Front-End Developer Resume Guide

A front-end developer resume allows you to show hiring managers how skilled and talented you are. As hiring managers are often busy with stacks of resumes on their desks, it’s important to grab their attention quickly and have compelling details to keep their attention and interest in you as a candidate. Even if you’re creating a front-end developer resume with no experience, when you know how to produce an effective resume, you make it easy for human resources and hiring managers to see, at a glance, that you’re a highly skilled candidate. 

Before formatting your resume, it’s important to know what to include. Explore the skills hiring managers seek, then read through a section-by-section guide to writing your resume. 

What skills do you need to become a front-end developer? 

Front-end developers use various technologies and tools to create and manage the user interface of development projects. You’ll want to make sure your resume marks your qualifications in the following areas: 

• Programming languages (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery)

• Frameworks (JS like Angular, Backbone; front end like Bootstrap)

• CSS Preprocessors (LESS, Sass)

• APIs (JSONPlaceholder, Unsplash, RandomUser)

• Responsive design

• Content Management Systems (Joomla, Drupal)

• Debugging and testing

• Version Control (Git, Mercurial)

Less than 10 percent of front-end developers work alone [1], so communication skills and a proven track record of success in a team are also important. Lastly, if you have any projects or demonstrations of problem-solving skills, include those in your resume. 

What are hiring managers looking for in front-end developers? 

Hiring managers want front-end developers with the proper technical and workplace skills arrangement. The core technical skills of front-end design will vary depending on the project and the technology used. Developers must understand the material they will be working with directly. These skills include HTML/CSS, JavaScript, JQuery, Scrum, Agile, or GitHub. 

Workplace skills are measured differently than technical skills. It's easy enough to list a Meta Front-End Developer Professional Certificate that showcases your technical achievements. Still, you may need to include important workplace skills like creativity, problem-solving, and conflict resolution. You can demonstrate these skills to hiring managers by noting how they contributed to the success of some of your most recent projects. You can go into greater detail during the interview, but don’t omit these human skills directly from your resume. 

How to write a front-end developer resume: section by section 

A front-end developer resume should be one page with all the most important information in an easy-to-read format. The goal is to make it as easy for your hiring manager as possible. If they have to hunt all over the page before seeing your qualifications, they will skip it and move on to the next resume. As you write each section, remember who you are addressing: someone who wants to find the information as quickly as possible. A hiring manager will thank you when you don’t take up too much of their time. 

Personal

This section includes your personal information, such as your name, address, and email address. At a glance, a hiring manager can quickly locate your contact information to schedule an interview. 

Statement of Purpose

Resumes don’t offer many opportunities to show your personality and goals. The statement or objective is a rare chance to explain what you’re passionate about and what career goals you hold. This allows potential employers to see how this work fits your overall plan and whether your goals align with the company's objectives. 

Experience

The experience section of your resume lists similar things you’ve done in the past, such as previous developer roles and projects you’ve worked on. As a rule of thumb, start with the most recent experience and work backwards. If you have work or other experiences unrelated to the job, you don’t have to include them unless you need to demonstrate work experience in general. Use action words for each experience you list to describe your responsibilities and accomplishments in the position.

If you’re writing a front-end developer resume with no experience, this section might be trickier, but you can add unpaid experience to this section. You can include a portfolio of student work or complete a project to obtain a deliverable, such as a website you can showcase on your resume.  

Education

Unlike experience, which generally moves in chronological order, you may list your education with the highest level completed at the top of the resume, moving down to lesser qualifications. For example, you may want to list your bachelor’s degree first, followed by certifications and diploma programmes, even if you completed them after your bachelor's degree. If you’ve completed an advanced degree, such as a master’s or bachelor’s, you don’t have to list your secondary school diploma. 

Skills

The skills section of your resume is important because hiring managers are likely looking for specific technical skills that will fit nicely into the technology used in their project. Employing excellent organization is key to keeping this section of the resume impactful. If you arrange the information well, you can list many skills without making your resume difficult to read.

Some common front-end developer skills include: 

• JavaScript/Java

• Data structures

• Node.js

• React.js

• SQL/database design 

• DevOps 

• Big Data

• Blockchain

If you know ahead of time any of the technology used in the role you’re applying for, you should tailor your resume to those skills. For example, if you know the project uses specific frameworks or APIs, ensure those are on your resume, even if they aren’t common in the industry. Although it is more work to tailor your resume to every job you apply for, it helps you stand out by making it much easier for the hiring manager to see that you are qualified. 

Resume tips 

As you create your front-end developer resume, keep these tips in mind to have the most impact:

• Use action words and avoid passive tense. A promotion wasn’t awarded to you. You earned a promotion. Your last project didn’t see revenue after six months. Your work created revenue. Action words show confidence and clarify that you were the cause of your success. 

• Keep it to one page, neat, and professional. This is not the time to express yourself with font choices or assemble an entire presentation. Remember, the point is to make it as easy as possible for the hiring manager to choose your resume from the pile. Too long or too hard to read, and they may not take the time to read what you’ve written. 

• Don’t waste space on less important skills. It’s okay if your resume has some white space. Don’t crowd your achievements to fit everything on the page; keep to only the most relevant and impactful skills and experiences. 

• Look for an example: It can be helpful to look at front-end developer resume samples online to see what sort of skills other developers list. 

Next steps

If you’re still not sure where to start, don’t worry. You can find many online resources to help you write your resume immediately, including the Writing Winning Resumes and Cover Letters course, delivered by The University of Maryland on Coursera. 

If you’re worried about your front-end developer resume with no experience, consider completing Meta’s Front-End Developer Professional Certificate to build your skills and add a credential to your resume.