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Aligned with the reality of the IT labor market in 2025.
As engineers speaking to fellow engineers, our goal isn't just to show you the steps you can do. We'd like to explain WHY certain actions matter when crafting your CV and preparing for a job search. Below, you'll find a guidance on how to structure your resume and optimize your profiles on career and professional networks such as LinkedIn and GitHub.
By following these simple steps, your profiles and resumes will make a much stronger impression on recruiters and employers.
To put this insights into practice, fork this repository,
enable issues and create a TODO task with a predefined list of actions:
- General checklist
- Resume checklist
- Resume under a microscope
- LinkedIn profile checklist
- GitHub profile checklist
- Tools
- Vocabulary
General recommendations for resumes and professional network profiles.
It's critical to understand the role of ATS in the job search. If you never heard about "ATS", read this short note
Ensure all relevant communication channels, including messengers, location details, and active professional profiles, are listed accurately. Verify that links are functional and up-to-date. We often hear stories of recruiters finding excellent candidates but failing to establish contact due to incomplete or inaccurate details. Providing valid contact information and using your real name boosts credibility. Be sure to omit unfinished personal websites, as they may detract from your overall professional impression.
If you're actively seeking employment or open to opportunities, a photo works better than a creative avatar. Seeing someone fosters trust — a fundamental psychological principle. Note that in some countries, laws may prohibit requiring photos on resumes to prevent discrimination.
A strong photo can profoundly affect hiring outcomes, often more than applicants anticipate. Research shows that simply swapping a single photo can lead to drastically different responses to a resume.
Criteria for a good photo:
- Face-focused portrait. The percentage of "creativity" should be related to your role in the team.
- Neutral background and attire.
- Adequate quality: clear, well-exposed image.
How to take a quality photo at home:
- Video Tutorial
- Article
- AI photo Enhancer: ReMini.ai (one photo enhancement for free)
- Paid AI Enhancers: HeadShotPro & HeadPix.ai
For best results, consider a professional photo shoot.
One photo can be reused across various platforms. Opt for light, office-like, or urban backgrounds. Avoid scenic backdrops like waterfalls, as they might subconsciously irritate viewers who haven’t had a vacation in years!
Synchronize how your name appears across LinkedIn, GitHub, and your resume. Recruiters shouldn't have to guess if different accounts belong to the same person, especially if you've changed your surname. Transliteration between profiles should remain consistent.
The title (e.g., Product Engineer) on your resume and profiles must align with the position you're applying for. This field is crucial for talent searches and filtering within ATS systems.
A common mistake is spending mere minutes on crafting a title, assuming it's self-evident. However, this field deserves careful consideration. Your title should reflect your desired rather than current role/specialization. Use popular, widely recognized job titles. Phrases like "Backend Ninja" may make sense to humans but will negatively impact search rankings because text-based searches prioritize exact matches. As a result, your resume could go unnoticed.
When working on title, we recommend using a SEO approach. Search engine guidelines for a title typically recommend staying within 50–80 characters. The beginning of the line carries the most weight. Keep in mind that you don't know where your title might get truncated or shortened in an ATS, so ensure it looks good at varying lengths. We suggest choosing one of these formats:
1) [Desired Position Title] | [Narrowing Hard Skill(s)]
EXAMPLES:
Senior Frontend Developer | React.js, Redux, Node.js, Tailwind CSS
Senior Frontend Developer | CSS Animation & Accessibility
2) [Desired Position Title] | [Value Proposition]
EXAMPLES:
Senior Frontend Developer | Mentoring Teams While Driving Innovation
Senior Frontend Developer | Delivering Pixel-Perfect, Responsive Solutions
Follow the guidens from the General checklist section.
The resume should be easily readable by a human and parsable by a robot. Use only PDF format (unless the job requirements specify otherwise). HTML and other formats will be a problem for ATS. Use a standard font of an adequate size (more below). The resume should look clean and readable.
The resume has a standard structure from which it is better not to deviate:
- Headline, the desired position
- Photo (not always, see above)
- Full name
- Current location: country/city
- Contacts. Links to profiles in professional networks (GitHub, GitLab, StackOverflow) – desirable
- Brief description / summary
- Technical stack, up to 7 main technologies
- Work experience
- Work permits – depending on the situation
- Readiness for relocation – optional
- Knowledge of languages – depending on the situation
- List of main hard and soft skills
- Education
It is not recommended to exceed 1-2 pages for juniors and 2-3 pages for senior specialists. If it does not fit, try reducing the font size, for example, to 10-12 points. If it still does not fit, you need to cut out the excess.
Corrections for students.
Instead of Work experience → Education, change the structure to Education → Projects.
For non-students, a list of projects is also acceptable, in certain cases.
It is worth checking the resume with a PDF validator. The text should be proofread several times, it should not contain spelling errors. Knowledge of the language may be secondary... but errors indicate problems with attention to detail, a valuable skill. Ask a colleague or friend to check your resume — this is always useful. Use spell check services.
Found a typo in this article? Let us know via issues.
- Age is indicated.
- Emoji are used in the text. Acceptable in certain cases.
- CV in WORD or HTML format. See above.
- Links like "Find out more here". ATS do not follow links.
- Requirements for the presence/absence of photos are not met.
- Copy protection is enabled in PDF (may interfere with ATS).
- No headings. Creative headings or phrases.
- Politics, religion, hobbies - anything that is not related to the job.
- Too much information.
List your hobbies and interests in LinkedIn, GitHub. There should be no room for this in the CV.
A short, concise description of your experience, key skills, and achievements. It presents you as a specialist. Explains why extactly you should be hired. Maximum 3-4 sentences. For everything else, there are sections "Responsibilities" and "Achievements" at each place of work. You can write in the 3rd person (adds neutrality) or in the 1st person (adds individuality). This point may be regulated by law or company rules, double-check. On LinkedIn, it is better to write in the 1st person.
What can/should be indicated:
- Your general expertise, transferable skills.
- Your strengths.
- Skills in demand for the desired position.
- Your preferences regarding the industry, company, team, project (of course, not all at once).
Examples for reference. The text from the summary is used for cover letters (with modifications).
Indicate the names of companies, dates of work and positions. Up to the last three that are relevant
to your desired job.
Descriptions should be adequate to the position you are applying for and the level of expertise.
Stick to the format developed > details > effect. Focus on results and achievements, not the
process.
But without exaggeration. A junior developer who "increased the company's revenue by 50%" will be
perceived as 🤡.
In the description of tasks and achievements, use active voice and past tense (increased, created, implemented). The years and months of work should be indicated. Specify the skills that were used in this position. For the last place, you can even indicate a contact person for communication (maximizing trust).
List the primary educational institutions and courses that are directly relevant to the desired position. Keep only those entries that align with your target role (students may include relevant projects). Limit to three points. Format should visually resemble the Work Experience section. You can mention ongoing education with a corresponding note.
Include only skills that directly match the desired position. Interesting hobbies unrelated to the field can detract from the resume rather than enhance it. Remember, the resume is a formal document showcasing your professional capabilities. Focus on listing your core technical stack. Extensive lists of every framework and library appear unprofessional and do not benefit even a junior-level candidate.
Select a standard font that is compatible with ATS. Ensure the font size falls within an acceptable range of 10-16px. For resumes in the IT sector, consider opting for sans-serif fonts, as they tend to appear neater and more modern.
Recommended sans serif fonts:
- Arial (maximum readability, neutral, technological)
- Calibri (more user-friendly, readable in small sizes)
- Trebuchet (even more user-friendly, informal)
Recommended serif fonts. For headings or body text, if you want to look formal/conservative:
- Cambria (formal, modern)
- Georgia (slightly more decorative)
Recommended monospace fonts. Optional for technology list:
- Courier
When using multiple fonts, ensure they complement each other visually, but this is a nuanced matter. Essentially, the letter widths should align as much as possible when overlaid at the same visual size. If you aim to achieve this, try utilizing a font comparison service for assistance.
Most applicants are better off sticking to 1 font and creating hierarchy solely by size and weight (boldness) of the font.
Create one basic resume that reflects your experience and key competencies. Then, if you are applying for several similar positions or the industry has established different terms for the same thing, create 1-2 resume variations with adjustments and accents. Don't spread yourself too thin - one good resume works better than several mediocre ones. Your resume will be compared with your public profiles. If recruiters find contradictions, you have done yourself a disservice by following the recommendations to create a "unique resume for each vacancy."
Follow the recommendations from the General checklist section.
Follow the recommendations from the General checklist section.
LinkedIn has a special block for listing "Job Titles" options, which can be opened by the blue "Open To" button in the page header.
We would like to emphasize once again that for recruiters, when they are looking for talent, your job title is the most important information. It is recommended to list all common synonyms for the roles by which you would like to be found. For example: Security Researcher and Malware Analyst can solve identical tasks, but the search will indicate only one of them.
Follow the recommendations from the Resume under a microscope section.
A LinkedIn description can be longer and more personalized than a resume. The latter is a dry description of you as an employee, as a specialist. Your social profiles, however, can (and should) add a note of personality and character.
When choosing profile skills and skills related to experience at a specific company, make sure that the most important skills are listed first. LinkedIn collapses information and can give a false impression of your competencies if they are not sorted correctly. In addition, the first skills will naturally collect more reactions (endorsements) than the last.
Follow the recommendations from the section Resume under a microscope.
Activate a custom URL with your name: linkedin.com/in/yourname. Looks more professional.
In today's competitive talent market, profiles without reviews look increasingly pale. There is nothing difficult in exchanging reviews with former colleagues. Accordingly, their absence means that you 1) do not get along with colleagues, or 2) do not show initiative, or 3) think that "this will do". Would you personally hire a person with such characteristics?
Turn on the "Open to work" status. This is a flag that will add your profile to the lists for recruiters. Some recruiters have mixed feelings about the green "Open to Work" sign. The opinion, which we personally do not share, is that this sign is added "out of desperation".
Certificates, awards, courses, publications increase trust and indicate "above average" expertise. All other things being equal, an employer will always prefer a person with such evidence of competence to another candidate. In addition, all these achievements speak of you as a "Continuous Learning" expert, and this skill is consistently included in the TOP-5 most in-demand cross-job skills.
Follow the recommendations in the General checklist section.
Follow the recommendations in the Resume under a microscope section.
This field can hold an even shorter summary of your resume or outline your professional goals. Since the profile isn’t as formal as a resume/CV, there aren’t strict guidelines here. Still, we advise including your title for added clarity.
Select and pin 3 key repositories at the top of the page. If everything is weak, it is better not to pin anything. Add a description to each valuable repository (what kind of project, why it was created, tags). Do not be among those who did everything that was necessary, but could not or did not want to present their work.
Set stars to your favorite/interesting technologies, if you haven't already. For active accounts, the lack of stars suggests that you 1) aren't interested in anything, or 2) don't appreciate other people's work, or 3) are super busy and bogged down in business. If you have a lot of stars, organize them into lists (optional).
Follow leaders in your areas of interest. The lack of followees is perceived in the same way as the lack of stars. Having a lot of followers is not necessary (and it is harder to change). We recommend exchanging mutual following with friends to get rid of zeros.
Follow organizations in your areas of interest. GitHub organizations are clubs or companies. Tracking organizations, repositories shows your interests. According to our research and experience in hiring, the more the recruiter and employer know about you, the better.
If you are motivated and have an above average GitHub profile, we recommend adding a README profile. Follows LinkedIn's profile design rules, see the corresponding checklist.
More on this topic: https://github.com/abhisheknaiidu/awesome-github-profile-readme
ATS (Applicant Tracking System) is a software used by recruiters when working with candidates. Your data gets stored in this system when you submit applications or when recruiters discover your public profiles. In situations where the volume of resumes outweighs available jobs (which happens frequently), recruiters implement stringent filters to streamline their workflow. As a result, only a fraction of applicants are reviewed by actual recruiters. If your resume can't be parsed or fails to meet filter criteria, it’s automatically archived. Read more about ATS here.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is about helping search engines understand sites' content, and as result helping users find releval information.
Now that you understand why and how to update your resume and social accounts, we've prepared an actionable TODO list for you. Fork this repository, create a TODO issue from the provided template, and start optimizing your profiles right away!
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