Junior developer CV: prove you can finish something

Employers still hire for skills. They have stopped believing skills on paper. When every junior CV says “React, Python, SQL, problem solving”, that line carries no weight. Recruiters look for proof instead: something you made, that runs, that they can open.

Finishing is the rare part. Starting a project is easy, and most people stop at 80%. A live app with a real user and a clear README tells a hiring manager you can be handed a task and trusted to close it, which is most of what a junior job is.

1. 1A real problemSomething you, a friend, a club or a small business actually needed. “Booking page for a local salon” beats a tenth to-do app, because it has a user and a reason.
2. 2Finished and liveA link that opens and a main flow that works, with no “coming soon”. Small and done beats big and half-built.
3. 3Your decisions, written downA short README: what it does, why you built it this way, what broke and how you fixed it, what you would do next.

Building with AI tools is normal, and most teams expect it. What an interview tests is whether you were the engineer or the passenger. Someone will open your project and ask why the data is stored this way, what happens when a request fails, or how you would add a feature. If you cannot answer, the project counts against you.

Before you send the CV, explain your project out loud for five minutes without looking at the code. Wherever you hesitate is where the interviewer will dig, so learn that part first.

If you are a student or graduated in the last two years, education goes near the top, but keep it short: degree, school, years, and only what adds signal, such as a strong grade, a thesis or a course project close to the job. Nobody reads a list of twelve courses.

If your project is stronger than your degree, put Projects above Education. A bootcamp or online certificate is worth listing, but on its own it proves you attended, not that you can build.