Feedback on CV / Coverletter

Career Advice
1

Hi, I would like to ask for criticism and feedback on my CV and/or Coverletter please. Is this the right place for that? I’ve applied for 30 - 40 web development jobs but haven’t had a single interview.

CV.pdf

2

HI @alexknz !

You can ask for feedback on your resume.
Just add a PDF copy to this post.

3

Hey there,

please also add how you communicate with the companies before you send them your resume/CV.

4

Added link to PDF, thanks.

5

I don’t communicate with them before the application. I’ve only applied to jobs advertised on various web sites. I haven’t sent any unsolicited applications.

Should I be doing that? If yes how do I do it?

6

The first thing I’d do is compress to one page. Also, put your hardest hitting info an the top and bottom of that one page.

1 Like
7

I agree with placing your most important information at the top and keeping it one page.

Your most important information, IMO is your work experience and education.

I would move this out of work experience.
2019 – Current: Web Development Certifications and Projects

Projects should be its own category.

I also think you can restructure the summary of skills and experience section.
I think that section needs to be a lot shorter and more concise.

You have to remember that people are only going to scan your resume for a few seconds before moving onto the next one.
Keep it clean, short and concise.

Hope that helps!

2 Likes
8

Page 1 is “dev-for-dev” style, but the first bouncer is a HR person.

dev-for-dev: I use ReactJS and NextJS to connect with a REST API that sends back JSON from an ExpressJS server and MongoDB database :question: :question: :question:

dev-for-HR: I love to build well-designed, performant web applications with JavaScript :smiley: :white_check_mark:

Page 2 shows that you have 9y (!) of real life experience as a dev in companies and a university degree in Software Engineering, don’t hide this stuff. I didn’t expect this plot twist.

2 Likes
9

That’s excellent thank you :+1:. It’s very helpful, I hadn’t thought about this stuff.

I thought to list the technologies at the start as the HR person is the one writing the job ad? So they list on their own ad the tech they want like “JavaScript, React, Node” etc. I was trying to make it clear for them that I know the tech they are asking for.

I graduated a long time ago and I put the work experience at the end because I didn’t think it was relevant for web development jobs I’ve been applying for.

I thought it might turn people off as they might think “This guy is old and he has some years experience but none of it is relevant to web development and he’s applying for a lower-level web development job…”

Anyway thanks again this is quite useful. I have compressed it down to one page and I think all the important information is there and should be easily scannable.

10

That’s very helpful, thank you :+1:. I have reduced it to one page. I think it’s much better now and all the key information is still present.

11

You didn’t say what you did to reduce it to 1 page, so I’m going to assume the following is still intact:

  • Repeating your name twice at the top is pointless. Delete one of those to reclaim some space.
  • Generally you need both a LinkedIn profile and a GitHub profile link.
  • You don’t need the Summary of Interests section. I’d recommend deleting it as it adds nothing of value.
  • Re-write so that you don’t have full sentences in the “Summary of Relevant Skills/Experience” section. That should be a short list of your skills and nothing more - i.e., HTML, JavaScript, etc. Just put the keywords down. Don’t write in sentences, even short ones.
  • Don’t use footnotes. Embed your links directly, or make them clickable links.
  • “Studying web development and working on web development projects” doesn’t sound like work experience. If you haven’t been working since 2019, then you need a better way to re-frame what you’ve been doing, and it shouldn’t be going in your Work Experience section.
  • Your individual work experience positions need to be better formatted. Show a better visual separation between your position, the company, and the location. Also your locations need to be consistent. If you traveled around the world, then all of them need to be in City, Country format.
  • freeCodeCamp doesn’t count as education unfortunately. You should delete that. Plus it doesn’t add anything if you have a Software Engineering degree from a university.
  • Delete the References section. That doesn’t add anything and goes without saying.
12

This topic was automatically closed 182 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.