How to Write the Perfect Resume After Graduating a Coding Bootcamp

Including Your Past Employment History

Working as a mobile developer isn’t just about knowing how to code. There are a lot of universal skills that you can highlight in your employment history on your resume.

Are you detail oriented, organized or a good writer? You’ll be great at writing documentation for your code. Do you have experience working on a team, meeting deadlines and practicing good communication skills? Sounds like you’ll do well when it’s time for sprint planning.

A good employment history section will:

• Use bullet points if the job’s description is more than two sentences.
• Begin each sentence with an action verb.
• Be descriptive and concise.

Example:

May 2018 – June 2020

• Filed and submitted warranty claims for equipment parts, ensuring that all paperwork and reports were error-free, consistent and completed in a timely manner.
• Documented and maintained an inventory of all warranty parts according to manufacturer standards.
• Managed supply inventory, ordering parts directly from vendors and calculating deadlines based on when items would arrive.
• Researched and corrected any inventory discrepancies. Protected the company from erroneous customer claims using carefully documented invoices, email history and serial number matching.

In this example, even though working in auto repair is very different from being an iOS developer, the writer’s attention to detail, mindfulness of deadlines and organization skills would catch a hiring manager’s attention.

Here’s another example of how you can use unrelated work experience to highlight why you will be a good mobile developer:

January 2017 – March 2019

• Hired and trained 10+ employees on new products, customer service and consultative selling techniques.
• Surpassed sales goals and was presented with two Santa Clara Sales Awards for the Santa Clara County Area.
• Developed and researched new ideas for increasing sales using merchandising techniques that included product placements and visuals, which increased the store’s profits.

While a programmer might not use skills from retail sales experience on a daily basis, experience with marketing and consumer experience are valuable assets to have when building a product for customers.

Additionally, this example shows that the author went above and beyond by going out of their way to research new ideas that helped the company — and even won an award for surpassing their goals.

Companies want developers who take pride in their work and aren’t afraid to take initiative to make a product great. If you can show that you’re driven and ready to overcome challenges, that’s a skill you should showcase, even if your experience hasn’t happened in a tech job yet.

How To List Your Accomplishments

When you write about your work experience and accomplishments, be explicit and clear in your bullet points about what you did at your previous job and why it was important.

Example:

• Improved product quality by 10% through code reviews, writing unit tests and collaborating with QA on implementing automation testing.

This example has a lot of good points in it, and including metrics or percentages is a great way to show your impact on the product you worked on.

However, even though this description shows what the writer did at their past job and provides specific examples of tasks, the wording is unclear about their overall impact to the product. Did the writer make the app 10% faster? Did premium subscription sales increase by 10%? Did they refactor and remove 10% of the codebase by cleaning up unused code?

When proofreading your resume, ask yourself questions like “How did I contribute?”” and “Why did my actions make a difference?” — and then spell it out.

Revised Example:

• Improved product quality by refactoring the app’s startup code and increasing loading speed by 10%. Wrote unit tests and collaborated with QA to implement automated testing, saving both teams hours of work.

Think about what your accomplishments did for your coworkers and the company overall, then describe the “big picture” effect of your actions. How did your input help others on your team? If you made a choice or took a risk, why was it important? What was the outcome? Let your readers know how your contributions made an impact.

Formatting Tips

Here are a few more tips for making your resume clear and easily readable:

• Only use one column: ATS software has trouble understanding two-column layouts.
• Keep it to one page: A longer resume is harder to read.
• Put the most relevant experience at the top: You don’t have to list your employment history and projects in chronological order. Grab your reader’s attention as soon as possible.
• Don’t use progress bars or numbers to rank your skills: It doesn’t tell the reader very much and resume scanning software won’t understand what it means.
• Add a bit of color on your resume to stand out: In a sea of Microsoft Word default resumes, be a pop of color to help your reader remember you.
• Use a sans serif font: ATS software can read Arial or Helvetica more easily than Times New Roman.

Where to Go From Here?

Now that you know how to highlight your skills, start writing your resume and show the world what you’re capable of doing. You will likely tweak your resume a lot as you apply to more positions and get more familiar with what jobs in your field are looking for.

If you’re still figuring out where to apply, try reading How to Get a Job After Graduating a Coding Bootcamp.

If you’d like to learn how to effectively brush up on your interview skills, read Mock Interview Techniques for Tech Job Searchers.

And for tips on how to start building your network as a mobile developer, check out Professional Networking at Virtual Conferences: How to Connect Online.

Key Takeaways

• Write your resume with Applicant Tracking Software (ATS) in mind.
• Include your past work experience, even if it’s not related to tech.
• Show how your previous work experience relates to the work you’ll be doing in your new role.
• If you have no tech work experience, treat projects you’ve worked on like jobs.
• Focus on your accomplishments and make it clear to your reader why they’re important.
• Put the most relevant and impressive accomplishments at the top of each section.

Have any thoughts on how to write a great resume after a coding bootcamp? Or have any follow-up questions? Join the forum discussion below!