How to land a JavaScript interview with three bullet points

To get a job, you’re going to need an interview. To get an interview, and then a job, you're generally going to need to convince a non-technical recruiter to pass your CV on to a technical hiring manager, and convince them you're the right shape for that job.

Developers are generally in high demand, and recruiters want to move quickly, so your CV is going to get read very quickly. This article is about putting all the important stuff in three bullet points that start it. It’s entirely possible for most (qualified) developers to put enough good information in three bullet points at the beginning of their CVs that the person reading it will make a snap YES decision and just skim the rest of it.

Summary Sections Done Right

Summary sections at the beginning of a CV can be a real mixed bag. The problem is that people tend to try and describe themselves in positive terms without saying anything of actionable value. For example:

I am a self-starter and also a quick learner. I am highly motivated, with ambitions to work for a company whose high standards match my own. I am conscientious and experienced in all aspects of software development, including React, Angular, Docker, ES5, ES6, ES7, Kubernetes, RFC2459, etc

Cool story. But nobody cares, see?

Recruiters and HR people often find it hard to relate to programmers already. They know that you just mashed together some positive adjectives and some keywords, and that it signifies precisely nothing. If they pass your CV on to the deeply cynical technical hiring manager, well, you’ve claimed a lot of skills they may or may not care about while providing evidence for none of them. And when your CV comes up in an actual interview, future coworkers may well just think you’re a weirdo for taking the time to write all that self-promoting stuff down.

But with a little work — and by that I mean specifically removing all of the above and replacing it with something else — we can make all three groups happy. We're going to give the non-technical recruiter, the technical hiring manager, and your future coworkers something of value.

Non-Technical Recruiter

Let's start by helping the recruiter know they’re in the right place.

Recruiters and HR people get a lot of speculative CVs from people who aren’t even a little bit qualified for the roles. Network Engineers and Waitresses apply for Node.js roles. Sysadmins who wrote a little bit of PHP once apply for full-stack developer roles. College grads apply for architect roles that need 15 years’ experience. This effect is exacerbated by job sites that allow one-click application to roles for job seekers.

Let’s put that to rest straight away. I want you to repeat the job title they said they were looking for back to them, and throw in one or two skill keywords to show you actually read the job ad. Help them to understand that they are, in fact, looking at a CV for a “Senior Front-end Developer” by literally writing it down in words:

I am a Senior Front-end Developer with 15 years experience, including five years of commercial React experience, four years of which was with Redux

The hiring manager wanted a Senior Front-end Developer with React/Redux, and you’ve said you’re a Senior Front-end Developer with React/Redux in the first sentence. They’re not going to look too stupid if they forward your CV on to the Hiring Manager, given that you have assured them from the offset that you are Senior Front-end Developer. You’ve saved them from having to do some archaeology on all of the arcane words they don’t understand in your work history.

The Technical Hiring Manager

The Technical Hiring Manager is a little more canny. She doesn’t need to be spoon-fed the fact you’re an approximate match, she can just glance at the skills section and work history for a few seconds.

But those skills aren’t really that trustworthy. It’s easy to claim technical skills on a CV. You can just write them in, 4-7 keystrokes each. The person reading it has no idea if they’re accurate or if the experience you’re claiming really happened.

However you can also provide inline evidence of your skills by showing opinions you’ve formed as a result of having used them. So, while you could write:

Experience with JavaScript, AngularJS, Angular, ReactJs, React, NgRx/RxJs, Redux, Express, NodeJS, Node, CSS3

… and force the Hiring Manager to then go digging around in your work history to find out corroboration, there's a better way. Instead put a bullet point in your summary section where you provide just a tiny bit of description about your skills to act as a shibboleth to people familiar with those skills:

Experience with both Angular and React; while I've found the batteries-included approach of Angular has allowed me to rapidly create working single-page apps, I've come to enjoy the clarity React's commitment to JSX gives, and the flexibility in mixing and matching auxiliary libraries for tasks like state management

Just enough description to be convincing that you have in fact used the technologies you're listing enough to have formed sensible opinions on them.

Future Coworkers

The developers who interview you don’t interview people for a living. They have your CV, and they have an hour of time to fill. They will be searching for interesting things to talk about based on your CV. Often developers also enjoy working with people who have an intrinsic enjoyment of technology.

You can provide interesting things to talk about in the interview as well as showing your love of technology by mentioning interesting side projects you’re involved in:

My personal development projects include an automated cat treadmill using Arduino with a digital signal processing component written in Node.js

… or …

In my free time, I’m currently working on an app that converts photographs of crossword puzzles in to playable games using OpenCV

… or …

I teach an after-work class to my colleagues in understanding Monads via Promises

You don’t have to be building a rocket ship in your garage to have an interesting technical project on the go. The more interesting things you have to talk about, the more passion you’ll show about programming, and the more you’ll end up talking about your technical strengths, rather than solving inane technical brain teasers the interviewers found online.

Summary of the Summary

Most people hate reading CVs, and don’t want to go on an fishing expedition through your 7 page CV to find where you mention skills. Put the important things first, and speak to the interview gatekeepers.

Having been a recruiter, a Hiring Manager, and an interviewing developer, a CV that starts with:

Summary

• I am a Senior Front-end Developer with 15 years experience, including five years of commercial React experience, four years of which was with Redux;
• I have experience with both Angular and React; while I've found the batteries-included approach of Angular has allowed me to rapidly create working single-page apps, I've come to enjoy the clarity React's commitment to JSX gives, and the flexibility in mixing and matching auxiliary libraries for tasks like state management;
• My personal development projects include an automated cat treadmill using Arduino with a digital signal processing component written in Node.js.

… saves me a whole bunch of time, and is almost certainly going to end up with an interview. The recruiter knows they’re in the right place, the Hiring Manager gets a bit of proof you’ve not completely made up all the words on your CV, and the developers get something interesting to talk to you about in the interview.