Creating the perfect web developer CV involves striking the ideal balance between showcasing technical proficiency, problem-solving skills, and measurable results, all with the help of clean design and keywords.
To develop a job-winning web developer CV, include front- and back-end specific skills and tangible project achievements, and personalise the information for each job using tested CV writing methods.
This guide will cover:
- ↪ How to create the most outstanding CV compatible with ATS and appealing to HR managers
- ↪ How to emphasise key technical and soft skills for web developers
- ↪ Practical tips on highlighting achievements and portfolio projects
- – Some examples of the persuasive summary, experience sections, and structures
- ↪ 28 practical resume samples for web developers tailored for 2026
Demonstrate technical proficiency
- For an experienced web developer, demonstrate your technical skills and variety in your projects, and you’ll convince potential employers of your ability to meet their technological requirements.
- Discussing projects that utilised a variety of coding languages and development tools (such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Node.js, and Django.js)? You can always elaborate on these projects in your web developer cover letter.
Demonstrate potential with projects
- So, your work history isn’t exactly brimming with web development roles. It’s understandable to feel a bit anxious about securing that competitive junior position. However, it turns out that projects are golden opportunities to showcase your understanding of web development fundamentals in a junior web developer CV.
See more junior web developer CVs >
Add some colour
- Why stick to the all-too-common monochrome theme when a splash of colour could show off your flair for design and make your freelance web developer CV stand out?
- Do you see that job title in the header, names of former/current places of work, and the university you attended? Why not give them a hint of sky blue to set them apart from the usual black and white?
Use your course work
- Mentioning a relevant course you’re undertaking (such as a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, Web Development, or Information Technology) adds a nice touch to your web developer intern CV. When it comes to showcasing your ability to achieve real-world successes, don’t hold back—highlight those instances where you’ve expanded your technical skills, perhaps in academic projects or hackathons.
Enhance your skills
- How about making your senior web developer CV shout “leader” and “strategist”? It’s all about documenting specific instances when you’ve been at the helm, steering development teams or projects to success.
- Describe a time when you fostered a collaborative environment that met tight deadlines without compromising on quality. Even better, share some of the finer details (such as the specifics of your project and the impressive outcomes that ensued).
See more senior web developer CVs >
Proofread your work
- You can’t afford to submit a Java web developer CV filled with awkward phrases, typos, and punctuation errors. It’s really awkward and suggests that you might be a bit careless with the details. A thorough review is needed to ensure your document is flawless and presents you in the best possible light.
Numbers lend credibility
- Don’t be that person who just lists their past responsibilities. Enhance your asp.net web developer CV with your achievements, sprinkled with metrics for added impact. It’s about how brilliantly you excelled and the impressive results you can deliver.
Choose the right CV format
- For a web application developer role, there’s little room for error—every detail counts. One of the vital assets you can use to your advantage is choosing the right CV format.
- It’s all about placement and attention. You need all your strongest assets (think necessary skills, work history, and educational qualifications) not just included but strategically positioned to catch the attention of recruiters.
Show relevant education
- The hiring manager only wants candidates who make the grade. How about showing them you’re in that pool by highlighting your job-relevant higher education in your CMS web developer CV?
- A degree in Computer Science, for instance, doesn’t just help you meet the potential employer’s expectations; it also demonstrates your commitment to advancing your skills and progressing your career, which makes you a very strong (and appealing) candidate.
Utilise previous roles
- Let’s assume, for example, you’re currently working as a web UI developer at Mediavine. Highlight your achievements during that particular period; you could discuss occasions when you assessed the performance of content loading with software like Webpack or worked with your colleagues to complete a redesign project using Figma.
Choose the correct layout
- Get your web development contractor CV format right. When you want to make a positive first impression, use a neat, straightforward one-column CV layout. It helps the hiring manager quickly assess your qualifications, saving them time.
Numbers shout potential
- Sometimes, knocking it out of the park and landing that job comes down to crafting an ATS-friendly Python web developer CV that the hiring manager will see no matter what.
- If you want your CV to get past the ATS, follow Lily’s example and avoid graphics. Done that already? Then, enhance your CV with relevant keywords from the job description (think SSL/TSL configurations, CI/CD pipeline, MySQL…etc).
Emphasise technical expertise
- Let’s clarify: highlighting software you are proficient in, such as WordPress, PHP, and MySQL, in your WordPress web developer CV is essential. Let those tools stand out in your CV’s skills section and work history. After all, recruiters are eager to see how you utilised them in the field.
Emphasise your successes
- Eager to craft that PHP web developer CV that will attract loads of attention and finally end your frustratingly long job hunt? We recommend making the most of unique and visually appealing design elements like bold to highlight some of the biggest achievements in your career.
Utilise active words
- You see, action verbs (think spearheaded, optimised, and supervised) engage recruiters while portraying a proactive professional who makes things happen. Besides, they can see your React web developer CV stand out from competitors who use passive-oriented language instead.
Managing multiple career paths
- You need to go above and beyond to convince the hiring team of the value of your front-end web developer CV. Showcase your achievements.
- Showcase those achievements in every role you’ve excelled in (even those that seem a bit unconventional but provided you with a few CV skills employers seek) without hesitation—after all, nothing ventured, nothing gained!
Show career progression
- What must you do to make a potential employer stop thinking about binge-watching their favourite show on Netflix? Try making the most of the reverse chronological format in your web services developer CV.
Make the Most of Transferable Skills
- Stepping into the web development scene without formal work experience? No problem. That’s where transferable skills come into play. We’re not talking about skills exclusive to a specific job, but the kind you’ve picked up elsewhere and can comfortably apply to web development, whether you’re fresh out of university or changing careers.
No room for typos
- Yes, we (including the recruiter) are cheering you on. That’s why we think it’s a good idea to proofread your experienced web developer CV before pressing the “Submit” button; grammatical mistakes can quickly ruin things.
Let skills stand out
- Begin your web content developer CV by creating a comprehensive list of the skills and experiences the prospective employer is seeking, along with keywords from the job advert, such as familiarity with WordPress and the ability to build web pages. Then, incorporate those phrases into your work experience section to demonstrate that you meet the criteria. Easy peasy lemon squeezy, right?
No to long words
- Let’s be frank—you need to make the hiring manager warm to you to increase your chances of securing an interview. Our advice? Use straightforward language (rather than jargon) in your Google web developer CV, otherwise you might alienate them and ruin your career aspirations.
Pair triumphs with impact
- For your Canva web developer CV, consider highlighting a proven track record of successes relevant to the role to show recruiters you can meet the target.
- “Created bespoke HTML templates for Canva plugin users, enhancing template customisation for over 5,208 active monthly users” and “Deployed 46 plugin updates using Git, increasing version across six developers working on 14 feature releases” are examples of phrases that can demonstrate your competence.
Navigating employment gaps
- Career gaps, whether voluntary or involuntary, are not uncommon. If you have one, don’t shy away from it. Embrace it and provide some context in your back-end web developer CV. This way, you establish a bridge of trust with recruiters.
- And when updating that skills section of your CV, it’s wise to highlight the new talents you’ve mastered.
Don’t lie about your experience
- Your biggest competitor might be willing to do anything to get a foot in the door, including lying on their e-commerce web developer CV. Avoid making the same mistake, as you’ll be in serious trouble if caught.
- For instance, don’t lie about being an eCommerce web developer at Phase 3 Commerce. In lieu, update your LinkedIn summary and the entire profile to eliminate any shadow of doubt in the hiring manager’s mind, and the same applies to your skills and educational background.
Customise a CV objective
- Just because you’re a beginner doesn’t mean you should pad your entry-level web developer CV with fluff. That will only annoy the hiring manager, and you might as well kiss that dream career start goodbye. That space at the top, below the header, could be used for a CV objective that focuses on the hiring company’s needs.
- Keep your CV objective concise, though. While you want to avoid leaving it blank, aim for two to three sentences.
See more entry-level web developer CVs >
Outsmart ATS bots
- One of the best ways to optimise your J2EE web developer CV for ATS is to use those keywords from the job description, integrating them into your experience, education, certifications, and skills. Additionally, that’s another way to tailor your CV to speak the language of the hiring company.
Illustrate ingenuity
- Give a shoutout to those web development online courses and tutorials that have guided you on your journey. Nestled in the sidebar of your self-taught web developer CV, they paint a picture of creative resourcefulness and a relentless quest for growth in the ever-evolving field of web development.
Show your career development
- Seven seconds is how much time you’ve got to impress the hiring manager reading your web developer/programmer CV. Your move? Change the approach and present your work history in reverse-chronological order.
Related CV guides
How to Write a Web Developer CV
A web developer CV must clearly identify technical skills, practical project experience, and value addition through clean and strategic layouts.
Summary
Kickstart your job search with a high-impact web developer CV that highlights technical expertise, measurable achievements, and customised content to outsmart ATS and impress recruiters.
An ideal web developer CV must incorporate skills associated with programming, measurable achievements, and content tailored according to the job for which the CV is being developed.
In short, here’s what you need to do to maximise your chances of getting a first-round interview:
- Your technical skills need to be written in a way that gets you past the automated CV filters companies use AND satisfies the technical hiring manager who will review your CV.
- Your CV format needs to be correct. This is not the place to get creative with images and graphics. Keep it to one page, make it easy to read, and you’ll be fine.
- Quantify the impact of your work and projects. Numbers speak louder than words, and that is especially true on a CV.
- Tailor your CV for each job you apply for.
What this section will include:
- Key web development skills to highlight (front-end, back-end, and soft skills)
- Top CV layout tips for readability and ATS compatibility
- How to measure your impact using metrics and outcomes
- Project ideas and portfolio suggestions for aspiring web developers
- How to tailor a CV to specific job listings and employer needs
How to showcase your web developer skills
The primary function of the skills section of your CV is to help you get past the automated keyword filters, known as Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). These systems scan CVs to help hiring managers save time. While they’re useful, they can also exclude you if you’re not careful.
As a web developer, you probably thought that the way to optimise your CV is by including as many keywords as possible. Unfortunately, the technical hiring manager will also review your CV, and a host of keywords isn’t appealing to read.
Nothing is a bigger red flag to someone who hires web developers than a candidate who claims to know 11 different programming languages and 23 different frameworks. As a rule of thumb, if you won’t perform well in a whiteboard session for a given language, don’t include it on your CV.
You don’t want to burn bridges when applying for jobs. The only certain way to burn a bridge is to outright lie about your qualifications. It’s just not worth it. With programming, there simply isn’t much room to “fake it ’till you make it.”
For web developers specifically, it’s much more important to demonstrate a depth of understanding in a few languages and frameworks than it is to show a broad knowledge of a whole range of different things.
It seems like a new JavaScript framework comes out every week, and you would not be expected to be an expert in the flavour of the week by any reasonable employer.
Technical skills for your web developer CV
- Programming languages: HTML/CSS, JavaScript, PHP, Ruby, Java, Python
- Frameworks: JavaScript (NodeJS, ReactJS, Angular, jQuery), Ruby (Ruby on Rails), Python (Django)
- Databases: SQL (MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, SQLite)
- Cloud infrastructure: AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, Heroku, DigitalOcean
- Utilities: Git, Unix
Once more, you’re not expected to have all of these on your CV. In fact, including all of these skills would reflect poorly on your application. What developer knows every single one of these things well enough to be tested on them?
The skills you include on your CV also depend on the type of roles you’re applying for. For example, if you’re applying for a front-end web developer position, then your Rails experience probably won’t be as relevant.
Don’t mention your soft skills in your skills section! Companies are not automatically filtering for soft skill keywords, and it’s not convincing to the hiring manager to see you have “communication” as a skill. What does that mean without context?
There are a few ways you can structure how you talk about your skills on your CV.
How to structure your technical skills on your web developer CV
- By proficiency or years of experience
- Advanced: Python (Django), Java, Unix, Git
- Familiar: JavaScript, SQL, HTML/CSS
- By skill type
- Languages: Python, JavaScript, HTML5/CSS
- Frameworks: Django, NodeJS, ReactJS
- Tools: jQuery, Unix, Git, Selenium
- Databases: SQL (PostgreSQL, MySQL), AWS
If you’re a junior web developer, we recommend you use the “proficiency” skill breakdown because you won’t have many work projects to demonstrate your proficiency in the skills you possess.
Get your web developer CV format right
The formatting of your CV is quite straightforward. The goal: keep it simple, and keep it easy to read. Here are the things you need to do to properly format your web developer CV:
- Keep it to one page. It’s difficult, but this is definitely what you should aim for.
- If you jot down your thoughts on a CV outline, you can make that document as long as you like.
- In your CV header, list your current town or city (you don’t need your specific address).
- Under your name, include the title of the role you want. So if you’re applying for a senior web developer position, make that your title.
- Most likely, you do not need a CV objective or summary. Unless you’re an entry-level or senior candidate, omit this section.
- If you’re at entry level, include relevant courses you took at school that make you a good fit for the web developer job you’re applying for.
- Include any relevant demonstrations of your ability as a developer. Adding links such as your GitHub profile or your personal portfolio site can encourage hiring managers to look you up and assess your skills.
- Do not have any typos or grammar errors on your CV!
Most of these tips are self-explanatory, but we’ll elaborate on a few just to ensure the points are clear.
To keep you on your toes, let’s talk about the last bullet point first. For any given web developer role (and this goes double for junior web developer roles), the hiring manager is reviewing, on average, over 60 CVs.
This means they’re essentially looking for a reason to say “no” to a given person instead of “yes” because they only have so much time to dedicate to CV review. Don’t let a silly grammar error or spelling mistake be the reason you get put in the “no” pile.
Read your CV, then read it again. Then read it five more times. Then send it to your mum/friend/brother/cousin/colleague/whomever to ensure another person catches basic mistakes that a machine can’t catch.
Education for a Junior Web Developer vs. an Experienced Web Developer
You should aim to keep your CV to one page. We understand that’s a hard pill to swallow since you want to include all your qualifications to help you secure the job.
Unfortunately, hiring managers are busy and can’t spend as much time as they’d like reviewing all the CVs they receive for a given role. For that reason, your CV needs to be a one-page highlight reel.
Once you get an interview, you can spend more time elaborating on your past experience and skills. Until then, keep your CV concise. You’re more than your one-page CV, but you can’t overwhelm hiring managers at the start.
That one page of information will likely differ between candidates with more or less experience. A senior-level developer can’t afford to waste much space on their education section. Conversely, a junior web developer needs to convince the hiring manager they have the right skills and knowledge, so they might include relevant courses and their degree classification.
Entry-level vs. experienced web developer education on CV
Junior web developers
- Include all relevant programming or maths courses you took at school to highlight your qualifications
- Include your degree classification if it’s a 2:1 or above
- If you’ve just completed a software engineering boot camp, include it in your education section.
Senior web developers
- Don’t waste space on classes you took in school. Use this to focus on the projects you worked on in your jobs.
- Don’t include your degree classification. It will have very little influence once you have a few years of experience under your belt.
- Consider a CV summary, but only if you’re going to take the time to do it properly (see our notes about the objective below).
Don’t include a CV objective
Most CV objectives we’ve seen from web developers should never be included in their CVs. What makes them so bad?
Imagine this: you’re reading a CV, and the very first line says “I am a hard-working web developer looking to enhance my skills.” It’s not terrible, but it’s not great. Would you hire someone based on that line?
Probably not.
A CV objective should be a two-to-three-sentence sales pitch explaining your experience, skills, and passion for the job. Most of the time, you don’t even need to include it!
There are two situations where it’s best to include a CV objective:
- You’re undergoing a career transition
- You have a particular interest or passion for the company or role you’re applying for
- If you’re not tailoring your objective for each job you’re applying for, then you’re better off not including a CV objective
Remember, space is valuable on a one-page CV. Don’t waste it by including something that doesn’t enhance your chances of securing an interview. To illustrate the point, here are a few examples of CV objectives.
WRONG – this CV objective doesn’t offer anything new or valuable
Seeking to utilise my skills as a front-end web developer to enhance and refine the product for a customer-focused organisation.
RIGHT – specific, demonstrated interest in the company’s mission
As the daughter of small business owners, I’m really excited about the prospect of using my full-stack Python experience to further Stripe’s mission of making payments accessible for companies of all sizes across the globe.
Quantify your impact on your CV
Actions speak louder than words. While there is no direct way to quantify the work of a web developer (and no, lines of code written do not count as a metric), you can attempt to measure the impact of the projects you’ve been involved in.
Whenever possible, include the tangible outcome of your projects. This doesn’t always have to mean that you’ve impacted revenue in some way. Here are some other ways that your work may have had an impact (and this is not exhaustive, so feel free to be creative):
Ways to measure the impact of your work as a web developer
- Decreased downtime by X%
- Increased the speed of the application by X%
- Implemented a product feature that improved customer retention by X%
- Increased customer satisfaction (as measured by NPS) by X%
- Developed a feature that increased the click-through rate by X%
- Scaled a product that successfully handled X simultaneous users
- Automated a process that saved X hours of manual labour each week
- Enhanced a product feature that boosted usage by X%
- Worked on a project that led to a cost saving of £X
- Implemented unit tests that increased test coverage by X%
- Fixed a fault that reduced customer complaints by X%
It’s fine if these impacts are rough estimates. As long as you can justify your metrics in an interview setting, go for it! Rough calculations are perfectly acceptable here.
When a hiring manager is reviewing your CV, you want to make the case that you deserve an interview no matter where they focus their attention on your CV. To do that, you need to convince them that you will have a meaningful impact on their business.
After all, companies hire developers (and indeed anyone) to make a significant impact on the business. What better way to demonstrate you can do this as a developer than by showing you’ve made a substantial impact in all of your previous roles?
To drive this point home once more, consider these two examples. They’re discussing the same work experience, and the only difference is that one candidate made their impact explicit with numbers. Who would you employ?
WRONG – work experience not linked to outcomes
EdTech Company
January 2015 – Present, New York, NY
Senior Web Developer
- Worked alongside product managers to redesign a multi-page web app into a single-page web app built in React
- Developed the logic for a streamlined ad-serving platform that scaled to our 100 million users
RIGHT – work linked to specific business impact
EdTech Company
January 2015 – Present, New York, NY
Senior Web Developer
- Collaborated with product managers to redesign a multi-page web app into a single-page web app built in React, resulting in an annual revenue increase of $1.1 million.
- Developed the logic for a streamlined ad-serving platform that scaled to our 100 million users, improving the page speed by 14% after implementation.
Use action verbs to enhance your web developer
Action verbs such as Developed, Optimised, Engineered, Launched, Updated, Resolved, and so on are the building blocks that make your work experience bullet points stand out.
Instead of simply saying “was tasked with updating websites”, you can enhance this with a strong word and say, “Updated 17 websites in a week, increasing user experience satisfaction scores by 14%”.
What you need is a way to engage recruiters and demonstrate your value, making their decision to employ you straightforward.
Project ideas for junior web developers
If you’re a junior web developer (or newbie as the cool kids call it) then you won’t have any experience to talk about on your CV.
In this case, it’s essential that you include projects you’ve worked on to demonstrate to the hiring manager that you have the ability to function as an effective web developer on their team. More than that, you also want to show you have a genuine interest in web development. You might be interested in choosing our Student Google Docs CV template we created that specifically makes room for projects.
The beauty of being a web developer is that you have the ability to create any website you want! To be frank, if you’re a junior web developer and you haven’t worked on any projects, you’re unlikely to get the job.
How can you come up with projects to work on? Here are a few ideas:
Web developer projects for your CV
- Immerse yourself in one of your hobbies
- Example: Developed a web app to monitor how the food I eat the night before a run affects my performance
- Solve your own problem
- Example: Developed a recommendation engine to automatically suggest which film I should watch next, reducing my average time spent choosing films by 18 minutes
- Built a tool for someone else
- Example: Developed an application for my local newspaper delivery person using the Google Maps API to help them optimise their route
- No reason whatsoever
- Example: Developed a Recaptcha test that was impossible for humans to solve, enabling websites to allow only bot traffic through
- Social benefit
- Example: Developed a reliable toy and food inventory management system for my local animal shelter, saving them 15 hours a month in manual data entry and ordering
As you can see, there are many types of projects you can include on your web developer CV.
If you already have projects to include, the same rules apply as if you were discussing your work experience. Try to quantify the impact of the project you worked on against your original goal! For example, for the nonsense Recaptcha test example mentioned above, you can state the rate at which humans failed your test.
When it’s all put together, here’s what a project might look like on an entry-level web developer CV:
Poker Simulation
- Developed a full-stack web application enabling users to simulate and visualise outcomes of poker hands against opponents with different playing styles, using the open-source cards.js on the front-end.
- Utilised sci-kit learn in Python to simulate possible outcomes under different scenarios that the user selected
- Used: JavaScript, Python, SQL, HTML/CSS
Use action verbs to enhance your web developer skills and impact
Action verbs such as Developed, Optimised, Engineered, Launched, Updated, Resolved, and so on are the building blocks that make your work experience bullet points stand out.
Instead of simply saying “was tasked with updating websites”, you can enhance this with a strong word and say, “Updated 17 websites in a week, increasing user experience satisfaction scores by 14%”.
What you need is a way to engage recruiters and demonstrate your value, making their decision to employ you straightforward.
Include education and qualifications relevant to web developers
If you’ve just graduated, including your education can distinguish you from the competition. Your degree, diploma, or relevant training highlights foundational knowledge, discipline, and exposure to pertinent web development theories and tools.
If you’re entering the profession, position the education section above your work experience to compensate for your lack of sufficient work experience.
Use certifications to demonstrate your ability to learn and meet all professional expectations. If you’re self-taught or looking to switch from a different career, certifications can help open doors.
Example
Certified Web Developer
International Webmasters’ Association
February 2026
How to effectively tailor your CV for each job
We know, we know. Tailoring your CV for each job is a hassle. However, it’s one of the best things you can do to secure the position. You need to tailor your CV for each job whenever you can.
This is not to say you have to customise your CV if there is truly nothing unique you can say about your suitability for a given role or company.
Instead, try this approach:
- Read over the web developer job description thoroughly. As you read it, do any specific projects you’ve worked on come to mind?
- For example, if the job description mentions something about web scraping and you’ve used Selenium, you can mention that if it’s not already on your CV.
- Visit the company website. As you learn about the company and its products, does anything spring to mind?
- For example, if you’re considering a web developer position at a finance company and in a previous role you assisted your team in managing the budget, you can mention that.
- If you have a specific interest in the mission of the company, craft a CV objective that speaks to that interest (see above).
You shouldn’t spend too much time on this. If you’re a full-stack developer and you’re applying for a front-end role, then you should talk more about your experience on the front-end on your CV.
This step is the most intuitive. If there’s any connection that you have (no matter how tenuous) to the company or role you’re applying for, adjust your CV to talk about that connection.
Web Developer CV FAQs
A CV summary is a 2–3 sentence statement at the top of your CV highlighting your core strengths and the main reason you believe you’re the right candidate for the job. Align it to the role by using keywords, showcasing value, and potential to exceed expectations.
For a winning tech CV to pass ATS filters and impress hiring managers, your CV must include both technical (hard) and collaboration (soft) skills tailored to the job description.
Tech skills:
✅JavaScript
✅React
✅Node.js
✅GitHub
✅NoSQL
✅RESTful Services
✅Babel
✅Responsive Design
✅Jest
Top soft skills for web developers:
✅Problem-solving
✅Communication
✅Time management
✅Adaptability
✅Team collaboration
✅Attention to detail
✅Creative thinking
A web developer CV includes:
✅Career summary
✅Software and skills
✅Impactful work experiences
✅Relevant education, especially for recent graduates
✅ Certifications that are typically useful if self-taught or changing careers
✅Projects (Optional): Include freelance, personal, or open-source projects
✅Tools and Technologies: Use icons or categories if formatting allows
If you have fewer than 10 years of experience, stick to one page. Conversely, a two-page CV is acceptable for senior developers, but only if the additional information adds clear value. Use white space, bullet points, and clean formatting to ensure easy scanning and optimisation for human recruiters and ATS bots.
