What recruiters look for in junior tech candidates

Recruiters reviewing junior tech applications are making fast decisions under volume pressure. Understanding their process helps you present yourself at the right moment in the right way.

What happens to your application in the first 30 seconds

An experienced recruiter takes 15 to 30 seconds to decide whether to read a CV properly. They are checking: does the job title I need appear in the summary? Do I recognise the tools mentioned? Is the formatting legible? Is there evidence of a project?

Implications: your CV summary must contain your target job title and the key tool or skill for that role (e.g. "junior data analyst with SQL and Power BI"). Format must be clean, consistent, and scannable.

The signals that move candidates forward

Demonstrated learning in public. A GitHub profile with recent commits, a TryHackMe rank, a portfolio site, or LinkedIn articles demonstrate that you are actively practising. Employers know junior hires need training; they want evidence you are the kind of person who can be trained.

A coherent narrative. Explain why you are making this career change or starting in this field. A clear, concise explanation in your summary that connects your background to the target role reduces hiring risk. "Former nurse moving into health informatics" or "systems administrator building cloud automation skills" are coherent. "Passionate about data" is not.

Projects with context. List projects with three pieces of information: what it does, what tools it uses, and what the result or finding was. "Built a sales dashboard in Power BI using SQL and a public retail dataset; identified seasonality patterns that would have informed stock purchasing" is a project entry. "Power BI project" is a skills claim.

Communication quality. Junior tech candidates are evaluated on communication in interviews and in written applications. Proofread everything. Short, clear sentences outperform long, impressive-sounding ones.

What does not move candidates forward

A long skills list without project evidence. Certifications without portfolio artefacts. Applying to roles that specify three or more years of experience. Generic cover letters that do not reference the specific role. A LinkedIn profile that does not match the CV.