Resume Tips for Software Engineers and Web Developers
A few months ago we wrote Five Resume Tips for the IT Professional. Since our post, we’ve gotten some great feedback geared specifically toward software engineers and web developers, whose resume needs may differ from, say, an HIS or DoD professional.
One insightful commenter noted that, in addition to your personal website it’s important for web and software developers to include links to your other online portfolios like GitHub and Bitbucket as a way to substantiate your skills.
If you’re a software engineer or web developer who’s made meaningful or complex contributions to a public repository, be sure to include links so recruiters or hiring managers can view your work.
Share Contributions to Substantiate Your Skills
Open source projects you’ve worked on and research you’ve contributed to are excellent opportunities to demonstrate your abilities. Have you written a helpful utility, tool or plugin? Sharing your contributions to open source, collaborative projects shows potential employers that you possess two essential qualities:
1. A genuine passion for the work you do.
2. A willingness and ability to work collaboratively.
As repositories like GitHub and Bitbucket continue to gain traction in the web and software development fields, the work you share can go a long way in demonstrating your skills to a potential employer well before you set foot in the door.
On GitHub or Bitbucket you can include samples of your code, specific work on collaborative projects, and links to your own personal projects. Here are a few ways to make GitHub and other public repositories work for you:
Share your own work: Active contributions or projects go a long way in demonstrating your interests and abilities. Take the time to write clean concise code with clear documentation, and always provide a brief description of what the project does.
Contribute to existing projects: It’s the small tweaks and mini-updates that show you’re detail oriented and a team-player. Make sure to note your specific contributions with the @author tag in the comments.
Demonstrate diversity: The most experienced candidates will have a varied portfolio of repositories demonstrating a range of skills. But that doesn’t mean you should include everything you’ve ever worked on. If you’re using GitHub to complement your resume, curate your portfolio and only demonstrate your best work.
Providing your interviewer with this glimpse of your work will likely open the door for further conversation, allowing you to demonstrate additional knowledge as you describe your processes and choices.
In fact, the “GitHub resume” is becoming so ubiquitous among web and software engineers that GitHub itself now offers a super-simple resume generator at resume.github.io, where GitHub members can create thorough, linkable online resumes.
GitHub + Resume + Website = Success!
GitHub and other public repositories go a long way in demonstrating your abilities, but they can’t replace a traditional resume and an online portfolio. Your resume lets potential employers gauge your past work history against the needs of their business, while your website provides a deeper look at your projects and abilities.
Your resume and website might be what land you that first interview; but it could be your flawless code samples or impeccable documentation that land you the job. Contact the placement professionals at DPC to learn more, today!
SOURCES:
Github is Your New Resume. d.block.org N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2013 http://code.dblock.org/github-is-your-new-resume
My Github Resume generates a resume from your GitHub account. The Next Web N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2013 http://thenextweb.com/apps/2012/09/02/my-github-resume-generates-resume-github-account/
When applying for an entry level… Programmers Stack Exchange. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 June 2013 29 Apr. 2013 http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/75348/when-applying-for-an-entry-level-programming-position-how-do-i-include-my-codin