How to Create a Standout React Developer Resume

If you are reading this article, you already know the importance of a well-crafted CV for a software engineer (including a React.js developer). Current tech market is tough for candidates and many applicants don’t pass the initial CV screening phase so you’ll want yours to stand out.

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Below, we summarize our subjective experience on what the best React engineers’ resumes should look like.

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Key Components of a React Developer Resume

Contact Information

An obvious part first: make sure your contact details are up-to-date. Don’t go crazy with listing all possible social links like Facebook and Instagram - your phone, email and LinkedIn will do fine.

Photo (headshot)

Topic of having a photo in a CV is opinionated but we’d always suggest adding one if you feel comfortable. It will make your resume more personal and help the recruiter to remember you.

Technical Skills Section

This is where you want to show your hard skills: not only React-related ones but all technologies and frameworks that are relevant for the role you are applying for. Are you a full stack engineer that can also cover backend tasks with Node.js? Have you worked with Typescript before?

Here’s a list of skills that are usually relevant for a React.js engineer role:

• JavaScript (ES6): to confirm you have a foundational JS knowledge

• Redux for state management

• React hooks

• Formik or React Hook Form for form handling

• Next.js for server side rendering

• HTML & CSS (do we need to explain why?)

• Git

• RESTful API’s

• GraphQL and libraries like Apollo or Relay

• Module bundlers e.g. Webpack or Babel

• Testing with Jest/Enzyme/Cypress

• Codelinters e.g. ESLint

• ReactNative experience (always a plus!)

These are essential but there might be others you’d like to add/replace on the list.

Tip: Don’t list all programming languages and frameworks you ever touched in your developer career. Completing a small pet project in Python doesn’t mean Python, Flask and Django should be in your resume (especially that these are not too relevant for a React frontend position). Listing a large number of skills might raise questions about your actual proficiency in each and dilute the focus of your CV.

Choose 10-12 languages/libraries/frameworks for this section. If you can’t help but mention all, consider indicating your proficiency in each to show where your focus is (e.g., “Expert in React, Proficient in Redux, Familiar with GraphQL”).

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Work Experience

Here you usually list all of your job roles in a reversed chronological order.

Every job should include:

• Company name and location

• Job role (highlighting if it was on-site/remote/hybrid)

• Employment dates

• 3-5 bullet points to highlight your achievements

Last point - achievements - is the most challenging section for everyone who ever tried to compose a CV. So don’t worry if it will take you some time to put these together.

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Important tips:

• Be specific and quantifiable: “Developed and maintained 15+ high-performance React components for a fintech application, resulting in a 30% improvement in page load times”

• Use Action Verbs: “Collaborated with cross-functional teams to design and implement user authentication features, enhancing security and user experience.”

• Highlight Key Achievements and Impact: “Led a team of 4 developers in migrating a legacy application to React, reducing technical debt and improving code maintainability by 50%.”

• Tailor Responsibilities to the Role: “Implemented Redux for state management in a large-scale e-commerce app, enhancing data flow and reducing bug occurrence by 25%.”

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Projects Showcase

This section can be helpful if you are just starting your developer journey and don’t have much experience to show. You can then highlight a cool pet project or an open source contribution. Share a brief description and what technologies you’ve used (and learned). And don’t forget about the link to the project!

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Education and Certifications

List your educational background.

Include:

• University/college name

• Graduation date

• Degree/specialization

This section is a good place to mention the most relevant digital course certificates too. Again, there’s no need to list all React-related YouTube videos you’ve ever seen.

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Tailoring Your Resume for Different React Roles

Depending on the role you are applying to you’d need to tailor your CV accordingly. Recruiters will be looking for different hard skills and leadership qualities depending on role seniority so make sure you thoroughly read the job description first.

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Junior React Developer

Don’t worry, companies hiring for a junior role don't anticipate a lot of work experience on your CV. But you want to stand out so you’ll have to shine in other areas:

• Show more details in your academic background section e.g. list challenging milestone projects you did in university

• Link to you open source contributions and pet projects

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Mid-level React Developer

Hiring managers and recruiters expect you to have proven experience with React and related technologies. Make sure you have all relevant skills in the hard skills section. It’s also a good idea to show your team collaboration skills (e.g. have you had a chance to lead the team? Or maybe mentor more junior developers?)

• Proven Experience: Emphasize your hands-on experience with React

• Project Contributions: Highlight specific projects where you contributed significantly, focusing on the impact you made.

• Team Collaboration: Mention any instances of collaborating with team members, including mentorship of junior developers or assisting in team-led problem solving.

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Senior React Developer

Hiring companies expect Senior Developers to bring deep technical expertise, strong leadership qualities, and the ability to drive projects from concept to completion. Highlight these in your CV to show that you will make an impact in the new role from Day 1:

• Technical Expertise: Highlight advanced React skills, including performance optimization, state management, and large-scale project experience.

• Leadership: Do you have experience leading teams, mentoring, and ensuring coding standards? Make sure that your CV proves it.

• Collaboration: As a senior engineer you should have some cross-functional experience with Product, Design, and QA teams, contributing to project requirements and solving complex challenges.

• Problem-Solving: Include examples of troubleshooting and innovative solutions that improved performance or user experience.

• Industry Impact: Add any conference presentations, open-source contributions, or publications to demonstrate thought leadership. Don’t worry, it’s ok if you don’t have this on your CV but it does add bonus points (yes, this is your sign to start contributing to open source or maybe even starting your own tech blog!).

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Best Practices for Resume Formatting

When formatting your resume, aim for a concise and streamlined approach. If you have less than 10 years of experience, keep it to a single page, but if you’re more seasoned, two pages are generally OK (we prefer one page CV’s even for experienced engineers but, again, this is subjective). Choose a clean, professional layout with simple fonts like Arial or Calibri, sized between 10 and 12 points, and incorporate lots of white space to avoid a cluttered look. Organize your resume with clear headings making it easy for recruiters to find key information.

And please make sure your CV is formatted as a PDF! Sending a .doc file can make recruiters cry.

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Useful links

Several resources that you might find handy while working on your React.js CV:

• Reddit post where engineers are discussing what’s usually expected of a React engineer:

• React developer roadmap for you to check what skills to cover in your CV (or maybe add certain things to your learning goals)

• React resume examples

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Creating a standout React.js developer resume means combining strong technical details with strategic presentation. Tailor your CV for each role, emphasizing the skills and experiences that align most closely with the job description. Remember, your CV is your personal brand—it should showcase not only your technical abilities but also your contributions and potential to add value in the role.

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Job search is tough but the effort always pays off. Good luck!

Originally published at Match.dev