I’ve completed a big chunk of the FCC curriculum and I think I’m ready to start applying for jobs. I’ll be applying for Front-End Dev jobs mainly because that’s where I think most of my skills are right now. I’d love to get some critique and feedback on my resume thus far. Here are some things I’m considering:
do the project details convey enough front-end skills?
is the summary of qualifications too generic? could it be gone entirely?
are the project details too technical? could a non-technical HR reader understand the skills it took?
Technically not. More like big chunks from various sections of the curriculum, but not 100% of any one section, so no certifications there (although I don’t think it shouldn’t be too much of a disadvantage?)
I think your CV is very good. It’s really good to show that you have created projects which have been tested which you’ve done. If a HR person doesn’t understand what you’re writing, they’ll just be looking for keywords and will assume you know your stuff.
I think the front-end skills are fine. You have demonstrated you know modern techniques like Flexbox and you know about HTML templating with Jade. You also have your build tools down with Grunt, Gulp, Webpack etc.
I don’t know how much this matters, but personally I would just inject a little more personality in there. I know a crapload about all of your skills, experience etc and they are very impressive, but I don’t know anything about you.
Thanks a lot for the feedback! I think you’re the first person to say it’s actually good haha.
If anyone’s interested, here’s what others had to say when I posted the same resume on reddit:
“There are some HUGE improvements you can make here. - your Summary of qualifications thing needs to go. Most of it just looks like soft skills that you don’t even back up. That makes it meaningless. You say your a hard worker all day long, but anyone could just make that up. - why is your experience at the bottom? And your projects second to the bottom? Those are by FAR the most important things about a resume and your not even highlighting them. - This is more personal opinion, but the stylization is over bearing. You want your resume to stand out in content and clarity, not in Color.”
“Simplify the color scheme to black and white and remove the background boxes. Let your projects demonstrate your design skills and format your resume for maximum readability.”
“I’m not in IT, so I can’t speak to rewrites of your project descriptions, but a few tips:
Remove subjective descriptions, such as “quick at adapting” or “effective at managing…” or “team player.” The employer will decide whether you have those qualities based on the accomplishments you share. Your résumé is meant to be objective. You can elaborate on your motivation and adapting to technologies in your cover letter, about how you’re self-taught, you follow the tech trends and have been learning the latest languages accordingly, you have all these XYZ ideas, you know that X company has Y goals and here’s how you can help them meet those, etc.
For your work experience, focus on skills and outcomes, not job duties, by naming your accomplishments. That can be done by quantifying results where you can. To brainstorm: Did you receive some form of recognition? Did you intervene in a situation that could’ve become a serious problem had you not intervened? Did you make a suggestion adopted by team/coworkers? Did you accomplish a task using less than usual resources? Have you trained or taught people?
As for design, I think the boxes constrict, so I’d remove them.
Other than that, I think it’s good that you’ve emphasized your projects. I’ve seen folks who are trying to break into entry-level IT support coming from a totally different sector and have no projects to share. Those projects will definitely strengthen your candidacy.”
Any thoughts on those comments? These people on reddit seemed to be a lot more experienced than us FCC wannabes, but I’m still going to take everything with a grain of salt.
I think the person that made the comments about moving your experience to the top is right, thats one of the most important things. Although I’m not an expert myself but I suppose if you don’t have a ton of experience to write home about, I can see why you want it at the bottom. Your skills and projects are certainly impressive (that’s where I’d like to be a year from now), you just need to rearrange things a bit (like let your experience and projects show that you’re a harder worker, don’t mention it on your qualifications like the other guy said). Good luck!
