How is my CV. Can I find a junior/mid level job with this

Hi
I want to share my CV with you. I’m searching a junior/mid level PHP job remotely or with relocation in Europe.
The thing that I want from you is to hear your advices to what I must change on my CV and if this is enough to find a junior/medior role.

Here is my CV

@kevinSmith

Hey,

Overall, I like it. It’s well organized and has a lot of information. I like that you have a healthy list of skills.

But it’s more helpful to list the things that I don’t like.


I always suggest against colored backgrounds - like the header. Some people still print resumes. It’s just a thought.


You have an inspirational quote in the header. You are using up a lot of space for something they’ll probably assume you googled. I don’t think you should have inspirational quotes in a resume. There is nothing in that quote that everyone would not say about themselves. It is therefore meaningless.

What should be there? What kind of a job are you looking for? Don’t make them guess. If you’re not going to have an “Objective” section or whatever, that might be a good place to convey that.


In Skills, you list MySQL twice. I also might dig for some more skills/libraries.


I almost wonder if you have too much information here. Or maybe with all your experience you need two pages. Normally people here only need one, but you may need two. But if you want to keep it to one, I’d tighten up this text and shorten it. At the very least, I probably need less info about being a desktop support analyst.


I think there is too much information in the education section. Most of those are just things we would assume you’d study. This list should be half as long, maybe less.


The certifications section is short - good.


Do you really need that many projects? I usually tell people to pick their 3 best. I think 5 is a lot. You have 9. I’d say to pick your 5 best. They can see the rest on your site. List the best one first.

In “Technologies used :” - In English, there is no space before the colon. Or just leave “Technologies use:” off of there - it is clear from context.


Maybe you don’t need two pages. If you tighten up the experience and education sections, cut down to 5 projects, and maybe tighten up the descriptions - you should have plenty of space. You could increase the font size (it seems small), add back some margins, and get some white space. And you could expand the skills section.

I don’t know, maybe I’m coming at this from an American perspective - we don’t do CVs, we do resumes, which tend to be shorter. If you want all this information, if this is what is common, then I would seriously consider putting it on two pages to let it “breathe” - it seems very cramped.


Just some thoughts…

I’m impressed with your educational background and I can see why you want to change jobs. You are underselling yourself currently. I’m glad you are breaking
out of this shell. You should earn ALOT more with your education and experience.

I already sent you the links to Glassdoors job boards on LinkedIn.
Also check Indeed for similar jobs.

As you told me on LinkedIn you are mostly interested in backend.
Best say that at the start that you are looking for
PHP/ Node.js or similar backend positions.

The heart of your resume should be your education, the curriculum is almost
1:1 comparable with a current CS bachelor degree and you have been active since then so you are up to date. This will open many doors.

Again I’m glad you broke out of your shell, don’t sell yourself short!

My main feedback is your resume is essentially 2 pages long, but due to the layout it covers 1 page.

This might have a reverse effect intended, as things get muddled. Most people who review resumes only look at it for a few seconds. This means a large majority of information wont be read directly. This could lead to your resume being passed over for simply being too verbose to read . Its hard to compare two resumes if one is huge, and the other more concise and to the point.

Having a wide range of experiences can help you find a job, but the resume you provide for each job should be as specific and compelling for the job at hand.

I’ve gone to a number of resume workshops. All of them say the same thing about 2 page resumes. It shouldn’t be necessary. Keeping things smaller and more focused to what is relevant for a job should be enough. Anything else you add could just complicate whatever primary message your resume wants to provide. Worst case you have this extra information elsewhere, like LinkedIn or a cover letter.


The clearest area this could pertain to is the projects section, which takes up nearly 50% of your resume. The most relevant projects here depend on the job your applying to. So if your looking for PHP jobs, the PHP projects should be front and center. The rest could be left off unless there is something notable about them that is directly relevant for the job at hand.

Same goes for your skills section, which should be reflected in the projects, making this section a duplicate.

Your education section could also be a single bullet point to get an idea of how long you’ve been working outside of school. The classes you took shouldn’t be as important at this stage, as you have multiple years of real-world experiences.


Another thing worth mentioning is due to your wide range of experiences, you might want to write your resume specific to a given job. You can add/remove specifics depending on the job requirements. The goal being you want to match the job requirements as closely as possible, along with throwing in some extras to help you stand out.

Obviously this takes more work, but I’d consider it work well spent if the resume you give is heavily focused on the job your applying to, with nothing extra that could distract from its main selling points.

Finally I’d like to provide a relevant quote:

“If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.” - Mark Twain

Brevity would give more weight to whatever you write. If what you give is a summary of super relevant work experiences, then I see no reason for you not to be able to get at least an interview.

Good luck, keep learning, keep building :+1:

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