6 Small Projects That Will Boost Your Resume
Tags: career, beginners, webdev
Published: 2020-10-27 12:08:47

I'm Liviu, and I work as a Solutions Architect at [Endtest](https://endtest.io).

Are you looking to give your resume a boost? 

Here are 6 projects that are not only fun to implement, but will also make you stand out.


## 1. Your first GitHub Action

[GitHub Actions](https://github.com/features/actions) allow you to set up CI/CD workflows using a configuration file right in your GitHub repo.

![GitHub Actions](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/0q4kytmmcrx3294dwue3.png)

You can even publish them on the [GitHub Marketplace](https://github.com/marketplace), so other users can add them in their own repos.

Personally, I worked on the [Endtest GitHub Action](https://github.com/marketplace/actions/run-endtest-functional-tests).

To start, you just have to create an `action.yml` file with a specific format. 

Inside that file, you can have multiple steps which are executing different scripts in different languages and you can pass arguments between them.

All the details are provided in their [quickstart guide](https://docs.github.com/en/free-pro-team@latest/actions/quickstart).


## 2. Your first Chrome Extension

Chrome Extensions are small software programs that customize the browsing experience, allowing users to tailor Chrome functionalities to individual needs or preferences.

![Chrome Extensions](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/wn4qo82603k0j209r2tn.jpg) 

The best part is that you can build one just by using HTML, CSS and JavaScript. 

I worked on the [Endtest Chrome Extension](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/endtest-codeless-automate/jbdgfkeimppmnfemmgfafiomihlibdfa) and it was a fun experience.

If you're curious to see how that works, you can find more details [here](https://endtest.io/guides/docs/how-to-create-web-tests/).

There are endless possibilities and getting your extension on the [Chrome Web Store](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/category/extensions) is definitely something that will look great on your resume.

Their [Getting Started Tutorial](https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/getstarted) really helped me.

## 3. Your first Google Maps API project

It's amazing to think about how many applications use the Google Maps API. 

*Uber, DoorDash, Instacart* and many more.

![Google Maps API](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/oxtmx7ztcppr3n5rdq3l.jpg)

I only used the JavaScript version of this API and I found it to be intuitive.

You can find the official documentation [here](https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/overview).

It's so easy to use even if you just started learning JavaScript.

You can build your own version of Uber, or you can build a game like Plague Inc.

![Plague Inc](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/s4xvdmwbet1oimhir2pc.jpg)

## 4. Your first OCR project

OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition. 

It's a technology that you can use to read and extract text from any image. 

![OCR](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/934vl2df64xffwmjcgbp.png)

You can create an app for digitizing documents or an instant translation app.

![OCR 2](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/qqjazrgexa7wjb027pfj.png)

Fortunately, you don't have to reinvent the wheel, because you can just use a Tesseract-based library, such as [pytesseract](https://pypi.org/project/pytesseract/).

To get the best results, you'll need to convert the image to Grayscale, increase the contrast and the sharpness and make sure the image is aligned. 

Or you can just use the [Amazon Rekognition API](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/rekognition/latest/dg/API_Reference.html).

I've used it on numerous occasions, most recently when we added OCR capabilities to [Endtest](https://endtest.io).

{% twitter 1299369052448722945 %}

## 5. Your first Slack App

[Slack](https://slack.com/) provides an API for users to create apps and automate processes, such as sending automatic notifications based on human input, sending alerts on specified conditions, and automatically creating internal support tickets.

![Endtest Slack App](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/y1q6d5b9rplxa8m2meus.png)

I had the chance to work on the [Endtest Slack App](https://endtest.io/guides/docs/slack/), which is a big hit among our users.

It's a really basic example, since it just sends a summary of the test execution results to the Slack channels of the users. 

But the capabilities of the Slack API go way beyond that. 

You can connect it to any external service and use your Slack channel as an interface for that service. 

For more details, check out the [Start building Slack apps](https://api.slack.com/start) section.


# 6. Your first API

There's an API for almost everything nowadays.

![API](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/dhuj08mkmewyk0bgj4gf.png)

A great way to come up with an idea for an API is to think of something that a lot of developers would use, which can't be done with just a few lines of code.

Don't forget about versioning and be careful with those changes!

After you're done, you can even publish it on an API Marketplace like [RapidAPI](https://rapidapi.com/).

I did work on the following APIs:
• [Endtest API](https://endtest.io/guides/docs/how-to-use-the-endtest-api/)
• [Endtest Utilities API](https://endtest.io/guides/docs/utilities/)
• [Endtest Mailbox API](https://endtest.io/guides/docs/how-to-test-emails/)

It's a great experience because you have to think from the perspective of other developers and make things as frictionless as possible.

Happy coding!

![Developers](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/p65hcqsxt5o2zvqbb6cg.gif)