Hey There!
I’ve had a lot of junior developers complain they’re not getting jobs even though they have been applying for months to hundreds of different companies…
Last week I had a chat with a few software engineers and CTOs who have worked at some of the top tech companies and they all pointed to one specific reason why most developers get overlooked.
It’s not your experience…
It’s not the country you’re from…
It’s not even the tech stack you know…
- It’s your resumé
That's where the problem starts.
I’m currently building a platform to help developers in my community get their first developer job.
I’ve spoken with some brilliant developers and most of their resumes absolutely SUCK.
and it’s not your fault.
Everyone talks about the programming languages you need to learn...
the tech stack you need to learn...
and even the projects you need to build.
What most developers don’t talk about is your resume, portfolio and your approach to get a developer job.
Here are a few things that stood out from the conversations I had:
👉 Most resume’s tend to be more than a page. Bring it down to one page.
👉 When it comes to hierarchy – Make sure your work experience comes first (if you don’t have any, then talk about the projects you’ve built).
Mention you recent employment history with the contributions you made and the outcomes from your work.
👉 If you have projects you’ve built and proud of, include them in the resume.
Add the best project to the top. Make sure you have links to the live site/app and it’s GitHub repo if it’s public.
👉 Spell-checking and consistency – Do a double or triple check for spelling and grammar mistakes.
It’s the simple things that’s gonna reduce your chances of getting that job. They don’t want someone who doesn’t have attention to detail.
👉 If you’re adding links in your resume make sure they all work perfectly fine.
I’ve seen a few goofs who put links but they’re broken or I have to copy paste in the browser to open it. Don’t make that mistake. 🙏
👉 Don’t bloat your resume.
You don’t need to link your Instagram or Facebook profile, they don’t care about your social life.
(Unless you’re applying for a position like Developer Relations, etc.)
Remove those cute progress bars and text bubbles that mention what technologies you work with. It doesn’t provide any value to your recruiter.
✅ Follow the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) principle – Remove the fanciness in your resume.
Don’t overdo the styling. Don’t throw in colors or fancy fonts to your text.
Have enough white space to make it easy to read.
✅ Always keep it up to date – Keep a version control of your resume and up to date.
I know this was a really long email, but if you read till the end congratulations you're one step closer to getting that developer job đź’Ş
In my next blog,
I’ll talk more about your portfolio and why you need one 🔥
Love your beautiful face ❤️