A quick presentation on useful tips for writing a relevant CV as a developer.

1. CV Tips for Developers
Devcongress V9

2. IS IT THAT DEEP?
- I’m a developer, I don’t need a CV, I can showcase
what I can do. (TRUE)
- CVs are old school, show me your github profile.
(TRUE)
- I learnt how to code at a much later stage in my career,
my CV is not relevant to any developer job I want to
apply for (TRUE)

3. IT IS THAT DEEP (SORRY)

4. Why you should care about writing a good
CV
- Think of your CV as career git repo. This is how you track what you’ve been doing. It is easy to forget
about some things you’ve done if you don’t write them down, especially with regards to volunteering,
mentoring & coaching.
- Majority of companies still do all their hiring through an HR department. Even if the hiring manager
doesn’t care about what’s on your CV, HR is going to shortlist you based on what they read on it.
- The person reading your CV is going to be reading many other CVs and will spend less than 10
seconds on average on your CV. Give them a reason to keep reading yours or come back to it later.

5. What recruiters look for
- In one word: Good Reputation.
- Good reputation could mean different things to different recruiters.
- Some companies value excellent grades from top-tier schools.
- Other companies might value professional track record from well known companies that you’ve
worked at.
- Others may consider your contributions to the community, whether open source work or speaking
engagements, organizing meetups, writing blog posts or just sharing knowledge generally.
They look for all these things in less than 10 seconds!!!

6. READY? LET’S GO

7. Your CV must fit on 1 page
- Whether you are just starting your career, or your have 20 years of experience, write your CV in such
a way that it fits on one page.
- What this means then is that you need to consider carefully what you put on your CV as you progress
in your career.

8. Hyperlink everything!
- Always assume that whatever job you are applying for may go through a screening system. Many of
these systems look for keywords, links, company names, etc … to grade an applicant before a human
being sees your application.
- Whoever is going to read your application will most likely do it from a computer. Think of
hyperlinking as providing a nice user experience to the recruiter to get to know you.
- Things to hyperlink: Schools you attended should link to the main website, Companies you’ve worked
at, Projects you’ve done (if publicly available), your email address, your website, organizations you’ve
volunteered for, etc ...

9. Highlight achievements - not job
descriptions
- As developers, what we do is not very different from one company to the other. A web developer at
company A is not going to be doing anything very different from a web developer at company B. So
you are essentially wasting space by describing your day to day activities. Focus more on talking
about your achievements at every job.

10. Summarize your tech stacks
- Don’t let recruiters second guess what programming language or frameworks you have experience
with. Clearly highlight them.
- Group your technical expertises by topic. (e.g. don’t mix programming languages with database
systems)
- If you are not proficient with a particular technology, state it clearly (or don’t put it on your CV at all)

11. Bonus: Have a website for your name
- Since you are keeping your CV to be 1 page long max, you can put everything else that you feel is
relevant but not necessary on your CV on your website. This can include blog posts you’ve written,
portfolio of projects you’ve worked on and links to any other social networks (if relevant).
- The advantage of doing this is that Google will always rank your website higher than anything else.
You don’t want a recruiter to find you on facebook before finding you somewhere else in case they
google your name.

12. Things you should remove from your CV
- The high school you went to
- References
- Hobbies

13. Practicals
My old CV: https://www.dropbox.com/s/gp51tfkv98oql9v/Edem%20Kumodzi%20Resume%20-
%20Long.pdf?dl=0
My current CV:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6x4c0p80z7eeya8/Edem%20Kumodzi%20Resume%20short.pdf?dl=0

14. Questions?

15. Medaase!
@edemkumodzi