Are you creating your CV for the first time? and not sure how should you list your programming skills in your Resume? We will guide you in it. Read further. Some call it biodata; some call it curriculum vitae (CV) and some call it to resume.
Although the differences are subtle, there are certainly differences between these pieces of documents. For example, a resume showcases your competence, your work history, and your accomplishments.
A curriculum vitae on the other hand lists your credentials, the certifications that you have obtained, the research that you may have done in your field, your affiliations, and other scholarly pursuits you have accomplished.
A CV is presented for an academic, scientific, or medical job whereas a resume is needed for other jobs where a detailed description of your capabilities, in terms of scholarship, is not needed.
A CV is very long, sometimes going to several pages. A resume is normally one page for at the most 2 pages. As a real-world example, you may put your resume on LinkedIn, but not necessarily your CV.
You can think of a resume as a summary of your capabilities. For example, if programming in certain languages is your capabilities, then you need to list your programming capabilities in your resume in such a manner that in a single glance the person who is interested in hiring you, gets an idea of what you can deliver when you get the job.
The focus of this write-up is the resume and how to showcase your skills as a programmer when you write a resume.
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How important is your resume?
Have you ever applied for a job, even if it was at McDonald’s or Pizza Hut? Of course, exceptions are always there, but you cannot apply for a job without a resume. In fact, a resume is synonymous with applying for a job.
Why is it so? Even before an employee agrees to meet you, she asks for your resume. Before she can commit to interviewing you, she must know what is your work experience, what are your capabilities as a programmer, what are your career goals, how are your communication skills (you will be communicating through your resume, after all), and what would be the tentative benefit of hiring you as a programmer, if at all you are hired.
Your resume is so important that you will be called for an interview only when the person who is responsible to shortlist you is impressed by your resume. If your resume fails to impress, you won’t be called for an interview no matter how qualified you are or no matter how much experience you have gained as a programmer.
Hence, you need to really sell yourself when you are writing your resume and listing your programming skills. As mentioned above, there is no need to include multiple pages in your resume. Just one or two pages suffice.
Why do prospective employers care so much about your resume? Conducting interviews can be a time-consuming activity. Just imagine what would happen if hundreds of candidates just show up at the office and apply for the interview.
It would be a logistical nightmare. Going through resumes on the other hand is a lot easier. In fact, these days you don’t even have to send your resume by mail or as a printout. You can simply email your resume and the person who is responsible for shortlisting candidates simply has to open your digital document, quickly go through the main highlights and decide whether you should be called for the interview or not.
Think it this way. If 2000 candidates are applying for a job, they are all submitting their resumes. Out of these 2000 candidates, 40 candidates are shortlisted and called for an interview.
Out of these 40 candidates, just one person is hired. So, if they don’t ask for a resume, just imagine interviewing all those 2000 candidates, scheduling time for them, making arrangements that they have somewhere to sit while they wait for the interviews, and inviting them one by one, interacting with them, making notes of what they say during the interview and then based on the interview evaluations, deciding, among those 2000 candidates, whom to hire.
Hence, all the employers insist that you submit your resume before you appear for an interview as a programmer. Here we are talking about programming and programmers because on this page we are talking about how to list your programming skills in a resume.
Even outside of the field of programming, this is a standard procedure. Before candidates are invited for an interview, they’re asked to submit a resume.
What are your programming skills?
Programming skills can be of different varieties. You can be a coder. You can be an analyst. You can be a systems administrator. You can be a software developer. You can be a web developer or a mobile app developer.
You can also be a project manager. There is GUI programming. Some are gaming programmers. Some simply work on algorithms. Being one of the topmost programming homework help services online, we often come across programming students of different streams.
The prominent programming environments programmers these days are acquainted with include Java, C++, Haskell, SQL (structured query language), Python, asp.net, Ruby, Objective-C (for Apple computers and mobile devices), PHP & JavaScript (web development), Ajax, XML and a horde of other programming environments.
Aside from these, your logical abilities must be quite solid and you should be able to demonstrate them in your resume when you are listing your programming skills. You should be able to use environments like GitHub and other version control technologies.
You should be completely comfortable with working on cloud technologies. In the wake of Covid-19 many programmers are these days working from home, so, are you self-driven and disciplined?
There are many such programming skills that sometimes may have nothing to do with actual coding. Be mindful of them.
How to list your programming skills in your resume
Remember that when you’re planning to list your programming skills in your resume, although your prospective employer is interested in knowing in what all programming languages you can program, but for her, more important is your ability to deliver solutions and also, your ability to work in an organization, and collaborating with other employees.
It is great that you know Java programming, but how many software applications have you completed? It may be awesome that you are a C++ geek, but how many software projects you have seen being completed under your guidance?
How well do you communicate your ideas to your team members? What are your analytical skills? How quickly can you learn and adapt to new programming paradigms? Frankly, it is a given that if you’re applying for a programming job, you know how to program. It is like, if you’re applying for an accounting job, you know how to add and subtract and you know how to create balance sheets.
As a job applicant, as a programmer, when you are listing your skills, your prospective employee must be able to understand the following:
- Problem-solving capabilities
- Communication skills
- Mathematical skills
- Interpersonal skills
- Proficiency with different programming languages and databases
- The ability to learn concepts and then apply them for problem-solving
- Leadership qualities
- The level of self-motivation and self-drive
- A desire to upgrade your skills
- Written communications
- The ability to stay organized
- The ability to pay attention and remain focused
- Designing and creating applications
- Debugging and error correction
- The ability to understand existing source code
- Coding efficiency
- Familiarity with cutting-edge development tools
Even if you don’t want to list all these programming skills, you must use your discretion to let your prospective employer know of your abilities to become a contributing member of the organization.
Important things to remember about your resume
What are you intending to communicate through your resume? Remember that your resume must act as promotional material. It is like an advertisement, but without hard selling or a sales pitch.
Your resume must be able to sell your skills and experiences to the prospective employer. If you are applying for a job as a programmer the person going through your resume must get all the information, she needs to make a decision in your favor.
This information must be easily accessible. She should not be distracted. She must not be overloaded with unnecessary information. Your employer must be able to come across all the needed information as quickly and as easily as possible.
Important things first
As is famously said about resumes (or for that matter any important document), most people read information from top to bottom and left to right. Hence, the most important things in your resume must be at the top.
Is it an experience that matters the most about your qualifications? Is it a skill set? You need to decide what matters the most to your prospective employer.
Prioritization
Once you have taken care of the most important things at the top, you need to prioritize the remaining information. What do you want to include and what do you want to exclude? If you are just starting applying for programming jobs after school or college prioritizing the contents of your resume might not be that big a problem because most probably you don’t have much to write about.
On the other hand, if you have served multiple organizations under different capacities, you may have a lot to tell. Nonetheless, you don’t want to make your resume very long. As mentioned in the beginning, your resume must be just a page long or at the most 2 pages.
So, you may have to prioritize what all you want to mention in your resume.
Chronology
Chronology is the way you organize information on your resume. Do you want to mention your educational qualifications first, your job skills, or your experience? It depends on what matters to your employer.
In all standard resumes, you first mention your experience along with job responsibilities, and then in the last section, you mention your educational qualifications. This is because in most of the jobs these days, what you have studied in school or college hardly matters.
Many organizations such as Google are even doing away with the need to mention your college degrees. As long as you can demonstrate your skills as a programmer, you should be good to go.
Nonetheless, these are very few companies. Most companies want a complete picture of your experience as well as your educational qualifications.
Segmentation
It means organizing your resume information in appropriate segments. This makes it easier for the person reviewing your resume to access what she wants to access as quickly as possible.
For example, your contact details are normally at the top or at the bottom of your resume. If it is a single-page resume, finding your contact information shouldn’t be a problem. If you’re following the standard format, your prospective employer knows that at the top you must have listed your current job or your latest experience and responsibilities.
In the bottom half, you must have listed your educational qualifications. You must use appropriate sections of your resume to organize your information.
Be concise and avoid being vague
Avoid stating “years of experience”, “numerous responsibilities” and “plenty of experience”. These are all immeasurable quantities and may turn your prospective employers cynical. If you have experience, mention exactly how much experience you have got.
For example, write “I have worked as a senior programmer in the retail industry for 10 years,” or write “my responsibilities have included managing a team of 6 programmers, communicating with clients, and auditing IT system requirements for 2 departments.”
Different types of resumes
At the beginning of this page, we have talked about the subtle differences between a biodata, a CV, and a resume. Even among resumes, there are different types of resumes or rather, different formats.
Depending on what you happen to be reading at this time, some say there are 4 types of resumes, some say there are 5 types, and for some, there is no particular number of resume types and you should write a resume in whichever manner your industry finds it suitable.
Broadly speaking, there are chronological resumes, functional resumes, targeted resumes, and mini resumes. You can match and mix. Sometimes you can stick to a standard format because the employers are used to quickly browsing through those formats and if they need to spend some time figuring out how you have organized different bits of information, they may end up ignoring your resume or rejecting it altogether assuming that you don’t respect their time.
In fact, many prospective employers, when they’re posting job requirements, mention in their details how you should format your resume. They get used to looking at certain sections of your resume to quickly get an idea of your capabilities and experiences.
Chronological resume
This is the standard resume. When you are listing your programming skills in a chronological resume, you begin with your latest accomplishments and responsibilities. You start with the current year and then from the current year onwards, you go in descending order.
For example, if you have been in your present job since 2015 (this is 2021) you create a section “2015-present”. Then, if you worked in another organization under another capacity from 2013 till 2015, you can create a heading like “2013-2015”, and so on.
In every section, you list your designation. You list your responsibilities. You also list your accomplishments and how you contributed to the growth of the organization with your skills and leadership qualities.
Even if you are a programmer and you are listing your programming skills in your resume, remember that organizations, when going through your resume, are not just interested in your programming skills (although they are the deciding factor), they are also interested in how you become a vibrant member of the organizational community.
This can be communicated through the way you write your resume within the template they have recommended.
Functional resumes
This type of resume highlights your skillset and experience rather than presenting a chronology of your career path as a programmer. The main stress is on your capabilities. In the beginning, you may mention your qualifications but as fast as possible, you must demonstrate how you have used these qualifications practically, helping your organization or your employers.
These resumes are often used by people who are switching jobs or who have had a gap in their employment history. For example, you took a sabbatical of a few years or you wanted to try out on your own but now again you want to enter the job market.
Combination or mixed resumes
In this resume type, you mention your skills, your accomplishments, and your recent work history. As mentioned above, you can list your programming skills in a functional resume or a chronological resume but in a combination resume, you put stress on every important aspect of your deliverability, whether it is your qualifications, your work experience, and the value you deliver.
When do you use a combination or a mixed resume? You use it when you haven’t had many employers and you have stuck with a few companies and have spent a considerable amount of time contributing over there, as a programmer, in your case.
You also use a combination resume when you are changing careers or industries, for example, you are a mechanical engineer but you want to work as a programmer.
Infographic resumes
Do you know people are also building infographic resumes? Such resumes help you stand out, especially when you are seeking employment in related industries such as GUI development or graphic design.
A fundamental difference between a traditional resume and an infographic resume is that a traditional resume mostly contains text (at the most, there is your passport size photograph) but an infographic resume contains layout colors, images, icons, different font types, and differently designed content sections.
Though, you must use infographic resumes with discretion because they may put off certain employees. Use them where you believe that such a graphic resume will be appreciated and even preferred.
Looking for programming homework assignment help online to get a great resume?
How is programming assignment help related to creating a great resume? Hundreds of students abandon their computer classes simply because they are unable to handle the stress of homework.
If you don’t complete a computer programming class, you don’t get to put it on your resume. Whether you like it or not, homework is a big part of every computer programming class because, most of the teachers or professors think, and sometimes rightly so, that the more you program, the better you understand programming.
Whereas, this is true, doing programming homework isn’t always feasible, especially when you’re doing a job along with doing a computer course or you have to spend time on other activities while trying to complete your schooling.
Does getting programming homework help from a service like DoMyProgrammingHomework.io defeat the entire purpose of learning programming? It does not.
The homework that we deliver is like a helpful book that you get on one of the bookshelves in a shop or from your library. Just because you’re getting a book and going through the source code examples in that book doesn’t mean that you are shrugging away from the responsibility of learning to program.
It simply means that you don’t want to spend days trying to figure out something that can be solved within minutes or hours. Homework assignments are mostly formalities these days. Even the teachers know that.
They are simply interested in grading the homework assignments and moving on. Again, we don’t mean to undermine the spirit of doing homework, but if you get your homework done from an online agency like DoMyProgrammingHomework.io, just imagine how much time and effort you can save, time and effort that you can put to use on better activities, for example going through the code, understanding your concepts and honing your skills for other activities and topics.
