The 2022 Guide & A to Z Tips for Writing Programming Projects for Resume

by Hiration

How to add programming projects on resume?

Whether you are a fresher or have years of experience, adding programming projects gives you an edge over other applicants and helps you enhance your resume, and boost the chances of being noticed by top companies in the IT sector.

The competition is tough.

You likely are one of the candidates in the crowd of hundreds, or maybe thousands of applicants, applying for the same job you are interested in.

According to LinkedIn.com, 6 seconds is the average time spent reading a resume. Therefore, your resume must highlight what the recruiter is looking for at the first instance so that h/she is intrigued to read your resume further.

In this article, we will walk you through the following essential details:

Why Do You Need Programming Projects for Your Resume?

The IT field is not only dynamic but also competitive. The companies are in the hunt for a candidate who is already skilled and experience. Hence it gets difficult for the newbie to set their foot in the door.

Your educational qualifications coupled with your interest & skills are not enough to grab the job opportunity. You have to stand out in the crowd and prove your expertise and competency.

The best way to demonstrate your capability in coding is to have personal projects on your resume. What is better than showcasing the live example of your skills and expertise?

In front of the interviewer, don't be hesitant to talk about the stumbling blocks you encountered while working on your personal coding projects and how did you overcome the same during the interview.

Also Read: How to make a resume with no work experience?

What are the Advantages of having Programming Projects on your Resume?

  • Demonstrate your technical skills:

On one hand, you are simply writing that you are skilled at a few programming languages in the skills section your resume, and on the other, if you have projects where you have utilized the same programming languages, tell me what is going to make a good impression on the recruiter?

  • Showcase your interest:

Working on personal projects requires extra effort. Not everyone wants to do it. If you are ready to work on a few programming projects during your free time, it shows how passionate you are about your work.

  • Exhibit your learning attitude:

Having personal projects provides a competitive by showcasing your willingness to learn. It works equally well for both beginners and experienced programming professionals resumes. Only the level of the project differs.

Key Guidelines to Follow While Choosing Programming Projects for Your Resume?

If you have never made any programming projects in your life till now, don't worry, there's always a first time for everything. Learning something new may sometimes feel like a harrowing process and requires a lot of experimentation and failure.

But the most important question is how interested are you in making the project successful and give everything you can?

How should you choose your personal projects?

Always choose to work on a project that applies to the job profile you are interested in. Read the job descriptions carefully and identify the skills that are important for the organization.

Pick the projects where you can utilize those skills, maybe not all, but the ones that can supplement your experience and qualification.

For example, if the job listing reads out "JavaScript is required," then you should consider working on a project where you can use JavaScript programming language skills and justify your knowledge.

Choose a programming project that is relevant, interesting, and realistic. The interviewer has probably interviewed and reviewed the resumes of hundreds of candidates just like you.

Focus on solving real-world problems by using your skills, and that will help you show the interviewers your positive outlook towards life to solving problems that avoiding it.

What Are Some Programming Projects That You Can Consider Working On to Enhance Your Resume?

Website

Here's why you should conider building a website:

  • If you are a novice, building a website is the best place to start with.
  • A basic understanding of the functionality of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript is suffice for website designing and development.

With the rising internet users, many businesses are going digital to expand their business. Therefore, being able to create a full-fledged website is an important skill to learn in this era.

Payment Gateway

Let's see why should you consider working on a payment gateway:

  • With businesses going online, the need for a secured payment gateway for online transactions has also increased.
  • Creating a payment gateway can feel daunting, but it can tremendously enhance your resume.

Your project will not only involve case flow but so much more than that. You have to deal with confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the data, including organizational inventory, acquisition, payroll, etc.

Gaming Apps

Here's what you should know to build a gaming app:

  • You must have sufficient knowledge in Unity 3D, Visual Studio, and C++.
  • When it comes to gaming applications, design and content play an important role. It is not essential that your design needs to be perfect from all angles.

If the job profile you are interested in wants you to have any of these skills, then building a gaming application would be an ideal choice.

You must step into the audience's shoes, do your market research, and develop an idea of what new you can bring to the table.

Social Media

Here is why you should consider working on social media platform:

  • Approximately 3.96 billion people use social media today. It is used to communicate and share information with friends & family.
  • With the advancement of technology, many companies consider social media a critical platform for their business products to sell online and spread the word.

You can try your hand at making an innovative social media platform as one fo your programming projects and prove your creative and coding talents.

Analysis Model

Data analysis models are in great demand. Here's why you should consider working on an analysis model as one of your programming projects:

  • Analyzing data is a critical business process, and your model must attempt to simplify analysis and communicate results in the best manner possible.
  • You can also use the data analysis model to make it into a forecasting software that can help an organization determine future trends.

The list can go on and on, but they all are just a mere examples for you to get an idea to start working on your project. You need to take your call based on what you want to work on.

If you are a beginner, choose to work on a project that keeps your interest until the end, and you can complete it without much hassle.

Note: If you pick a complex project, take it one step at a time. If you try doing the entire project in one go, you are likely to fail.

How to Showcase Your Programming Projects on Your Resume?

It's not a great deal if you are struggling to write down your projects in your resume; you have worked day and night working on it and making it possible. Many of us do!

We will guide you through the process in detail we follow at Hiration for adding personal projects in a resume. Make a section 'Personal Projects' and follow the below-given steps to make a positive impression on the recruiter.

  • Begin with the name of the project or write project description in one line. E.g., Weather Forecast App for Android/Ios
  • Follow this by the 'Tech stack/environment' and list all the technologies used. E.g, Java, HTML, etc.
  • Next will be the Problem Statement/Objective in one line
  • After this, in the Solution sub-section, include all the measures you took in bullet points, with each point beginning with a power verb.
  • The last sub-section would be Key Achievements, where all your points with quantifiable impact/performance figures will go.

Make sure to include the month/year for each project. You can also add a link to your projects in your in your resume. Moreover, you can host your code in GitHub and provide the link to your GitHub in the header section of your resume.

Hiration pro tip:

Highlight important words/phrases/numbers to showcase a more significant impact and put less focus on the generic project description and more on your contributions & key achievements.

What Are the Things That You Should Never Do to Get Your Resume Shortlisted?

Avoid this:
  • Do not use someone else's project in your resume and claim it to be yours.
  • Do not use pre-written codes to do your project. Many people do this mainly for Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence projects.
  • Do not make a generic project or create a project just for the sake of making it to show it in your resume. That will not help your resume get shortlisted.
  • Do not choose to make Machine Learning or Artificial Intelligence projects just because everyone else is making them. They have become too mainstream, and it doesn't help your resume stand out from other applicants.

Doing any of these will set a wrong impression and will not add any value to your resume. Therefore, refrain from exaggerating or adding any falsified information to your resume.

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Simply upload your existing academic resume on our Online Resume Builder and get insightful from professionals on what changes you can make in your resume to make it shortlist-worthy.

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Key Takeaways

We have discussed how programming projects in your resume can help you stand out of the crowd and also how you can showcase them in your resume. We have also talked about finding suitable projects to work on and what possible projects you can undertake.

Let's end the article with a quick roundup so that you don't miss out on any crucial details:

  • Focus less on the project description while giving more attention to the technologies you used and your achievements or learnings from the project
  • Choose the project you are interested in based on your skills and expertise. Do not choose a project just for the sake of adding to your resume. It is not going to take you anywhere.
  • Do not mix your personal programming projects and professional projects. Make a separate 'Personal Projects' section to add all your personal projects
  • If you are working on your first project, choose a simple project and make sure that you do not exaggerate information or add any project that is not yours

You can also use Hiration's Career Building Platform to write your first resume in 2022. It is an AI-powered service that comes with 24/7 chat support to smoother your resume building experience. Moreover, you can discuss all your career related queries with our experts at support@hiration.com.