The Mistakes You Could Be Making On Your Coding Resume

Don’t Let Your Resume Hold You Back

As technology changes, so do basic programming requirements in the job market. This may seem scary at first, but it’s great news for aspiring web developers.

After all, you might have some education and experience already. Perhaps you graduated from college or a coding bootcamp with a few projects under your belt. The only step left includes your resume. Certain mistakes may keep you from getting the interview, and the following list of ways to improve your resume can help!

1. You Haven’t Led With Your Strengths

You may be feeling insecure about your actual experience. What if you only know one or two programming languages? Maybe you pen sitting on top of a resumebelieve you should hold a computer science degree, not only a coding boot camp certificate. There’s much more you can put on your resume than just your schooling.

When writing down your previous positions, you can go above and beyond just listing things that you did. Accomplishments are much more impressive than tasks. Specifically, how did your tasks benefit the company? Did your keen eye save the business 40 percent in costs? Did you come up with a way to improve work efficiency? Listing specific accomplishments on your resume can make a big impact in the eyes of employers.

Even if you have yet to hold a professional position, make sure to mention the last project you finished and how you applied your knowledge to it, regardless of if you worked on it at school or at a coding boot camp. Calling attention to what you have done is more impressive than noting what you still need to improve on.

2. Your Resume Doesn’t Look Professional

resume icon with a professional woman figure holding a laptopFirst impressions are important, and resumes are no exception. Here are two aspects you can fix to improve on your resume:

Font

Small font sizing can be incredibly difficult to read, and if you use too many different fonts, you may appear unprofessional. Arial, Times New Romans, and other standard fonts are good choices to consider. The key is to always remain consistent.

Content

Bad grammar may show a recruiter that you don’t truly care about the position. Who’s to say you will take the job seriously if you don’t take your resume seriously? Also, if your resume does not fit on standard 8.5 x 11 inch paper that you can generate to a PDF, employers may not be able to print it out. As a result, your resume may not be read at all.

3. You Need to Use Your Space Efficiently

Having a great resume is more than just having the right size paper. You must make the most out of the space you’re given. Don’t clutter your resume with keywords that don’t need to be there. Yes, resumes often get automatically weeded out by tracking systems, But once they pass this preliminary stage, employers notice phrases that show up too often or seem out of place. Before you sit down to build your resume, think of why you’re including certain descriptions or words. Don’t get too wordy.

Listing every tool or programming language you know may sound tempting, but only add them if they are relevant to the position you’re applying for. If you have additional skills, education, or previous job roles that don’t directly tie into the job, often the opportunity to talk about those bonus items will come up during the interview process.

For positions that have a large amount of applicants, employers can often only read a page or two of information. For this reason, make sure your resume is not longer than two pages.

4. Don’t Pretend Yours Is The Only Resume They Will See

Your ultimate goal in sending in your resume should be to get an interview. The best way to do this is by making sure your resume stands out from the crowd. For this reason, it can be beneficial to stay away from cliches, like saying you’re a “team player.” Instead, show how you demonstrated teamwork in one of your initiatives.

It also pays to edit your resume for each position you apply for, and put real thought into it. Employers and ATS systems love it when you use the same words as they do.

Also, make sure that the employers are familiar with the businesses that you have worked for in the past. Do not assume that they know what your former employer does.

5. Be Sure to Keep Your Knowledge Up to Date

hands shakingTechnology is ever changing. Once your schooling ends, you must continue learning on your own. Constantly working on new projects can demonstrate your capacity for growth and abilities.  

Learning different programming languages is good, but knowing how to learn is even more important. Coding boot camps are a great resource on the surface. But looking deeper, you find that it is much more than that, as they teach you how to learn on your own once it’s over. Confidence will shine out of you if you have some projects, applications, or web pages as experience.

Conclusion

Your best resume is waiting to be sent to the job of your dreams. Following these guidelines can certainly help you get on the right track. With the right tools and a lot of persistence and hard work, you can find the right coding job for you.

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