Write a Developer CV That Actually Gets Replies

A recruiter spends an average of 6 seconds on your CV before deciding to read more or move on. Six seconds. That's enough time for them to look at four things, in this order: your name, your most recent job/title, your tech stack, and your education line.

Everything else on your CV is for the second pass — IF you make it past the 6-second filter.

This guide is structured around what actually moves the needle in those 6 seconds, based on patterns from 1,000+ developer applications reviewed on Portify.

The 7 things recruiters look for

1. A clear, role-specific headline (not a "professional summary")

Bad: "Passionate developer with strong work ethic and a desire to learn."

Good: "Senior React developer | TypeScript, Next.js, Postgres | 4 years building consumer-facing dashboards."

The good version tells the recruiter: stack, experience level, what kind of product you've shipped. The bad one tells them nothing.

2. Most recent role, with concrete impact

For each job, write it like this:

• Role + Company — bold
• Dates — month/year format
• 2–4 bullets, each starting with a verb and ending with a number

Bullets that get attention:

• "Reduced page load time from 4.2s to 1.1s by implementing route-based code splitting"
• "Owned the migration of 60+ services from REST to GraphQL, cutting payload size by 38%"
• "Built and shipped the company's first dark mode (used by 47% of monthly active users)"

Bullets that get skipped:

• "Worked on various features for the dashboard"
• "Collaborated with team members on multiple projects"
• "Improved code quality and developer experience"

The pattern: verb + thing + number. If you can't put a number on it, the bullet probably doesn't matter.

3. Tech stack as a discrete line, not buried in prose

Recruiters scan for tech keywords. Make it easy:

TECH STACK
React · TypeScript · Next.js · Node.js · Postgres · Prisma · Tailwind · AWS

One line. Dot-separated. The technologies you'd actually use in your sleep.

Don't list every tech you've ever touched. Don't list every framework's sub-libraries. The list should match the jobs you're applying for.

4. Projects (especially if you're junior)

If you have less than 2 years of experience, projects are weighted more than work history. Each project gets:

• Title (1 line)
• Stack (1 line)
• 1-sentence description
• Link to live demo + GitHub

Same rules as the bullets: specifics, links, deployable.

5. Education — short and unobtrusive

University, degree, year. One line. Move on.

If you're self-taught, replace this with a short "EDUCATION" section listing relevant courses you completed (FreeCodeCamp, Odin Project, specific Coursera tracks). Don't pretend to have a degree you don't have.

6. A portfolio link, prominently

Top of the CV, next to your contact info. Recruiters who like your CV will click through to see your code.

If the link is broken, dies in firewalls, or leads to a "coming soon" page, you wasted the 6 seconds. Test the link from your phone, on cellular data, in incognito.

7. Your contact info — email + LinkedIn + GitHub + portfolio

Four links, no more:

• Email — a real one you check
• LinkedIn — full URL, not "linkedin.com/in/me"
• GitHub — your active account, not a 5-year-old empty one
• Portfolio — the live URL

Don't include your address, age, marital status, or photo. (US/UK conventions; some EU countries differ.)

The 7 mistakes that get you rejected before anyone reads it

1. Skills bar charts ("CSS: 8/10")

Recruiters can't tell if your "8/10" means you're a god or barely intermediate. Drop the bars; just list the skills.

2. A 3-page CV

Two pages is the absolute maximum. One page if you have under 5 years of experience. Recruiters don't read the third page.

3. Fancy templates with sidebars and infographics

ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems) parse plain text. A two-column template with icons in a sidebar often parses as garbage. Single-column, plain layout, no images.

4. Buzzwords without proof

"Detail-oriented", "team player", "self-starter", "results-driven" — every CV uses them. They mean nothing. Cut them.

If you ARE detail-oriented, prove it with a bullet: "Caught a memory leak in production that would have cost ~$2k/month in unnecessary EC2 spend."

5. Listing every framework you've ever touched

Listing 25 technologies tells the recruiter you don't know any of them well. Pick 8–12 you can defend. Trim the rest.

6. Having gaps you don't address

A 6-month gap on your CV WILL get questioned. Either:

• Address it directly ("Took 6 months off to care for a family member, returned with FreeCodeCamp's full-stack certification")
• Don't have one (fill it with a project, a course, a contracting gig)

Gaps you don't explain look worse than gaps you do.

7. Submitting the same CV to every job

The 30 seconds you spend tailoring the headline + bullets to match the job description is the highest-ROI activity in your entire job search. Generic CVs get generic responses (none).

A free shortcut

If you have a published portfolio on Portify, you don't need to write a CV from scratch. Open your portfolio, hit "Export → PDF". You get a CV that already follows the format above, populated from your portfolio data.

The PDF download is currently a Pro feature, but if you're applying through Portify directly, recruiters see your portfolio URL — no CV needed.

What to do next

1. Open your current CV
2. Find the first bullet that doesn't have a number
3. Either rewrite it with one, or delete it
4. Repeat until every bullet has a number, and the whole thing fits on 2 pages
5. Test it: paste it into resumeworded.com for a free ATS score

When it scores 80+, start applying.