Crafting the Perfect Profile for your CV.

Hey, all.

My Substack letter will now be getting posted here as well.

Now to start, let's learn how to craft a recruiter-busting profile for our CV.

For the most part. What everyone does is OK. But it follows a very old-school flow. For example:

“I am an eager and passionate junior developer looking to land my first job in tech and contribute to the success of a team. I am efficient in time management and have taken on managerial tasks.

I said this approach is OK - but what EXACTLY do I think is wrong with it and what approach can we take to make it better?

• It lacks personality - which can be a determining factor in your success
• Generic keywords - time management, efficient, etc mean nothing unless you can quantify them
• You have claimed passion but have not shown it
• Feels like they are passive in their approach and learning as opposed to being pro-active

What approach can we take to improve this to deliver more value and stand out a little more to recruiters?

Whenever I start one of my 1-1 CV reviews, I spend around 10 minutes asking questions about the person I am working with. What they do, how many languages they speak, what hobbies they have and what made them want to be developers.

You can follow this approach (which will be broken down more in my CV course to be released in the next few weeks).

1. What are your hobbies and interests outside of work?
2. Can you share an example of a problem you have solved in your personal life, even if it is not tech-related
3. What inspired you to want to be a developer?

Here is an example following the above approach which is close to one I received back after having one of my 1-1 sessions.

“I got my first taste of technology when I built a bot to manage my Discord server. I needed some automation and I found a tutorial on Python which I managed to use to improve the induction flow on the server.

Let me explain what I and recruiters who specialise in early careers see when they read this:

• This person solved a problem through code - amazing
• That was not easy, they had to follow technical documentation - tenacity
• They enjoyed the struggle and continued to build on their knowledge - eagerness
• They mentioned accessibility with frontend is a HUGE plus - One step further
• I am impressed they are active in communities and are involved in moderating them - people skills
• Finally, this person went above and beyond - proactive

These small steps can make a huge difference. Never be scared to show a little personality it can often set you apart from the rest of the candidates.

Now, with this in mind. If you enjoyed this article and feel it offered you some value or insights you did not know before I would really appreciate a share on social media with your thoughts.

Ishaq Amin