books or papers you've written
• Your activities – you can include things like volunteer work, serious hobbies, side projects
• Any special qualifications you might have

What to include in a résumé/shorter CV

You might have heard that recruiters or employers might spend no more than 6 seconds reviewing your résumé – and while that's not always true, you have to imagine it might be.

So your résumé needs to be focused and to the point, and should only highlight your most recent experience and achievements, and your strongest skills. Here's what to include:

• Your name and contact information – make sure you include an email address, and you can also add your social media handles if you want.
• You can include a summary – a couple sentences that gives an overview of your professional experience thus far (a brief "getting to know you" paragraph).
• Your educational background – where you got your degree (if you have one) and any post-grad work. If you didn't go to college, you can list any bootcamps or online courses you've taken.
• Your work experience – if you've had a number of jobs and have a fair amount of experience, just include the most recent and relevant. If you're new to the job market, include any projects, internships, or other relevant experience.
• Your top skills – if you're applying for a job that requires specific skills, and you have those skills, list them. You can also list general skills that would apply to that position.

This is the primary info you want to include. Your résumé shouldn't be much longer than a page (maybe two if you've had a lot of experience/jobs), but if you have more room you can include honors and awards and side projects.

So in short, academic CVs are much more in-depth, cover more ground, and provide a more complete picture of your entire professional history.

Shorter CVs/résumés, on the other hand, focus on your relevant education and work experience, and the skills you have that are applicable to the job for which you're applying.

Example of a CV

Here's an example of a pretty impressive CV. I'll include a screenshot of the first page here, but it's 10 pages long.

Thank you to Dr. Tuba Yilmaz Abdolsaheb for sharing this example!

Example of a Résumé

And here's an example of a shorter CV/résumé, like what you'd take to an industry job interview. This example is for a data scientist, and the entire thing is one page long.

Thanks to Indeed for the example.

And that's it!

Hopefully now you know the differences between an academic CV and a shorter CV or résumé, and will know which one to choose when you're applying for jobs.

When applying for jobs, everyone says they are passionate about coding and development. As a developer and hiring manager, what I'm looking for is evidence of that passion.

This week, I took a look at multiple CVs from people who were switching careers and looking for their first developer job. I spent around 2-5 minutes per person before deciding if they would make the cut.

That's not a lot of time to impress a stranger! Here's a shortlist of things I looked for:

• Regular commits on GitHub
• Personalised projects
• Evidence of good written communication

Regular commits on GitHub

What does your GitHub contribution history look like? If you are passionate about coding, then I assume you are coding regularly.

Once easy way to demonstrate this passion is to code publicly. Set up a repository on GitHub, learn about making atomic commits, and push them.

This gives employers a nice signal that you are coding every day, and that you really mean it when you say you are passionate about coding.

What I look for is a nice green chart. Let's look at this person's public contribution history on GitHub:

Example contribution history on GitHub

This person is coding publicly only during certain times of the year: November, December, March and July. I suspect these coincide with bootcamp projects, a.k.a. projects that were compulsory. When looking at candidates from the same bootcamp cohort, and every person has the same contribution graph, it's hard to stand out.

As an employer, it doesn't send a strong signal to me about passion. There are several months of the year which are empty.

This person may have been coding every day on her personal laptop, but as an employer, I have no way of seeing that and acknowledging that effort.

Let's look at another person's contribution history:

Almost daily contributions to GitHub

This person is making almost daily commits to GitHub. This is a very strong signal that she is interested in coding, and has been coding daily for the last twelve months.

This is fantastic, especially if she's not a coder by trade. I'd want to speak to this person and learn what she's been working on! Even if the bulk of her commits are text edits to a README.md file, it's still a great sign of commitment and consistency.

Personalised projects

Link to your projects, and make sure they shine!

Some ways to do this:

• Put in real content
• Inject it with your own personality. Find images that mean something to you.
• Take pride in your work: it doesn't need to be beautifully designed - I'm looking for an engineer, not a visual designer. But there's a basic level of care: do things overlap? Is there enough white space? Does it work on mobile as well as web?

Common pitfalls I noticed:

• No links to projects
• Putting up a bootcamp project with no personality, or with lorem ipsum. When I have CVs from 20 graduates from the same bootcamp, this gets old very quickly. It doesn't affirm the "I'm passionate" aspect if you haven't bothered to personalise your portfolio.
• Links to projects that no longer work. Make sure you get a friend to test it on a different device than yours.
• Links to projects that require setup. Make it easy for us! Have a great README.md file with the details on how to set it up. Put in lots of screenshots, UX flows, sequence diagrams, and so on. Chances are an employer will point and click, but I'd say it's highly unlikely an employer will download your project. So the screenshots, UX flows, and so on will need to demonstrate what your project does.

Looking for some "good" vs "bad" examples? I don't want to pick on anybody's work, so here's an example of one of my projects, with no personality:

My drum machine project

Look familiar? It's my drum machine project from the freeCodeCamp curriculum. I haven't personalised it at all. And what's worse - there are thousands of other people who have done this project, and made it MUCH cooler! I would never tell an employer to visit this project as a sign of my passion.

A different project from the freeCodeCamp curriculum is the personal portfolio. I spent much more time personalising this project. It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination (it isn't responsive which really bugs me!), but it is uniquely mine.

My personal portfolio project

My portfolio also demonstrates another hidden pitfall listed above: links to broken projects. When I created this portfolio, my pomodoro timer looked beautiful.

What my pomodoro timer used to look like, with a nice background image

Fast forward a few years, and the stock image I was relying on is no longer available. So my live pomodoro timer looks a little on the sad side. It's not the end of the world, but it's definitely not putting my best foot forward. It tells employers that whilst I'm asking them to click on the link, I haven't bothered doing the same myself.

What my pomodoro timer looks like now - no images

Bottom line: if you tell an employer to click a link, then you should click it first and see if you're happy with it.

Evidence of good written communication skills

I would say that every tech job out there relies on written skills. There's the documentation in your code (although ideally your code is self-documenting). There's also Slack and pull requests as part of your every day job.

It's another easy dot point to include on CVs: "excellent communication skills". Every CV lists it. As an employer, I glaze over this point because it's difficult to assess through a CV.

However if you follow up this assertion with links to some well structured README.md files on GitHub, or online articles you authored, or your personal blog, then bingo!

As an employer, I'll definitely click on those links. They help me gauge what your personality is like, your communication style, the amount of detail and effort you put into structuring your thoughts, and so much more.

Below is an example of a rubbish README.md file of mine. I haven't put any effort into this file, so I wouldn't link to this project in my CV without first updating the README.md file.

However I would definitely put a link to some tutorials I've written on freeCodeCamp.

Wrapping up

As a career switcher, it can feel daunting to find your first dev job. Please stick with it! You bring a raft of transferrable skills with you.

I hope this article shows you it's within your own control to create a CV that stands out from the crowd, shows off your unique personality, and helps you land that first job.

As a hiring manager, I’ve read hundreds of software developer resumes.

I’ve also talked to and interviewed dozens of recruiters and hiring managers who work at Facebook, Google, Spotify, Amazon, and other tech companies about the same topic while writing The Tech Resume Inside Out.

You’ve probably heard the statistic that recruiters spend an average of 6 seconds scanning a resume. And my experience confirms this.

But there are a lot of things you can do to make recruiters and hiring managers read what you want them to read on the first CV scan.

Let's take a step back: who will read your resume?

Before jumping into advice on your resume format and content, we need to pause. Do you know who will actually read your resume at the company? Whose attention do you need to catch?

Here are the people who will - or could - read your resume.

People in the hiring process who could read your resume

Let's look at each of their roles in more detail.

How hiring managers will read your resume

Hiring managers are the people who opened the position—or headcounts, as it’s internally called.

They define the requirements and often write the job description. They set up the hiring process and define who the technical interviewers will be and what areas they should focus on.

And at smaller companies, they might screen all incoming resumes. But as the company grows, they won’t have time to do this.

How HR generalists will read your resume

HR generalists might do resume screening at growing companies, who have yet to hire a dedicated recruiter.

These people get guidance from hiring managers and then try to see if there’s an overlap between your resume, the job description, and what the hiring manager asked for.

How recruiters will read your resume

Recruiters often do most resume screening at mid-sized companies.

Some recruiters are more hands-on and understand technical terms better. Some might be closer to an HR generalist in their technical domain knowledge.

Recruiters will aim to determine if you could be a fit for the role based on your resume.

How inbound sourcers will read your resume

Inbound sourcers are a specialized role within large tech companies, who get large loads of applications. They are recruiters who focus on sorting through the direct applications and do this for multiple positions at any given time.

Inbound sourcers tend to strictly follow the job requirements and guidance from recruiters and hiring managers. They are the ones who usually see the most resumes on any given day between all the roles discussed here.

How the interview panel will read your resume

The interview panel is the group of people who will interview you, assuming you make it through the resume screening (and, possibly, a recruiter call).

They get your resume forwarded and do a quick read-through before the interview.

There’s no need to impress this group: they are the people who might pay attention to your “interests” section, though, to kick off the conversation with an icebreaker.

Almost everyone who scans your resume will care that it shows you are a good fit for the job you applied for.

HR generalists, recruiters, and inbound sourcers all focus on the job description requirements and the hiring manager's expectations.

The only people who will be more flexible in “interpreting” your resume will be the hiring manager and experienced recruiters who have a good relationship with their hiring manager.

This is important. Tailoring your resume for the position you apply for is the most important thing you can do to catch the recruiter’s attention. And once you have that attention, this will get them to read your CV in more detail.

Tailor your resume to the position

When you apply for a job, you probably feel qualified enough for that listing. You know your own strengths, your ability to learn quickly, and some examples of similar work you might have done, in a different setting.

However, the people reading your resume don’t have any context about you. So you can choose how to proceed.

Do you give a thorough overview of all your past achievements? Or do you focus on a shorter overview, highlighting the parts that show why you would be a great fit for this role?

Craft a resume that shows why you are a fit for that specific position.

Take a “master” version of your resume, then remove parts that hold less relevance to the position.

Switch up the order of bullet points or tech skills, and start with ones the position emphasizes more. Add examples or experiences that reflect on expectations or bonus points for the job.

I’ve noticed that developers are often nervous to remove bullet points from their past experiences. You shouldn’t be.

Your resume is a tool to get you the interview. Once you make it to the interview, you’ll have the opportunity to talk about the various things that you did that are not on the resume.

Be ruthless in removing things that don’t help convey why you are a good fit for that specific position.

Talk about your impact and specific accomplishments

When listing your work and project experiences, focus on what you achieved instead of what you did.

For the achievements, try to quantify these with the impact and (business) results. A framework you could use is “Accomplished {impact} as measured by {number} by doing {specific contribution}”. This is similar to the structure Google encourages for resumes.

You don't need to use the same wording. However, do make the impact clear, what your contribution was, and add specifics where you can.

Use numbers on your resume

Use numbers to convey the impact of your work or projects. Numbers grab the attention of hiring managers, and they also show that you are able to quantify the outcome of work and be specific about it.

For example, instead of saying, “Built an open source JavaScript project to display dates.”, say “Built an open source JavaScript component for date display. The project has 5 contributors, 120 stars and 4 known production use cases.”

Use active language on your resume

Active language shows what you have done and how you have been proactive.

Use active verbs like “led”, “managed”, “drove”, “improved”, “rolled out” over passive ones like “improving” or “rolling out”.

Mention specific languages and technologies on your resume

List the skills and tools that you've used towards the end of your description. Impact and your contribution are more important to convey than the technologies you know.

However, it’s worth calling out what tools you’ve used. Mentioning technologies in this context is more powerful for hiring managers and interviewers who are reading your resume in detail.

Here are a few examples of how to mention these programming languages in your CV.

Quantify your impact wherever you can

This is important, so I'll emphasize it again: most resumes do not contain numbers. So if you add these specifics, you will stand out.

For example, instead of saying, “Built a tool widely adopted by the company”, say “Led a team of 3 developers to build a dependency injection framework that was adopted by 15 teams and all 50+ developers at the company”.

Numbers can be several things: number of people on the team, lines of code, code coverage % before and after, SLA changes, revenue generated by the project, and so on.

They can also be the number of users, number of installs, number of five-star ratings, number of customer support tickets you proactively resolved, and many others.

Choose a clear, top-to-bottom template for your resume

The benefit of being a software developer is that the format of your resume doesn’t matter, as long as it’s clear. The contents are what is important.

There are many resume templates out there. However, most of them were created for people who want to see pretty resumes.

What you’ll want is an easy to read resume. The best template for this is dead simple, and has the layout similar to this:

The logical structure of an easy-to-read resume template: top to bottom, relevant parts for the position first

Keep the resume easy to read as you write the contents. You’ll want key details to “stand out” via whitespace or bolding that recruiters and hiring managers care about:

• Your name
• Location / residence
• Dates that tell roughly how many years of experience you have
• Languages & technologies you are proficient with
• Titles & company names from your past experience
• Standout information

Resist highlighting anything else beyond the key pieces of information. Overusing highlighting or bolding defeats the purpose of this tool.

Take a look at this developer resume template I created that gives you a sense of an easy-to-read CV.

Be careful how you use links on your resume

Don’t make the reader dig out details on your resume. Many resumes have links to projects, technical blogs, or GitHub profiles. Hiring managers and recruiters who are technical often click through to these.

However, many developers miss the opportunity to give context in the resume, why a certain project is interesting, or highlight the blog post they’d want the recruiter to check out.

For projects that you link to in your resume, mention interesting things about it. What was the complexity of building it? What are you proud of? What practices did you use in your approach?

Take these two descriptions of the same project:

• barePHP: I used this project to learn about software architecture and design using the PHP programming language.
• barePHP: A minimal and progressive PHP framework for building efficient and scalable server-side applications. Designed with SOLID principles, testability and extensibility in mind.

The second description provides more context around the project, and hiring managers will be more likely to check out the linked code.

Make sure projects you link have a clean README, and consider creating your personal GitHub README as well. You can see an example of mine here.

For technical blogs you have written, add links to one or two of your most relevant technical articles in your resume (instead of just linking to your blog). This approach will let you control more what you’d like to show.

You’ll also guide your reader better, and they'll start by reading some of your best or most relevant content if they click through.

The goal of your resume

If you follow the above advice, it should help guide recruiters and hiring managers to the important parts of your resume in the first scan. It'll also help make sure they come back to the whole thing, if you seem to be a good match.

Let's recap that advice:

• Send tailored resumes to postings
• Highlight impact with specifics
• Choose an easy-to-read format
• Give context on links

The one goal your resume should accomplish is conveying that you’ve got the experience that the position is looking for.

For more resume feedback, you can submit your anonymized resume to the regular resume feedback thread on Reddit and read feedback from past sessions.

I’ve written the book The Tech Resume Inside Out: what a good developer resume looks like, which is free for any developer currently without a job.

If you’re job hunting: I hope the above advice helps, and I wish you the best of luck!

Résumés are hard. And most people are bad at them – which makes sense, because you probably only write or update your résumé every few years. It involves selling yourself and your skills - something most people struggle with.

On top of this, it's difficult to figure out how to sort through all the advice on the internet in order to figure out which is the good advice.

Plus people rarely think that their résumé is the problem, even if they've been struggling to get interviews. They'll often say something like "but I've had tons of people review it and they all say it's okay!"

What's the issue here?

There are a couple of problems with this - first, you want your résumé to be better than okay - in order to stand out in an extremely competitive job market, it needs to be stellar.

Second, most people don't know how to write a good résumé, and therefore they can't help identify the problems with yours. Also, it's often hard for reviewers to provide constructive criticism for fear of hurting someone's feelings.

Finally, you really need someone who has a lot of experience hiring or recruiting in your specific field in order to receive accurate advice.

As someone who has reviewed a lot of résumés (good and bad), here's the most important information you need to know about writing a résumé that will help land you a job. This applies whether you're writing a résumé for the very first time, or re-writing it for the 100th.

Don't create your own résumé format

If you do, you risk having your résumé be difficult to read or end up with formatting issues. There are tons of freely available résumé templates available, such as the ones here, here, and here. Use them.

When you write a résumé, you want the focus to be on your achievements, not how you've formatted them. You don't need unusual formatting for your résumé to stick out (and you don't want that to be the reason your résumé sticks out).

Good résumés will stick out because they showcase your exceptional achievements. Hiring managers (and HR) want to be able to easily understand your qualifications and achievements by skimming your résumé (which they'll do in roughly 20 seconds). So make their lives easy.

Often hiring mangers and HR don't use résumés as a way to decide whom to hire, but instead, whom they're not interested in hiring. They may receive hundreds, if not thousands of résumés for a single position. They need a fast, easy way to sort through the résumés in order to decide who gets an interview.

Thus, if there's anything wrong with the résumé (typos, strange formatting, and so on), they're likely to simply toss it in the 'no' or 'maybe' pile. Because they're likely to have so many résumés to review, the 'no' and the 'maybe' pile are unlikely to receive interviews.

Therefore, your job when crafting your résumé is not to give the reviewer any reason to toss your résumé aside.

Start out with your contact information

List a phone number, email address, and if you have it, a link to your GitHub profile (a GitHub profile is a great way to show employers past projects, but it isn't necessary!).

Don't list other social media profiles, photos, or other personal details (family details, medical problems, and so on). An address isn't necessary unless you have recently moved and are job hunting far from where your past experience is listed, in which case you may want to add a city and state.

What to leave out

Don't include an 'objective', 'profile', 'summary' or 'highlight' section at the top of the résumé. Most of these simply repeat information found later in the résumé.

They're typically unhelpful to the reviewer and ultimately a waste of space you can use for more valuable content.

Add your most relevant content first

This means that if you're a recent college graduate, with little work experience, your education should come first. If your work experience is more relevant to the job you're applying for (most people), place that first.

Education should be a line or two that states where you went to school and/or certifications/courses you've taken. You can include a line for relevant coursework, awards, or school projects below the education section, but it shouldn't be more than a line or two.

Work experience should list the company which employed you, your job title, the dates worked, and a few bullet points about what you accomplished at the job.

You don't have to include every job you've ever had, just the most relevant ones (though I would be sure to show a consistent track record of employment, as much as you can).

Make sure that your bullet points reflect achievements, not duties

This is the most important thing to do in a résumé – and the thing that separates good résumés from great ones.

Many people list the things that they've done at a job - for example "wrote code for x software", "debugged y project in C++", and so on.

Instead, you want to list what your accomplishment was, or how you performed job duties better than someone else would have in your position. You want the reader to understand what you were assigned to do, and how good you were at the job.

Ideally, you can demonstrate this via quantifiable results (like "reduced average help desk ticket response time by 25%") with some type of measure or metric which demonstrates how well you performed your duties.

If that isn't possible, you can still describe results (for example, "became the subject matter expert in Y"). This should be the most important part of your résumé – ensuring that your bullet points accurately describe the results you delivered in your role.

One formula you can use for this is to say "[action verb such as created, wrote, developed] [product], using [highlight the language or tool you've used], in order to achieve [result]."

This helps you break down what your duties were, what skills you've gained from these duties, and what you were able to accomplish in this position.

Skip the skills section

Instead of including skills as a separate section, describe the tools you've used in your project (such as, created X using C++, or acted as administrator for Splunk).

In this way, you'll still highlight the same skills, but you'll also provide the potential employer with context, so they know how familiar you are with various tools.

There's nothing more frustrating than someone listing a series of tools and skills without any context.

As a potential employer I'm not sure if they used the tool or language once, or if they have near mastery and can complete complex tasks. (And the definition of 'complex' can vary a lot from person to person). It makes my life much easier if I understand which projects you completed with this tool/language.

Some organizations will also filter résumés using automated keyword searches (automatically discarding résumés which don't mention specific keywords they're looking for). However, as you've still mentioned the same skills, you'll still be able to pass the keyword filters.

Don't include subjective traits in your résumé

Things like 'strong leader', 'team player' or 'critical thinker' are things that a potential employer should be able to infer from your experience – not something you explicitly tell them.

In addition, because these are entirely subjective traits that most people will claim to have, the statements are essentially meaningless. Most employers will entirely disregard these types of assessments.

Include personal projects

If you've worked hard on a website/game/project – even if it was not for work or school – those projects are great places to showcase your talents. (Particularly if they're included in your GitHub, which you should include a link to).

If the project shows off skills which aren't present in another area of your résumé, list them!

Include other relevant experience

If you have limited experience in your chosen field, or have significant experience in volunteer work which is relevant, include it.

For example, if you are looking for jobs in web design, and in your spare time you created a website for a local nonprofit, include it (and link to the website).

However, if you are looking for jobs in web design and volunteer as a nanny in your free time, don't include that.

This also goes for extracurriculars. If they're relevant (and you're within a few years of graduating), feel free to include them. Otherwise, leave them off.

Include an interests/hobbies section if you have space. Skip it if you don't.

This is a space to list personal hobbies (rock climbing, hiking, scuba diving, and so on) as well as professional ones (groups such as OWASP, interest in learning about AWS, and so on).

Most hiring managers won't care (and are unlikely to penalize you for including it), but some will enjoy seeing it. It is unlikely to be the deciding factor in your application.

Don't list conferences/groups unless you presented or had a leadership role

Skip listing conferences you've attended as a separate section (unless you've presented research or won an award there).

The same goes for groups you're a part of, unless you've taken on leadership positions, where it may be appropriate to include in an 'other experience' section.

Limit your résumé to 1 or 2 pages

If you're a recent graduate, it should not be more than one page. If you're slightly older, two pages is fine, though you should be wary of going past two pages.

Having a longer résumé will not show a potential employer that you are more qualified, but it will show them that you can't figure out what is most important in your résumé. Which isn't a good thing.

Note that this advice only applies to resumes. CVs, which are more common in Europe, use a different, longer format.

Proofread your résumé 10 times

Then go back and review it again. If you struggle with grammar and spelling, or English isn't your first language, check out Grammarly. It's free and will help you identify changes you should make to your writing. If you can, ask a friend (or two) to help you out.

This is similar to the issue of formatting. If your résumé is difficult to read due to spelling and grammatical mistakes, the focus won't be on your achievements.

Plus, communication is a huge part of any job (really, no matter how technical) and your résumé is a place to showcase your communication skills.

Since you've had essentially unlimited time to write and review your résumé, it's expected that it will be free from grammatical mistakes or spelling errors.

Review your résumé before the interview

You should assume that an interviewer will ask you questions about items you list on your résumé and you should come prepared to talk about your past jobs and experiences.

This should go without saying, but don't list things on your résumé that aren't true (even if they sound impressive).

Include a personalized, custom cover letter for jobs you care about

Cover letters are a way that you can stand out from your competition and show the organization why you're interested in working for them, as opposed to any other organization.

This is more important to some organizations than others (FAANG companies typically won't care). But a great cover letter will never hurt your chances of being hired, only help them.

It can also be a helpful exercise for you – it gives you the chance to think about and articulate why you're interested in working for this company. So when you're asked in an interview "why this organization?" you have an answer readily available.

Good luck with the job hunt, and don't let yourself get discouraged.

Here are some other popular articles with résumé advice from freeCodeCamp authors:

• Here's the resume I used to get a job at Google as a software engineer
• How to write a killer Software Engineering Résumé
• How to write an awesome junior developer résumé in a few simple steps
• Why Your Resume Is Being Rejected - and How to Fix It

If you are a new grad looking for an internship or full-time position at a top-tier tech company, this article is for you.

If you know someone who’s currently in the process of looking for a new developer job, send them this article.

I summarize some of the top mistakes I see as a career coach, and as someone who’s been on both sides of the metaphorical interviewing “table”.

These tips have helped me land job offers from Microsoft, Amazon, and Twitter – all without an Ivy League degree.

Avoiding these mistakes is critical because, if you are making any of these mistakes today, chances are your resume is not getting picked up by the right people.

Even worse, you’re not getting the opportunity that you deserve.

If you prefer to watch this article instead, I made a whole video about it here:

Mistake 1: Too much fluff, not enough stuff

Many first-time candidates spend too much time on their resume!

What I mean specifically is that they focus mainly on the formatting, the color, the fonts, and the layout of the resume.

They’re so focused on the formatting of the resume that they can’t see the forest for the trees. They don’t realize that their resume lacks the right content for the jobs they want.

Why’s that important, you ask? In today’s market, trying to be a software engineer is a highly competitive industry. There were 26 million developers by the end of 2019, and we're expecting to have 27.7 million developers by 2023, according to this article.

And it makes sense why many people covet jobs in the software engineering industry: they often boast a  high 6-figure salary, amazing health benefits, unlimited PTO, free snacks and food, among other perks.

In a competitive, red-hot market, the thing you need to do to stand out is to focus on the actual content of your resume. What that means specifically is to pick up “meaty” or interesting projects that will hone your technical chops and beef up your portfolio.

Here’s an example of a web crawler that I built to help me apply to companies and also beef up my resume.

Strong technical skills/experience makes you a much stronger and attractive candidate. Many fresh grads try to pad up their resume with non-tech related experience like social clubs.

I don’t think those are unnecessary. Non-tech related experiences are valuable insights into your character. But if you’re trying to apply as a software engineer, what’s most important here is the technical content.

Companies want to see your technical skills, whether you can write code, and if you can deliver a given assignment and get stuff done.

Mistake 2: Tutorial Hogs

The second most common mistake I see is that many people spend too much time on tutorials with no clear goals in mind.

They’re the typical Coursera/EdX/ warriors who sign up for every Android, Swift, JavaScript, React course available and work through them diligently.

They know every syntax of every programming language out there. They can chat religiously about MVC vs MVVC. They know what’s “in” and what’s “out”.

But the truth is usually not so rosy — about a few weeks into one course, they give up.

They have learned the syntax of the language and how to set up the framework. But they haven’t actually built anything substantial using the knowledge that they have gained.

Now that is a problem because what happens is that you have a lot of “fringe” knowledge (things that few people know a lot about). But you are not able to take that knowledge and apply it.

In the industry there’s something that we call “applied intelligence.” Can you apply your knowledge to a new domain? Can you take your knowledge about Python, for example, and use that to automate your finances via a Python script?

If you can do so, then you’re presenting yourself as a holistic, technical-oriented problem solver. And that’s what a lot of companies are looking for.

Mistake 3: Missing the forest for the trees

Why limit your job search to only San Francisco or Seattle? Or even the US for that matter?

Most people make the mistake of applying only to the companies that they’ve heard of, like Google, Facebook, or Twitter.

But the problem is this: there are only a handful of top companies in the industry with even fewer job opportunities.

The truth is you have a very limited set of openings, with a lot of competition from the large pool of applicants all over the world. The chances of getting an interview or even landing a job become extremely thin for the average person.

My recommendation is to expand your horizons and search beyond just the companies you’ve heard of.

Instead of just focusing on those top tech companies, open up your eyes and look across startups, midsize companies, and non-tech companies because those are the best opportunities right now.

Starting somewhere small and building your experience along the way is a great way to bootstrap your career. It doesn’t really matter how much you get paid initially or what the title of the position really is, because once you get your foot in the door, you can learn and improve yourself to prepare for the job you want.

That’s exactly what I did when I graduated from college — I didn’t have any job lined up. I then wrote a script that helped me apply to different companies, and finally a startup took a gamble on me and gave me a job. You can read more about my story here, and how I finally landed at Twitter.

Mistake 4: Right Credentials, Wrong Job

My best analogy for this: would you buy a shovel to build a door? Most likely no, so why would you apply as a machine learning specialist if you are a front-end engineer?

This baffles me as I’ve seen many great resumes come through the door for the wrong positions. Most of my friends have seen this happen as well. And the unfortunate truth is that, most companies will throw your resume in the trash if it’s not the right fit.

Some of my friends shyly confided in me that they’re hoping that the HR department would slot their resume in the right hands somehow.

I’m sorry, but they won’t.

If you’re a software engineer and you’re trying to apply for a machine-learning positioned, ideally your resume should have some relevant experience related to machine learning. Either you should have taken some internship projects or have some machine learning related experience at your current job.

My personal recommendation in this case is to:

1. Figure out what skill sets you have and how your skill sets match up with the position
2. Get a friend to review your resume with you and see where the gaps are

If you don’t have a friend (sad but OK), then ping me here — I can’t promise I’ll find you a friend, but I can help review your resume.

Keep refining your résumé. And keep applying.

If you found this article useful, join my newsletter where I write monthly about software engineering, technical interviews, and technologies here. Follow me on Twitter.

When it comes to crafting the perfect resume to land your dream job, you probably think of just about everything but the font. But font is a key part of your first impression to recruiters and employers.

In this post, I’m going to walk you through the 10 best fonts for your resume (and when to use each). We’ll also talk about why employers care about font choice and how you can use it to set yourself apart from the competition.

Does Your Resume Font Really Matter?

Imagine an ad for a sleek, ultra-thin cell phone. What kind of design and font do you picture in the marketing materials?

You probably dreamed up something as slender and condensed as the phone itself. You wouldn’t expect a marketing team to use anything flowery, ornate, or thick and bold if they’re trying to get customers to think thin:

Image courtesy of Apple.com

Now imagine an ad for a fantasy novel. How would the words pop on the page?

You probably didn’t imagine something traditional and straightforward, right? If you’re going to dive into a fairy tale universe packed with dragon-slayers and towering castles, you’ll probably expect to see a font with a few flourishes and curlicues.

Font choice is a crucial part of any marketing team’s design. Every aspect of an advertisement’s design, from the imagery to the layout and the way the words appear on the page, should get a potential customer thinking positively about the product or service being sold.

When you craft your resume, think of yourself as a marketing team of one. You’re designing for the recruiter’s or employer’s first impression of you with your cover letter and resume. You’re selling yourself in every aspect of your self-branding, from content to timeliness and format.

When your name lands on an employer’s desk or in their inbox, you want them to come away with a great impression of you. They aren’t seeing you in person, and there are no other context clues to give them any other ideas than what you present them with–even something as seemingly small as format or font. Because everything they see about you will be written in your chosen font, it will make a much bigger difference than you might imagine.

You don’t have to take my word for it, either. There’s plenty of scientific evidence to prove that font affects consumers’ perceptions of a product or company, and employers’ perceptions of job applicants:

One study at Wichita State University, for example, showed that respondents associated fonts like Times New Roman and Arial with stability. Courier New and Georgia meant “maturity” in participants’ minds, while Agency FB was associated with rigidity and Kristen symbolized excitement.

Other research indicates that it’s not just the font choice, but the consistency of that choice with other aspects of marketing, that really makes the difference. If font and other visual and tonal elements (like resume design, formatting, paragraphs, graphics, and style choices like bold and italics) all give the same consistent message — such as “this applicant has the relevant skills,” “this applicant is reliable and dependable,” or “this applicant is creative and visually-oriented,” that message is likelier to stick in your reader’s brain. But if just one aspect, like font, is off, it could undermine the entire message, weakening every aspect of your introduction.

Remember that the presentation of your resume and cover letter together are a way for you to self-brand. If your brand messaging is consistent across design and content, form and function, font and tone, you’re much likelier to make a sale–or, in this case, to get invited for an interview.

What’s the Big Deal About Resume Fonts Anyways?

So, why does a small thing like font choice make such a big impact on your ability to get hired?

Our brains make connections every second, working overtime to flesh out the meaning of everything we read and see. We connect certain aesthetics and words with emotions, character traits, and moods.

Think about it: You’d probably feel confused if you went to a fresh fruit smoothie shop and saw grungey, gritty, dark decor. That’s because, due to your past experiences, you probably already associate smoothie shops with breezy, tropical environments and bright, cheery colors.

As typeface designer and author Cyrus Highsmith told The Week, “Typography is the detail and the presentation of a story. It represents the voice of an atmosphere, or historical setting of some kind. It can do a lot of things.”

Think of the typography as the mood-setter for your resume; instead of lighting a candle, you’re creating an atmosphere with the aesthetic of your font and other design choices.

We bring our past experiences and myriad associations to everything we do. Your resume font should activate those connections in your recruiters’ and potential employers’ minds, causing them to connect you with traits like professionalism, honesty, and skill.

Like each applicant, each font has a “personality.” If a font is difficult to read or doesn’t reflect the job you’re applying for, it could leave a recruiter with a bad taste in their mouth (even if they aren’t aware of it). And because you’ve already put so much thought and effort into your resume, you don’t want something small like font selection to have a negative impact.

Next, we’ll go over how to make the best possible impression with your resume typeface. Once you choose a font you like, you can use my free resume builder to create a beautiful, ATS-friendly resume with our recruiter approved templates.

How to Choose the Best Font for Your Resume

The two most important factors when selecting a font for your resume are readability and professionalism.

The last thing you want to do is to make a recruiter or employer’s life harder, so your resume font should always be straightforward and highly readable. They shouldn’t have to squint to read overly light, thin fonts, or struggle to make out complex symbols or typefaces.

Professionalism, meanwhile, is all about tone. Just as we discussed in the previous section, even “silent” choices like font and formatting can convey tone as easily as your word choice. The tone of your font should match the tone of your workplace personality and your level of professionalism.

In terms of both readability and professionalism, there are a few broad “font families” that we commonly associate with the workplace and with professional settings. Let’s go over each of the five main font families, or broad categories, from which you have to choose when you’re writing your resume or CV.

The Differences Between “Font Families”

Every font belongs to a “family” of fonts, which have similar characteristics and leave similar (though not identical) impressions. The first decision you have to make in terms of selecting a resume font is which font family is best for your goals.

These are the five broad categories that fonts fall into:

Serif: Serif fonts, like Times New Roman, belong to one of the largest and most common “font families.” Letters in serif fonts have decorative serifs, or little “tails,” on certain character strokes.

Sans Serif: Sans serif literally means “without serif,” so you can guess these typefaces don’t have–tails! Examples of sans serif typefaces include Arial and Helvetica. Sans serif typefaces have become highly popular in the digital marketplace, partly because of their less formal, more straightforward and minimalist look.

Monospace: Commonly associated with newspapers and typewriters, monospace fonts like Courier and Courier New were designed so that each letter would take up the same amount of space on a given line. Each letter is the same width. This allows for clean, consistent graphic design, as there’s no size variability between the characters. Monospace fonts have also become a popular design choice in recent years because they’re a bit nostalgic, calling back to the days of typewriters and telegrams.

Cursive: Cursive fonts, like the famous Comic Sans, are meant to appear handwritten or “scribbled” to give text a personalized touch. Certain fonts in this category might be rarely used in professional settings, but in the vast majority of cases, these are used for graphic design or marketing materials rather than cover letters or CVs.

Fantasy: Fantasy fonts are not useful for resumes or cover letters–there might be an out-there exception, but I haven’t found any yet–but they are used for decorative and design purposes, like signage and certain marketing materials. Examples of fantasy typefaces include Impact and Western. They are typically used for headers or other shorter texts, because they’re not the easiest to read.

Our recommendation for 2019: With the five font families to choose from, what’s the best option for your resume?

In today’s world, a clean, modern sans serif font is recommended. This is partly because the workforce has gone increasingly digital, making even professional interactions slightly less formal and more straightforward and concise.

Sans serif fonts are more contemporary in look and feel than the more conformist and traditional serif fonts. They cater to today’s minimalist, cut-to-the-chase, 280-character-driven economy. They cut out all the extra distraction and get right to the point, just like you want to do in your job search.

While you might make a different decision for your resume font in your job search–if you’re in an ultra-traditional and more conservative profession that expects a high level of formality, for example — sans serif fonts are generally the best option.
Now that we’ve narrowed it down to a certain font family, we’ll break down the top 10 best resume fonts and what job categories they might be ideal for.

Breaking Down The 10 Best Resume Fonts

In 2019’s marketplace, these are the 10 best resume fonts based on reliability, perception, and style:

• Open Sans (Modern)

• Calibri (Modern)

• Helvetica (Modern)

• Avenir (Modern)

• Lato (Modern)

• Roboto (Modern)

• Avant Garde (Modern)

• Museo (Modern)

• Georgia (Classic)

• Garamond (Classic)

For each one, we’ll delve a bit into the font’s history and aesthetic, as well as its pros and cons and when to use each:

Open Sans

Open Sans, released in 2011, is one of Google’s signature fonts. Its letters are tall and wide.

Pros: Open Sans is wildly popular for web design for a reason: optimal readability. The wide-open letters are easy to read on any screen, big or small. Because it’s used as Mozilla’s default font in many cases, and for many Google pages, it’s familiar to the eye.

Cons: Open Sans is widely perceived as “flat” or “neutral,” which can be a very good thing for a resume. But if you want to stand out a bit or for your resume to have a bit more personality, it might not be the best choice.

Alternatives: Adelle Sans is similar to Open Sans and is a great substitute.

Calibri

Calibri came on the scene in the early 2000s as the Microsoft Word replacement for the classic Times New Roman.

Pros: Calibri can be easily read on any computer and won’t mess up the formatting no matter where it’s sent. Everyone has seen it before, so it’s not distracting. It’s a sans serif font, so it’s clean and sleek. It’s a good choice for a standard resume or for work at a digital-first company.

Cons: Calibri is a little “safe,” as it’s the default Microsoft Word font and is used by many other applicants. But standing out from the pack isn’t always the best goal when it comes to resume font. Instead, you want your resume itself to do the work. But Calibri might not be the best choice for a creative career at a quirky company.

Alternative: Arial, which is the default typeface for Google Docs, is somewhat similar to Calibri in its optimal readability for the web. It’s also similarly straightforward and legible.

Helvetica

Helvetica was designed in the 1950s and comes with a little bit of elegance and flourish. It’s frequently rated as one of the more attractive typefaces.

Pros: Helvetica is a softer, beautiful sans serif typeface. It’s modern while still being a bit pretty and not too stark. Because it’s not always used for resumes, it stands out a bit without being too far “out there.” It might be a good choice for a design company (especially because it’s frequently used in graphic design) or a profession that puts a premium on aesthetic.

Cons: Helvetica is only pre-loaded on Macs, so it will convert to a different font on other systems.

Alternatives: Swiss, Arial, and Folio are all similar to Helvetica in “font personality.”

Avenir

Avenir comes from the French word meaning “future.” Designed in 1988, this geometric sans serif font is warm and lively, with curved edges and a few selective tails.

Pros: Avenir isn’t odd enough to be distracting, but it’s not a standard “safe” resume font. It might be a good choice for a future-forward company. It’s also consistently rated one of the favorite fonts of designers, so it could be good for any aesthetic-focused or creative profession. Finally, it’s versatile: It comes in a variety of weights.

Cons: Avenir is not a very common choice for resumes, so it might be a tad jarring to a highly traditional or formal eye.
Alternatives: Nunito, with its rounded letters, is very similar to Avenir.

Lato

Lato, designed in 2010, is named after the Polish word for “summer” because it was meant to be as cheery as the warmest season. It is professional enough to be serious, but has a touch of brightness in its typeface style.

Pros: Lato is an increasingly common choice for resumes because of how readable it is. It’s an approachable and stylish font, while remaining professional. Finally, Lato is open-source, which means anyone can download it for free.

Cons: Lato is not one of the resume “classics,” which is always a tiny bit of a gamble. Microsoft Word does not list Lato as one of its defaults, which means it won’t show up for every recruiter or employer. If you download and install the font, make sure you send your resume to PDF format so the recruiter/hiring manager will see the same formatting you do!

Alternatives: Brandon Grotesque and Open Sans are both similar to Lato.

Roboto

Released by Google in 2011, Roboto probably looks familiar, especially if you do a lot of traveling: It’s used for Google Maps. It’s similar to the other fonts optimized for the web, with a more slender, sleek typeface.

Pros: Because it’s open-source, Roboto is free for anyone to use. It’s also optimized for web readability, so like Open Sans, it’s legible on any screen. It’s also sleek and contemporary, so it’s great for any modern company, especially those that put web presence at a premium (such as marketing).

Cons: Roboto appears a little less formal than some other fonts, so it’s not ideal for academic applications or very traditional work environments.

Alternatives: Roboto is somewhat similar in style to Helvetica and Arial.

Avant Garde

Inspired by the 1920s German Bauhaus movement, Avant Garde is a unique typeface that is having a comeback after being used frequently in 1970s advertisements. Its letters are wide, and several of them have quirky flourishes, like the sloped “v” and curliqued Q.

Pros: Avant Garde is interesting enough to stand out while remaining readable for the web. It’s a solid choice for creative types and people who want to highlight their unique personalities.

Cons: Avant Garde is, well, avant garde. It’s not a default or standard resume font, so it’s not the best choice for an executive-level position in a traditional field.

Alternatives: Avant Garde is similar to Harmonia Sans.

Museo

Released in 2009, Museo began with the uppercase “U,” with two flatly curved horizontal tails. It’s warm and approachable.

Pros: Museo is frequently used in web design. It would be a great choice for a customer service or sales job that requires a friendly, open demeanor, or for work in an artisanal or artistic field like fashion or design. It’s open-source, so it’s free to use.

Cons: Museo is warm and friendly, but that can be a drawback if your recruiter is highly traditional. It might be distracting in some cases.

Alternatives: Use Calvert in place of Museo if you’re looking for a similar vibe.

Georgia

Georgia was released in 1993 and is widely used by companies like Amazon, The New York Times, and Yahoo as a default font. It’s a serif font, so it has a classic look with a bit of warmth.

Pros: Georgia was specifically designed to be read on screens, so it’s highly accessible for screen readers with visual impairments and is legible even on mobile phones. It’s professional and standard while still having a touch of fun and flair.

Cons: Georgia is so widely used and familiar that it might not make you stand out among other applicants.

Alternatives: Georgia and Times New Roman are often used interchangeably. Georgia almost appears to be an “updated” version of TNR.

Garamond

Garamond came out in 1989, but it has a much longer history. The typeface was inspired by 16th-century design and is often used in print.

Pros: Garamond has an old-school, vintage look that lends it a touch of class. It’s a good example of a font with a distinct personality, making it a solid choice for academic or literary fields.

Cons: Garamond’s retro look means it’s probably not ideal for ultra-contemporary companies.

Alternatives: Cormorant, Sabon, and Minion are strong alternatives to Garamond.

The Best Font Size for Your Resume

Remember that readability is one of the most important aspects of resume font choice.

Font size is a key aspect of your reader’s ability to scan your resume quickly, pick out the important parts, and come away with a solid, positive impression of you. A recruiter might be sifting through dozens or even hundreds of resumes at a time (or more), and making their job simpler is the first and easiest way to make yours stand out in a good way.

It can be be tempting to cram every last thing you’ve ever done onto your resume, but cutting out the extraneous parts of your work history can do you some good in more ways than one. With too many sections on your resume, it can quickly become overwhelming to the eye.

What’s more, if you include too much content, you’ll probably be required to shrink your font size to 10 (never, ever go below 10!). But a slightly larger font size gives employers a better impression; one study at Stephen F. Austin Universityshowed that resumes using 12-pt. font were evaluated more highly than those in 10-pt. font.

Since the ultimate goal is to make your resume as easy to read as you possibly can, the optimal font size is between 12 and 14. 10 can be used if you’re highly experienced and have an extremely lengthy resume, but it’s not ideal. Try cutting out a few things that aren’t directly relevant to the job at hand and see if you can make your resume a little easier on the eyes with a larger font.

This exercise can also improve your resume overall by making it more straightforward and concise. No matter how much you might want to include your high school volunteer history, it’s much more important that a recruiter sees only the most relevant and applicable education and work experience right away–no muss, no fuss.

In the same vein, be wary of any light or thin fonts, as your reader will likely get frustrated if your resume is hard to read. Use black instead of grey or any other color so that your resume is optimized for readability.

How to Leverage Formatting to Make Your Resume Font Pop

In addition to choosing a font, you can also use various formatting styles to make certain areas of your resume stand out.

The first rule of resume formatting is to use any special styles, like bold or italics, sparingly. You don’t want your reader to feel overwhelmed by mixed styles or too many italics sections on a page. Be selective about any special characters. White space is your resume’s best friend, and will allow your reader to scan the documents quickly, cherry-picking the most important parts with ease.

The next rule of using bold and italics on your resume are to do so consistently. It might seem like an obvious rule, but it’s also often broken. If you bold your previous job titles and use italics for subtitles, for example, do so for every previous job you list, even if they’re different in some way. Establish a pattern with your style choices right away, and your reader will follow your lead.

You can use bold in your resume to highlight specific key aspects of your background that are relevant to a given job, or to set apart particular sections for optimal scannability. For example, you could use bold to highlight special skills you used (such as expertise in a given software program) that are specifically mentioned in the job description. Or, you could use bold, along with a slightly larger font size, for headings.

Italics, meanwhile, are best used for subtitles below headings, or for extra emphasis on a specific aspect of your education or work history, like measurable outcomes. For example, you could use italics to denote the dates during which you worked at a particular job. They’re also frequently used to share quantitative data, like “Grew quarterly sales by 13%.”

How To Find & Download Non-Standard Resume Fonts (For Free!)

You may have noticed that a few of the fonts I recommended don’t show up when you try to find them in Microsoft Word or Google Docs.

Despite being some of the best choices out there for your resume, these fonts aren’t always part of the standard package with Microsoft or Google. The good news is, you can easily download and add them yourself without spending a dime!

Here’s how to add custom fonts to Microsoft Word:

1. Find a site where you can download fonts for free. Font Squirrel, Dafont, and 1001 Free Fonts are all great options.

2. Search for the font you want and download either the OTF or TTF file to your desktop

3. Open the file you downloaded and click “Install Font”

4. Restart any applications where you want to use the font (Microsoft Word, Photoshop, etc.)

5. You should see your new font appear as an option in the drop down!

Adding new fonts to Google Docs is much easier. All you need to do is:

1. Open any Google Doc

2. Click on the Font drop down and click “More fonts…”

3. Search for the font you want, select it, and click “OK”

4. Your new font should appear in your drop down as an option

Resume Fonts: The Bottom Line

Together, we’ve gone through every aspect of resume fonts, from why they matter in the first place to how to choose the best one to fit your professional goals.

Remember to keep readability and professionalism in mind when you choose a font for your cover letter and CV. When in doubt, select a contemporary sans serif typeface and a 12-14-pt. font size. Use bold and italics consistently but sparingly, and remember that white space is your friend.

In addition, the way we’ve thought about resume fonts in this article is a good model for how you should approach all of your introductory materials during the job application process.

Every aspect of your cover letter and CV or resume should be carefully curated to highlight relevant experience and traits. And because your potential employer doesn’t have anything to go on other than what you provide them with, it’s important to make every letter – and every typeface – count.

Want the inside info on landing a dream job without connections, without “experience,” & without applying online?

Click here to get the 5 free strategies that my students have used to land jobs at Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and more without applying online.

While the debate still continues regarding the long term future of the “resume”, it’s still one of the most important documents to get right if you want to secure that next big job interview.

The problem is that creating the perfect resume can be a time consuming and frustrating process.

That’s why we created this intuitive guide that’s driven by interviews with hiring managers at companies like Google and Airtasker and expert advice from Onset’s software engineering recruitment team.

Before we get started, if you are looking to build or rebuild your CV, check out this Professional Software Engineer template on Canva.

It’ll take around 18–20 minutes to read this article, more if you want to apply it to your resume straight away.

If you don’t have enough time, you can download a pdf version of this article here.

Here’s everything you need to know to quickly create a great software engineer resume.

Let’s get started.

Chapter 1: Hook your audience

Approximately reading time: 5–7 minutes

What you’ll get out of this section

This section will teach you about different resume styles, give you examples of winning resume formats, and teach you how to avoid classic resume mistakes.

Choosing “The Right” Style

How you structure your resume will depend on the depth of your work experience.

Here are a few different styles to consider:

Chronological: Listing work history in reverse chronological order can be beneficial for longer-term employees who want to emphasize a steady history of relevant employment. (It’s also way easier to read!)

ONSET TIP: If you have gaps in your resume between roles, explain this clearly. For example, maternity/paternity leave, travel, study etc. This helps the reader build a clear picture of your history.

Functional: A functional resume will organize your work history by highlighting key skills and achievements. It is ideal for applicants without an extensive working history, those who only have entry-level roles, or recent graduates looking to break into the software engineering industry.

Hybrid: A hybrid resume combines both the chronological and functional resume styles. It can be helpful for mid-level roles that require a combination of employment history, specific skills and achievements.

Regardless of the style you choose, your resume should include sections that address your educational history, type of work experience, relevant skills, past projects, and if really interesting, some hobbies.

This video has some great details on what a winning software engineer resume from Google looks like.

You can also download his resume here.

How To Keep It Short And Clean

If there’s one thing you take from this guide, remember this: Keep your resume brief and relevant.

“The best code is clean and simple and it’s the same thing with a resume — the best ones are easy to read, easy to maintain and easy to present. It’s safe to say the best software engineers will have the cleanest resumes to read.” — Sean McCartan (Software Engineering Practice Lead), The Onset

Software engineer jobs can receive hundreds of resumes and the biggest mistake we see at The Onset is when an applicant’s relevant experience is diluted by a heap of information around it.

A ten-page long resume that goes into detail about every small-scale job or piece of technology used in the last 20 years will likely bore the reader and dilute your essential strengths.

It’s also important to understand the nature of the role you’re applying for and the type of company and be as concise as you can.

Stick to hard and fast facts about your skills and avoid redundant statements that cannot be backed up by immediate evidence such as ‘I work well individually and in a team’.

Also, avoid listing fundamental skills such as ‘I can work with Excel Spreadsheets.’

Hiring Manager Tip: Avoid distracting designs or imagery and make sure your resume is readable, with consistent fonts and sizes that are easily compatible across browsers (your safest bet is Arial or Times New Roman).

The Basics

At the beginning of your resume, don’t forget to clearly state your full name and contact details (email, mobile number) in the top header of your resume.

There is no need for your full address, but a suburb helps identify your viability to work in certain locations.

Help the reader by including a visible link to your online portfolio, LinkedIn account or GitHub account. In any case, make sure the URL works!

We’ll fill you in on the best way to present your GitHub in your resume a little later.

When listing previous workplaces, adopt a consistent structure that helps the reader keep on track.

Remember, if you use one formatting style, it’s best to stick with it throughout the entire resume.

For each employer, include the dates (MM/YY started - MM/YY ended), title and company.

It can help to include a URL or a one line description of a company, especially for lesser-known businesses. Check out this example below (Don’t copy the ‘about us’ page and rattle it off on your resume - yes, this still actually happens):

This video gives hands-on advice on how to reformat your resume and make it easy and enjoyable to read.

Do You Need A Summary?

Let’s keep this one simple; no, not really, especially if all you plan to do is tell everyone how wonderful you are - that’s what an interview is for.

If you feel the need to highlight your career in a short summary, make it relevant and try not to use a bunch of overly descriptive verbs.

Matching up your summary to your LinkedIn profile also helps keep consistency, as pretty much everyone will check out your online profile to make sure it aligns with your resume.

Here’s an example of a succinct and effective career summary:

Chapter 2: Show You’re The Best Fit For The Job

Approximately reading time: 5–7 minutes

What you’ll get out of this section

How to read a job description and tailor your resume to the job so the hiring manager will instantly know you’re the best fit.

You’ll learn tips on how to highlight not only relevant programming languages but specific tools and frameworks.

Let’s go.

Don’t just submit the same resume to every employer.

This is your calling card, and you have to mold it to the specifications of the job you’re applying for.

If you internalize exactly what an employer wants from a job posting, and show in your resume how your skills match what they’re looking for, you’ll be ahead of the pack.

Be honest, sensible and creative with your experience, but never lie.

Familiarize yourself with an advertised job

Read the job ad carefully to identify keywords or skills that seem most important to the role.

Including the right keywords and skills that a company is looking for on your resume will help you stand out from the hundreds of applicants a job ad may attract.

For example, here’s a recent job ad for a software engineer posted by an Australian airline:

You’ll have:

• Demonstrable experience developing back end services (micro services architecture preferable)

• Experience developing web applications using modern JavaScript frameworks (React preferable)

• Some Experience with cloud computing (AWS preferable)

• Understand the value of simplicity and know how to write maintainable, clean code that adheres to standards

• An understanding/knowledge working within an agile environment

• Ideally have an understanding using any two of the following: Java, React, Golang, Python, Angular or Node

• Have a relevant Degree/Qualification or 4+ years experience.

By analyzing the job description closely, it’s apparent that hiring staff at this airline will be looking for key phrases and words such as ‘micro services architecture’, ‘cloud computing, ‘React’, and ‘web applications’.

If you are applying for a front-end role, hiring managers will automatically look for key skills such as ‘Angular’, ‘React’, ‘Vue’ compared to full stack or back-end roles that may mention languages like C# or Java.

Be intentional

The words, technologies and programming languages you include should help the reader boost his or her confidence in your area of expertise.

When crafting each line of your resume, don’t forget that the employer isn’t only looking for key skills such as writing code or designing a web interface, rather they’re looking for clues that indicate your understanding of how the codes and systems work, and your ability to work with an unfamiliar code and debug systems promptly.

For example, if you are including Java as a key skill, emphasize the point by listing Java-related technologies and frameworks you’ve worked with such as Spring, Spring Boot and Hibernate, where relevant.

Since Java is a robust, high-performance language, being specific about the types of environments you’ve worked with (scalable / concurrent or monolithic /multi-threaded) will help demonstrate the breadth and depth of your skills.

Think of each tool as an opportunity to elaborate on your skill sets. If you have worked with data-heavy environments, complement your skills by listing your experience with object-oriented programming languages such as Python and Scala.

This resume below shows how you can organize and structure multiple skill sets into a cohesive resume:

Don’t neglect the obvious

When non-specialist hiring managers are tasked with finding a software engineer, they may be looking for more general skills to identify a winning candidate.

Here’s a checklist of general skills to weave into your resume (if you have them of course!):

• Proficiency in either computer science, computer programming, data structures or algorithms.

• An understanding of software design best practices.

• Ability to quickly learn and reverse engineer code (software engineers should be able to work off programs or code written by other developers and will need to be able to create, read, update, and destroy web applications).

• Confidence in writing algorithms.

• Capabilities in similar disciplines (where relevant, include knowledge of database administration, UX/UI design or search engine optimization).

• Strong knowledge of fundamentals - Functional programming, data structures and algorithmic programming

Hiring Manager Tip: As former Google tech lead Francois points out, good software engineers are curious. Showing you are a curious person by highlighting supplementary skills like UX/UI design or SEO will help lift your resume to the front of the pile.

Understanding your user and how your work impacts the end user is becoming a very important trait for all good engineers.

Make it relevant

It is increasingly important for people to have a holistic understanding of how entire systems work.

Software engineers can no longer just know how to code an app.

Now, it’s crucial to demonstrate that you know how a particular application or code will interact in a specific environment and infrastructure.

As a rule of thumb, whenever you list main tech skills, also reference relevant peripheral tech skills.

Listing relevant tech can usually indicate a deep level of interest or mastery of a specific tool/language.

For example, React has a large ecosystem of tools and component libraries and referencing some of the best tools and resources immediately says a lot about your skill set.

When listing Python on your resume, consider how you can demonstrate conceptual knowledge by mentioning web or big data frameworks such as (Django, Flask, Spark, Tensor flow, Hadoop, Pandas, etc).

Check out how this resume effectively organizes technological capacity in accordance with key languages.

Hiring Manager Tip: As you mention your skills, avoid ratings such as ‘proficient’, ‘expert’ or ‘novice’. Don’t rank your own competence in different skills and technologies unless you are using a universal grading system. Bottom line: Show don’t tell.

Chapter 3: Make A Lasting First Impression

Approximately reading time: 2–3 minutes

What you’ll get out of this section

How to subtly add character to your resume that will leave a clear image in the hiring manager’s mind of what kind of worker and person you are.

Think of your resume as a story you’re hoping to have stick in the reader’s mind.

In your resume, you are the main character so consider highlighting the interesting parts of your career story.

Here are some stories you can lean into:

• The Leader: If you’ve been working in smaller teams, it may indicate that you’ve made a larger contribution. Where possible, highlight the level of leadership and responsibility you’ve had on a project and draw attention to the size of the team.

• The Innovator: If your past projects have involved new technology such as artificial intelligence or blockchain, emphasize an innovative and forward-thinking narrative throughout your resume.

• The Performer: As a short-term contractor, you might demonstrate consistency by specifying that your role was extended due to high performance.

• The Learner: Concerned about having too many jobs on your resume?
  Emphasize the completion of projects before each exit and describe each job move as a desire to learn new skills and complete new challenges

Ultimately, different kinds of businesses will resonate with different narratives so determine how you can tell your career story to best fit your unique audience: the employer/hiring manager.

For example, digital agencies require employees to move quickly, and get projects out the door.

As a result, agencies will likely scan resumes to find people who are good at keeping clients happy and staying on top of deadlines.

You could lean into your role as the “The Performer” in order to give yourself a leg up with a digital agency.

Product/platform businesses like Ebay, Canva or Carsguide.com.au are more likely to look for software engineers that are quality-driven and committed to high standards.

“The Leader” or “The Innovator” could be helpful career stories with platform businesses.

P.s. We’re here to help — If you need guidance on your resume, you can book in a 20-minute slot with our consultants to get some feedback here. (no strings attached)

Chapter 4: Hacks That Will Make Your Resume Pop

Approximately reading time: 4–5 minutes

What you’ll get out of this section

How to use specific metrics and accomplishments to create a golden resume, the benefits of passion projects, and how to properly incorporate your GitHub into your resume.

Outlining your history of employment is straightforward but making sure it’s relevant and presented in the best light is what sets apart an average resume from an exceptional one.

The best software engineer resumes will help an employer understand how a previous project or workplace ties into the position they’re hiring for.

Regardless of the depth of your experience, ensure your employment history features a few bullet points or sentences about key skills and achievements to demonstrate more than just the responsibilities of the role.

The primary goal of your employment section should be to demonstrate the impact and value of your time at a former workplace.

Here are some tips:

Results

Add accomplishment-driven statements, metrics and numbers to help indicate the success and value of your past roles.

Consider how your actions drove key accomplishments in the business.

If you can concretely show you made sales, engagement or user retention go up for a past employer, this will help your application tremendously.

Here’s how you can do that:

• Rather than generic statements or simply stating your involvement in the launch of a new mobile application, explain the results of your involvement — did it improve customer retention by tenfold?

• How many new downloads did it attract?

• Did it improve the cost efficiency of your business?

• Get specific with the accomplishments.

For example, a top tier resume for a senior software engineering resume states the following achievement:

“Reduced time to render {company name} home page by 20% by preloading customer profile and pre-fetching static resources on login page and optimizing web and app tier C# code.

Reduced time to render the transaction history page by 50% by replacing legacy blocking request with Ajax request and relocating the request to different virtual directories, and collapsing multiple back-end requests into single request

Reduced production exception by 40% over two releases by proactively monitoring/analysing {company name} logs using Splunk

Performed fortnightly presentation to {company name} product owner and platform management team on performance and resilience issues.”

• One way to incorporate this information into your resume is to list these results in a ‘key achievements’ section:

Projects

With every line of employment history, the most successful resumes include a proof of concept (POC) that references actual achievements or ownership of a project.

One of the main questions on every hiring manager’s mind is ‘what has this applicant delivered and done?’

This makes it essential to highlight two to three projects that you can confidently explain.

A POC is more than the written code or programming language used. It demonstrates the processes and best practices that have been used to achieve key results.

Deep dive into a project by helping employers understand your concrete responsibilities. Here’s an example below:

For positions of seniority, it helps to refer to the actual ownership of a project you’ve completed or been involved with.

Specify what you did versus what the team did.

Hiring managers are looking for evidence of projects that you have started and completed.

Owning a project from start to finish shows that you (probably) get all elements of the PDLC or SDLC and have worked with different functions.

Passion projects

“Personal projects and freelancing work is reflective of someone’s passion. It’s not about hiring people who can simply churn out code, but finding people who can deliver quality, well-written, well-tested and maintainable code.” - Sean McCartan (Software Engineering Practice Lead), The Onset

An ambitious personal project can show your future employer your initiative, dedication and passion to learn and build a software solution.

It’s OK if you don’t have any personal projects on your resume, but if you do, it could help set you apart.

Whether your personal project is a Python script, a mobile application, or a Java map, it can be a beneficial way to demonstrate real-world skills in a non-work context.

It also shows a general passion and curiosity that employers value.

You can display these past projects or work through an online portfolio.

Featuring your GitHub

One way to show off your projects is through GitHub. But don’t just send your main GitHub account, instead include urls to specific projects on GitHub.

Former Google tech lead Francois says that interesting projects are one of the things he looks for in a resume.

Projects on GitHub can really demonstrate passion, and in many cases, collaboration with other engineers.

Make sure your project is structured neatly and includes a ReadMe file.

This file should describe the project, how to use it, and ideally include photos/videos of the project.

One easy to use, well-documented project will be more effective than several projects which are difficult to navigate or half-completed.

This video goes into more detail on how to best format your GitHub projects.

Chapter 5: Show Off Your Education, Specialization, And Soft Skills

Approximately reading time: 5–10minutes

What you’ll get out of this section

How to leverage your education to show you’re the best candidate, the importance of leaning into specialization, the soft skills hiring managers are looking for, and how to highlight your working methodology.

How to flex your education

If you have it (and it’s often okay if you don’t), listing relevant education is crucial in any Software Engineer’s resume as a career in software engineering will generally require at least a Bachelor’s Degree or relevant vendor certification.

Usually, software engineers will have an educational background in computer programming or computer science, with majors in software engineering.

There are tons of branches of software engineering that can result in different academic trajectories and specializations - courses can focus on various types of programming languages or go into topics such as project management, web security or coding.

If you don’t have a relevant degree, don’t fret.

Examples of self-learning and continuous learning can often take the place of a traditional Bachelor’s degree.

Examples of this could be online courses with sites like Treehouse, General Assembly, Code School, or Udacity.

“I don’t care what the degree is in - the fact that someone went to university to study something interesting is a good indicator but that’s as far as I’d go. There is value in being educated but this can also be in the form of self-education.” - Francois (ex Tech Lead @ Google )

Just remember to clearly highlight continuous learning on your resume. (Be selective, don’t list every course, boot camp or meetup you’ve attended.)

Demonstrate your competence in software engineering by shining a light on any ad hoc or self-taught learning that sets you apart.

For example, if you have completed a boot camp or course in technical skills such as Java, PHP or C#, add this to your qualifications.

Leaning into your specialization

As technological areas like virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and big data constantly evolve, it helps to distinguish an area/s of expertise in your resume.

If you have a specialization, lean into it.

This can help employers put their confidence in specific parts of your skills and be more sure that you are an appropriate fit.

Here is some example of areas of specialization in software engineering:

1. Games and entertainment systems: Designing applications or software that can be used in games

2. Digital or embedded systems: Software engineers can specialise in computer systems that have dedicated functions in a larger mechanical or electrical system

3. Modeling and simulation: Designing or maintaining applications which simulate specific processes to reduce the need for costly testing

4. Networking and distributed systems: Skills involving expertise in network architecture, application layers and network security

5. Product and/or Project management: Being responsible for the management of teammates and ensuring a product or project is adequately completed/built/prototyped.

Along with specializations, don’t hesitate to include other related experiences.

Software engineering is closely aligned to job titles such as Software Programmer, Software Developer, Software Designer, PHP developer and more.

As long as you’re able to draw correlations in skill sets and demonstrate the relevance of the type of work, it can be helpful to highlight other related jobs you’ve held.

Don’t forget the soft skills

‘Soft skills’ refer to character traits, social skills or personality traits that help you relate on an interpersonal level.

Soft skills may not be as easily quantifiable as ‘hard skills’ (years of experience, name of degree) but they are often just as important to an employer.

To help with their day-to-day roles, software engineers need a balance of hard and soft skills such as being proactive and showing resilience.

Despite popular misconceptions, software engineering is highly creative — it involves designing and building functions and systems that often never existed before.

This creativity often comes hand in hand with collaboration and it’s important that software engineers can work well with others. Communication, collaboration and creativity are increasingly becoming winning traits for software engineers, so these qualities should be front and center on your resume.

Francois has come across plenty of software engineer resumes with a wide range of technical skills but according to the former Google tech lead, empathy is a crucial skill hiring managers look for.

“A good software engineer will be both technically skilled but also understanding of other people’s points of view by being constructive and helpful in how they interact with others. There’ll be a lot of opinions and conflict in software engineering so you need to be constructive to understand their concerns. This is an important skill.” — Francois (ex Tech Lead @ Google )

Here are some other soft skills you could incorporate into your resume:

• A continuous learning attitude: This can be shown through a GitHub account, leadership or engagement in meetups or involvement in the C# community, for example.

• Innovation and forward-thinking approach: This can be difficult to convey in a resume but if you haven’t been able to work with emerging technologies in your job, demonstrate this in projects you’ve worked on outside of your work or mention involvement with new technologies such as blockchain or AI.

• Presentation ability or influencing skills: This can be shown through leading regular standups with other team members, presentations of past work or organizing meetups.

This video breaks down some of the most important soft skills for software engineers to have.

How to highlight your working methodology

It can be an impressive resume addition to mention specific ways of working that you’re comfortable or familiar working with.

In particular, the ‘agile’ methodology can be appealing for tech-based companies that rely on rapid iterations and sustainable development.

Software engineers who want to work in a tech-based environment need to demonstrate their ability to work seamlessly with product teams and developers that operate in an agile framework.

If you’re well-versed in ‘agile’ development, make sure to mention this in your resume.

(Same goes for Kanban, Test Driven Development, etc.)

Remember: For senior roles, hiring managers will look for people that have worked in more complex and challenging environments — if you have been working with the same technologies and within the same environment, it may be time to look out for something more challenging and expand your main skill sets into other areas of development.

If you’re interested in front end, get more UI experience and work with JavaScript, or if you’re interested in architecture, get involved in projects with heavy infrastructure.

We hope this guide answered your questions and will help you craft a new, winning resume.

If you’d like us to take a look at your resume and give you some feedback, you can book in a time with one of our consultants.

Is there something we missed? A question you still have?

Leave a comment below!

An in-depth analysis of the résumé that got me interviews at Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, and more.

This résumé got me interviews at Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple.

2017 Senior Year Résumé

I obtained these interviews by sending my résumé to the résumé black hole, also known as applying online.

Applying online is the most common way people go about applying for a job and therefore the least effective way to land an interview due to competition. Yet that is exactly how I obtained all my interviews.

How did I accomplish this?

In this article, I will go through a line-by-line analysis of my résumé for the following purposes:

• explaining the choices that I made in creating my résumé
• why I believe this résumé worked to help me land those interviews, and
• how you can create an even better résumé!

I decided to write this article because I struggled a lot with landing interviews when I first started looking for a job. It would have been extremely helpful for me to have a real-life example résumé to look at.

This article is organized into the following sections:

1. The All Too Familiar Way of Not Landing an Interview - a short anecdote of my frustrations when I first started applying for jobs
2. Evaluating the Options: Moving Forward - a reflection on different strategies to improve the odds of landing interviews

3. Learning How to Write a Killer Résumé By Example - the step-by-step analysis of my résumé with each of the following sections corresponding to my résumé:

4. The Essentials from a Glance

5. Who Are You
6. Contact Information
7. Education
8. Employment
9. Personal Projects
10. Skills

The All Too Familiar Way of Not Landing an Interview

Applying Online

You probably know the link that every company provides for online applications. It’s the classic career site that shows you a bunch of job titles which you think you are totally qualified for until you open the job description and read the minimum requirements.

Google Career Page

A job description with a bunch of words that you have never heard of, may have heard of, or hoped you had heard of. And it has an innocent-looking “Apply” button.

Google Job Description

Despite the uncertainty you may feel about your qualifications, you apply anyway because you want a job.

So you fill out the application form, press submit — and wait and hope for a positive response.

Your results will be varied:

1. Phone Interview ? (yay, a chance at employment!!!)
2. Immediate Rejection ? (darn, back to the drawing board)
3. No reply ? (ugh, at least give me the courtesy of having some closure)

Repeat Until Success… Right?

Sadly, this is the typical process that many people go through when looking for a job/internship.

Apply to a couple of companies. Get a couple of rejections or no replies. Apply to a couple more companies. Get a couple more rejections or no replies. Over, and over, and over again.

Why do we do this to ourselves? We spend all this time doing the same repetitive task to obtain the same, disappointing results.

Because this is what everyone does to get an interview, right? Because at least we’re working towards the right direction and have a glimmer of hope, right? How else are you supposed to get an interview?

Evaluating the Options: Moving Forward

“Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.”

• Dale Carnegie, (author of “How to Win Friends and Influence People”)

We can think of approaching the problem of not getting interviews in two ways:

1. Putting your application/ résumé under the microscope
2. Questioning the process in which you go about obtaining an interview

This article focuses on the former, because no matter what avenue you end up taking to get an interview, essentially every company utilizes your résumé as a basis for evaluation. Therefore, we will examine my résumé under a microscope and focus on learning how to write a remarkable résumé.

Getting an interview via online application is extremely challenging because your résumé has to pass numerous stages before it gets into the hands of the hiring manager.

It has to bypass online keyword filters, stand out to a recruiter who reviews it for about 6 seconds and meet the expectations of the hiring manager who decides whether you are worth interviewing.

Yet, despite all those hurdles, I obtained all my interviews by applying online. How? Trial and error. I’ve applied to hundreds of different software engineering positions since my sophomore year of college.

When I first started applying, I faced a staggering number of rejections, but over time I learned how to adapt. By the time I was a senior, I was extremely successful in landing interviews from almost every company I applied to.

The résumé that landed me all those interviews is the exact one in this article.

It took me four years of iteration and real-life testing to get to this point. From this experience, I have come up with a list of résumé writing principles to help you write an even better software résumé. These are principles that have helped me land my dream job and are principles that can help you land yours.

While it took me four years of college to figure this all out, you don’t have to go through all the leaps and bounds because you can learn all of it right here, right now.

My goal is to be the one-stop hub for all your questions on how to obtain a software engineering interview. That way, you don’t have to waste countless hours cross-referencing Google search results to find the best answer on how to write a software engineering résumé that gets interviews.

Your valuable time could be better spent on writing your killer résumé.

So start here and now with this article. Reap the benefits from my past experiences and let’s begin the step-by-step walkthrough of my résumé!

Learning How to Write a Killer Résumé — By Example

“As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.”

• Ralph Waldo Emerson

Let’s take another look at this résumé:

Résumé: Essential Sections Highlighted

The Essentials from a Glance

One-page résumé

Recruiters do not have all day to read your résumé. On average they view it for less than 6 seconds. Keep it short and concise.

Sections (Header, Education, Employment, Software Projects, Skills)

Place sections in order of importance from top to bottom. The ‘Personal Projects’ section is a unique, must-have for people looking for a software engineering position.

Consistent layout + font per section

Make sure each section contains a uniform look. Consistent style is important as it enhances the readability. Readability is essential.

So why does this résumé work? Let’s explore the numbered bullet points.

Who Are You (1)

Target Audience: Anyone writing a résumé

Résumé: Name Section

Starting off real easy. Your name. Place your name at the top of your résumé in a large legible font.

No need to be all fancy about it with extravagant colors or fancy fonts. Plain and simple does the trick. You want the recruiter to see this easily from a mile away because you want them to know who you are. A recruiter who has to do minimum work is a happy recruiter. A happy recruiter is one who is more likely to give you an interview.

Recap: Make it ridiculously easy for the recruiter to read and find your name.

Contact Information (2)

Target Audience: Anyone writing a résumé

Résumé: Contact Section

Your contact info should be as easy as identifying your name. This is so important. Of all the things in the world, please do not mess this one up because how else on earth will the recruiter contact you?

Recap: Put in the correct contact information or you’ll never be contacted.

Education (3)

Target Audience: Anyone writing a résumé with a degree

Résumé: Education Section: Header Subsection

If you are attending or attended college, this should be the first section of your résumé, because going to college is a huge accomplishment. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, only “66.7 percent of 2017 high school graduates age 16 to 24 enrolled in colleges or universities”. So be proud of it and include it!

Right off the bat, this tells the recruiter that you are invested in education and learning, which is crucial because technology is continuously changing. Furthermore, this information serves as an indicator of your successes, so be sure to put it down.

Recap: Put down where you got educated.

Résumé: Education Section: Coursework Subsection

Be sure to include relevant coursework corresponding to the position that you are applying for. While a course on the History of Italian Gastronomy sounds exceptionally appetizing, it doesn’t have a place in a résumé that is trying to get you a job in computer science.

This will significantly improve the ability of the recruiter and the hiring manager looking at your résumé in deciding whether you are a good fit for the position. And as previously mentioned, a happy recruiter is more likely to give you an interview.

Recap: Only include relevant coursework.

Résumé: Education Section: GPA Subsection

Okay. GPA. Before we talk about this, let’s remind ourselves of the main purpose of a résumé.

The main purpose of a résumé is to highlight your knowledge, skills, and accomplishments succinctly. You want to include things on your résumé that you are proud of, but also things that will impress. You want to paint a picture of yourself in the best light possible so that recruiters and hiring managers want to interview you.

Now back to your GPA. It should be fairly obvious whether or not your GPA is impressive. If your GPA is below a 3.0, don’t put it on your résumé. There’s nothing wrong with excluding your GPA from your résumé if it only harms your chances.

If you have a GPA between 3.0–3.2, this is a judgment call. From personal experience, I have talked to some companies that require a minimum GPA of 3.2, but these were primarily financial or quantitative companies. Most software companies have little regard for your GPA. If you have anything above a 3.2, I would place it on your résumé.

If you have a low GPA, fear not, as this gives you the opportunity to be creative! My overall GPA was a 3.2 due to poor grades from my freshman engineering prerequisites and humanities classes. But once I finished and started taking courses within my major, my in-major GPA (GPA calculated from courses in my major) was a 3.44, which was significantly higher. So that’s what I put down (but make sure to qualify it as a departmental GPA).

There are many ways of going about presenting yourself in the best light possible, even when it may seem like the odds are stacked against you. I only provided one example of accomplishing this, but there are many more ways waiting to be discovered by you. Fully embrace your failures and accomplishments because they make up who are you. Be honest and truthful, and always focus on highlighting the best parts about yourself.

Recap: Your GPA does not define you. The purpose of your résumé is to present yourself in the best light. Never forget that! Be creative when going about this and DON’T LIE.

Employment (4)

Target Audience: Students with software engineering work experience

Résumé: Employment Section

If you are a college student without any experience, don’t be afraid! This was my senior year résumé when I was applying for a full-time job. I was fortunate enough to have accumulated relevant work experience from summer internships, but this isn’t absolutely necessary to get an interview. If you find that you don’t have much to put in section, jump down to the ‘Personal Projects’ section.

Résumé: Employment Section: Header Subsection

While it is great to have past work experience, not all work experience is treated equally when it comes to looking for a job in software engineering. Focus only on including work experience that has relevance to the job that you are applying for. For instance, if you have experience working as a cashier in retail or a waiter in the food industry, don’t include it! Unfortunately, your abilities to handle money or serve food did not provide any indication that you will succeed as a software engineer.

A recruiter’s goal is to match candidates with jobs that fit the candidates’ skill sets. Therefore it is essential only to include past work experience that has some relation to the position that you are currently applying to, on your résumé.

Part of accomplishing this means creating a collection of various résumés, each tailored specifically for the different job that you are interested in. This is analogous to the college application process, where you had to write separate essays for each university that you applied to. Each college has its own values, culture, and vision, making it nearly impossible to write a generic, one-size-fits-all college essay. Therefore, tailor your résumé to the job that you are applying for.

Lastly, a note on dates. Order your experiences in descending order starting with your most recent experiences. For undergraduates, this means being mindful of including experiences that are both recent and relevant. Sadly, no one cares about whatever accomplishments you had in middle school or high school. If the experience is outdated, leave it out.

Recap: Have various versions of your résumé tailored for each job you are applying for. There is no one-size-fits-all résumé.

Résumé: Employment Section: Description Subsection

The hardest part about résumé writing is having descriptions that fully encapsulate your accomplishments from past work experiences in a meaningful and impressive way.

What does it mean for your descriptions to be meaningful and impressive? It means getting the recruiter to think: “This is someone that has the skill sets we are looking for. This is someone that has made a significant impact in their past jobs. This is someone we would like to interview and potentially hire.”

The primary objective of the Employment section is to show the impact and value that you had while working at an established institution. Your goal is to show recruiters that you are a candidate that can get things done and do them well.

To best showcase my accomplishments in my résumé, I adopted the following powerful formula, created by the Former SVP of People Operations at Google, Laszlo Bock:

“Accomplished [X] as measured by [Y] by doing [Z]” — Laszlo Bock

You can see this very clearly in the very first bullet point of this section on my résumé.

Improved device’s battery lifespan by 8% by integrating a fuel gauge sensor and establishing a battery saving state

Let’s break it down:

Accomplished [X]- Improved device’s battery lifespan

Measured by [Y]- by 8%

By Doing [Z]- integrating a fuel gauge sensor and establishing a battery saving state

I leveraged this formula in some shape or form in almost every sentence in my résumé.

To help you along this process, below is a word bank of excellent verbs you can and should use:

Verb Wordbank

Here are some examples of fill-in the blank sentences that I have come up with for you to get started:

• Reduced _ by _ by _.
• Redesigned _ for _.
• Implemented _ for _ by _.
• Improved _ by _ through _.
• Utilized _ to _ for _.
• Increased _ by _ through _.
• Integrated _ by _ for _.
• Incorporated _ for _ by _.

Recap: Use the “Accomplished [X] as measured by [Y] by doing [Z]” formula. It’s the most effective and most apparent way of showing recruiters/managers your impact.

Résumé: Employment Section: Leveraged Knowledge Subsection

Lastly, I end each work experience with a leveraged knowledge bullet point. The utility behind this last bit is it enables the reader to really get a sense of the technology I am familiar with by explicitly stating the technologies that I used for the project.

This also allows me to have a concise, but clean ‘Skills’ section located at the bottom of my résumé. Recruiters can then look at the bottom to immediately obtain a sense of my capabilities by seeing which computer languages I am familiar with. If they are looking to see if I have specific knowledge in a particular tool, framework, or library, then they can find this out by looking at my projects.

Recap: Including technologies that you used in your descriptions will help you bypass online keyword filters when applying online. This will also give recruiters a clearer idea of your experiences and knowledge.

Personal Projects (5)

Target Audience: Students looking for software engineering internships/full-time positions + Unique section for software engineering applicants

Résumé: Personal Projects Section

Maybe if I say it enough times, you will understand the importance of this section, especially for those that do not have work experience.

Personal projects are integral to piquing recruiters and hiring managers interest as it shows you are passionate about programming.

A personal project can be anything programming related, whether it be a Python script, Java program, web page, mobile application, etc. These projects show that you are genuinely interested in computer science and you have strong desires to work as a software engineer because you are willing to go beyond your schoolwork and create something on your own.

Taking the initiative to build something on your own is extremely impressive. It shows that you are dedicated to expanding your knowledge of computer science and that you are not afraid of putting in the extra work to do so. Ultimately, it is a fantastic way to demonstrate self-initiative and genuine interest in this field.

The other benefit of doing personal projects is that you inevitably gain the skills that apply to work in the real world. Things that you don’t usually do at school, but you will do at work such as using standard frameworks/libraries, understanding full-stack web development, creating mobile applications, setting up a development environment, or programming efficiently with Vim.

Tip: Create a personal website that showcases and documents all of your personal projects. This is a little hack that ‘virtually extends’ your résumé beyond the one-page limit.

To reiterate one last time, personal projects show your passion and dedication towards developing the necessary skills needed for a job that you don’t yet have. This is a must-have on any software engineering resume.

“Build some iPhone apps, web apps, whatever! Honestly it doesn’t matter that much what you’re building as long as you’re building something. You can build a fairly meaty project in one weekend. This means that with about 3–4 weekends of work, you can make your résumé go from so-so to fantastic. Seriously — I’ve seen lots of people do this.”

• Gayle McDowell, former Google Engineer and Author of Cracking the Coding Interview

If there is a specific company that you really want to work at, one of the best ways to stand out is doing a personal project that is directly related to the job that you are applying for.

I got my internship at Autodesk by taking a free online interactive computer graphics course on Udacity. The course taught me to use a JavaScript library called three.js, and it just so happened that there was a software engineering internship opening at Autodesk looking for someone with full-stack website and knowledge in three.js (aka ME).

A word of caution on this technique. This strategy is not perfect. This only really works for companies like Autodesk which do not have generalized software engineering internships like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft. When starting off early in your career, it is better to generalize and figure out the different disciplines of computer science. Nonetheless, this is an excellent method worth trying if there is a specific company you want.

Recap: Personal projects are imperative. If you haven’t already, start NOW! You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Skills (6)

Target Audience: Anyone looking for a software engineering job

Résumé: Skill Section

The title explains it all. Keep this section dumb, simple, and clean. List all the relevant skills that you want the recruiter to know you have. The more skills you have listed here that match key technical words in the qualification section of the job description, the better your chances!

This will allow you to bypass the online keyword scanner easily. However, this is not a fool-proof method of circumventing the scanner. Ultimately it is a recruiter who gets their hands on your résumé that decides, but they will also be more inclined to give you an interview if they see you as a good fit for the job!

A thing to note about the skills section is to NOT simply list all the keywords on the job description just for the sake of showing you’re a good fit. It will come back to bite you as you will be questioned on the skills you claim to know.

Part of giving yourself some leeway in this is including an indication of your proficiency level. Since you are probably not practicing every language you’ve ever encountered on a day to day basis, including a proficiency level can help the recruiter know your strongest languages at a moment in time and other languages that you are familiar with.

I’ve opted to use two tiers:

1. Proficient - Languages that I am very familiar with, feel very comfortable using, and can interview with right now.
2. Familiar - Languages that I have utilized in the past but may not be as knowledgeable in currently, but can pick back up given time.

Other valid options include:

1. Advanced
2. Intermediate
3. Basic

or

1. Expert
2. Advanced
3. Intermediate

or

1. Fluent
2. Proficient
3. Familiar

or

1. Working Knowledge
2. Basic Knowledge

Recap: When applying for a specific job online, cross-reference the job description and add essential technical keywords on your résumé to increase your chance of getting an interview.

Key Takeaways

• Make sure your name and contact information is correct and legible
• Be sure to include your education. If your GPA is low, leave it out or be creative!
• Utilize the “Accomplished [X] as measured by [Y] by doing [Z]” formula to effectively show the impact that you had in your past employment
• Do personal projects — especially if you do not have past experience working in tech

Final Thoughts

While this résumé got me interviews at numerous software engineering companies, there is no guarantee that following all the principles and techniques I have explained here will yield the same results for you.

This was my senior year résumé in 2017. It is a showcase of my journey and interest in software engineering. Copying it will do you no good, as technology is constantly evolving and the talent search is an ever-changing process. Instead, use this as a reference.

Use my résumé and this article as a resource to become a better résumé writer and a more effective communicator. Focus on learning how to best convey your skills and achievements to others. This in itself is an invaluable, lifelong skill that you will need wherever you go.

As you write your résumé, please remember — be yourself!

Your résumé is a list of your own accomplishments, achievements, and interests. Your goal is to craft the most polished version of yourself. Lastly, have fun and enjoy the process!

For anyone interested in using this resume template, I obtained it from CareerCup which was founded by Gayle Laakmann McDowell, author of Cracking The Coding Interview.

From personal experience, what’s most important is the content. The resume writing principles discussed above can be applied to any template!

Also, check out my new website, memlayout.com, which helps students learn programming through visualizing their python code line-by-line.

This is a data-driven guide to writing a resume that actually gets you hired. I’ve spent the past four years analyzing which resume advice works regardless of experience, role, or industry. The tactics laid out below are the result of what I’ve learned. They helped me land offers at Google, Microsoft, and Twitter and have helped my students systematically land jobs at Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and more.

Writing Resumes Sucks.

It’s a vicious cycle.

We start by sifting through dozens of articles by career “gurus,” forced to compare conflicting advice and make our own decisions on what to follow.

The first article says “one page MAX” while the second says “take two or three and include all of your experience.”

The next says “write a quick summary highlighting your personality and experience” while another says “summaries are a waste of space.”

After spending hours wondering what your resume should look like, you scrape together your best effort and hit “Submit,” sending your resume into the ether. When you don’t hear back, you wonder what went wrong:

“Was it the single page or the lack of a summary? Honestly, who gives a s**t at this point. I’m sick of sending out 10 resumes every day and hearing nothing but crickets.”

How it feels to try and get your resume read in today’s world.

Writing resumes sucks but it’s not your fault.

The real reason it’s so tough to write a resume is because most of the advice out there hasn’t been proven against the actual end goal of getting a job. If you don’t know what consistently works, you can’t lay out a system to get there.

It’s easy to say “one page works best” when you’ve seen it happen a few times. But how does it hold up when we look at 100 resumes across different industries, experience levels, and job titles?

That’s what this article aims to answer.

Over the past four years, I’ve personally applied to hundreds of companies and coached hundreds of people through the job search process. This has given me a huge opportunity to measure, analyze, and test the effectiveness of different resume strategies at scale.

This article is going to walk through everything I’ve learned about resumes over the past 4 years, including:

• Mistakes that more than 95% of people make, causing their resumes to get tossed immediately
• Three things that consistently appear in the resumes of highly effective job searchers (who go on to land jobs at the world’s best companies)
• A quick hack that will help you stand out from the competition and instantly build relationships with whomever is reading your resume (increasing your chances of hearing back and getting hired)
• The exact resume template that got me interviews and offers at Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Uber, and more

When you're done with this post, you can use my free resume builder to apply everything you learned into a beautiful, ATS-friendly resume that actually gets results.

Before we get to the unconventional strategies that will help set you apart, we need to make sure our foundational bases are covered. That starts with understanding the mistakes most job seekers make so we can make our resume bulletproof.

Resume Mistakes That 95% Of People Make

Most resumes that come through an online portal or across a recruiter’s desk are tossed out because they violate a simple rule.

When recruiters scan a resume, the first thing they look for is mistakes. Your resume could be fantastic, but if you violate a rule like using an unprofessional email address or improper grammar, it’s going to get tossed out.

Our goal is to fully understand the triggers that cause recruiters/ATS systems to make the snap decisions on who stays and who goes.

In order to get inside the heads of these decision makers, I collected data from dozens of recruiters and hiring mangers across industries. These people have several hundred years of hiring experience under their belts and they’ve reviewed 100,000+ resumes across industries.

They broke down the five most common mistakes that cause them to cut resumes from the pile:

The Five Most Common Resume Mistakes (According To Recruiters & Hiring Managers)

Issue #1: Sloppiness (typos, spelling errors, & grammatical mistakes). Close to 60% of resumes have some sort of typo or grammatical issue.

Solution: Have your resume reviewed by three separate sources — spell checking software, a friend, and a professional. Spell check should be covered if you’re using Microsoft Word or Google Docs to create your resume.

A friend or family member can cover the second base, but make sure you trust them with reviewing the whole thing. You can always include an obvious mistake to see if they catch it.

Finally, you can hire a professional editor on Upwork. It shouldn’t take them more than 15–20 minutes to review so it’s worth paying a bit more for someone with high ratings and lots of hours logged.

Issue #2: Summaries are too long and formal. Many resumes include summaries that consist of paragraphs explaining why they are a “driven, results oriented team player.” When hiring managers see a block of text at the top of the resume, you can bet they aren’t going to read the whole thing. If they do give it a shot and read something similar to the sentence above, they’re going to give up on the spot.

Solution: Summaries are highly effective, but they should be in bullet form and showcase your most relevant experience for the role. For example, if I’m applying for a new business sales role my first bullet might read “Responsible for driving $11M of new business in 2018, achieved 168% attainment (#1 on my team).”

Issue #3: Too many buzz words. Remember our driven team player from the last paragraph? Phrasing like that makes hiring managers cringe because your attempt to stand out actually makes you sound like everyone else.

Solution: Instead of using buzzwords, write naturally, use bullets, and include quantitative results whenever possible. Would you rather hire a salesperson who “is responsible for driving new business across the healthcare vertical to help companies achieve their goals” or “drove $15M of new business last quarter, including the largest deal in company history”? Skip the buzzwords and focus on results.

Issue #4: Having a resume that is more than one page. The average employer spends six seconds reviewing your resume — if it’s more than one page, it probably isn’t going to be read. When asked, recruiters from Google and Barclay’s both said multiple page resumes “are the bane of their existence.”

Solution: Increase your margins, decrease your font, and cut down your experience to highlight the most relevant pieces for the role. It may seem impossible but it’s worth the effort. When you’re dealing with recruiters who see hundreds of resumes every day, you want to make their lives as easy as possible.

More Common Mistakes & Facts (Backed By Industry Research)

In addition to personal feedback, I combed through dozens of recruitment survey results to fill any gaps my contacts might have missed. Here are a few more items you may want to consider when writing your resume:

• The average interviewer spends 6 seconds scanning your resume
• The majority of interviewers have not looked at your resume until
  you walk into the room
• 76% of resumes are discarded for an unprofessional email address
• Resumes with a photo have an 88% rejection rate
• 58% of resumes have typos
• Applicant tracking software typically eliminates 75% of resumes due to a lack of keywords and phrases being present

Now that you know every mistake you need to avoid, the first item on your to-do list is to comb through your current resume and make sure it doesn’t violate anything mentioned above.

Once you have a clean resume, you can start to focus on more advanced tactics that will really make you stand out. There are a few unique elements you can use to push your application over the edge and finally get your dream company to notice you.

The 3 Elements Of A Resume That Will Get You Hired

My analysis showed that highly effective resumes typically include three specific elements: quantitative results, a simple design, and a quirky interests section. This section breaks down all three elements and shows you how to maximize their impact.

Quantitative Results

Most resumes lack them.

Which is a shame because my data shows that they make the biggest difference between resumes that land interviews and resumes that end up in the trash.

Here’s an example from a recent resume that was emailed to me:

Experience

• Identified gaps in policies and processes and made recommendations for solutions at the department and institution level

• Streamlined processes to increase efficiency and enhance quality

• Directly supervised three managers and indirectly managed up to 15 staff on multiple projects

• Oversaw execution of in-house advertising strategy

• Implemented comprehensive social media plan

As an employer, that tells me absolutely nothing about what to expect if I hire this person.

They executed an in-house marketing strategy. Did it work? How did they measure it? What was the ROI?

They also also identified gaps in processes and recommended solutions. What was the result? Did they save time and operating expenses? Did it streamline a process resulting in more output?

Finally, they managed a team of three supervisors and 15 staffers. How did that team do? Was it better than the other teams at the company? What results did they get and how did those improve under this person’s management?

See what I’m getting at here?

These types of bullets talk about daily activities, but companies don’t care about what you do every day. They care about results. By including measurable metrics and achievements in your resume, you’re showcasing the value that the employer can expect to get if they hire you.

Let’s take a look at revised versions of those same bullets:

Experience

• Managed a team of 20 that consistently outperformed other departments in lead generation, deal size, and overall satisfaction (based on our culture survey)

• Executed in-house marketing strategy that resulted in a 15% increase in monthly leads along with a 5% drop in the cost per lead

• Implemented targeted social media campaign across Instagram & Pintrest, which drove an additional 50,000 monthly website visits and generated 750 qualified leads in 3 months

If you were in the hiring manager’s shoes, which resume would you choose?

That’s the power of including quantitative results.

Simple, Aesthetic Design That Hooks The Reader

These days, it’s easy to get carried away with our mission to “stand out.” I’ve seen resume overhauls from graphic designers, video resumes, and even resumes hidden in a box of donuts.

While those can work in very specific situations, we want to aim for a strategy that consistently gets results. The format I saw the most success with was a black and white Word template with sections in this order:

• Summary
• Interests
• Experience
• Education
• Volunteer Work (if you have it)

This template is effective because it’s familiar and easy for the reader to digest.

As I mentioned earlier, hiring managers scan resumes for an average of 6 seconds. If your resume is in an unfamiliar format, those 6 seconds won’t be very comfortable for the hiring manager. Our brains prefer things we can easily recognize. You want to make sure that a hiring manager can actually catch a glimpse of who you are during their quick scan of your resume.

If we’re not relying on design, this hook needs to come from the Summary section at the top of your resume.

This section should be done in bullets (not paragraph form) and it should contain 3–4 highlights of the most relevant experience you have for the role. For example, if I was applying for a New Business Sales position, my summary could look like this:

Summary

Drove quarterly average of $11M in new business with a quota attainment of 128% (#1 on my team)

Received award for largest sales deal of the year

Developed and trained sales team on new lead generation process that increased total leads by 17% in 3 months, resulting in 4 new deals worth $7M

Those bullets speak directly to the value I can add to the company if I was hired for the role.

An “Interests” Section That’s Quirky, Unique, & Relatable

This is a little “hack” you can use to instantly build personal connections and positive associations with whomever is reading your resume.

Most resumes have a skills/interests section, but it’s usually parked at the bottom and offers little to no value. It’s time to change things up.

Research shows that people rely on emotions, not information, to make decisions. Big brands use this principle all the time — emotional responses to advertisements are more influential on a person’s intent to buy than the content of an ad.

You probably remember Apple’s famous “Get A Mac” campaign:

When it came to specs and performance, Macs didn’t blow every single PC out of the water. But these ads solidified who was “cool” and who wasn’t, which was worth a few extra bucks to a few million people.

By tugging at our need to feel “cool,” Apple’s campaign led to a 42% increase in market share and a record sales year for Macbooks.

Now we’re going to take that same tactic and apply it to your resume.

If you can invoke an emotional response from your recruiter, you can influence the mental association they assign to you. This gives you a major competitive advantage.

Let’s start with a question — what could you talk about for hours?

It could be cryptocurrency, cooking, World War 2, World of Warcraft, or how Google’s bet on segmenting their company under the Alphabet is going to impact the technology sector over the next 5 years.

Did a topic (or two) pop into year head? Great.

Now think about what it would be like to have a conversation with someone who was just as passionate and knew just as much as you did on the topic. It’d be pretty awesome, right? Finally, someone who gets it!

That’s exactly the kind of emotional response we’re aiming to get from a hiring manager.

There are five “neutral” topics out there that people enjoy talking about:

1. Food/Drink
2. Sports
3. College
4. Hobbies
5. Geography (travel, where people are from, etc.)

These topics are present in plenty of interest sections but we want to take them one step further.

Let’s say you had the best night of your life at the Full Moon Party in Thailand. Which of the following two options would you be more excited to read:

• Traveling
• Ko Pha Ngan beaches (where the full moon party is held)

Or, let’s say that you went to Duke (an ACC school) and still follow their basketball team. Which would you be more pumped about:

• College Sports
• ACC Basketball (Go Blue Devils!)

In both cases, the second answer would probably invoke a larger emotional response because it is tied directly to your experience.

I want you to think about your interests that fit into the five categories I mentioned above.

Now I want you to write a specific favorite associated with each category in parentheses next to your original list. For example, if you wrote travel you can add (ask me about the time I was chased by an elephant in India) or (specifically meditation in a Tibetan monastery).

Here is the exact set of interests I used on my resume when I interviewed at Google, Microsoft, and Twitter:

ABC Kitchen’s Atmosphere, Stumptown Coffee (primarily cold brew), Michael Lewis (Liar’s Poker), Fishing (especially fly), Foods That Are Vehicles For Hot Sauce, ACC Sports (Go Deacs!) & The New York Giants

If you want to cheat here, my experience shows that anything about hot sauce is an instant conversation starter.

The Proven Plug & Play Resume Template

Now that we have our strategies down, it’s time to apply these tactics to a real resume. Our goal is to write something that increases your chances of hearing back from companies, enhances your relationships with hiring managers, and ultimately helps you score the job offer.

The example below is the exact resume that I used to land interviews and offers at Microsoft, Google, and Twitter. I was targeting roles in Account Management and Sales, so this sample is tailored towards those positions. We’ll break down each section below:

First, I want you to notice how clean this is. Each section is clearly labeled and separated and flows nicely from top to bottom.

My summary speaks directly to the value I’ve created in the past around company culture and its bottom line:

• I consistently exceeded expectations
• I started my own business in the space (and saw real results)
• I’m a team player who prioritizes culture

I purposefully include my Interests section right below my Summary. If my hiring manager’s six second scan focused on the summary, I know they’ll be interested. Those bullets cover all the subconscious criteria for qualification in sales. They’re going to be curious to read more in my Experience section.

By sandwiching my Interests in the middle, I’m upping their visibility and increasing the chance of creating that personal connection.

You never know — the person reading my resume may also be a hot sauce connoisseur and I don’t want that to be overlooked because my interests were sitting at the bottom.

Next, my Experience section aims to flesh out the points made in my Summary. I mentioned exceeding my quota up top, so I included two specific initiatives that led to that attainment, including measurable results:

• A partnership leveraging display advertising to drive users to a gamified experience. The campaign resulted in over 3000 acquisitions and laid the groundwork for the 2nd largest deal in company history.
• A partnership with a top tier agency aimed at increasing conversions for a client by improving user experience and upgrading tracking during a company-wide website overhaul (the client has ~20 brand sites). Our efforts over 6 months resulted in a contract extension worth 316% more than their original deal.

Finally, I included my education at the very bottom starting with the most relevant coursework.

Download My Resume Templates For Free

You can download a copy of the resume sample above as well as a plug and play template here:

Austin’s Resume: Click To Download

Plug & Play Resume Template: Click To Download

Bonus Tip: An Unconventional Resume “Hack” To Help You Beat Applicant Tracking Software

If you’re not already familiar, Applicant Tracking Systems are pieces of software that companies use to help “automate” the hiring process.

After you hit submit on your online application, the ATS software scans your resume looking for specific keywords and phrases (if you want more details, this article does a good job of explaining ATS).

If the language in your resume matches up, the software sees it as a good fit for the role and will pass it on to the recruiter. However, even if you’re highly qualified for the role but you don’t use the right wording, your resume can end up sitting in a black hole.

I’m going to teach you a little hack to help improve your chances of beating the system and getting your resume in the hands of a human:

Step 1: Highlight and select the entire job description page and copy it to your clipboard.

Step 2: Head over to WordClouds.com and click on the “Word List” button at the top. Towards the top of the pop up box, you should see a link for Paste/Type Text. Go ahead and click that.

Step 3: Now paste the entire job description into the box, then hit “Apply.”

WordClouds is going to spit out an image that showcases every word in the job description. The larger words are the ones that appear most frequently (and the ones you want to make sure to include when writing your resume). Here’s an example for a data a science role:

You can also get a quantitative view by clicking “Word List” again after creating your cloud. That will show you the number of times each word appeared in the job description:

9 data

6 models

4 experience

4 learning

3 Experience

3 develop

3 team

2 Qualifications

2 statistics

2 techniques

2 libraries

2 preferred

2 research

2 business

When writing your resume, your goal is to include those words in the same proportions as the job description.

It’s not a guaranteed way to beat the online application process, but it will definitely help improve your chances of getting your foot in the door!

Want The Inside Info On Landing A Dream Job Without Connections, Without “Experience,” & Without Applying Online?

Click here to get the 5 free strategies that my students have used to land jobs at Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and more without applying online.

Originally published at cultivatedculture.com.