CV, GitHub and LinkedIn
Your CV has two readers: an automated screen and a recruiter who will give it about fifteen seconds. It has to survive both. Most CVs from Pakistan fail on formatting conventions that have nothing to do with the person's ability.
What to do
One page, no photograph, no personal details
No photo, date of birth, marital status, father's name, CNIC or full address. In the US, UK, Canada and much of Europe these are at best irrelevant and at worst make the CV legally awkward to keep.
Achievements with numbers, not responsibilities
"Cut checkout API latency from 900ms to 180ms, covering 40,000 daily orders" — not "responsible for backend development". Numbers are what a stranger can believe.
Survive the automated screen
Plain single-column layout, no tables, no text inside images, standard headings, and the vocabulary of the job description used honestly. Send PDF unless asked otherwise.
Make one repository genuinely readable
A README explaining what it does, why, and how to run it. Real commit history. One finished small project beats nine abandoned tutorials.
Rewrite your LinkedIn headline for the job you want next
Role, stack, and that you are open to remote work — not "Aspiring developer | Seeking opportunities". Recruiters search that field. Set your profile to open-to-work for recruiters and write the About section in the first person.
What goes wrong
- Listing twenty technologies at a claimed expert level. Any of them can be asked about, and one bad answer discredits the rest of the list.
- Objective statements at the top. They say nothing; the space is worth more as a two-line summary of what you have built.
- Sending the same CV to every role. Thirty minutes of tailoring outperforms fifty untailored applications.
- A GitHub full of forks and course exercises with no README anywhere.
Where to go next
Outside resources worth your time. We are not paid to list any of these, and each one is useful without paying for it.
Want someone to go through this with you?
Tell us what you are stuck on and we go looking for the right person.