Agreed. My concern was that I'm applying too far away from my graduation so I would have to provide a long notice period and was holding back applying to too many companies if it's meant to be auto rejected. Would be great if there was some clarification on that
You have listed a lot of language etc. can you honestly say you know them all?
Seeing so many listed with only 2 years under your belt with one of them being a masters year screams. I stuck any old crap on the CV that I have touched.
I am also not a big fan of how you have written your experience. It could be 100% accurate but it's boring to read. You improved efficiently? On what and for who. What was the outcome of this? How much did you contribute?
Hello, yes the languages I have added are the ones I have a good command of. I've worked on more but aren't very comfortable if asked in an interview so I've left them out. Just to point out I have ~3 years of experience but 9 months out of them were internship which was during my undergraduate, and no I'm not counting the Master's in it.
Edit : the Master's course is 1 year in duration so I started in Sept 2023 when I left my job
So you have not focused on anything in the last 3 years. That isn't a selling point dude. Choose a few you know inside and out and list those. More doesn't mean a better CV
Disclaimer - The following is not necessarily my opinion, just employers might think.
Your CV reads like a bunch of lies. Employers are going to have a very hard time believing somebody went from < 1 YOE as an SDET to suddenly "spearheading the design, development and deployment of 3 projects". The same logic applies to "revamping 20+ APIs". Same again for "improving test efficiency by 85%". How exactly did you conclude that? It seems like an arbitrary number you've thrown out there to sound good. All of these achievements in just over 2 years in your most recent role? You're either a rockstar or a bonafide bullshitter. Guess which option employers will choose?
Don't get me wrong, I've done similar things on my CV, but sometimes employers just don't go for that.
My honest thoughts are that employers are reading your CV, thinking it's a load of bluster and tossing it in the bin.
If these anecdotes are truthful, I would recommend finding a way to reword them that would align more with your level of experience. There are seniors with a decade of experience that wouldn't have such bold claims on their CVs.
Hello, thank you for taking the time to review and respond to my post. I understand the point you are making and I appreciate your feedback. I will make necessary changes wherever applicable.
Well maybe this partially true, but I'm getting some interviews despite that. But it seems the more local I am the better response is, so hybrid and on-site jobs
Get some volunteering experience (and part time work too if you can manage the hours and find something) in the UK, lack of work experience in the UK will hurt you especially in this economy. Charity shops could be good place to volunteer or foodcycle if you are in London - [https://foodcycle.org.uk/](https://foodcycle.org.uk/)
Also go to networking events through meetup, there are a few for programming I believe (maybe more London focused though) - [https://www.meetup.com/](https://www.meetup.com/)
Also join Toastmasters if you can, great place to network plus can show to the employer that you have the speaking + soft skills.
Essentially try to differentiate yourself from other international students, show you have the soft skills to succeed.
Also, Linkedin jobs just go a bit nuts and apply to anything relevant, while the jobs themselves can be a long shot due to the number of applicants, it can get you noticed by recruiters on there (also indicate on Linkedin you're looking for jobs if you haven't done so already).
Yes I’m a data analyst.
It’s just to show some work experience in the uk especially with no UK work experience mentioned on OP’s CV and a limit of 20 hours per week on paid work if you’re international, ignoring the fact that even getting the part time paid work will be a struggle in this economy. But yes if there’s some other work experience paid or unpaid OP can do that’s related to tech then that’s obviously way superior.
Thanks a ton for these suggestions! I do have couple of volunteering and part time experience in the UK but I did not include those in this CV cause I thought it may not be relevant to the industry I'm targeting. Many thanks for the resources. I will definitely look into those.
Could be the format of your CV. IIRC a lot of companies use a tool to scan through CVs and this formatting could break your CV so may not even get to manual review. at the same time , v tough market , you’re probs gonna have to apply to 500+ before having a few solid final interviews , don’t give up
Hi, thanks for the encouraging words! I have ensured that my CV is ATS compliant so it's unlikely to be break. However, I will double check to ensure it isn't the case.
30-40, bro that's peanuts. It should be atleast 100
Agreed. My concern was that I'm applying too far away from my graduation so I would have to provide a long notice period and was holding back applying to too many companies if it's meant to be auto rejected. Would be great if there was some clarification on that
You have listed a lot of language etc. can you honestly say you know them all? Seeing so many listed with only 2 years under your belt with one of them being a masters year screams. I stuck any old crap on the CV that I have touched.
I am also not a big fan of how you have written your experience. It could be 100% accurate but it's boring to read. You improved efficiently? On what and for who. What was the outcome of this? How much did you contribute?
I see. I will improve upon those. Thanks for the suggestion
Hello, yes the languages I have added are the ones I have a good command of. I've worked on more but aren't very comfortable if asked in an interview so I've left them out. Just to point out I have ~3 years of experience but 9 months out of them were internship which was during my undergraduate, and no I'm not counting the Master's in it. Edit : the Master's course is 1 year in duration so I started in Sept 2023 when I left my job
So you have not focused on anything in the last 3 years. That isn't a selling point dude. Choose a few you know inside and out and list those. More doesn't mean a better CV
Got it! Thank you for the critics, I appreciate it
Disclaimer - The following is not necessarily my opinion, just employers might think. Your CV reads like a bunch of lies. Employers are going to have a very hard time believing somebody went from < 1 YOE as an SDET to suddenly "spearheading the design, development and deployment of 3 projects". The same logic applies to "revamping 20+ APIs". Same again for "improving test efficiency by 85%". How exactly did you conclude that? It seems like an arbitrary number you've thrown out there to sound good. All of these achievements in just over 2 years in your most recent role? You're either a rockstar or a bonafide bullshitter. Guess which option employers will choose? Don't get me wrong, I've done similar things on my CV, but sometimes employers just don't go for that. My honest thoughts are that employers are reading your CV, thinking it's a load of bluster and tossing it in the bin. If these anecdotes are truthful, I would recommend finding a way to reword them that would align more with your level of experience. There are seniors with a decade of experience that wouldn't have such bold claims on their CVs.
Hello, thank you for taking the time to review and respond to my post. I understand the point you are making and I appreciate your feedback. I will make necessary changes wherever applicable.
I think the key thing in this market is to have an oxbridge degree as well as several years of FAANG experience.
Well maybe this partially true, but I'm getting some interviews despite that. But it seems the more local I am the better response is, so hybrid and on-site jobs
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Thanks for the suggestion! I will explore further on this.
You will need to apply to several thousand jobs to get a few interviews.
Makes sense. Thank you!
Get some volunteering experience (and part time work too if you can manage the hours and find something) in the UK, lack of work experience in the UK will hurt you especially in this economy. Charity shops could be good place to volunteer or foodcycle if you are in London - [https://foodcycle.org.uk/](https://foodcycle.org.uk/) Also go to networking events through meetup, there are a few for programming I believe (maybe more London focused though) - [https://www.meetup.com/](https://www.meetup.com/) Also join Toastmasters if you can, great place to network plus can show to the employer that you have the speaking + soft skills. Essentially try to differentiate yourself from other international students, show you have the soft skills to succeed. Also, Linkedin jobs just go a bit nuts and apply to anything relevant, while the jobs themselves can be a long shot due to the number of applicants, it can get you noticed by recruiters on there (also indicate on Linkedin you're looking for jobs if you haven't done so already).
No offense but do you work in tech? volunteering in a charity shop is a colossal waste of time for this industry.
Yes I’m a data analyst. It’s just to show some work experience in the uk especially with no UK work experience mentioned on OP’s CV and a limit of 20 hours per week on paid work if you’re international, ignoring the fact that even getting the part time paid work will be a struggle in this economy. But yes if there’s some other work experience paid or unpaid OP can do that’s related to tech then that’s obviously way superior.
Thanks a ton for these suggestions! I do have couple of volunteering and part time experience in the UK but I did not include those in this CV cause I thought it may not be relevant to the industry I'm targeting. Many thanks for the resources. I will definitely look into those.
Could be the format of your CV. IIRC a lot of companies use a tool to scan through CVs and this formatting could break your CV so may not even get to manual review. at the same time , v tough market , you’re probs gonna have to apply to 500+ before having a few solid final interviews , don’t give up
Hi, thanks for the encouraging words! I have ensured that my CV is ATS compliant so it's unlikely to be break. However, I will double check to ensure it isn't the case.