Overview
Getting your first software developer job is tough. Every posting seems to want two years of experience, and you are sitting there with a degree, some coursework, and a handful of personal projects wondering if any of it counts. It does. You just need to present it the right way.
This resume belongs to Alex Chen, a recent computer science graduate from the University of Leeds. He completed a summer internship at a fintech startup and built several projects during university. His resume works because it treats those projects like real work, with measurable outcomes and specific technologies.
What Makes This Resume Work
Projects are front and centre. Alex does not just list his projects with a title and a GitHub link. Each one has a clear description of what it does, the tech stack used, and a result you can measure. His final year project, a budget tracking app built with React and Node.js, had 45 active users among his coursemates within three weeks of launch. That is a real metric that shows the project was not just an academic exercise.
The internship section is specific. Instead of writing "assisted the development team," Alex describes exactly what he built. He wrote API endpoints that reduced data retrieval time by 30%. He fixed 12 bugs during a two week sprint. These numbers give the hiring manager something concrete to evaluate.
Technical skills are organised clearly. Languages, frameworks, tools, and databases each get their own line. Recruiters scanning for specific keywords can find them immediately. He does not pad the list with technologies he only used once in a tutorial. Everything listed is something he can discuss confidently in an interview.
Education comes first. As a recent graduate, his BSc in Computer Science with a 2:1 classification is his strongest credential. He lists relevant modules like Software Engineering, Database Systems, and Algorithms. This tells the employer he has formal training in the fundamentals, not just self taught snippets.
Key Takeaways
Put your projects on your resume and treat them like jobs. Include the problem you solved, the tools you used, and any numbers that show impact. If your project had users, mention how many. If it improved something, say by how much.
Keep your skills section honest and well organised. Hiring managers would rather see five technologies you genuinely know than fifteen you barely touched.
If you did an internship, dig into the specifics. Count the pull requests you merged, the bugs you closed, the features you shipped. Every number makes your resume harder to ignore.

























































































































































































































































