Five Ways You Can Improve a Bad Coder Resume

The job market has changed for the better for programmers and coders. As machines make certain jobs obsolete, basic programming skills have become a popular requirement. This, however, does not have to be a problem for you! After all, you might have a little experience and some education from either college or a coding bootcamp. If you truly want to take the next step in your career, you must improve your resume.

How can you be seen with so many others applying for the same job as you? You must work on your resume. Follow these five suggestions to improve your resume.

1. Lead With Your Strengths

What can you do if you feel insecure about how much experience you actually have? You may have picked up a couple of programming languages in college or you received a coding bootcamp certificate. Even if you have never held a relevant position in the past, you can do a lot with these skills under your belt.

When most people list their job history, they tend to make the mistake of only describing their day to day tasks. You can do better. Tell your future employer how you accomplished these tasks and what effects they had on the company. Did your attention to detail increase company profit by 20 percent? Did your ability to communicate raise customer service output? The more specific you are on your resume, the higher your chances to get noticed and land an interview.

Be sure to put your best foot forward. Mention your accomplishments and what you have done, even if they are from attending school, rather than focusing on the fact that you never held a relevant position in the workforce. You still have the power to impress.

2. Make Your Resume Look Professional

Nothing is more important than a first impression. The same holds true for resumes. Make sure your resume looks polished. A number of things can be done to make sure your resume looks professional, including:

Font

Whatever you do, do not make your font too small to read. Also, remember that using too many different fonts comes across as unprofessional. Consistency can help you land the position.

Content

One of the most important aspects of your presentation includes grammar. Someone who has typos on their resume shows the employer they didn’t even take the time to edit. If you don’t care, why should they? Also make sure to send your resume as a PDF that is sized for printing. Altering the size of your resume page might lead to a lot of information getting cut off when the employer attempts to read or print it.

3. Learn To Use Your Space Efficiently

It’s not enough to have the right file type, however. You must also learn how to use the space you have on the page in an efficient manner. Don’t spam your resume with unnecessary keywords. While it may be true that a lot of resumes get weeded out by computers before a person actually reads it, you don’t want to use keywords that are out of place. For this same reason, you should not be too wordy on your resume. You must think about the purpose behind each piece of information you include.

In this same vein, stay on topic. You don’t have to list every single application that you’ve ever had experience with unless it’s relevant to the role — almost everyone has used Microsoft Word. The same goes for the certifications. If the position you apply for does not require knowledge of a certain coding language, you may not need to include it if it’s taking up the space where other more pertinent skills can be listed. You’re using valuable space on your resume to say something that is irrelevant to the role.

Employers do not have time to look at more than one to two page’s worth of information. For this reason, keep that the maximum for your resume. Use the space on your resume wisely!

4. Don’t Pretend That Yours Is The Only Resume They Will See

If a position is in high-demand, many others will apply as well. For this reason, stay away from cliche phrases like “thinking outside of the box,” “team player,” and “go-getter.” These are buzzwords that employers see all the time and can ultimately add little value to your application.

Instead, take the time to tailor your resume to fit each individual position that you apply for. Use and incorporate their own words.

Last but not least, remember that potential employers may not be familiar with the companies you worked for. Be sure to add a small description of your prior organization and describe what you were able to accomplish during your time with them. Optimizing these small things can put you ahead of other job seekers in the running.   

5. Keep Your Knowledge Up To Date

Technology always changes. As such, it’s important to continue your education, even after graduating from school or a bootcamp. The more projects and assignments you complete, the more impressive your resume will seem. While you should not list every single thing you know, it pays to have the relevant knowledge necessary for each position you’re interested in.

More than learning programming languages, coding bootcamps actually teach you how to continue learning on your own. Attend hackathons. Design your own websites or applications. The more knowledge you possess, the more confident you will be when you start applying.

Conclusion

With these tactics, you will be able to send out the best version of your resume and show the best version of yourself. Being aware of how your resume looks to employers will undoubtedly send you in the right direction. Even if it takes a little while, with hard work, you are bound to find the right position for you.