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How Should Developers Create Profiles To Get Jobs Faster & Easier
“Resumes are dead.” – Richie Norton
Employers want to see you beyond the 8X12 paper with your work live in action.
That’s why there has been such a boom in professional platforms like LinkedIn and Github, where you can directly link your work history in a neat package for the public eye.
It gives you a wider audience and makes it easier for your potential clients or employer to reach you.
In this article, we’ll see how profiles are different from resumes and what are the best practices to consider while creating one.
Online Professional Profiles vs Resume
While resumes and professional profiles are written to let the employer know about you and your work, there are some differences between the two you can’t overlook.
Audience
You send resumes to only the recruiter and can make slight changes based on the job description. But your profile is accessible to everyone using that platform and looks the same to all.
Personality
A resume is considered a more formal method to approach a recruiter. However, you can add your distinct style and voice to your profile to attract like-minded people.
More than words
You can add videos and other multimedia to your profile to convey your message effectively, whereas a resume limits that possibility.
Table of Contents
20 Best Practices For Creating a Professional Profile
Get the Basics Right
Before telling the world what you do, tell them who you are.
Start your profile with the basic details like your full name, location, age, and a couple of lines describing you. When you create your profile on Ellow, it provides you with the right prompts to create your profile without overthinking what to write about.
Show that Million Dollar Smile
A profile picture is a must to give a face to the profile and make it more human.
You can add a professional headshot or an avatar. And, if the platform allows, add a banner too that amplifies your message.
Put Your Experience to Display
It’s the crux of your profile where you get to show your past work to build trust among the audience.
When you create an ellow profile, you can add all of the details in one go with easy prompts. Ellow then uses the information to find you the clients who would be ready to pay top-dollar for your skills.
Add some meat to this section by infusing relevant keywords and some lines about your responsibilities in that job.
Ensure to add the organization name and the years of experience.
Go Generous With Skills
It’s the right place to showcase your area of expertise and catch your audience’s attention.
Mention the skills you have acquired over time to get relevant opportunities. If you have any in-demand skills, make sure to add them first and then follow with others.
It’s not necessary to add only technical specialties here. You can also use your interpersonal skills, basically something that makes you a great add-on to the team.
You can include tools that you have worked with. It makes the recruiter confident in you as they’ll have to train you less.
Mention Your Qualification
Though the developer community thrives on skills rather than traditional degrees, it’s better to build credibility by any chance you get.
You can add your educational background but keep it brief with the names of your respective universities.
You can also add the grades along with that.
Share Beyond Your Work
For high-value projects, people not only look for a developer who is good at their job but easy to get along with too.
The easiest way to give a glimpse of your personality is by sharing interests and hobbies in your profile.
Mention something that you love doing instead of just for its sake. It could be lazing around binge-watching or volunteering for an animal shelter.
Link the Real Deal
The star of your profile is the work you have done or are doing currently.
Add the link to your project codes or Github repository in your profile. Ensure that the code is well documented and accompany it with a live demo if possible.
Boast of Your Achievements
A humble brag of your past achievements solidifies your capabilities and builds trust automatically.
On most portals for developers, you’ll see regular coding challenges in which you can participate and get specific recognition badges. You can pin those to your profile or add some other success achieved beyond that portal.
Ask Your Tribe to Recommend You
Anyone hunting for a service or product online looks at what other people are saying about it.
It’s a standard way to verify if it’s worth their time or not.
To make the recruiter confident in you, ask your past clients or peers to write a few words about you on your profile. It could be about their experience working with you or how you delivered the committed services brilliantly.
It acts as a trusted recommendation and makes getting clients easier.
List Your Certifications
Certification is any formal credentials you earn from a third party by proving your skills.
It validates your talent and assures the recruiters that you meet the required metrics. Coursera, edX, Udemy are some common online learning platforms which offers certifications on a wide range of topics.
Inspire With Your Goals
Goals set your intentions clear for the recruiter or clients.
You can have multiple goals, and they can be short-term or long-term. As long as you demonstrate clarity and honesty, anything will work.
A well-crafted career goal gets the attention quickly and matches you with a suitable recruiter.
Lay Out Channels to Contact You
The most significant advantage of online profiles is that they give the freedom to anyone interested to reach you directly.
Just ensure that you have enabled the necessary settings for your account. If there is an option to provide email addresses, share that too.
You can add social channels to provide more information about you to the audience.
It lets more opportunities strike your door.
Tell Your Story
Your qualifications, experience, and skills speak of what you have done. But people want to know your motivation behind it to connect with you.
That’s where your narrative comes into the picture.
Build your professional persona with a human touch and describe your aspirations, struggles, and personal victories.
You don’t have to do a crash course in writing for this. Just write a few lines about the moments you find have shaped you today.
Make the Information Easy to Digest
Unless your profile is readable and understandable, the information won’t do you any favors.
Format your profile with bullets, and you can even use emojis.
Add some breathing space between the lines and use short, concise sentences.
Engage the Viewer With Keywords
Recruiters or clients search the candidates with the use of relevant skill keywords.
For example, if someone wants to work with a CSS developer, they will use that particular keyword to find a suitable match.
So, ensure to populate your profile with those in-demand magic words.
Take Advantage of Multimedia
To enhance your profile and make it easier to skim, add multimedia to your profile in the form of gifs, images, or even videos.
An introductory video also helps recruiters screen the candidates without going through unnecessary preliminary interview rounds.
Stay Active With Regular Posts
Online platforms reward the active members with more exposure among the audience.
So, to stay fresh in the viewers’ memory, posting regularly with meaningful content is a good practice.
You can post the latest code repository or specific solutions to a problem. Since the portals like Github show the timeline of your activity, it’s better to plan your posts for consistency.
It also lets you build a community for yourself that can exchange ideas and rely on you for help.
Avoid Commenting on Socio-political Issues
It’s great to voice your opinion on the social issues that resonate with you. But, professional platforms shouldn’t be the way to do so.
You never know the inclination of your potential recruiter or client, so it’s better not to upset anyone and limit your opportunities.
Keep your posts professional and refrain from making any controversial comments online.
Participate in Challenges
Developer portals like Github and HackerEarth often organize live challenges for the developers. It’s a good practice to participate in them for two reasons.
One is to brush up on your skills and improve with time. The second is to gain credibility for your profile.
Update Your Profile For Latest Information
And finally, keep your profile updated with the correct information, whether your basic details or projects. If you can add your availability, that will set the right expectations for recruiters’ or clients’, building more trust. And hence, leads to high-quality work.
Ellow is designed to help you build the right profile by providing all the prompts, fields, and sections that a potential recruiter is interested in knowing. With this information, ellow is able to get web developers, just like you, connected to the employers who are ready to pay top dollar for your skills. Check out ellow & create your profile today.
It ensures that you are getting the opportunities in sync with your current requirements.
Conclusion
You must have heard this advice often– to create your own brand.
But what does this mean, and how can one actually do it?
Building a brand is all about identifying your passion and then actively sharing your work, interests, and goals toward that passion.
And, as cliche as it sounds, like Rome, you can’t build your brand in a day. It takes consistency and hard work.
Surely, the right platforms can accelerate that process. We would recommend ellow, which kickstarts your professional journey by connecting you with the recruiters and talent pool worldwide.
It’s a great place to find jobs that appeal to your passion and pays accordingly. You can get started today without the hassle of a lengthy onboarding process.
Jisha Panicker
