sprintcv 5 tips for junior developers How to create a killer CV

5 tips for junior developers: How to create a killer CV

Sprint CV - CVs done right, right away!CV Template, General

Share this post:

As a junior developer, finding your first job can be daunting – you’ve just graduated, you have nothing to add in the professional experience section of your CV and it’s common to see companies asking for fresh graduates with 2 years of experience in Java or something similar.

This article will guide you on how to build a great CV, taking advantage of the experience you have been acquiring since you started learning and investing time in the IT industry.

1. Take advantage of all your learning experiences

Having no professional experience doesn’t mean you don’t have experience in the industry. While you were studying, you developed projects, analysed problems, coded, implemented, worked in a team – these are exactly the kind of skills the real work world needs from you, so yes, you have experience!

Our suggestion is to forget about the word “professional” and focus on your “projects” experience – a tiny change that will make you stand out. Enrich your junior developer CV with academic and personal projects, your achievements, technologies you have learned. The idea is to show how much you have learned and achieved, that make you ready to join a team and be a valuable asset.

List your projects experience and describe them as a professional experience

2. Describe your academic projects like professional experience

Graduate in IT means three to five years of intense work, where you gained knowledge, developed skills and learned to create solution in a short period of time. We recommend you to choose up to five academic projects to include in your junior developer CV – the ones that you feel most proud of, that contributed the most for your education and that fit the best in the industry you want to work at.

Describe each project like a professional experience and be aware that the structure applied in your CV is crucial, we propose you the following structure:

  • Job title
  • Project name
  • Start and end date
  • Achievements
  • Big picture of the project and its goals
  • Your tasks and responsibilities
  • Technologies used

3. Be proactive and build your own project!

There is nothing more “shiny” for a recruiter than to see that a candidate developed his own app or website – it shows passion, creativity and commitment to evolute.

If you haven’t done it yet, think about doing it in your free time – it will give you a lot of extra points! Choose wisely and accordingly to where you see yourself working at.

4. Let them know your achievements, learnings and online presence

Achievements – Talk about what you achieved, every detail that can make you stand out. Let them know that your work was the best in the class, that you solved a real problem, that it had an impact, that you delivered the project sooner that the deadline – something that are really proud of.

Online presence – Make sure that you highlight your online presence in your CV. Make a clear reference to your LinkedIn, Github, blog and website. It is very important that all the information is consistent between your CV and LinkedIn, learn here some tips to boost your LinkedIn profile.

Certifications – Describe the certifications, workshops, online courses that gave you the skills. If you don’t have any, you should think about it urgently. Check online courses on platforms like Udemy, edX, Coursera, LinkedIn, among others.

Languages – Include all languages spoken – this will help you stand out, especially in an international environment.

Small tip: Your CV is your sales tool, what will make you get the interview for the job you which, so don’t be shy and sell yourself, find a commitment between humility and pride of your work and proactivity, show that energy in your CV.

5. Make sure that you highlight all the right skills and keywords

It’s essential that your CV speaks the same language as the recruiter. That’s why it’s so important to highlight words like “Java Developer”, “Angular”, “Java”, “Software Engineer” – to make sure your CV catch their attention.

To do so, we recommend you to add a job title and list technologies on each project, plus, a summary competences that describes how skilled you are in each technology and a proof of how many projects you have worked with the technology.

Also be aware that, in most cases, your CV will be filtered by Application Tracking Systems (ATS), that will select your CV based on the keywords match. These systems can filter out till 70% of the CVs, but we are sure if you follow our advice, you will be selected!

Skills summary automatically
generated by Sprint CV

Use Sprint CV to help you generate a killer junior developer CV

Sprint CV the CV generator that automates the CV generation in the IT Industry

At Sprint CV we want to be by your side since the begin of your professional life. Through our platform, specially built for IT professionals, you can generate your junior developer CV in seconds in any of the supported templates. We have developed a template dedicated to junior developers called Europass Junior, that put in evidence your skills and achievements, taking advantage of your academic and personal experience, click here to download a Junior Developer CV example. Try it out at www.sprintcv.com.

And now, do you still think you don’t have enough experience? 🙂

Share this post: