
Ask HN: What's a good developer's resume look like? - rachel-ftw
I&#x27;m a newly self taught full stack web developer. My background is graphic design and marketing.<p>WTF do I put on my resume? Anyone have advice for writing a technical resume? Any examples of great resume&#x27;s to share?<p>Thanks!
======
debatem1
One page. One page. One page. Only one page. No more pages. Don't do it. Only.
One.

Remember that when I'm reading your resume I'm _reading_. Write it to tell the
story of who you are and who you want to be as well as you are able. Cut out
things that don't fit that story-- you can always pleasantly surprise them
later with the extra skills.

Unless you've worked on something that got put on a billboard near my house, I
don't know what your project's codename was. "Developed key metrics for
Project Hazel" translates to "measured brown thing" in my mind.

Many engineers find it distasteful to describe their contributions in glowing
terms. But that's the game and because I can't tell you're being demure I'm
going to turn the brightness down two notches on your resume same as everyone
else's. So amp it up until it feels gross (and not much further).

~~~
andrewstuart
I have read literally hundreds of thousands of resumes and I implore to ignore
this terrible advice.

Your entire career jammed into a single page - not a good idea.

How many really good stories have you read that are one single page? Your
resume is a story about you that follows a well known general form.

Presumably you have worked hard and put in the work - it will take a few pages
to explain it in a clearly set out manner. Explain your education, what you
have done, where you have worked, your interests where you feel it relevant.
Space it nicely, choose an attractive font. Your resume should not be full of
technical keywords, and there is little point in describing every technology
you have ever touched (see this
[http://supercoders.com.au/blog/theskillsmatrix.shtml](http://supercoders.com.au/blog/theskillsmatrix.shtml)).
Illustrate the most interesting aspects of your work over the years with a
short yet clear description of things you found particularly interesting.

Don't submit a 20 page thesis but as for "one page or nothing" \- from someone
who does the reading and assessing of resumes - this is bad advice. Don't sell
yourself short - years and years of work does not boil down to one page unless
you wish to belittle yourself and your career.

~~~
eschutte2
Why can't a long career be boiled down to a single page?

It seems to me the shorter the better. The best resume is just your name.

[http://www.landsnail.com/apple/local/steve-jobs-
resume/Resum...](http://www.landsnail.com/apple/local/steve-jobs-
resume/Resume.html)

PS - hundreds of thousands of resumes - wow! How'd that happen? Forty resumes
every single work day for twenty years?

~~~
andrewstuart
I am a recruiter - I have been doing it for more than 12 years. Forty resumes
in a day is a very slow day. I personally wrote my own recruitment resume
review system to enable me to read resumes extremely fast if I choose.

~~~
newbear
I'm a self taught dev with a ba in math and 2yrs job experience but have for
the past two years worked in restaurant while chasing my music dreams. How do
I best go about putting this in my resume? I have thought about a projects
section but it doesn't really cover two years. I feel job ready but am not
getting through to people. Thanks

------
skylark
The top answers are giving good advice, but I don't think they answer the real
question: "How do you write a resume when you have no professional work
experience or CS degree?"

DO

Talk about your projects - they should have a short description stating what
it was, the technologies used, and any cool things you implemented (say, some
special algorithm to do XYZ thing.) It should have bullet points in the same
way you'd treat a past job you had. I've seen one page resumes that were 80%
projects and 20% everything else.

Use your graphic design background to help you. The easiest way into a
development position would probably be to find a place that will let you
implement your designs in HTML/CSS. Then you can sneak your way onto the
development team.

All you need is a foot in the door.

DON'T

Go into too much detail about anything unrelated to the job you're trying to
get. Generally speaking every single line of your resume should scream "hire
me" \- anything that's lukewarm should be cut.

MAYBE

If you can get into a top coding bootcamp, you might be able to accelerate
your career by a few years. It's really difficult to get your first job, and
chances are you won't be paid that much for the privilege. If you're paid
15-20k more per year from the start, that alone pays for the cost of an
expensive bootcamp.

------
JamesBarney
1\. Include relevant skills and keywords because many resumes will be
processed by H.R./machine doing simple keyword matching.

2\. Try to keep it short(1 page). Resumes are usually not read but skimmed.
Most hiring managers are given 20-50 resumes and very little time to decide
who to pick for a phone screen.(typically 3-5 minutes or less)

3\. Don't be afraid to use an interesting conversational writing style. So 80%
of resumes read like a badly translated instructions manual from a 1970s VCR.

4\. Structure your resume to put your best qualities first. If you went to a
good school or got a good GPA put that on top. If you kicked but at your last
job and got promoted a lot put that at the top.

------
pbiggar
My best advice is to have a personality shine through. It will lose you some
interviews, but gain you others, As a new engineer you really want to focus on
strongly appealing to a smaller number of people, than to slightly appeal to
many.

~~~
seer
I must confess I'm a bit biased because I work in that space (Enhancv cv
builder) but what we've seen time and time again is that people who put not
only their personal achievements, but their personality as well, land jobs
that they are a lot more happy with. This varies from industry to industry and
country to country of course, but I do think there is a general trend there.

~~~
spicytunacone
Do you notice if people with such resumes take any longer in finding their
place? Do you also have any examples/patterns you could provide? I'm curious
if it takes a certain kind of person to have a resume with personality that
stands out positively.

~~~
seer
Its more of aligning of values between the applicant and the reviewer - if you
have some of your personality showing through from your resume, the reviewer
can have a "gut feeling" about you.

~~~
rachel-ftw
I love this advice because culture fit is one of my biggest concerns. As a
queer woman entering the field (if it's possible) I'd want to avoid being
somewhere that has toxic culture. I think that advice is really on point:
don't sanitize yourself out of your personal brand so that companies that
don't fit you will self select out. Again, if possible. :<

------
bottler_of_bees
If you've had no commercial work experience, it's a little tough to craft a
"good developer's" resume I'd say, so I would focus on things you've created
while self-learning with demonstrable websites, as well as clearly list all
the community sites/forums/lists and whatnot you're involved with and any
contributions made.

In a cover letter I'd stress how well you can pick up new technologies and
become useful to the client/business very quickly, how passionate you are
about keeping up to date with technologies, and somehow indicate you're not a
Machiavellian-ego-consumed prima donna that won't shrink when your logic/work
is challenged or when the stress hits.

Employers it seems to me these days are asking much more than they would of
any other profession i.e. do electricians get asked to trot out a list of
sites they've worked on in the past, or are expected to work after hours on
open source projects they can demonstrate when they next go to a job? It's
tough for recruiters to understand what you're good at, so it becomes a bit of
an art to actually letting people know you're good at such-and-such.

I haven't had any problems being self-taught in the development area - once
you've got a few engagements under your belt and referees. Getting that first
one is the tough bit, if you can prove yourself after that, things get easier
and easier.

~~~
MichaelBurge
> Do electricians get asked to trot out a list of sites they've worked on in
> the past, or are expected to work after hours on open source projects they
> can demonstrate when they next go to a job?

They're licensed, bonded, and insured.

If you agreed to let the government and insurance companies do your approval,
I'm sure many companies would let up a bit on their requirements.

~~~
bottler_of_bees
I was unfairly targetting electricians there I think. I just feel like
sometimes the hoops developers have to go through are a bit more strenuous
than some other professions, if you accept it as a profession.

------
probinso
Your resume architecture will change dramatically with every stage in your
career. It is not critical for a resume these days to be only one page, but it
would be silly for you to include an entire detailed education on a resume for
an industry developer of several years.

Your content should be increasingly selective with every position you get, and
every award you get, and every a commendation.

It should be very easy for employers to identify what conversation pieces you
are ready for. This can be provided in the form of a side project list, a neat
contributions list comma a extracurricular, or presentations you provided.
Anything on your resume should be something that you can talk about in great
detail. For every interview that I've had, I re-read through code Snippets of
all projects I have listed. When Review Time becomes greater than necessary, I
delete projects from my resume.

You should also update your resume monthly, you often don't understand or
remember what new things should be added to your resume unless you do this as
a rolling task. This can accumulate until you are finally applying for jobs,
where you would then remove things you no longer find interesting or that are
irrelevant. This will give you the opportunity to add non technical, yet
important things to your resume.

------
kenrick95
For people that are about to write their first resume ever, I recommend to
look at the advise and sample resume here:
[https://careercup.com/resume](https://careercup.com/resume)

------
sssilver
Two points.

1\. I don't understand people who say "I don't have time to read two pages, so
please send one". Why not just read the first page then and only move on to
the second page if you're intrigued and want more details?

2\. Legibility has a myriad of variables. I wouldn't rather read a CV that
shaves off some whitespace that'd otherwise make it more delightful and easier
to go through, in order to artificially shove in necessary content into the
dimensions of Letter/A4.

~~~
rachel-ftw
+1 for managing white space for legibility/easy scanning

------
russelluresti
So, honestly, my resume is pretty lackluster compared to most. It's simple and
factual. I have 4 sections: a summary (a couple of sentences), my experience,
my education, and "proficiencies" (coding languages, software, tools I know,
etc).

You can see it here:
[http://russelluresti.com/resume/](http://russelluresti.com/resume/) (it
prints basically the same way).

Most of what you hear in terms of resume rules is kind of nonsense. The whole
"one page only" thing I think works fine for the start of your career, but I'm
not going to limit myself to it. I also believe that talking about specific
metrics, while it can be helpful, is really the opposite of what matters.

I believe that what got me my first couple of jobs was my cover letter (or the
content of my website - they're usually pretty similar). Resumes don't usually
excite people. There are a few extremely clever resumes out there that make
you take notice, but the rest are usually a collection of bullet-points, and
bullet-points aren't exciting.

If you want to to get noticed, don't tell people WHAT you do (every resume
does that), tell people WHY you do it; this is what will make you stand out
and has a much better chance of creating excitement. Specifically, talk about
ethos. If you and your potential hiring company align there - on your beliefs
and motivations - they're going to be excited for you.

This generally goes against the normal advice people give for cover letters
where they tell you to focus on talking about what you can do for the company
and how you can be an asset. That advice is bad advice for this community
(development, design, anything at all in the creative field). Instead,
convince them that you care about the same things; that the passion that
drives them as an organization is the passion that drives you as an
individual. That's how you stand apart from your competition.

And if you can't, with a straight face, say how your values align with the
values of the company you're applying to, you're applying to the wrong
company.

Note: I originally started communicating this way on my own material after
watching this -
[https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_insp...](https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action)

~~~
citizens
There's a typo in the last section (HMLT)

------
koonsolo
Here is some advice that works for writing a resume, but can be applied to
anything.

1) Put yourself in the shoes of the one reviewing your resume. What does he
want do read? What doesn't he want to read? What is he looking for? How does
he select candidates based on all the resumes he gets?

2) See how your education and experience can help the company that reviews
your resume. Don't think about yourself, think about the value that you can
offer, and make it clear.

I once had experience in both Java and C++, about equal. I had 2 resumes, both
correct. But on one the Java part was more obvious, and on the other the C++
part. So it depended on what the company was looking for whether I would send
the one or the other.

~~~
rachel-ftw
That's a good idea, different resume's tailored to different types of jobs.
And the empathy piece of putting yourself in someone else's shoes. I'm finding
it challenging to do that. I know tech leads as friends, but this is the first
technical job I'm going after, so what does that person want?

------
solipsism
_I 'm a newly self taught full stack web developer_

I daresay the only role of your resume should be to convince someone to click
on a link that shows the amazing work you've done. Nothing you write is going
to mean anything, comparatively.

~~~
rachel-ftw
That's a good point. It's just enough to get them to click through to the
github/portfolio.

------
olalonde
Not a direct answer to the question but a common mistake I see in resumes is
including a "grocery list" of technologies. You don't need to enumerate every
single technology you have ever used, better to keep it short and focused.

If I'm hiring a React developer, I'm more likely to pay attention to the
resume that lists "JavaScript, React.js, HTML/CSS" than the one that lists "OS
X, Subversion, Git, MS Excel, Linux, MongoDB, React.js, Ruby, HTML, XHTML,
HTML5, CSS 2/3, PowerPoint, ASP.net, MySQL, Agile (Scrum/XP), PHP, Heroku,
Bash, Node.js".

~~~
another-dave
I disagree, though like with everything it needs to be easily scanned & laid
out well. I've had a few where people have put them in categories — Expert: A,
B, C; Intermediate: …; Learning: … — which personally I've liked.

Without the list — if you don't have at least familiarity with, e.g. Bash/Git,
it's a big minus & I'd prefer to know that before the interview stage.

Sometimes people go for concise & hit sparse, which is definitely worse :)
Even on a two-page CV, you could fit in a version of this if you remove a
"Personal Statement" or "References available on request" (I'd hope this is a
truism!)

~~~
rachel-ftw
It seems like there's a balance somewhere. Enough to communicate versatility
and proficiency, but not enough to loose the signal in the noise. I like the
leveling idea (expert/intermediate/learning). I'm all about taking out things
that feel superfluous like the personal statement (isn't that the cover
letter?) and references upon request (if they ask for references of course
I'll give them, who isn't going to give references upon request?).

------
aprdm
Keep it short. One to two paragraphs with summary / goals / why you want to
work there in the email body or in a cover letter helps as well.

In the CV itself, max two pages, bullet points with relevant technologies,
most recent/relevant work experiences, URLs for Linkedin / github / projects.

------
dotancohen
> WTF do I put on my resume?

Start by changing that to "What do I put on my resume?".

Your resume does not end at the bottom of an A4 or Letter page. Your resume
includes how you present yourself, and ill-placed vulgarities are far more
telling than "HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP" are on a few lines of ink.

~~~
rachel-ftw
That's a good point. I've never been agains making well placed swearing part
of a professional brand. It tends to communicate honesty* and takes people's
walls down.

Though I'll admit that particular WTF doesn't add anything, and was mostly an
expression of the frustration of embarking upon converting my existing
marketing/design resume to reflect my current skill set.

*source: [https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/publications/f...](https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/publications/frankly-we-do-give-damn-relationship-between-profanity-honesty)

------
JTxt
I suggest looking at "Who wants to be hired?" posts for ideas.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=whoishiring](https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=whoishiring)

~~~
rachel-ftw
yasss _high five_

------
ubersoldat2k7
One of the things recruiters seem to like about mine is a cloud tag of the
technologies.

~~~
rachel-ftw
That's a great idea, I hadn't thought of that. Thanks!

------
sbassi
Exploring Argentina data and there are people who speaks French and English
(as native tongue) is very unlikely, also Language: indigenous and Religion:
Protestant, is odd

------
GoToRO
A perfect resume looks exactly like the resume of the person that is doing the
hiring. So they would go like "Aha... aha... you're hired!"

~~~
sreejithr
I couldn't agree more. Being a dev who sifts through resumes in a company
without a designated HR, I find myself subconsciously search for people who
closely resemble me (Not in terms of knowledge/experience. I like to work with
people who're better than me) in terms of approach, philosophy and influences.

------
gumernatorial
Willing to share if you share your email. Wouldn't say it's great but I've
been around the block and it's landed me multiple offers.

~~~
rachel-ftw
awesome, thanks! ... this is my first time interacting with HN, is it a smart
idea to share emails in comments? ...?

------
thewhitetulip
Does it matter if I have written a somewhat famous tutorial on web development
and started a YouTube channel which has decent views?

I have got +ve response on both

~~~
Insanity
That might depend on the person doing the interview, and perhaps how you put
it on your CV. If you list some hobbies on your CV, and you put something akin
to "Maintaining youtube channel" or "Writing tutorials" then I would know that
you seem to have some passion for the field outside of work.

I am not saying that everyone _needs_ to do something related to programming
in their free time, after all it is their choice if they do or not and they
can be great engineers without doing so. Yet for me, it shows at least an
interest or a passion.

Furthermore what you are doing is communicating ideas about software
development. That's a plus in my book as well, as communicating ideas clearly
is important. It'd also show you are willing to teach coworkers in a positive
way.

But it might depend on the interviewer.

~~~
thewhitetulip
Thank you for your thoughts! I agree that more than what we do, it matters how
we represent them.

------
DrNuke
One page is more than enough to say who you are, what you did in the past,
list your main present skills and give a couple of best references.

------
Yaggo
Keep it short, use plain text, include urls for your public work (repos).

~~~
cauterized
Do not use plain text in the sense of .txt or even .md. Do use plain text in
the sense that the text should be formatted but there should be no graphics
except (optionally) the occasional horizontal rule or (if you have a strong
enough graphic design background) a vertical rule dividing a sidebar.

Do distribute as PDF instead of MS Word or equivalent.

~~~
rachel-ftw
I have a background as a visual designer, so this is good advice. I used to
have very visual resumes because it fit the field, but I'm realizing that
would be not such a great thing in engineering.

------
general_ai
I just export my LinkedIn profile as PDF, references and all. Have no trouble
whatsoever landing great jobs.

~~~
DonCullen
It's a pity LinkedIn labs killed that.

~~~
general_ai
What do you mean "killed that"? The option is still there, it's just not easy
to find. Click on the triangle next to "View Profile As" button.

------
gaius
Just remember what a CV really is - it's a sales brochure to get you an
interview. Nothing more, nothing less. Once you understand this what to
include and what to leave off becomes obvious.

~~~
morgante
A CV is not a resume and mistaking the two is a fatal mistake that I see far
too frequently. You might just be using it as shorthand, but I've seen far too
many friends who thought sending in their 5-page CV for industry job
applications was normal.

~~~
matthewmacleod
Worth noting that this can be a regional difference. In the UK, the terms are
synonymous, (though CV is much more common), and the CV is much more in line
with the US idea of a résumé.

~~~
robert_tweed
This is wrong. Both terms are used in exactly the same way in the UK but the
expectations are different. In the US, a resume is expected. In the UK, a CV
is expected.

People who use the terms interchangeably are wrong in either case, but that
wrongness may vary. If someone in the UK says resume they _might_ mean CV,
whereas if someone in the US says CV they _might_ mean resume.

No matter where you are the rules are the same. A resume is usually one page
and is a summary. A CV is usually about 3 pages (this is more variable) and
contains a full work history.

Where there is often some confusion about them being the same thing is that
CVs can be "tailored" and indeed it's usual to compress large chunks of work
history if it's not relevant to a particular application. That doesn't make it
a resume however.

I'm less certain about CVs in the US, but I believe they simply leave out what
would normally go in a resume, which would is often what the first page of a
UK CV looks like.

