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Adam Crockett πŸŒ€
Adam Crockett πŸŒ€

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What should a developer CV / resume look like?

There's no doubt in my mind, my CV (it's a resume in other countries) from school is nothing like my CV today, it's got a layout which is a little bit unusual for a CV but not mad as a box of frogs either. I like my CV like I like my tattoos, black and white. But never mind what I think, should a developer open InDesign and get to work building something that looks more like a magazine layout.

I am especially interested in hearing your thoughts!

Top comments (20)

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jmfayard profile image
Jean-Michel πŸ•΅πŸ»β€β™‚οΈ Fayard

Hello Adam

The most important thing you need to know about CV is that they should matter much less than you think.

When you are a random guy sending a CV to a random company, your odds of success are a bit like sending a love letter to that girl or guy you like but have you never talked with first.

Here is how I do it nowdays:

  • I never send my CV pro-actively
  • I focus on making a connection and discussing with the people first
  • Inviting them to drink a coffee is my favorite way to do it
  • Only after I've met them and they explicitly ask for my CV, I send it
  • At that point I'm not a random stranger sending a letter to a random company, so how my CV looks doesn't matter much.
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adam_cyclones profile image
Adam Crockett πŸŒ€

How would you handle this as a remote worker or would you only stay local?

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jmfayard profile image
Jean-Michel πŸ•΅πŸ»β€β™‚οΈ Fayard

What I'm doing is that I write down my candidate description

daedtech.com/my-candidate-descript...

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adam_cyclones profile image
Adam Crockett πŸŒ€

I am in awe sir this is incredible, the market here is a employers market right now so I don’t know how this might work but has it brought you much success?

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jmfayard profile image
Jean-Michel πŸ•΅πŸ»β€β™‚οΈ Fayard

This is how I help developers in France to get a better job
Don't be afraid to stand out, especially in an employers market, that makes you feel unique

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sabbin profile image
Sabin Pandelovitch

Black and White seems about right for me. For me the resume is just a brief introduction of the candidates background. But a piece of paper cannot describe your personality, mind set, social skills, etc.

It works the other way around for me too. When someone is contacting me and starts telling via a mail/chat how wonderful and great everything is and sends me a 10 Page job description PDF all coloured like a magazine, how can I really determine what kind of atmosphere is there?

A piece of paper is a piece of paper... Keep it simple

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adam_cyclones profile image
Adam Crockett πŸŒ€

Some great advice there Sabin, paper is paper.

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purezero profile image
Kartika Prasad

My CV kinda has a bit of everything and not in a good way. I think a website really will do the trick for a dev, I like the idea of a one page website without loading times and some seamless animations on the different sections. I just have to find the time to do it.

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adam_cyclones profile image
Adam Crockett πŸŒ€

Its been 6 years and I still haven't got around to mine. Don't be like me, go and make one today. πŸ“―

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herudea profile image
Steve Meisner

I've had the same question! I got my first job right out of school just over 10 years ago, and have only moved jobs once since then. I was connected with my current job through some good relationships and conversations so my official CV/resume wasn't as important at the time.

I had explored the job market early this year with intentions of moving on to another job. I ended up staying at my job after some serious interviews and offers from other companies (personal reasons, love of my team, etc).

I did some light research and still being unsure, started on my own take of a CV. It worked very well as I was able to get a couple interviews in part because of it. I'm not sure if it's "good" or "correct" but it's where I landed. If I made it again today I'd probably do it a little differently.

Would love any feedback and I hope it's helpful to you all!

Steve Meisner's resume

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adam_cyclones profile image
Adam Crockett πŸŒ€

That's lovely I really like the simplicity. That is the maximum amount of colour I would like but that's just me.

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jmickey profile image
Josh Michielsen

I use LaTeX for my CV, based loosely on this template: github.com/posquit0/Awesome-CV

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adam_cyclones profile image
Adam Crockett πŸŒ€

here is my CV

That's a screenshot of mine, the template is my own but probably base on a Google search. I used the same fonts as my website (that doesn't exist yet)

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rohansawant profile image
Rohan Sawant

Umm, I mean if I had the skills to design a beautiful resume, I sure would.

My current one is quirky as well, it has about 3 colors and a template stolen from Canva.
πŸ€©πŸ˜›

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adam_cyclones profile image
Adam Crockett πŸŒ€

How successful has this CV been do you think? Anyway interesting, I will take a look at Canva.

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rohansawant profile image
Rohan Sawant

Actually, there is no way for me to tell, I am at my first dev job and my current employer found me through GitHub. πŸ˜…

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adam_cyclones profile image
Adam Crockett πŸŒ€

Fairly ineffective then but the upside which is nice for you because real employers look at code first haha

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dapptech profile image
Dapptech

One pager is d best.. max 2 pages.. beyond that is a novel ...

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eljayadobe profile image
Eljay-Adobe

Sounds like an academic CV should be rather comprehensive. CV.

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adam_cyclones profile image
Adam Crockett πŸŒ€

Ahh, Americanisms, in the UK a resume and a CV are the same thing, sorry, I should have said.