Django Developer CV Tips

Recently, I have seen and heard some Django people saying that they've paid to have their CV/Resume "professionally written" and feel that I need to say something!

Your CV/Resume should be written by YOU in your words, it should reflect YOU and the way YOU tell your career story.

DO NOT PAY SOMEONE TO WRITE IT FOR YOU!

EVER!

Any recruiter worth working with will give a few minutes of their time to help you and review yours before you start the search. Don't expect the whole thing to be written for you but you'll get some tips to improve it.

In this blog post I will share some of my top CV/Resume tips for any Django Developer currently in a job search or just starting to think about making a move next year.

A CV/Resume should be 2-3 pages long MAXIMUM, a concise “one pager” is great too but you could secure more interviews by expanding it a little.

Here are the tips in order as you read the CV/Resume:

HEADING - Your name, your email and any links to GitHub or your portfolio. The heading should be straight to the point and give the reviewer an easy way to contact you. Add a phone number if you are happy for unscheduled calls.

PERSONAL SUMMARY - Avoid standard phrases that you think people want to hear. Explain your experience and how you became interested in Django Development. Highlight any Open Source contributions or Conferences you have attended. Explain your search criteria and why things are important to you. If you regularly get questions about a short term in one position or a big gap between roles once, address that here too.

SKILLS MATRIX - Highlight your main tech skills here, list what you have experience with and how long you have worked with if possible. Keep to the most relevant ie. if you used wordpress 10 years ago leave this off as it won't help you get a role as a Django Developer. Lay it out however you like. I'm quite a visual person so I like it when people add little bar charts or star ratings but this is your CV/Resume.

WORK HISTORY - Most recent Django role first. Explain your responsibilities in each role, list the skills/Tech that you worked with and any achievements. If the company is small or unlikely to be well known, try to explain a little about what they do too. Give detail about the type of product and work you were doing. Go into more detail about the relevant roles as a Django Developer to help keep the length of the CV/Resume down. If you have had a long career as a Django Developer, give detail going back 10 years or so, technology changes so much some of the older things you worked on may be irrelevant now. You can either add “Previous positions available on request” or just list job titles to summarise these positions.

Don’t worry about listing any part time jobs when you were a teenager anymore.

EDUCATION* - List with highest achievement first and explain any relevant learning you have done to your career. If you have any official qualifications list these here too. If you have gone through a bootcamp I prefer that to be listed in Education rather than work history.

*Some people prefer the Education to come before Work History, in my experience this is secondary unless you are a junior. If you have 5-10 years experience as a Django Developer, it doesn't really matter that much that you studied Politics (or Computer Science) at university a few years before you started your programming career.

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT - I think this is a really important area of a CV/Resume that often gets overlooked. Working as a Django Developer you benefit from contributions from the community who give their time and experience to benefit everyone else. If you have ever raised a ticket, resolved a ticket or contributed in a sprint to help Django, list that here. Also list any meetups or conferences you have attended, any talks you have given (link videos if possible) and if you have a blog add that here.

PERSONAL INTERESTS - This section is a good chance to show some of your personality. Share some of the things you enjoy away from coding, try to stay away from generic statements like "spending time with family/friends and keeping fit". Give more information, how do you keep fit? If you play sports, what is your best achievement? What do you do with your family? If you are musical, what's your instrument of choice? Favourite genre of music? Who have you enjoyed seeing live?

You never know, by sharing more information here your interviewer may have a similar interest and talk about that with you too.

If you want your CV/Resume reviewed FOR FREE, please feel free to get in touch with any of our team.

I also recently gave a talk at Django Day Copenhagen titled “Unlocking the Django job market: Strategies for Developers and Employers” You can watch that HERE

I talked through the journey of searching for a Django job from initial thoughts through to the first day. The first half of the talk was aimed at Django Developers moving between jobs and included a few tips for first time Django job seekers too.