I enjoy building my resumé, mostly because it’s a way to express yourself before the recruiter even talks with you. We’re extremely lucky to work in a creative field also..we can get away with certain things (colors) on our resumés that other fields cannot. Colors, are argumentative, but I like to use them to draw attention to certain parts of the page that might not have been noticed otherwise. What’s that crazy statistic, you only have 10-30 seconds to impress a recruiter looking at your resume?! Okay, assuming that’s true, I’ve gathered a few tips for you to polish it!

1. Position your resume for the job you want, not the job you have.

Once upon a time, I thought it was impressive to list every language I’ve ever learned. After being thoroughly disappointed with the types of jobs asking me to interview, I realized that no one could tell what I was really passionate about. This doesn’t mean you can’t talk about that cool script you wrote once, but I would save it for a discussion, and save the room on paper for more important things. Which leads me to..

2. If !important*, leave it off.

* NOT important for you CSSers. 😂

You only have so much room to sell yourself. Save it for the really impressive things, like that project you lead, or how you managed to reduce the code base by 30% and increase usability. Any professional or personal wins too! You’ll have time to discuss in greater detail should they reach out to you, and there you can also bring up the things you had to leave off.

3. Format, Pleeeeeeaaaaase.

Do. Not. Go. Below. 12pt. Font.
It’s tough to fit everything you want to on your Resumé. However, by following tip 2, make sure you have enough room to format everything to look easy on the eyes. I recommend this article by Nick Babich to use white space to your advantage.

4. After a few years of professional experience, your GPA is irrelevant.

Leave it off.

5. If you’re fresh out of school…

List your GPA, unless it’s going to hurt you.
Focus on any projects you were apart of, how you contributed, and how you shined.
Did you help out with any classes or help a teacher review code? Mention it! You want to list as much real-world experience you had exposure to as possible.

6. Consistency.

Whether it’s formatting, or wording, or bullet points, keep the document consistent throughout. Keep your experience ordered by most recent first.

7. Any language you list is fair game.

To go along with my story in tip 1, any language you list on your resume, your interviewer could, and probably will, ask you some questions about it. Only list languages you’re comfortable with, and feel free to mention in your interview that you’ve dabbled with others