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well I just gone through your portfolio =)
How long have you been coding?
There maybe you need to tell what you specialize in so its easier for employer to know what they are looking for… but i dont know for sure
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I’ll just link to one of my recent answers:
Some suggestions, Put your skills and certifications right at the top under your contact info/external profiles section. Just as well right below that rather than having a list of projects I would suggest linking and elaborating on your portfolio, with a quick explanation of relevant projects. I would also suggest going into more detail for the tasks you had at prior jobs, usually 4-7 sentences per job. I have a template somewhere I could link you. Otherwise it’s looking great!
Edit: Reason for these tips is that you want to catch the interviewers attention long before going into your experience and projects. Tell them your skills and what certifications you have to prove that, then go into more detail. Generally a summary section isn’t needed, I would save that for cover letters and only if the job asks for one.
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I am not a tech recruiter but in my opinion, it looks good and objective.
But in doubt, you may want to check those websites about templates and tips recommended by The Odin Project:
https://www.resumerepublic.com/
https://www.careercup.com/resume
https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2004/01/26/getting-your-resume-read/
@Anon551122
Did you create your projects from scratch or they are part of the courses that you took?
I was wondering because I have done feel projects now that I did as part of my courses and I do not know if I should show them all when I start to look for jobs or it has to be projects that I have that myself from scratch.
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Hi Ethan,
I think your resume looks good. But I think some small changes might make it better.
You could put something on top about your planned return to the US with a date. Also you could mention being available for remote work in the meantime.
You don’t want them to think you are looking for a job just to be able to leave China, because such an employee would cost extra time and paperwork. Tell them you are an American going home.
On your website and in your resume I don’t get to see much of you as a person or your story. And the best way to sell anything is to tell a story about it. And you are trying to sell yourself.
So maybe you should put a short story in there that tells the recruiters something about your journey in life (starting with the end: going home), the choices you made, the obstacles you ran into and how you ended up where you are now and what makes you passionate about your new skills. A bit like you told us in your other posts, but much shorter.
In the end they are hiring a person with skills who fits into their team, and not just anyone who can code.
And about your skills. You have only been learning them for one year. A recruiter might think you’r a beginner in all of them. If that’s the case then make that clear in a description.
But I don’t think you are a beginner anymore, after doing all those projects. You could put a slider behind each skill which describes the level (0-10). That would also show what your current strengths are and what you might need to learn for a particular job.
And tell them what you learned at university. They might be interested in those extra skills, even if they don’t mention them in the job description.
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@ethanvernon OP in that thread especially asked for blunt responses. May not be the same in your case. Noted.
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A couple more tips I’d have: Stick with 11 point font times new Roman, this will give you space to work with and only add a single space between sections (12 point for things like your name and section headers), I would beef up your work experience a bit, although you are right about the jobs not being software dev related recruiters are looking for well rounded employees with experience in the workplace in general and a preferably large skill set. Judging from your initial resume you have that, so just show it. Don’t just blurt out what you did at those jobs, go into some detail and make it sound professional. Since your degree isn’t in software development you’ll want to let recruiters know that you have more to offer than a recent college grad.
I agree with @Joke however I wouldn’t put too much of a story in your resume itself. On your website, definitely have a detailed about me. Make sure you update your linked in and Facebook, I still have to myself. One thing you might consider is leaving out the China factor in the resume portion and maybe just put where you’re going to be, because as Joke said recruiters are not going to wanna pay extra for a work visa or anything of the sort. I’ll try to get up a copy of my resume for reference, it’s not perfect but I received a ton of help on creating it so there’s some insight in it.
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how we can get it quckly?
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Hi Ethan,
Your resume looks better. Adding certain facts about your education, both in coding and in college, created a little story about you. And that was what this resume needed.
As for the China part: you could add temporary to that sentence.
I wouldn’t worry about the fonts too much. It looks good and the people who are going to read it will be focused on your skills and experience, while unconsciously creating a picture of you as a future colleague/employee in their mind. The latter is the reason why you needed a story.
You could do the same thing on your portfolio. Just add enough facts about your journey in life to create a little story and explain something about the switch from language to coding.
First of all, that you’ve taught yourself these skills yourself with FCC is hella impressive, so kudos to you. First thoughts though are that you could make these skills pop a lot more. I think you’re hiding your true potential from prospective employers and could beef that up. Here are my thoughts (and I feel you when you say, there’s so much conflicting information out there. Take my thoughts with a grain of salt, I’ll elaborate on each one and you can decide yourself if the thoughts are relevant to your situation and/or goals):
1). Replace “American Living in China” at the top with “Front End Javascript Developer.” That’s because you’re first and foremost a software developer, not an American living in China. The advice people have given you here about telling a story with your skills is good advice, but it’s still essential that you put yourself in the position of employers first. You’re looking to solve their problems, and employers are looking for a developer, which you are.
2). Skills section - make this stand out more. The font makes it blend in to the rest of the text, are my first impressions. I wish I had some examples on hand of resume templates that do this, but I’m on my work computer and don’t have them bookmarked, and there is massive improvement that can be made here. Six months ago I had these same skills, and I can tell from your projects that your proficiency in these skills is way higher than mine, yet our resumes looked the same. That’s no good. You have more skills in Javascript than you do in MongoDB, if what you’ve said about being a front end developer is accurate. This needs to be more apparent. When you start talking to companies and getting an idea of their needs, you’ll learn that a startup looking to expand its team of engineers has a few specific needs in mind, and a blanket listing of relevant skills is going to be too generic for them to give you an opening round interview.
3). Headlines – some improvements, again with the skills section, they’re relevant how? Because this just doesn’t cover an employer’s specific needs, and they’ll all be different from one another. I would change this to “Proficient in:” and list all the ones you’re an expert (Javascript, React, HTML5, CSS3, Sass, etc) and write up a seperate section for “Moderate skills” or something similar. When you begin applying for jobs you’ll want to filter by tech stack and you’ll do yourself the most favors by catering your resume to a tech stack you’re awesome at.
4). Projects - I actually liked one of the ealier iterations of your resume, because it highlighted the things you’ve built. With your skill set and experience, you’re going to want to angle for a coding assessment or take home project as soon as possible, so you can prove yourself with your skills more than your experience. Employers can tell from your experience as an English teacher in China that you have work ethic and job experience. What they’ll need is a developer who can learn their system quickly and build out their apps/website/software/etc and learn quickly, and the projects you’ve built are the best and fastest way to prove that to them up front.
I’ll leave it at that, I apologize most of this advice is generic, but you have real potential here and it’s not showing as well as it could be. My next question is, do you have a website? And would that not be a better way to showcase your portfolio? I’d love to see that, and you’ll be surprised how much more that will turn heads than a resume.
If you need any more advice or have any questions about anything feel free to hit me up, and good luck! I am an English teacher (South Korea) turned developer as well and I’ve spent some time in China, so I’m rooting hard for you!
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hi! Ethan, you got some pretty advice…I think you are doing pretty good!
However, I have just been doing this for 1.5 years…
I wish I could help you more but if you are in a mood where you are productive…
or not is more important than anything else do you feel you can solve any problem in your
expertise? and go from there…
My own story is so far all these, PHP basic, MySQL basic, javascript advanced, angular advanced +
nodejs real good and some frameworks HTML CSS, etc sass, etc list goes on and lately, I even had to code and learn Linux servers to make my website have https installed and proxy serving it =)))
So my best advice is as soon as I u get to the point u feel u can solve pretty much everything in our area of work just jump head first into the search of work people are looking for people like you! okay?
Being a confident person but humble network and keep doing it eventually you will nail it!
ttyl
ps that is excluded gaming frameworks =)
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Hi Ethan,
Your resume looks fine to me.
There is just one thing I would change and that’s the space between headings and paragraphs.
I think it’s better for readability if there is more space between a paragraph and the next heading, than between that heading and the paragraph it belongs to.
In your resume there is enough space to move the headings a little bit down. So it shouldn’t cause problems with keeping all this text on one page.
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Resume is looking a lot better!
This looks much better. The spacing makes it easier to read.
The spacing and rhythm on your portfolio needs attention as well.
Here are some websites that explain how and why:
A good rhythm can make a huge difference in the looks of a website. When you get it right the whole website just feels good and looks professional. It’s a psychological thing. Humans like rhythm, symmetry and repeated patterns.
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