Web Developer Resume Guide & Tips

One of the most important elements in your job search will be your resume. Having a solid resume will help you secure a job in the field by showing a prospective employer your qualifications in a condensed form. Since your resume will often be the first thing a hiring manager sees from you, you’ll want to make sure that it is a strong document. What’s most important is communicating your accomplishments clearly and succinctly.

What to Put on a Web Developer Resume

There are some aspects you’ll need for your resume that are not particular to web development. Universally, a resume should provide contact information, reflect the worker’s skills, and show the education that they have received. However, there are certain particular things that a future Web Developer will want to have on their resume. 

Technical Skills

You’ll want to make sure that your resume provides a comprehensive list of the requisite technical skills for the position you’re applying to, as well as any additional skills you think might be relevant. You can list these skills in a skills section or incorporate them into the bullet points you use to describe your accomplishments during your work experience. If possible, it’s better to do the latter, so that employers know what you have been able to accomplish using these skills.

Technical skills are something different than the programming languages you know how to use, though. For example, technical skills could include the use of developer tools like code editors, Git, and Emmet. They could also include frameworks and libraries you know how to use, like Node.js, React, or Django, among others. Testing and debugging are important technical skills. If you know how to use APIs or understand DNS management, make sure to include those skills as well. Aspiring Front End Developers who want to show knowledge of user experience (UX) could include UX, user interface (UI), wireframing, and responsive design. SEO skills, web hosting, graphic design, and content management systems are among other relevant technical skills you might find on a Web Developer’s resume.

Programming Languages

Of course, you won’t want to miss out on including every programming language you know on your resume. As with the technical skills, it’s ideal if you can include these in the accomplishments listed under your experience. That way, you don’t leave the employer asking “all right, so you know JavaScript, but what can you do with it?” However, listing languages in their own section is also acceptable.

When you’re customizing your resume for a given job, you should make sure you include every language in the ad that you can honestly say you know how to use. But what are the languages that go without saying, ones that you’ll be expected to know as a Web Developer regardless of the particular job? As we’ve seen, a Web Developer must absolutely have knowledge of HTML and CSS. Most Web Developers also make extensive use of JavaScript in their work. 

Other languages are more specific to the Web Developer’s specialty. For Back End Developers, Python and Java are excellent languages to make sure employers know you’ve mastered. Ruby and PHP are also useful on the back end. If you’re going for a Front End Developer job, you’ll most definitely want to list JavaScript, but Swift is another good language to include, especially if you know you’ll be working with Apple products.

All Relevant Experience

This may seem obvious, but you wouldn’t want to forget it. Certainly, any web design or development experience that you have should go on your resume, even if it was early in your career and all you really did was use a WordPress template. But you also want to make sure that you include any work experience that could possibly be relevant You never know what

All relevant experiences should go on there, but make sure that you explain them in a way that makes it clear how you used skills that are relevant to the job you are applying for. A good way to go about this is to think through every job or internship you’ve held, consider what skills you used and developed in that position, and select any that seem relevant to what you would do as a Web Developer—soft skills included. Then figure out how you can frame those relevant skills in terms of accomplishments from your previous experience.

Soft Skills

As stated above, soft skills are important. You should make sure that any relevant soft skills are included on your resume. Some key soft skills for a Web Developer are communication, organization and time management, critical thinking, and problem-solving. You must be able to interact productively with your teammates or clients. Web Developers also need to stay organized and remain on top of their various projects. Being able to harness critical thinking skills and solve a thorny problem will be vital to your web development career.

For these skills, it is especially important to frame them in terms of specific accomplishments from your work experience—a simple list of soft skills doesn’t provide much evidence that you actually have them, and unlike with programming languages, an employer can’t do much to test, say, your time management skills in an interview. But if a career-changing teacher can explain that they used those time management skills to handle lesson planning, teaching, and grading for four different courses while also coaching a softball team at their school, it will help the employer understand why that experience is relevant as well as to see how the soft skill works out in practice. 

Creativity

Arguably, creativity is another soft skill, but it’s important enough to list separately as well. Your resume needs to show that you are a creative thinker. And no, that doesn’t necessarily mean getting fancy with the graphic design. If you can show the role creativity has played in your past successes, your resume will help the employer understand how you might be able to get creative on their behalf as well. 

Here, again, you’ll need to approach it in terms of a narrative. Did you create a new scheduling system for the store you managed, or use your creativity to address a recurrent issue customers were having? A succinct statement of that accomplishment on your resume will make it clear to your prospective employer that you bring creative thinking to the table as well as your technical skills.

5 Web Developer Resume Tips

Here are some tips to help you optimize the effectiveness of your resume. Using these tips will help you overcome the barriers that hold some resumes back, and make sure your resume makes it to the top of the pile instead. 

Know the Three Types of Resumes

In the world of resumes, there are actually three different types. You’ll want to make sure that your choice of type is informed. The format you may be most familiar with is chronological. This is the type of resume in which you simply list all your relevant experience in order from most recent to least recent. 

Another option is a functional resume. In a functional resume, you organize the information by the skills you have demonstrated and the accomplishments that you have achieved through those skills. Your work experience is then listed below the main “relevant skills” section. A functional resume is a good option for sharing with someone you already know, such as a recruiter or industry contact you’ve met personally.

Some Web Developers also use a hybrid of chronological and functional resumes. If you haven’t met the person you’re submitting to, or if you’re submitting a resume through an automated electronic system, a chronological or hybrid resume is the best choice. This is, in part, because these resume types are the easiest for applicant tracking software (ATS) to understand.

Optimize for Applicant Tracking Software

Applicant tracking software (ATS) is a resume scanning software that hiring managers and recruiters use during the hiring process. It allows them to collect, sort, scan, and rank the job applications they receive automatically. The scanning function identifies whether specific keywords relevant to the job are present on the resume. As such, you should make sure that your resume uses exactly the keywords that are used in the job application.

Another important issue to be aware of is making sure that your resume is in a format that the software will find easy to process. As stated above, this means you should use a chronological or hybrid format when submitting to a system rather than to a human you know. It also means that Word, rather than PDF, will be the best file format to use. In addition, you should avoid colors, fancy fonts, and other graphic design elements that might make it difficult for the system to read your resume.

List Accomplishments, Not Experience

Based on the way some job ads are written, you might expect that the most important thing to include on a resume would be your tasks and responsibilities at a given job. The job ad lists responsibilities and years of experience, so you’re tempted to focus on those when you write a resume. However, it is much better to focus on your accomplishments in those positions than on tasks and responsibilities.

For example, say you’re a Front End Developer. Before your bootcamp, you held a contract web design position in which you used WordPress to create a site for a small business. You might be tempted to put that exact phrase, from “used” to “business” on your resume. However, it looks much better to a potential employer if you talk about a specific, measurable accomplishment. If you can say “created a 39% increase in profits for a small business by creating an attractive, intuitive website for customers.” That shows not only what skills you have, but also what you’re capable of doing with them.

Use a Summary or Objective to Attract Attention

Why do some Web Developers who optimize for ATS elect to use a hybrid, rather than chronological, resume, and what does that look like? What they’re usually doing is including a summary or objective to get the attention of the human reader who will hopefully get the resume once it filters through the ATS. 

A summary is a brief statement of who you are as a professional, including the most important skills you bring to the table as well as a vital career accomplishment or two. This is not quite the same as an objective, which provides a short introduction to you and your career goals. In an objective, you briefly state who you are as a professional in the first sentence, before proceeding to focus on the career goals that have driven you to apply to this position.

Get Feedback

One extremely important aspect of making a good resume is asking knowledgeable individuals for feedback. These might be trusted teachers in a bootcamp or university, or they might be professionals in the community that you have made contact with. If you choose to do a bootcamp, you will want to make sure that your bootcamp provides career support. Noble Desktop’s certificate programs give you 1-on-1 mentorship for the job search. Resume feedback is a vital aspect of this support. Noble has several certificate programs relevant to web development, including certificates in software engineering, front end web development, JavaScript, full stack development, and Python development.

Learn the Skills to Become a Web Developer at Noble Desktop

To become a Web Developer, you must learn specific skills critical to the job. Noble Desktop can help you build these skills through in-person or live online instruction. Either way, you’ll have access to expert instructors who can clarify issues when you are confused, provide feedback on your work, and guide you through becoming a Web Developer. Small class sizes and the option to retake any course for free once you’ve completed it are additional incentives for studying with Noble Desktop.

Noble offers several relevant certificate programs demonstrating your Web Developer skills and qualifications to share with potential employers and support you in your job search. Completing the software engineering certificate gives you the broadest qualifications and career path options. If you are primarily interested in developing for the front end, consider the front end web development certificate. JavaScript is becoming increasingly popular for web development, so completing the certificate in JavaScript will boost your resume. Opt for the full stack development certificate if you're interested in front end and back end programming. And if you prefer behind-the-scenes programming, pursue the certificate in Python development.

If you’re a beginner in web development, Noble’s hub of articles and resources on web development is a great place to start and plan your learning path. Noble’s web development courses are excellent if you’re eager to start learning but not yet ready to commit to a full certificate.