How to Write the Perfect Resume After Graduating a Coding Bootcamp

So you’ve graduated from a coding bootcamp and you’re ready to start applying for developer jobs. You’re now in the unenviable position of having the skills you need for a job, but no work experience yet. How do you put everything you’ve learned during your bootcamp on your resume? What about your previous work experience? How can you set yourself apart from other recent graduates?

In this article, you’ll learn how to make your resume stand out as a bootcamp graduate.

What you’ll learn:

• Which sections to add to a boot camp graduate resume.
• What kinds of skills to highlight.
• Resume examples.
• Tips for making your resume stand out.

By the time you’re done, you’ll have a resume that shows employers you have the skills they are looking for in their entry-level developers. It will look something like this:

Sample resume for bootcamp graduates. (c)Jay Strawn. Click to enlarge.

Sample resume for bootcamp graduates. (c)Jay Strawn. Click to enlarge.

Formatting Your Resume

A good resume for a bootcamp graduate will have four sections:

• Bio
• Skills
• Projects
• Employment History

Next, you’ll learn how to create each section so your fit for the role you’re applying to shines through, along with examples to illustrate how each section works.

Writing Your Bio

Putting a short summary about yourself at the top of your resume tells your audience who you are and what kinds of skills you have. It’s a great way to create a good first impression and make your resume memorable. A good bio should have:

• Two to three sentences about yourself.
• Important qualifying details like “boot camp graduate” or “iOS Developer”.
• Personal details to make yourself memorable.
• A brief overview of your professional experience.

Example:

Each of these examples is a great introduction to a resume. Each one has unique details about the author and also highlights that the writer has the required technical skills for the job they’re applying to.

Another thing both of these examples do well is they take the author’s professional experience from before their coding bootcamp and tie those experiences together. Many people who complete a coding boot camp to make a big career change feel like they are completely starting over, but the truth is that your past work experience is still an important asset in your job hunt.

Even if you don’t come from a tech background, hiring managers want to know about your accomplishments and past employment. Also, including relevant personal details in your bio will help you stand out as an individual and not just another coder in a pile of resumes.

Describing Your Skills

The skills section is where you want to list your relevant skills for the job you’re applying to. Many employers use automated tracking systems called Applicant Tracking Software (ATS) to scan candidates’ resumes. These systems are programmed to search for specific keywords related to the job. The more keywords your resume can match, the more likely it is that your resume will make it to a human being’s inbox. Your skills section should include:

• Job-specific hard skills (Save soft skills like “leadership” or “communication” for the Employment History section).
• Multiple sections for different types of skills.
• Any keywords mentioned in the job posting.

Most of the time, the first person to see your resume won’t be a developer, so list skills even if you think they should be obvious. For example, include items as basic as “XCode” or “Android Studio”.

As a mobile developer, you know you can’t make an app without these programs, but while it’s obvious to *you*, an employee in HR probably won’t know that. They usually have a list of required skills that your resume needs to display before you can move to the next round.

Example:

• Coding Languages: Swift, Objective-C, SwiftUI, Dart, Kotlin, Java, HTML, CSS
• Spoken Languages: English (Fluent), Spanish (Intermediate)
• Frameworks: REST APIs, Web Sockets, Unit Testing, Push Notifications, AVFoundation, ARKit, Git Version Control, Firebase, CocoaPods, Swift Package Manager, Apple Maps, Google Maps, Core Location, Core Data
• Tools: XCode, Instruments, Android Studio

Listing Your Projects

This is where a coding bootcamp resume will be different from a typical resume. The Projects section is where you’ll put the apps you’ve worked on. Showcase your projects the same way you would a job.

Note that after you get your first job in tech, you should put your employment history above your projects, because relevant work experience is the most important thing you can show. But if you don’t have any experience in tech yet, what’s most important is showcasing your tech skills at the top of your resume.

Your Projects section can include:

• Completed assignments you built during bootcamp.
• Hackathon apps or group projects you completed with a team.
• Any portfolio pieces you have on the App Store or Google Play.

Example:

• Kitty To-Do List — Available on the App Store
  In this app, I use Core Data to store user-defined tasks in the app and display the tasks in a UICollectionView with custom cells. I use AVAudioSession to play a randomized clip of a “meow” when the user marks a task as done. The app features image caching, uses Codable to parse JSON from an API and includes both English and Spanish localization.

• Find Nearby Coffee — Available on the App Store
  This app uses Core Location to determine the user’s location, then sends their coordinates to Yelp’s Business API, which returns a list of coffee shops near the user. The app features custom MKAnnotationViews, suggested search items, and image caching. It will also show the user driving directions from their current location to the selected cafe.

These two example apps are relatively simple, but what’s important is that they use core components that you’ll use when working on larger apps. Showing that you’re familiar with common libraries that thousands of apps use every day will show both developers and non-technical readers that you understand the fundamentals of app making and you can explain how the software works.

The most important part of the Projects section is that these apps really need to be on the App Store or Google Play. Only other developers understand GitHub. You can’t expect someone looking at 50 resumes a day to make a GitHub account and learn console commands to see an example of your work.

It’s OK if your projects are simple; a completed simple app that someone can download and look at is worth so much more than screenshots of a more complex app or final project you’ll finish “someday”. I once hired an intern because he had a simple to-do app in the App Store and he was able to walk me through how he programmed it during an interview.