…and feel free to tell me exactly what you think. I have a web page version on my website. I took off my address and contact info as I have a contact page. Here is the link to my resume.
I am most concerned with the SUMMARY and EDUCATION sections, but also the “Web-based tools” that I mention having experience with under TECHNOLOGY SKILLS. For that section, I put Bootstrap, jQuery, JSON, and AJAX even though I’m at best a beginner with those.
Feedback on ANY section or the text would be much appreciated.
Keep of mind that I am a harsh critic and am somewhat opinionated…
I would want the summary (I usually call it “Objective”) also to be about the position you are looking for. You might even have a job title under your name at the top. I read both and it still wasn’t clear to me what you are trying to be. To me the summary should be a brief (briefer) explanation of who you are as a developer and what position you want. I don’t need to know “Website owner since 2009”. To me the phrase “extremely confident with” sounds a little too… I don’t know. It just doesn’t sound professional, on a resume. That sort of editorializing belongs more in a cover letter, I think.
Don’t tell people you are good at “MS Office, LibreOffice, Google Docs” - that is just a waste of space. Everyone applying for this job is word processors and spread sheets. Unless you are coding advanced macros, keep it off. You consider Zoom a skill? Slack? Scribus only if you are doing publishing. Is that used a lot by developers?
Next to the summary, I think the technology skills are the most important thing. I usually like multi-column bullets, but whatever works. But trim the fat - everything they read that makes them roll their eyes makes them want to stop reading.
I don’t understand - you say you are extremely confident with RWD, then say, “Wrote the CSS rules for my theme’s style.css and editor-style.css files which combined have 3000+ lines.” - to me that just seems like a weird brag. OK, you wrote a bunch of CSS. I don’t think anyone is saying, “Let’s get someone that has written a lot of lines of CSS.”
Rather than list the “types” of things you have done, I’d want actual projects with links and a brief description of the technologies used for each. Don’t tell them what you’ve done and expect them to believe you - show them.
Don’t say you are “self-taught” - just list courses that you’ve done. I think this section could be expanded a little if you trim up the Professional Skills section - or even rename it to Projects or Experience. I think listing out the classes would be good - it’s a chance to get some more keywords on the page.
Objective vs Summary. I used to call it objective but it’s now preferred to do a Summary and call it such. I’ve found videos by Andrew LaCivita really helpful and up to date. And the focus on that section has changed from what “you” want as a job title to want you can offer the employer. That is supposedly the new thing to do. I don’t think you are supposed to put the job title on the resume either but I could double-check that. I changed “Extremely confident” to “Experienced”. I’m not sure how to rewrite the first sentence. Also, I’m entry-level so I don’t even know the types of job I would qualify for. I don’t think I qualify for a Jr Front End Dev.
I removed the entire section of collaboration. Also, multi-column resumes are bad since they are in essence tables and applicant tracking systems can’t read them. So anything you put in them won’t get picked up by the program.
So are you saying remove the 3000 lines part? That’s fine. I’m trying to communicate that I had to write all the CSS for my various template files and the dashboard editor.
I just finished my first project. Other than the ClipBoard API, it’s JavaScript based and I think unique. I’m in the process of building a portfolio home page to place alongside my WP install in the public_html folder. And then I am going to start on a 2nd project idea I have. But in the mean time I wanted my resume checked as I’m new to this field.
Great point on the education section - I’ll do that right now. My actual resume doesn’t have enough room, but it will as soon as I ditch the Docs & Collaboration bullet.
The other thing I forgot to mention - I saw that there was a background color on the page? I don’t know if that was an effect of how the site renders it or was a purposeful background color. If it is the latter, don’t give your resume a background color (other than white or transparent) in anything you send or allow people to download. Some people still print them out - they will hate you for using up all their toner.
I made the background color look like Manilla resume paper. I need it to standout somehow with the page.
My actual resume doesn’t look like that. I doubt recruiters are going to look at my resume there - that is mostly useful for things like asking for feedback. That way people don’t have to download a pdf or other file type.
Good day, I have started by looking at your backend. It seems that the backend is made of Wordpress. Do you have experience editing Wordpress themes or did you use a page builder like Elementor? If you are a beginner, try looking at the themes on the Wordpress community so you get a better idea how to construct visually pleasing sites. Or get a template then you modify it.
The landing header could do better with an image because the current one would cause users to bounce because it is not aesthetically pleasing enough. Also do research on the colour theory so that you can understand how to mix colours that give a more pleasant user experience.
The section Technology skills, since you put them all out like that they are a tad too much too read. Either you can group the skills e.g. Backend (List the backend skills), Frontend (list the frontend skills) and then you put out the other skills. The way you did with how you explained the Wordpress theme development. That was well presented.
For us desktop users, the nav-bar navigation links there do not have enough contrast. Meaning that the black and blue make it unpleasant to read the navigation.
The current design punishes visually oriented people. Putting an opening picture in the header could open up more pleasant engagement otherwise reading the resume will feel too much like reading documentation (unless that is the feel that you were going for).
In the breadcrumbs navigation, it appears that the page guides to web development, but the URL says inventory management system. It’s not something many people will pay attention to, but it is more preferable to have those two going together.
Please make the Codepen and github links white so that they are consistent.
Finally, in the bottom footer, the word “design” is spelt wrong.
Hope this helps colleague. Quick question. Who/what is your resume site meant for? In this regard is it for freelance work where you get work from normal everyday client? Or is it for another technical company? This question will greatly influence how you will style your site.
I built the theme for the website and I did not use Elementor.
I watched Gary Simon critique a bunch of design and developers site and I don’t think any of them had a header image.
But I’m not looking for critique on the site, only the resume. There are things I want to change on the site but I haven’t touched it for 9 months. I like the way the header looks - looks cool to me, but I do intent on simplifying it.
Backend vs Frontend skills: do I have backend stuff in that list? I’m not interested in backend at all since I don’t have all the skills required for front end.
I was hoping no one would look at the slug. I originally had my inventory management resume there but that path to a job is dead. I’ll create a new link later and do a redirect later.
My GitHub and CodePen links are white. You mean the ones in the footer, right? I’m not doing any redesign on my site at this time because learning JS is taking up all my time.
