The top section of your resume should include your name, desired position, and ways to contact you.

Desired position

First, write your name.

After that, write your desired position. Surprisingly, every other resume is missing it!

Why it’s important. The recruiter can see it right away without scanning your work experience.

Usually, the role you’re applying for is clear from the context. Whether it’s an application letter or an applicant tracking system. But you want to back up if your resume has been forwarded via messenger, printed out, etc.

Next, you should tweak your desired position to match the one you are applying for.

Let’s say the company is seeking a React developer.

You know several JS frameworks, React among them.

Write “React developer” instead of “Javascript developer” or “Front-end developer”.

Grade

You don’t need to specify your grade. Different companies have different levels of seniority.

Focus on your responsibilities, not your future job title.

Unless the grade is listed in the job posting. Then you should reflect the title from the job posting on your resume: for example, “Intern” or “Senior.”

Contact information

Specify where you live.

Even if you are looking for a remote job, your location is important to contract you. Providing your country and state or city is enough.

Finally, provide your contact information.

Recruiters expect a phone number and email.

Decide what else you want to include.

  • LinkedIn. Only add a link to your profile if it will help the decision to hire you. If it’s a hosted copy of your resume, it’s not worth adding.

  • GitHub. Same thing. Don’t add a link to a profile with an empty repo and 2 commits. Show projects you’ve done or contributed to.

  • Social media profiles. Ask yourself if your social media activity is relevant to the job opening. Have you answered many of the questions in your specialization on Stack Overflow? Do you run a technical blog? Then yes. Other than that, it’s best to keep things private.

  • Alternative ways to contact you. Unless they are a de facto standard in your country or industry, don’t add anything extra. A simple test: do most recruiters use it? If the answer is no, you shouldn’t add it.

It’s a good idea to make links clickable.