What Should You Include In a CV?
Personal Information
Tech Stack
Summary
Experiences (Projects + Previous work experiences)
Activities
Personal Information
Include email, phone number, GitHub address, and portfolio website address (if you have one)
Photography, gender, and age can be excluded depending on where you are. for example in the UK, people don't include gender, age, Photography, Religion, Race, and marital status in CV because It can open the recruiter up to unconscious bias. We don't want Employers to judge you based on your biological makeup instead of your ability.
Summary
Many people think being a software engineer is just about writing code. but it's really not true. there's a lot of communication with other engineers, product managers,s and UI/UX designers. so when employers look for entry-level engineers, they'll also focus on passion, willingness to learn, and also soft skills such as communication skills. so a summary is a good chance to show that.
Normally, when people already have some experience in tech they put their experience in summary. how much impact they made in the previous company or how long they've worked as a software engineer.
but since we're talking about the CV for an entry-level software engineer, you can use the summary to show your passion for coding, personality, and story.
keep the summary for 3 to 4 lines. and include why you like coding, what's your strong soft skill, and what you've done previously.
Tell them why you decided to change your career. say something genuine, not something like "because software engineer job has a high salary. or there are so many jobs for software engineer role". even though that's true. saying that in a CV or interview is not a good idea.
if you previously worked in customer service, you can emphasize your communication and collaboration skills by talking about your previous experience. or if you previously worked in a teaching job. you can say you like to share your knowledge with others. because the attitude of sharing knowledge and helping others is one of the important qualities for software engineers.
Tech Stack
list the tech stack you have. but include skills that you would be comfortable being interviewed on.
Don’t include the level of the tech stack. like
Javascript: ●●●○○, HTML: ●●●●●
because it's not objective. even if it's five stars for you, it can be one star for the senior software engineer interviewing you
when I tried to get my job, I also put tools such as Git, GitHub, Visual Studio, Jira, and Figma. you don't have to include these once you have experience because it's so obvious you're able to use these tools. but since you're entry-level, and it's your first job. the employer might be happy when they see that you already know how to use these tools.
Projects
It can be the most important part of an entry-level CV.
if it's a team project. emphasize it. Collaboration skill is super important as a software engineer and when you're entry-level, an employer wants to check that you have collaboration experience.
Include the tech stack, library, and framework you used for the project.
Include the GitHub link and website link. this is important. show the evidence.
Work Experience
keep this part short, if your previous work experience is not tech-related experience. include one or two recent experiences or most tech-related experiences.
if you're a person who changed career from another like me. Include soft skills you gain through your previous work and also important as a software engineer. like some skills, you gain through dealing with customers. or if you worked as a waiter or waitress, show them you're a team player
in my case, I had experience as a photographer. so I focused on two things. first I'm a visual person so I enjoy front-end development. working with UI. and second, I worked with various people. I emphasize that to prove I can be a good team player.
Activities
The more tech-related stuff you have on your CV, the more interview opportunities you will have.
Sign up for Hackathon, volunteer for tech events, go to Meet up, and do pair programming with other software engineers.
This is a good way to prove you have a passion for coding.