How to Write a CV for Tech Jobs in Nigeria Easily

The Nigerian tech ecosystem is no longer just emerging; it has arrived. From the relentless energy of Yaba's “Yabacon Valley” to the distributed teams working remotely across Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt, Nigeria is the undisputed tech powerhouse of Africa. With unicorns like Paystack, Flutterwave, and Andela becoming household names and a constant influx of venture capital, the demand for skilled tech talent has never been higher.

This is the golden age of the Nigerian tech professional. The opportunities are immense, the salaries are competitive, and the impact you can have is global. But there's a huge obstacle standing between you and your dream job at a top fintech, ed-tech, or health-tech company: your CV.

Let's be brutally honest: the standard, traditional CV that might work for a bank or an FMCG company is completely, utterly wrong for the tech industry. Sending a generic, duty-focused CV to a tech recruiter is like trying to explain a complex idea in English to someone who only speaks Python-the message will be lost, and the opportunity will vanish.

This is not just another article with a few tips. This is the definitive master guide that will teach you exactly how to write a CV for tech jobs that gets you noticed and, more importantly, gets you interviews. We will provide a step-by-step framework to deconstruct the expectations of tech recruiters, build a document that proves your skills, and showcase your value in a language they understand. This guide is packed with role-specific advice, keyword lists, and a full sample CV to help you navigate your journey from applicant to tech industry insider.

The Tech CV Philosophy

It's a Technical Document, Not a Corporate Bio

Before you write a single word, you must understand the fundamental philosophy behind a tech CV.

A traditional corporate CV is a historical record of your responsibilities. It's designed to show stability and adherence to corporate structure. A tech CV, on the other hand, is a technical specification sheet for a human being. Its primary purpose is not to list what you were responsible for, but to provide concrete, verifiable proof of what you can build, analyze, design, or manage.

• Traditional CV: “I was a good employee who did my duties.”
• Tech CV: “Here is the evidence of the problems I have solved, the technologies I used to solve them, and the impact my solutions had. You can verify my claims on my GitHub profile.”

This mindset shift is everything. Your tech CV is not a place for fluff, corporate jargon, or vague claims. It is a document of evidence.

The Unforgiving Judge

Why Your Tech CV MUST Be ATS-Friendly

It’s a common myth that because the tech industry is “cool” and “modern,” you can use a flashy, creative CV. This is a catastrophic mistake. The tech industry, more than any other, relies on technology for recruitment. Every major tech company in Nigeria uses an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to manage the thousands of applications they receive.

A creative CV with multiple columns, graphics, or skill bars will be scrambled and rejected by the ATS. Your tech CV must adhere to the principles of clean, machine-readable design.

• Layout: A clean, single-column format is non-negotiable.
• Fonts: Use standard fonts like Calibri, Arial, or a clean monospaced font like Roboto Mono.
• No Graphics: Absolutely no photos, icons, or visual skill bars.
• File Format: Always submit as a PDF to preserve formatting.

Your creativity should be showcased in your portfolio and projects, not in the structure of your CV document.

The Anatomy of a Killer Tech CV

A Section-by-Section Breakdown

Let's build your tech CV from the ground up. The order and content of these sections are strategically chosen for a tech audience.

1. Contact Information: Your Digital Footprint

This section is your first test. It must show that you are a digitally-native professional.

• Full Name:
• Location: City, Country (e.g., Lagos, Nigeria)
• Phone Number: +234 80X XXX XXXX
• Professional Email: firstname.lastname@email.com
• LinkedIn Profile URL: Mandatory. It must be a custom URL.
• GitHub Profile URL: Absolutely non-negotiable for developers. For other roles like Product Managers or Data Analysts, it's highly recommended to showcase any technical projects.
• Portfolio / Personal Website URL: Essential for UI/UX Designers, Data Scientists (to showcase projects), and anyone with a body of work to display.

2. The Professional Summary (Rebranded as a “Technical Summary”)

This is not a place for vague objectives. It's a 3-4 line summary of your technical identity.

• BEFORE (Generic):
  

  A dedicated software developer with 5 years of experience seeking a challenging role.

• AFTER (Tech-Specific):
  

  A results-driven Backend Engineer with over 5 years of experience specializing in building scalable microservices and RESTful APIs. Proficient in Go, Python, and PostgreSQL, with a strong background in cloud-native technologies including Docker, Kubernetes, and AWS. Proven ability to reduce API latency by 40% through performance optimization.

3. The Skills Section (The Most Important Section)

This is the first section a tech recruiter will scan. It must be detailed, categorized, and easy to read. Do not just list skills in a long, messy paragraph.

• Strategy: Categorize your skills into logical groups. This shows you have a structured understanding of your own technical stack.
• Example for a Full-Stack Developer:

TECHNICAL SKILLS

• Languages: JavaScript (ES6+), TypeScript, Python, Go, SQL
• Frontend: React, Next.js, Redux, HTML5, CSS3, TailwindCSS
• Backend: Node.js, Express.js, Django, Gin (Go)
• Databases: PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis
• Cloud & DevOps: AWS (EC2, S3, Lambda), Docker, Kubernetes, Nginx, CI/CD (GitHub Actions)
• Tools: Git, Jira, Postman

4. The Projects Section: Your Proof of Work

For many tech roles, especially for junior to mid-level candidates, this section is more important than your work experience. Why? Because your work at a previous company might be proprietary and hidden. A personal project is something a recruiter can actually look at and verify.

• Strategy: List 2-3 of your most impressive and relevant personal or academic projects. For each project, provide a clear, structured description.
• The Perfect Project Entry Format:

[Project Name] | [Link to GitHub Repo] | [Link to Live Demo, if available] [Brief, one-line description of the project and its purpose.]

• Tech Stack: [List the key technologies you used, e.g., React, Node.js, MongoDB, AWS S3].
• My Contribution: [Use 1-2 bullet points to describe what YOU specifically did. Start with strong action verbs.]
  • Engineered a RESTful API with endpoints for user authentication and data processing.
  • Designed and implemented a responsive frontend with reusable React components.

5. Professional Experience: From Duties to Technical Achievements

This section must show the impact of your work, not just your daily tasks. Use the P.A.R. model (Problem-Action-Result) and pack your bullet points with technical keywords.

• BEFORE (Duty-Focused):
  

  Wrote code for the company's payment system. Worked on bug fixes.

• AFTER (Achievement-Focused):
  

  • Engineered a new payment processing microservice using Go, which reduced average transaction latency by 40% and increased system throughput by 25%.
  • Diagnosed and resolved over 50 critical production bugs, improving application stability and reducing customer support tickets by 15%.

6. Education & Certifications

• Education: Keep it concise. List your degree, university, and graduation year. Your projects and experience are more important.
• Certifications: This is highly valuable. List any relevant cloud certifications (e.g., AWS Certified Developer, Microsoft Azure Fundamentals) or professional tech certifications (e.g., Certified ScrumMaster, TensorFlow Developer Certificate).

The Proof is in the Code

The Non-Negotiable Role of GitHub and Portfolios

In Nigerian tech, a claim without proof is just noise. Your GitHub profile or personal portfolio is your proof.

• For Developers: Your GitHub is your real CV. A recruiter will look at it.
  • What they want to see: A clean profile with a professional picture and bio. Pinned repositories of your best projects. Projects with clear, well-written README.md files that explain what the project is, how to run it, and the tech stack used. Consistent commit history shows you are actively coding.
• For Designers: Your portfolio (on Behance, Dribbble, or a personal website) is mandatory.
  • What they want to see: 3-5 detailed case studies, not just pretty pictures. Each case study should explain the problem, your research process, your wireframes and prototypes, and the final UI design, explaining your design decisions.
• For Data Analysts/Scientists: A portfolio website or a well-documented GitHub is key.
  • What they want to see: Projects that showcase the entire data lifecycle: data cleaning, exploratory data analysis (EDA), modeling, and visualization. Use tools like Jupyter Notebooks to explain your process step-by-step.

Tailoring Your CV for Specific Tech Roles in Nigeria

The perfect tech CV is not one-size-fits-all. You must tailor it for the specific role you're targeting.

For the Software Developer (Frontend, Backend, Mobile)

• Recruiters Look For: Deep knowledge of a specific language/framework, problem-solving skills, and a strong GitHub profile.
• Key Skills to Highlight: Your core languages and frameworks must be at the very top of your skills section. Your projects section is your #1 priority.
• CV Red Flag: A CV without a link to a GitHub profile or any personal projects.

For the Product Manager

• Recruiters Look For: A mix of business acumen, technical understanding, and user empathy. They want to see that you can ship products that have an impact.
• Key Skills to Highlight: Product Strategy, Roadmapping, User Research, A/B Testing, Agile/Scrum, Data Analysis, Stakeholder Management.
• CV Red Flag: A CV that only lists features you built, without mentioning the business impact (e.g., increase in user engagement, revenue, or retention).

For the Data Analyst / Scientist

• Recruiters Look For: Proof of your analytical and statistical skills through real projects.
• Key Skills to Highlight: Python (Pandas, NumPy, Scikit-learn), R, SQL, Data Visualization (Tableau, Power BI), Statistical Modeling, Machine Learning.
• CV Red Flag: Listing a dozen machine learning algorithms but having no projects to show how you've actually applied them.

For the UI/UX Designer

• Recruiters Look For: A stunning portfolio with detailed case studies that show your design process.
• Key Skills to Highlight: User Research, Wireframing, Prototyping, UI Design, Interaction Design, Design Systems. List your tools prominently: Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD.
• CV Red Flag: A CV without a link to a strong, well-documented portfolio.

Common Mistakes That Get Nigerian Tech CVs Rejected

1. A Vague Skills Section: Just listing “JavaScript” is not enough. Is it React or Node.js? ES6 or TypeScript? Be specific.
2. No Projects or GitHub Link: This is the equivalent of a lawyer showing up without their credentials. It's an instant credibility killer for developers.
3. A Messy, Undocumented GitHub Profile: A link to a GitHub with no READMEs and messy code is worse than no link at all.
4. Using a “Creative” Two-Column CV: As discussed, this will likely be rejected by the ATS before a human ever sees it.
5. Focusing on Irrelevant Experience: Your experience as a bank teller from 8 years ago is far less important than the data analysis project you completed last month. Prioritize ruthlessly.

Your CV is Your First Technical Product

Think of your CV as the first product you are shipping to your potential new employer. It must be well-engineered (ATS-friendly format), clearly documented (achievement-focused language), and have a compelling feature set (your skills and projects).

In the booming Nigerian tech industry, the opportunities are boundless, but the standards are global. By moving away from the traditional, duty-focused CV and embracing a new, evidence-based approach, you are not just writing a better document. You are proving that you have the modern, analytical, and results-driven mindset that is the hallmark of a top-tier tech professional.