As an entry-level programmer, when can I put a language on my resume?

> Right now I preface languages with terms like "familiar", "comfortable", "confident" to indicate the amount I've used a particular language.

I would advise against this, it really doesn't help especially for your worse languages. Put down a couple of languages that you've studied and you've done something significant with (even a small project) which you'll also be happy to work with professionally.

My suggestion: Don't use adjectives in a Resume. It doesn't matter much because if I am looking for say a programmer who can code in JS, you saying "expert" vs "comfortable" won't change the fact that I will interview you anyway if I decided to otherwise. Yes, when the interview starts, you can clarify your level of experience further.

In other words, when I interview Entry Level candidates, I don't give the adjectives much weight. People put all kinds of adjectives on their Resume and I don't pay attention to those. You want to be more specific if possible. You can say "I worked on this project where I was responsible for ". Then explain it in the interview if asked.

> terms like "familiar", "comfortable", "confident" to indicate the amount I've used a particular language

I'd be honest about what you've done

* wrote Hello World in Rust * built a simple API with NodeJS * completed TDD kata in C#

or whatever it might be.

Bonus points for linking to git repos so the recruiter can see what the code looks like

If you are entry-level the recruiter should be looking at things like your history of learning to see how you'll grow in the role much more than they're looking at your exact experience.

Personally I would suggest removing that kind of section entirely. The problem is those adjectives will never be consistent from one person to another. Focus on what you've done, the tools you used, and the impact it had.

There may not be a massive impact, outside of yourself, and that's okay especially if you're learning. It's still useful to say what's different after your work.

My opinion: Don’t

It reads like you are trying to populate a “skills” section.

As an interviewer/hirer, I ignore skills sections entirely. I want to know two things from a resume “what you did and how well you did it”.

That means “Using $LanguageX, I did $y”. I am then going to dig in to your bullet points and expect you to be able to explain what you did and ask you why you made the choices.

I'd like to note for other commenters that no one has actually answered the question being asked. Not to speak for the OP but the spirit of the question in my mind has more to do with how long before you reach the minimum threshold of proficiency to honestly say you know a given language.

Read the job ad and mirror back to them the terms and language that they use. If the job uses X_lang, probably make sure to put how good you are at X_lang with the presumption that they're going to call you on it if you say you're an expert.

I normally put years of experience with a language. That leads to some dumb things like saying I have 3 years of xp with Node when most of those years have been beginner tier, but overall it's gives a decent overview.