What Tech Companies Actually Look for in a CV — Beyond the Skills List
A long list of tools doesn't impress a tech hiring team. Here's what they're actually scanning for in the first fifteen seconds.
A working portfolio beats a longer skills list
A CV that says "React, Node.js, PostgreSQL, Docker" is a claim. A link to a live project, a GitHub profile with real commit history, or a small open-source contribution is evidence. Tech hiring teams read dozens of nearly identical skills lists a week — what stops the scan is something they can actually click on and inspect, even a small side project, not just a name-drop of every technology you've touched once.
Real depth in one stack beats shallow breadth across ten
Listing ten frameworks with no indication of depth reads as unfocused rather than versatile. A senior reviewer would rather see "Node.js — 3 years, including debugging production memory leaks and designing a rate-limiting layer" than a flat list of eight backend frameworks with no context. If you're early-career, it's fine to have less depth — but be honest about it, and let your strongest area lead.
Evidence of working with others, not just solo output
Most engineering work is collaborative — code review, pairing, design discussions, mentoring — and a CV that only lists solo achievements can quietly signal a red flag for team fit. A single line like "reviewed and merged 40+ pull requests from junior engineers" or "led design discussions for the notifications service rewrite" tells a hiring team you can function inside a real engineering team, not just write code alone.
Numbers that show judgment, not just activity
"Closed 200 tickets" measures activity, not judgment. "Identified that 80% of production incidents traced back to a single retry bug, and fixed it" measures judgment — the ability to find the real problem, not just process a queue. When choosing what to quantify, favor numbers that show you understood a system, not numbers that only show you were busy.