Is your Selenium resume getting enough interviews for you? Is there no chance of further improvements to your Selenium resume? If your answer is no to these questions, you are at right place. We are happy to start our blog and write first post on resume so that you can take your resume to next level and get more interviews.

We are 100% sure you agree that no matter what job you want to get or how good your experience is – your resume will be, without doubt, the most important part of getting the job you want. Resume is your starting point for the job you want. Your resume should be amazing and excellent that it gets you interviews and then your dream job.

Getting the job in today’s market is extremely competitive than you think. Recruiters or employers are receiving hundreds of resumes for every open position and they want to interview only very few best candidates like top 5 to 10 candidates per position. Don’t you want to become one of those? Then, it’s your resume that makes it possible. A bad resume (with issues like no relevant keywords, unrelated experience, badly formatted, big employment gaps and too many different jobs) makes very hard to get the interviews and the job you want.

In this post, we will discuss what you should put in your resume and how, what you shouldn’t put in your resume to make it amazing and excellent. Please note that these are our thoughts/views which our instructors experienced over the years in the industry. This is what worked out really great for our instructors. It’s up to you taking them and further implementing them.

We will take a profile of experienced and talent Selenium WebDriver automation tester and try to build an amazing and excellent resume. We will also share a real world resume with you to make it more effective experience. Note that you can easily apply best practices/tips discussed in this post to other profiles, resumes as well like QTP automation tester, manual tester, developer, fresher.

Best Practices/Tips for Resume

• First thing is first. Resume is not what you want to show but it’s what recruiters/employers want to see. So always you must tailor and adopt your resume to the job advert or job spec your are applying for and show the recruiters/employers what they want to see. At the same time, you should be honest as well.
• Take keywords from job advert and represent, repeat them in terms of your experience in each section of your resume.
  • Good keyword examples:
    • Automated highly transactional e-commerce web application using Selenium WebDriver.
    • Implemented Page Objects, Data Driven, Keyword Driven, Hybrid automation frameworks using Selenium WebDriver, JAVA, JUnit.
  • Bad keyword examples:
    • Implemented automation framework
    • Worked or Automated with Selenium
    • highlighting record and playback
    • Non-repeating keywords
• Do NOT deviate your resume from the job advert/job spec. E.g., If you are applying for a Selenium automation tester role, you shouldn’t highlight or mention more about manual testing, QTP automation.
• First half page of your resume is really the life of your resume and it should impress recruiters to proceed with further reading instead of dumping your resume and starting with next one.
• Your resume should be about what you have done, how you have done and what you have achieved. Don’t just say you have worked on it and you have experience.
• Use positive and confident words to describe yourself and start every sentence with a verb or action word. Don’t use the word ‘I’ in your resume.
  • Words to start sentence in professional summary/profile: Excellent, Amazing, Proven ability in, Proven skills in, Expertise in, Solid or Strong experience of, Innovative, Pro-active
  • Words to start sentence in work experience: Achieved, Generated, Managed, Represented, Completed, Developed, Implemented, Shaped, Increased revenues, Increased profits, Saved time, Solved, Saved cost/budget, Won an award, Given a bonus
• Always quantify your experience or work. Using numbers makes your work/experience more realistic and compelling. E.g., Developed 27 Selenium WebDriver automation scripts for e-commerce checkout process.
• When you try different things in resume sections like profile description, work experience or experiment with them to make your resume stand out, check that with your friends and see whether they also like it or not. Make a difference but in a good way and not in a bad way.
• Use .doc or .docx format as it makes easy for recruiters to do any changes/improvements before sending to clients. Do not use PDF or other formats as it will be hard to edit them.
• Try to have your resume under 3 to 4 pages and not beyond this.
• Have a best resume which is well tailored for your dream job as a default template and upload this resume to job portals. Tailor this resume/template when you apply for a specific job.
• Make sure your resume is search optimized on job portals. Job portals provide resume search feature for recruiters and the search has been evolved over years. The recently updated resumes or new resumes with matching the search criteria/keywords come first.
• If you are actively looking for job, update your resume frequently on job portals, e.g., once a week to make your resume up to date and search optimized.

Keywords

• Find out the keywords to represent and repeat in each section of your resume from job advert or based on the job you want.
• Keywords should have real world specific work terms like Selenium automation, Page Objects automation framework, Selenium WebDriver
• Keywords helps your resume to match to job role, to be top in job portal searches and potentially get interviews.

Your Details in the Resume Header

• Mention your name, mobile number and email id.
• There is no need to mention your address but it’s up to you if you want.
• Use a good email id based on your first, last names like [email protected] and not a bad one like [email protected]
• Specify your linked-in profile as it adds credibility, makes your profile real and expresses that you are willing to network with recruiters.

Job Targeted Profile

We recommend that you always write job targeted profile with best keywords from job advert/job spec after your details. This is a great way of making your resume outstanding. Recruiters can instantly see all required experience and skills for the job and they can see your contact details above to contact you. It’s a very good call to action. You can see job targeted profile “SELENIUM WEBDRIVER & JAVA AUTOMATION PROFILE ” in the real world resume mentioned below.

Again, do NOT deviate from job advert/job spec at all in this section.

Work Experience Section

• In this section, you should specify all your work experience starting with most recent projects.
• It’s always important to mention following details:
  • Your job title
  • Company and location
  • Project name and details
  • Time period
  • Achievements
  • Responsibilities
  • Tools/Technologies/Environments used in the project
• Specify  the achievements and responsibilities which are tailored to job advert and quantify them. Example: Automated 127 e-commerce test cases using Selenium WebDriver, JUnit and JAVA.
• You should be able to figure out some achievements. If you have worked on a project for some time then definitely you should have achieved few things by doing your responsibilities. Find out them and put in numbers.
• Start with the responsibilities which are tailored to job role and then you can mention other responsibilities which boots your resume. E.g., mention Selenium WebDriver, Page Objects/Data Driven/Keyword Driven/Hybrid automation frameworks, JAVA, JUnit, Maven, Selenium Grid responsibilities first and then later other responsibilities like defect management, Database\SQL stuff, generating reports.
• Don’t mention too much irrelevant experience or things which deviated from job spec.
• Focus on experience from last 3 years and put in detailed way. Anything beyond 3 years, try to minimize the representation as it’s very old and may not be relevant to current market/job role.

Certifications & Trainings

• Mention all certifications which are relevant to job role
• Mention all trainings which are relevant to job role

Qualification

In this section, mention your education details and any other professional qualifications/courses you have done.

References

• Say that references available on request
• Don’t put any actual references as this is resume only and you haven’t been offered the job yet.

Finally, here is a Real World Selenium Resume

SELENIUM WEBDRIVER & JAVA AUTOMATION PROFILE 

• Expertise in Selenium automation using Selenium WebDriver, Selenium Grid, JAVA, JUnit & Maven
• Designed and implemented different automation frameworks from starch like Page Objects framework, Keyword Driven framework, Data Driven framework and Hybrid framework for a number of projects
• Expertise in writing Selenium WebDriver automation scripts in JAVA for highly transactional E-commerce websites
• Executed automation scripts on different browsers/environments & reported defects/results to the team
• Proven ability in developing BDD scripts with Cucumber and writing step definitions for behaviour
• Maintained the Selenium & JAVA automation code and resources in source controls like CVS, SVN over the time for improvements and new features
• Took ownership of automation and led the automation team by mentoring the team as required
• Excellent experience of build tools like Maven and managing JAVA automation projects using them

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE 

A highly competent and results oriented Senior Automation Test Analyst with 7+ years of experience in Software Testing, Selenium Automation, Development, JAVA/C#.Net web projects, Team leading & training, Client facing. ISTQB certified tester. Proven ability in Selenium WebDriver Automated testing & Frameworks, Page Objects & Hybrid Frameworks, TDD, BDD, Web testing, Functional testing, Performance & Load testing. Excellent experience in each phase of Test Life Cycle, Test strategies & Test plans, UAT. Solid experience of Software Development Life Cycles, Selenium WebDriver & RC, Selenium Grid, Cucumber, JAVA, JUnit, Web Applications, JIRA, Maven, SQL, AGILE Methodologies, Scrum, QTP, LoadRunner, C#.Net, E-commerce/Financial/Trading domains, Automation & Testing tools.

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY 

• Excellent experience in automation of Web-based, Highly transactional and large Client/Server/Multi-tier applications
• Proven ability in writing JAVA, JUnit, C# scripts and Leading JAVA, C#.Net projects automation
• Solid experience of AGILE Methodologies, AGILE Manifesto and Scrum processes
• Solid experience of Defect/Test Management tools like JIRA, QualityCenter/Test Director, BugZilla
• Excellent experience of HP automation tool QTP and VB Script language
• Solid experience of Performance/Load/Stress testing with LoadRunner
• Proven skills in SQL, RDBMS and UNIX variants like LINUX, Solaris, HP-UX
• Expertise in writing SQL Queries, SQL Scripts and performing Database testing
• Proven skills in Leading and training teams, Test Management and Meeting the deadlines
• Strong communication & interaction with Clients, Developers, Business Analysts, Management
• Strong experience of E-commerce, Financial, Banking, Insurance, Trading and Telecom domains
• Proven ability in Windows/UNIX Commands, Scripts and testing on Windows/UNIX platforms
• Proven ability in Working individually or as a part of team,  Problem solving, Process improvement activities, Analytical skills, Reporting and Assisting to Manager

TECHNICAL SKILLS 

Automation Testing Tools: Selenium WebDriver/RC/Grid, Cucumber, Maven, QTP, LoadRunner
Languages/Frameworks: JAVA, JUnit, TestNG, C#.Net, NUnit
Bug Tracking Tools: JIRA, BugZilla, Relational ClearQuest
Test Management Tools: HP QualityCenter/TestDirector
RDBMS: MS SQL Server 2008/2008R2/2012, MySQL, Oracle
Scripting Languages: VB Script, Java Script, Perl, Python
Operating Systems: Windows 7/8, Windows Server 2008/2008R2/2012, Mac OS, LINUX/Solaris/HP-UX
Domain Knowledge: E-commerce, Financial, Trading, Insurance, Banking, Telecom, Billing

WORK EXPERIENCE

Senior Automation Test Analyst (Selenium WebDriver + JAVA + Web, Functional testing)
Company Name, Location (Jan 2013 to Present)
Project: 2 or 3 lines about the project

Achievements:

• Saved 30% time and cost of testing by automation using Selenium WebDriver, JAVA, Cucumber
• Increased productivity by 20% by effectively training, leading and managing the AGILE automation team
• Achieved customer satisfaction and high quality by effective Automation testing, AGILE Processes

Responsibilities: 

• Implemented automation using Selenium WebDriver, JAVA, Selenium Grid, Cucumber, Maven.
• Extensively automated regression and functional test suites by developing over 237 test cases, 6 test suites using Selenium WebDriver, JAVA, JUnit.
• Implemented Page Objects framework, Hybrid framework and 21 Page classes from scratch to represent web pages.
• Developed Keyword Driven and Data Driven frameworks to retrieve test actions, test data from Excel files and SQL Databases.
• Configured Maven for JAVA automation projects and developed Maven project object model (POM).
• Used Maven, Selenium Grid to execute Selenium automation suites on different platform, browser combinations in parallel.
• Developed BDD tests using Cucumber by writing behaviours and step definitions. Developed required Selenium support code in JAVA for Cucumber.
• Wrote SQL queries extensively, queried database and generated test reports. Performed Purchase Orders Database testing by developing 14 SQL scripts.
• Performed Defect Tracking & Management in JIRA. Generated automated daily reports using JIRA API.
• Worked in a highly dynamic AGILE environment and participated in scrum and sprint meetings
• Assisted Manager by providing automation strategies, Selenium/Cucumber Automation and JIRA reports.
• Identified weaknesses in QA Processes, Web testing, Selenium Automation. Suggested & implemented improvements.

Tools/Environments: Important tools/technologies/environments used in the project

Automation Test Analyst (Selenium + C#.Net + Web, System and UAT testing)
Company Name, Location (Jun 2010 to Jan 2013)
Project: 2 or 3 lines about the project

Achievements:

• Saved 20% of testing budget by automating Regression/Functional tests using Selenium WebDriver & C#.Net
• Won 2 performance certificates and given a bonus of £2000 for outstanding performance

Responsibilities:

• Automated System testing for trading transactions, exchange operations and payment methods using Selenium WebDriver, C#.
• Developed, executed and maintained over 182 Selenium automation scripts for trading web application.
• Developed Hybrid automation framework in C# by using Page Objects framework, Keyword Driven & Data Driven frameworks. Automated running smoke tests and build report generator for daily builds.
• Used Selenium Grid, NUnit test scripts to run automated test cases in parallel on 5 environments.
• Developed 7 C# class libraries, 16 NUnit test scripts to test XML build data files.
• Performed Load and Stress testing by developing LoadRunner scripts to find out effective Web/App server configurations for best performance levels.
• Extensively performed Database testing using Selenium. Generated Production DB reports using SQL queries.
• Reported/tracked defects in TFS. Training a team of 13 on TFS functionality.
• Provided different build reports, Selenium automation reports, Performance testing reports to Senior Management.
• Worked effectively with Developers, AGILE Team, Project Management to achieve Selenium automation, high quality, release deadlines and QA processes improvements.

Tools/Environments: Important tools/technologies/environments used in the project

Software QA Engineer
Company Name, Location (Oct 2008 to May 2010)
Project: 2 lines about the project

Achievements & Responsibilities:

3 or 4 bullet points about your achievements & responsibilities in this project

Software Test Analyst
Company Name, Location (Aug 2007 to Oct 2008)
Project: 2 lines about the project

Achievements & Responsibilities:

3 or 4 bullet points about your achievements & responsibilities in this project

CERTIFICATIONS & TRAININGS

ISTQB  Certified Tester

Oracle Certified JAVA Programmer

HP Certified QTP/UFT Professional

EDUCATION & QUALIFICATIONS

4 Years Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science with Distinction (2003 to 2007)

REFERENCES   Available on request

We hope that this post and best practices/tips shared will be really helpful to you to make your resume amazing and excellent and to get more job interviews. We are always here to help you and all the best from ABSoft Trainings!!!

Please don’t forget to write any of your comments/questions/suggestions regarding this post.

An Effective Job Search Plan

Now, it’s time to go to next action. Once you have your resume ready, you need to start with job searching. Don’t miss our next post “An Effective Job Search Plan to get more Job Interviews” on effective job search plan.