Indeed, a well-written resume is a crucial part of getting selected for a web or software developer job. It requires you to highlight your technical skills, coding languages known, remote work experience, and major accomplishments. However, if you have made up your mind to look for remote IT job positions, your resume should reflect that intent.
Like many others, you might want to jump into the market for remote job opportunities that have skyrocketed. More and more organizations now recruit employees to work remotely, which comes with several perks on the employee side. These include more flexibility at work, no need to commute, and better productivity. As of now, 16% of companies around the globe have shifted to a fully-remote work model, and 44% are open to a hybrid way of working (Source).
Hiring experts believe that you must tailor your resume for remote jobs according to the remote job you want to chase. But what does that mean and how to do it right?
Many organizations accepting remote job applications for developer roles see people mass applying but not for the right reasons. These candidates simply send their resumes without considering if they are actually the right fit.
Clearly, if you want to stand out from your peers applying for remote developer job opportunities, your resume should make the required first impression. While there are several ways you can do it, let’s first dive deeper into the ‘Why’ behind this requirement.
Why Do You Need to Tailor Your Existing Resume to Hunt Remote Jobs?
For a web developer like you, a resume is not just a document but a wall outlining your overall experience and web/software development skills. Most web developers work in teams for efficient collaboration and follow strict agile procedures to ensure the timely delivery of projects. While most freelance web developers offer their services to several clients at a time, others work full-time for a single software company.
Tailoring your remote work resume to fit different remote work opportunities ensures that it’s ready for use at a moment’s notice. Also, if you constantly keep a check on updating new skills, projects, and promotions in your resume, it then takes very little time to edit it for a limited-time opportunity. This will help grab the work role before your peers could finish scrambling to fix their resumes.
Amidst the competition in the development space, the job openings for quality assurance analysts, software developers, and testers are expected to grow by 22% Y-o-Y from 2020 to 2030 (Stats). Still, there is a global shortage of software engineers, with 64% of IT executives confirming that tech talent shortages hinder technology adoption.
To grow your career and find the best place to work, it’s time for you to modify your current resume before you start applying for remote jobs.
5-Step Process to Modify Your Resume for Remote Tech/Developer Jobs
1. Customize your work experience to highlight remote working capability
You have a passion for developing websites, apps, and software, and want to take the next big leap in your career. You have the required work experience to make the transition. But does it all matter to the potential employer who is seeking someone like you to join their company? Maybe not, because it’s too you-centric.
It actually implies that companies, while hiring developers for different projects, have a clear idea of what they want. Particularly when they are offering remote work opportunities to developers, they want to know what you can do for them differently than other applicants and what makes you better. One key area that can work in your favor is prior remote work experience. You can highlight this in your resume to showcase your understanding of the challenges of working remotely.
A prior experience of anything at work is most favored as it demonstrates your ability to get in sync with the work more easily, hence increasing your chances of getting hired.
2. Showcase your soft skills that matter more when working remotely
Your ability to interact amicably with the team members and other organizational staff is more commonly regarded as a soft skill. These are personal attributes that affect the overall communication experience at the workplace. Since developers are highly qualified, expensive resources for an organization, the right hiring of candidates for such roles is quite crucial for any organization. In case an organization is looking for a candidate that can deal with their clients and gain work, it is essential for them to hire someone who has the right set of digital communication skills, etiquette awareness, and networking abilities.
Even if you are good in all these areas of communication and can fit well into the behavioral scene of a new organization, no one knows that unless you tell them so. Hence, a crucial step toward resume modification is to recognize your soft skills. If you feel you need to improve in certain areas, you can choose to invest time and effort there to further strengthen your resume.
3. Highlight your familiarity with common remote collaboration tools
If there is one thing that the pandemic has taught most of us about continuing to work, it is the use of remote tools. At your new company where you seek a remote job opportunity, you will constantly need to interact with your colleagues and clients via video calls, share presentations of new ideas, or give access to updates related to the current development projects. These days, people use different collaboration tools as a part of work even in an on-site work environment.
Think of a situation where a candidate being interviewed for a remote developer role is asked about familiarity with Basecamp, Trello, or Slack. In case the candidate has no idea of what these tools do while they are a crucial part of the development process at the company, the chances are that he won’t be preferred for the job over the applicants who have worked on all these tools.
4. Emphasize your team-building skills
Every tech company wants to build a team that works together cohesively toward common goals for product development and similar others. At its core, the most powerful reason why employers look at a candidate’s team-building skills is to get the results they expect on time. Unless an employee maintains good coordination with the team, he is less likely to get the work done on time. When a newly-hired employee leaves the job during the probation period itself, it takes significant time for the position to be refilled with the best tech talent.
Think from the employer’s perspective for once. It would be good for them not to hire somebody who is not a good fit and will possibly leave sooner than to wait and find the perfect fit for a job role. With remote work expectations, the scrutiny at the level of team-building is even more critical. Highlighting your remote work skills and experience can give your resume a competitive edge.
5. Specify uninterrupted connectivity to the Internet and electricity at your remote workplace
Although it may sound less technical or work-related, it is quite important for employers looking for the best talent for software developer positions. If the reason you are applying for a tech role is mainly remote work flexibility, it is obvious for the employer to ensure that the place where you live and choose to work has easy access to the Internet and electrical power.
It does not make sense for a company to hire a developer who chooses to live in his village or countryside lacking in continuous power supply and uninterrupted Internet connectivity. Ultimately, it is the work that is going to be affected by the unavailability of that employee for crucial meetings, tasks, and team sessions.
Other Quick Tips to Tidy and Freshen Up Your Resume for Remote Jobs
When the weather changes, you might have noticed your neighbors and yourself sprucing up the front yards, cleaning foyers, and repainting their places. The reasons – it makes the first impression on both the guests and onlookers.
Your resume is no different as it offers a brief glimpse of your work life. To make them feel attracted and want to know you more, here’re the basics of resume upgrade you must keep in mind:
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Proofread the resume content
Multiple typos and grammatical errors in your resume can easily make yours reach the ‘No’ pile that hiring managers create as a part of their day-to-day work while screening candidates. Hence, make sure there are no or least errors.
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Remove unimportant jobs and spaces
No HR team would love to skim through multiple pages of resume content that has less relevant job experiences and unnecessary spacing just to make it long. When you update your resume for remote jobs, make sure you remove spacing issues and less important work experiences.
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Be concise and to the point about your experience
Detailing your previous work experience in your resume is quite subjective and may sound like answering interview questions upfront. In fact, explaining what you have done as a developer is a part of the in-person interview when someone asks you about it. So, let the resume be in such a shape that it creates a good impression to take things forward.
Reach the Best Tech Roles Early with Connect Tech+Talent
Just like finding better tech jobs than your current one is difficult, so is the process of hiring the best tech talent. Let Connect Tech+Talent be the guiding light to your next career move. Being a leading tech talent agency in Austin, Connect Tech+Talent helps companies hire the best fit for tech roles. To know more, click here.