A junior developer's CV: what to put in it

How it gets read

The first pass takes about twenty seconds. The reader looks for: your direction, your technologies, anything to catch on. At that point the CV is either set aside or read further.

So the most important things must be at the top and legible immediately.

Structure

Who you are and what you're applying for. One line at the top: "Junior developer, Python, looking for a first job." Without it the reader guesses.

A short summary, three or four lines. What you can do, what you've built, where you're heading. Specifically.

Projects. For a beginner this is the main section, and it comes before education.

Technologies. As a list, without percentages or star ratings.

Employment. Any, even unrelated. An empty section looks worse than "worked in retail".

Education and courses. At the bottom. List courses briefly, without curriculum detail.

Contacts and links. A link to your repository is mandatory.

Describing projects

Bad:

Expense tracking service. Used Python, PostgreSQL, Docker.

Nothing is clear: what's in it, how much work it was, what you personally did.

Good:

Personal expense tracker — a web application: recording spending, monthly reports, file export. Built by two of us over six weeks; I was responsible for the data layer and the reports. Set up automated checks and deployment. Live at this address, code here.

What's present: what the project is, what it does, how long it took, your role, the technical part, and a way to look.

The rule: always state what you personally did. On a team project, without that it's unclear whose achievements these are.

The technologies section

List what you've built with. Not what you've heard of.

No percentages or stars. "Python — 80%" means nothing.

You may split it. "Use confidently" and "familiar, used in exercises" is honest and heads off awkward questions.

Don't inflate the list. Thirty technologies on a beginner's CV reads as "knows none of them properly".

Phrases that hurt

• "Stress-resistant, communicative, a fast learner" — everyone writes it, it signifies nothing.
• "Keen to develop within a dynamic team" — filler.
• "Responsible and attentive to detail" — the same.
• "Commercial experience: none" — don't give that its own line.

Instead of qualities, facts. Not "able to work in a team" but "built a project with one other person, we reviewed each other's code and kept a shared task board". The second proves the first.

Formatting

One page. For a beginner there's no such thing as two.

A plain typeface, no design. Creative layouts impede reading and often break when viewed elsewhere.

A file format that opens anywhere. And name it sensibly: surname and role, not "cv_final_2".

What to add when you have no experience at all

Course projects — but honestly. Mark them as coursework and describe what you added beyond the assignment. A bare course submission carries no value: thousands of people submitted it identically.

Your previous profession. Especially if it's adjacent. A former accountant moving into accounting software is a strong candidate, and it should be stated plainly.

Open projects. Even fixing a typo in documentation shows you can submit a change to the rules.