Projects and coursework – Page 2

Say what the app does, the platform and technologies, your role, and any real use or results.

Example:
"Halal Food Finder | Personal project | 2025

• Built a Flutter app listing halal restaurants near the user, using a public maps API.
• Designed the interface and implemented search and filters.
• Shared with 40 friends; added a favourites feature based on their feedback."

If the app is published in an app store, say so and include a link. If not, a short demo video can help.

Describe who the site is for, what you built and with what technologies, and what happened after launch.

Example:
"Website for a Local Tailoring Shop | Freelance project | 2025

• Designed and built a five-page responsive website using HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
• Added a WhatsApp enquiry button and Google Maps location.
• Owner reported more enquiries through the site within the first month."

Include the live link if the site is still online. For portfolio sites, focus on design choices and accessibility as well as code.

Describe the design problem, the requirements, the tools you used, testing, and results compared with targets.

Example:
"Low-Cost Wheelchair Ramp | Engineering Design module | 2025

• Designed a foldable aluminium ramp in SolidWorks to meet a 150 kg load requirement.
• Ran finite element analysis to check stresses and selected tube sizes.
• Built a scaled prototype with a team of four; passed load testing."

Use technical terms that match the job, but explain the purpose clearly for non-specialist readers.

List the competition, your team role, what you built or programmed, and the result.

Example:
"University Robotics Team, National Robotics Challenge | 2024 – 2025

• Programmed autonomous navigation in C++ using ultrasonic sensors.
• Team placed fourth nationally; won the award for best technical documentation."

If you were on the team for a long time, you can list it as an activity with your role. Focus the bullets on your personal contribution.

Name the client (if allowed) or describe it, state the problem they had, and say what happened as a result of your work. Real client projects are especially valued because they show professional skills.

Example:
"Consulting Project for a Logistics SME | Business School live project | 2025

• Mapped the client's order-to-delivery process and identified three bottlenecks.
• Recommended changes to warehouse picking; client tested one change in its main site."

Ask permission before naming the client. A short description such as "regional logistics company" is fine if not.

Yes, if the company agreed to be named or the partnership was public, for example on your university's website. A recognised sponsor adds credibility.

Example: "Capstone sponsored by Fictional Water Utilities: Leak Detection Using Pressure Sensors | 2025"

If the work was confidential or you are unsure, describe the sponsor generally, such as "a regional water utility". Check your project agreement or ask your supervisor. Never include confidential data or results the sponsor has not approved for sharing.

Put it in a "Presentations" or "Research" section, or as a bullet under the related project. A conference presentation shows you can communicate your work to others.

Example:
"Presentations

• 'Low-cost air quality sensors for schools', poster, Undergraduate Research Symposium, Sharjah, April 2025."

Give the title, format (poster or talk), event, location and date. If you won a prize for the presentation, add it. If you have only one, adding it to the project entry may be simpler.

Use the months the project ran, or the semester and year. Either is clear to employers.

Examples:

• "Sep 2025 – Dec 2025"
• "Fall 2025"
• "Semester 1, 2025"

Use one style consistently across your resume. For long projects, such as a year-long capstone, show the full period. For very short projects, a single month is fine. Projects that are still running can use "Present" as the end date.

Describe your projects using the same skill and tool names the job advert uses, wherever they truly apply. Projects are a natural place to show keywords in context.

Example: if an advert asks for "SQL", "data visualisation" and "stakeholder reporting", a project bullet might read: "Queried sales data with SQL and created data visualisations in Tableau for a stakeholder report to the module leader."

This helps applicant tracking systems and human readers see a match. Only use terms that accurately describe what you did.

Describe the specific leadership actions you took, such as dividing tasks, setting deadlines, running meetings or resolving problems, alongside the team's result.

Example:
"Team Lead, Smart Campus App (team of 5) | 2025

• Split work into weekly tasks and ran short progress meetings.
• Reassigned tasks when a member fell ill, keeping the project on schedule.
• Delivered a working app; project graded A."

If your leader role was informal, write "Coordinated" rather than "Led". Being specific makes the claim believable.

Use academic and technical outcomes: what worked, what you measured, how it was assessed and what you learned. Results do not have to come from real customers.

Examples of results:

• "Model predicted test data with better accuracy than the baseline."
• "Prototype met four of five design requirements in testing."
• "Graded A; selected for the department's project showcase."
• "Reduced page load time compared with the first version."

Be specific and honest about the context. A clearly explained test result is better than a vague claim of success.

Put projects above education when they are your strongest evidence for the job and your degree is either unrelated or not the main selling point. This is common for software, data and design roles.

Example: a business graduate applying for a junior web developer role may lead with web projects, then education.

For most other students, education first and projects second works well. You can change the order for different applications.

Yes, while you are at school or in early university, if it was a notable project or won a prize. Later, replace it with university work.

Example: "Regional Science Fair, 2nd Place | 2023 — Built a solar water heater from recycled materials and measured heating efficiency."

If you are applying for a university research programme or a science-related role, a strong school project can still be relevant. Keep it to one or two lines.

List it in "Awards" or "Achievements" with the competition, level, year and result. Olympiads show strong problem-solving ability and are recognised by many employers and universities.

Examples:

• "International Mathematical Olympiad, national team selection camp, 2023"
• "National Physics Olympiad, Gold Medal, 2022"

Use the official name and result. Remove school-level competitions once you have stronger university achievements, unless the result was exceptional.

Yes, for data science and analytics roles, especially if you ranked well or produced a strong public notebook. Describe what you did and how you placed.

Example:
"Kaggle: House Price Prediction Competition | 2025

• Built a gradient boosting model with feature engineering in Python.
• Ranked in the top 200 of several thousand teams (public leaderboard)."

Only quote rankings you can show on your profile. Link to your Kaggle profile or notebook. Learning competitions with no ranking can still be listed as projects.

Describe each project with your role, the format and its outcome, and link to a showreel or online portfolio. For media roles, people want to see the work.

Example:
"Short Documentary: Fishermen of Ajman | Media Production module | 2025

• Directed and edited a 12-minute documentary in Adobe Premiere Pro.
• Screened at the university film festival; selected for the best student documentary shortlist."

Keep the resume entries short and let the showreel show your skills. Include only work you had a major part in, and credit your role accurately.

Link to a small portfolio of your best published or class articles, and describe the most important ones on your resume.

Example:
"Selected Writing

• 'Rising rents and student housing in Dubai', campus newspaper, 2025
• 'Inside the city's last pearl-diving workshop', feature article, journalism module, 2024"

Choose varied pieces, such as news, features and interviews, and make sure links work. If an article was edited heavily by others, describe your role accurately.

Check your university's academic integrity policy first. Some universities and courses do not allow students to publish solutions to assignments, because future students could copy them.

Options if publishing is not allowed:

• Keep the repository private and show it during interviews if asked.
• Publish a different, personal project that uses similar skills.
• Share a short write-up of the project without the code.

Never publish code from an internship or job without permission. Respecting these rules also shows employers you understand professional responsibility.

Yes, if the project is hard to understand without seeing it, such as an app, game, robot or hardware build. A short video lets an employer see your work quickly.

Tips:

• Keep it to one or two minutes.
• Show the main features first.
• Add brief captions or narration.
• Host it on a site that opens easily without a login.

Write the link as plain text in the project entry, and check that it still works before each application.

Add a short "Tools" or "Technologies" line under the project, or mention them inside the bullets where you used them. Both help readers and software see your skills.

Examples:

• "Tools: Python, pandas, scikit-learn, Power BI"
• "Built the front end in React and connected it to a Firebase database."

List only the main technologies, not every library. Make sure they also appear in your skills section if they are important for the job.

In many Indian engineering and science programmes, a mini project is a smaller, shorter project done during the degree, and a major project is the larger final-year project. List the major project in detail, and include mini projects only if they are relevant to the job.

Example:
"Major Project: Smart Irrigation Using IoT Sensors | 2025

• Built a soil-moisture-based irrigation controller with Arduino and a mobile dashboard.

Mini Project: Library Management System | 2024

• Built a Java desktop app with MySQL."

You do not need to use the words "mini" or "major" if they are unfamiliar to employers outside India.

It is optional and mainly used on Indian resumes. It can help for research-focused roles or if the guide is well known, but most employers do not need it.

Example: "Major Project: Fault Detection in Solar Panels (Guide: Prof. R. Menon)"

If space is tight, leave it out and focus on what you did. If your guide is willing to be a referee, list them on your separate references list instead.

Cut background, keep actions and results, and limit each project to one to three bullets of one or two lines. A resume is not the place for a full project abstract.

Steps:

• Delete sentences that explain theory or general context.
• Keep the problem in a few words, then your action and result.
• Remove repeated tools already listed elsewhere.
• Combine similar points.

Example:

• Before: "This project aimed to explore the potential of machine learning in healthcare by building a model…"
• After: "Built a model in Python to flag high-risk diabetes patients from health survey data; achieved better recall than a simple rules-based check."

Say clearly that it was adopted and by whom, because real use is one of the strongest results a student project can have.

Example: "Built a room booking tool for the engineering lab; adopted by the department and used by technicians each week."

Add any numbers you know for certain, such as how many people use it. If someone senior can confirm it, they may also be a good referee.

No. Describe each project once, in the section where it fits best, so your resume does not repeat itself.

If a project relates to several parts of your resume, choose one place for the full description and mention it briefly elsewhere if needed. For example, list the full capstone under "Projects" and simply write "Capstone: see Projects" under education. Your skills section can mention the tools without repeating the project.