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How to create a standout web developer resume

Creating a resume can be a daunting task—especially for highly technical web developer roles. To help you stand out, we’ve put together this guide to creating the perfect web developer resume that highlights what you bring to the table—from experience to skills.
MentorCruise Team

The MentorCruise team shares crucial career insights in regular blog posts.

And speaking of skills, we’ll also introduce you to MentorCruise—a platform you can use to add a few desirable skills to your resume under the guidance of expert mentors.

Ready to land your dream web developer job? Read on!

Important elements of a resume

There are some basic essentials that you must include in your resumes, and we’ll cover them here as a refresher.

Personal information

This section is pretty self-explanatory, but we’ll quickly go over it anyway. You’re going to want to include:

  • Name

  • Address

  • Contact Information (i.e., phone number and email address)

  • LinkedIn Profile

  • Optional: Personal Website

If you’re submitting an online application, you probably don’t need to include your full address—your city and country of residence should be enough.

Profile

Your resume should begin with a profile that summarizes who you are, what you do, and shares a few key details about your experience and skills. Many employers will skim read your resume, so having a summary of your most important details is important.

Objective

The objective section should clearly explain what role you are looking for. You should also consider highlighting what type of company you’d like to work for, by:

  • Size

  • Industry

  • Geographical location

This section allows the employer to learn more about you and gauge whether you are a good, long-term fit for the company.

Professional experience

Your experience section should outline important and relevant experiences that you’ve had in the past few years. This can be anything from paid or volunteer positions, to internships and side projects.

If you’re trying to land your first web developer job, you can draw on your experience from other places. If you’re a recent graduate without any work experience, it’s okay to include relevant educational experiences—club memberships, projects, courses, awards, etc. That said, the second you get your first internship, these educational experiences need to take a back seat to your professional experiences.

Your experience section should include the names of the companies you’ve worked for, the title of your position, and your main responsibilities. It is worth emphasizing what you gained from each role and how you feel it progressed your career. You should also clarify your experience level—whether you are entry-level, mid-career, or at a senior level.

Education

Again, this section is pretty self-explanatory. Here you’ll simply list the educational institutions you attended (or currently attend) along with your degree and graduation dates.

Skills

You should have a brief list of your key skills, so a potential employer can easily check whether you have essential or desired skills. Examples of these can include industry-specific skills like coding proficiency, what software you can use, and examples of any niche skills you may have.

Web developer resume template example

Here’s an example of a basic resume for a web developer position. You can it as inspiration as you create your own resume

Alex Scott

(123) 456-7890
[email protected]
123 Main Street, New York, NY 12345

Profile

A Senior Web Developer with eight years of experience building, designing, and launching high-quality websites for a range of clients. Experienced in all stages of advanced web development. Knowledgeable in UI, debugging processes, design, installation, testing, and maintenance of web systems. Proficient with industry-standard technologies such as Java, ASP, NET, C#, ISS, Tomcat, and Microsoft. I have self-management and team-management skills, producing high quality work independently and collaboratively.

Objectives
I am searching for a new opportunity as a senior web developer; I am located in New York but am open to working remotely. Ideally, I would like to work for a company that has a large and varied client base, and would like the opportunity to contribute to the development of high-budget projects.

My aspiration for my next job is to be able to develop my management skills and oversee a team that can learn from my skills and experience. I want to experience challenges that enable me to continue learning and growing, and have the opportunity to branch out and work with a varied client base.

Professional Experience

Senior Web Developer, Website Technologies, New York, NY

September 2017 – Present

In my current role, I:

  • Oversee a team of six web developers in the building, design, and launch over 40 websites.

  • Perform comprehensive code reviews in both HTML and CSS

  • Enhance user engagement and improve website performance through the utilization of user-centered design principles.

  • Communicate with clients to establish the scope of projects and identify the ideal digital solutions based on their existing SEO strategy, marketing objectives, and the needs of their customers.

  • Manage a high-budget project to redesign an existing website and identify opportunities for improvements, with the aim of increasing monthly web traffic by over 200%

Web Developer, URL Star, New York, NY

August 2015 – September 2017

  • Worked within a five-person team to create user-friendly websites using a variety of industry-standard programming languages, including JavaScript, HTML, and CSS

  • Supported a large project to improve an underperforming client website, my contributions included updating the UI design and UX copy, resolving issues with mobile compatibility.

  • Used software to test, track and update existing code

  • Conducted comprehensive tests to ensure compatibility with a variety of browsers.

Education

Bachelor’s Degree, Computer Science and Information Technology

New York University (NYU), New York, NY, September 2011 – July 2015

Key Skills

  • Programming languages: HTML5, CSS, Java, Ruby

  • Scripting languages: JavaScript, Python

  • Web Services: REST, SOAP, JSON

  • UX & UI Design

  • Team Management

  • SEO and Digital Marketing

Overview

The example resume is brief but detailed, with the relevant information being easy to find. Many job applications require you to write a cover letter or personal statement; accompanying these more specific and personalized parts of your job application with a short and impactful resume that highlights your skills can help you stand out from the crowd.

Web developer resume template

Now that you’ve seen an example of a completed resume, here is an empty template for you to use for your own web developer resume.

Name:

Contact Number: (123) 456-7890
Email: [email protected]
Address: 123 Main Street, New York, NY 12345

Profile

[Who you are, what your achievements and qualities are, and what work you are looking for]

Professional Experience

[Work experience: company name, position title, dates of employment, responsibilities, and skills gained.]

Education

[Enter qualifications and educational institutions here]

Key Skills

  • [List specific skills that highlight industry keywords here]

Tips for creating an outstanding resume

Keep your resume clear and concise

As employers look over your resume, you want to make sure that you are quickly ticking all their boxes. Concise resumes make a great first impression on potential employers—they look confident, professional, and knowledgeable, and above all, they respect the time of the person reading.

Tailor your resume to suit the position you are applying for

You should always tailor your resume to suit the role you’re applying for. Try to use wording from the job description in your resume to instantly highlight the fact that you meet certain requirements.

And if you don’t meet have an exact skill, don’t worry. Transferable skills are a valuable asset to any job, and your resume should reflect those as well.

Demonstrate results with numbers and metrics

When writing about your previous experience and achievements, it can be helpful to include quantifiable metrics to prove the success of your work. By using numbers to demonstrate something (e.g., “increased website load times by 30%”) you’re giving the reader a memorable stat to latch onto that quantifies the value you brought your employer.

Give your sections simple subheadings

Clearly labelling your resume sections can help potential employers find what they’re looking quickly and easily. Recruiters only spend 6–8 seconds looking at each resume during the shortlisting process, so you need to make sure key information is super easy to locate on the page.

Use the STAR method

The STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) method is a framework for answering interview questions that helps you add context and structure.

How does that apply to your resume?

Well, by adapting the STAR method and using it to write the experience section of your resume, you can easily add a ton of depth to your resume. The STAR method makes it easy to highlight your skills and link them to results that you generated in previous roles.

Here’s an example of the STAR method in action:

  • Situation: You were brought on board to assist with a time sensitive project that was nearing its deadline

  • Task: You had to review what work had been done, check it for mistakes, and identify where there was room for expansion.

  • Action: You used your team management skills to mobilize your team efficiently and review the work collaboratively. You used your expertise to elevate the project to a higher standard and rectify the issues that you encountered.

  • Result: The project was completed to an excellent standard in time for the deadline. The client's needs were met, and the analytics showed a marked improvement in their statistics as a result of your project.

Always look to upskill

One foolproof way to create a standout resume is to seek out opportunities for learning and professional development. By expanding your skill set and gaining certifications, you can fill your resume out with desirable skills that differentiate you from other applicants.

With MentorCruise, you can find expert mentors who can help you master a huge range of skills and tools—from UX Design and HTML to Azure and MySQL. Mentees have the freedom to design an individualized learning program with their mentor that helps them achieve their professional goals.

Conclusion

The basic template above is a great starting point when crafting your web developer resume. By tailoring your resume to the job description, highlighting your accomplishments, and keeping best practices in mind, you’ll stand a much better chance of standing out from other applicants.

And if you think your resume may be lacking, MentorCruise is a great way to upskill. It’s often these extra skills and specialties that separate top candidates from the rest of the applicant pool, so booking a session with one of your expert mentors is a great differentiator.

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