Portfolio/CV feedback and tips

Career Advice
1

Hey guys,

I’m a 32 y/o career switcher, been passionate about web development/programming for a while, but for a long time it was just me being a casual nerd/information sponge. Past professional background was in financial analysis though I left that after ~4-5 years to study a business degree. Anyways, I’m starting to look around for developer jobs (preferably an internship so I can get a feel for the industry) and was hoping to get some feedback on my CV and portfolio page, especially if there are any successful career switchers around my age that can give their 2 cents.

I’d like to think the volunteer work I’m doing at the moment is not too far off the day-to-day tasks of a developer, but I don’t have any real work experience yet and all the job ads I see, even for junior roles, list off a pretty intimidating set of requirements.

My main ‘pain points’ at the moment are:

  • I learnt lots of different tools from all over the spectrum (e.g. GraphQL, React, implementing OAuth, templating engines, SQL, etc etc) and am trying to show variety across my projects however most of my implementations are relatively straightforward, nothing fancy - is this too much of a shotgun approach and should I focus instead on doing one or two things to a much deeper level?
  • The CV is for the most part focused on my past career, and I was hoping it could emphasise transferable skills like problem solving etc, but not sure if non-tech would bore/turn away recruiters?

Any feedback on the content or design would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance for your help!!
Arty

  1. Portfolio Site
    https://artysidorenko.github.io/Portfolio-Website/

  2. The CV - sorry I had to convert to a png so it’s somewhat squashed (can be opened separately)

    CV_redacted-1
    CV_redacted-11241×1754 413 KB

2

Jeez just realised how long of an essay I just posted… Sorry!! :zipper_mouth_face:

3

On the cv, I’d reorganise the order and put employment above education. I’d also expand the description of your front end role and shorten the first finance one - lead with a good breakdown of your current volunteer role, and preferably include what value you add to the project.

4

I just checked your code contributions to focal local… That is an impressive list of useful contributions! You need to focus on getting potential employer eyeballs on that list!

5

Hey @JacksonBates thanks for the speedy feedback!

Regarding the order in the CV, yeah I was in two minds on which section to put up-top, sounds like employment may be more relevant. Just 1 follow-up question: do you think I should keep the “Technical toolbox” - i.e. list of coding skills and frameworks - under education once the section moves down, or better to keep it at the top (perhaps under the first summary section) seeing as so many job ads seem to have specific skills they’re looking for e.g. React etc?

Thanks again,
Arty

6

I would move just the education section down to below employment. Leave the technical section(Skills, ‘toolbox’) at the top. I can’t say whether it may be a good idea to leave the projects with the technical summary section or not. I have mine at the bottom- though I may remove those and just add a link to my portfolio once it goes live.