CS Freshie! Have this in your resume.
Are you a fresh graduate passionate about solving problems using code? Then read below on how you can have a one-page resume that can land you the right opportunities (the one that pays for your passion for programming).
Show passion for programming
Every time you mention anything that is not programming related you are making me disinterested. Lines like “Member Finance team for software competition” and “Team lead science quiz competition” are good if you apply to a Telco or an FMCG but not much for programming shops.
On the other hand, things like this are pure gold
- “Came 3rd in a programming competition.”
- “Gold level in HackerRank.”
- “Came in top 1,000 of Google Code Jam”
- “Helped CS101 TA”
Show your code
Have a good Github profile. Ensure it is not just a skeleton, but you actively contribute to open source projects or even your hobby projects. A healthy assortment of projects will potentially compensate for any perceived deficiencies in the other areas, e.g., GPA, university branding, etc.
If you have written unit tests or have cared about other aspects of engineering, do mention them on your GitHub (or your resume), e.g., I am following coding standard from here; test coverage report is accessible here, I am using ABC tools for profiling, etc.
Your GitHub profile should simply bring the wow factor to all those searching for passionate programmers. IMHO, your GitHub should be so good that your resume takes the back seat.
Show passion for learning (programming)
Some of the best developers I know spend quite a few of their spare cycles on learning from the likes of Coursera, Udemy, etc. This includes essential courses, like “Data Structures” to tool-specific. I will have trust in the problem-solving of someone who has done Princeton course on Algorithms more than who has not taken any such courses online.
If you are top tier then you might wanna read 1–2 books from here: https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-good-software-engineering-books-that-a-soon-to-graduate-computer-science-student-should-read. I will be blown away.
Hobbies (Optional)
Think about what you write here. If someone says: “reading programming blogs”, “hobby programming projects,”, “TopCoder”, “30 min daily Code Kata”, etc., then I am impressed.
Saying stuff like “movies”, “jogging”, “cricket”, etc. is not that helpful for me. Perhaps follow some of the valid reddit here: https://www.vandelaydesign.com/subreddits-for-coding/
Final thoughts
Control the message. You do want to tell that you are focused on building a career out of programming. Do mention stuff like TDD, Unit Testing, SOILD, OSS, Design Patterns, Profilers, etc. if you know about them and have used them.
If you are interested in working with me, then check out this: https://asim-ghaffar.medium.com/empg-engineering-interview-preparation-guide-756f8b7b0342
Bonus: https://www.topcoder.com/thrive/articles/List%20of%20awesome%20learning%20resources
