Showcase your technical and industry-specific skills in your resume, using these software engineer resume examples and tips.
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Software engineers are increasingly in high demand, as they possess a specific set of technical and industry-specific hard skills, including testing, debugging and troubleshooting for software programs and companies. Showcasing these skills the right way on a resume can land you the engineering job you’ve always wanted.
To help you put your best foot forward, this resume guide will show you:
Works on programming the visual side of a site or program — the elements of a website that users interact with.
Works on programming the foundation or structure of a site or program. People in this role may work on API and write SQL server scripts.
Both types of software engineers may have a background in computer science. Both require advanced technical skills and engineering skills. Ensure your skills stand out to the recruiter by listing these (or similar) essential software engineering skills on your resume:
Before we dive into writing each section of your software engineering resume, let’s first talk about resume formats, as your resume format will determine how your resume is structured.
Next, it’s important to have the right resume formatting.
The software engineer resume writing guide includes software engineering resume examples for each section, as well as professional writing advice. For a more detailed guide and extra tips, read our How to Write a Resume article to write a perfect resume. The best resume will be customized for each new job so it’s best to use keywords from the job posting in your skills section, work experience section and throughout your resume. Including keywords will help busy hiring managers to recognize your qualifications when scanning your resume. Tailoring your resume to the job posting can be especially important for a software engineer resume. Each job description can require vastly different tasks and technical skills depending on what side of the software you’re working on. You can tailor your resume to show the most relevant skills and professional experience for the position.
The resume header should have your professional contact information. Make sure to write your name, phone number and email address correctly. If you have a professional portfolio or social media account on LinkedIn, the header is also a great spot to place that information.
Below the header, you’ll typically find the resume summary or resume objective. Both give the potential employer a summary of your resume skills and relevant work experience but they’re not interchangeable.
A resume summary is better for software engineering job seekers with more than three years of experience. Write a two- to three-sentence introduction with your top skills relevant to the job description and include the number of years you’ve been in the software engineering industry. For example:
Solutions-driven software engineer with more than eight years of experience developing and implementing innovative software solutions. Highly skilled in end-to-end project management, database management, .NET and MySQL. Able to work under tight deadlines and pressure situations in large engineering teams.
A resume objective — also called a career objective — is recommended for job seekers who are changing careers or have less than two years of software engineering experience. The resume objective should highlight your qualifications, key skills and your desire for employment. For example:
Enthusiastic software engineer seeking entry-level software engineer position at tech startup to hone my skills. Experience using programming languages to code, troubleshooting and testing software created for my personal projects. Relevant skills include debugging, data structure and PHP programming.
As a software engineer, your resume can quickly get diluted if you list every soft skill and hard skill you possess. Instead, read over the job posting for the position you want and use bullet points to single out the engineering skills the employer wants most, such as:
Now, it’s time to write your work experience. Here are some tips for capturing it accurately:
For example:
em>Front-end Developer / May 2020 – July 2022
Click Tech, Orlando, FL
Use the education section to highlight your educational background.
Certifications can also help to illustrate your skill level. Because software engineering is a skill set that can be self-taught, having proven credentials can enhance your chances of getting a job, especially if your education section or work history is lacking. You can list your certifications in the education section. Some relevant certifications include:
You also have the option of creating additional sections to highlight your certifications, awards, publications and other important achievements. Just make sure they’re relevant to the software engineer job.
Get all the tips you need with our expert resources. From hundreds of resume examples to career advice and expert job interview tips to land the software engineer job of your dreams.
A professional cover letter is a must to complete your software engineer job application. Use our resources to your advantage and create the perfect cover letter.
Let’s finish our software engineer resume writing guide by going over the most important points:
As a software engineer, the skills section of your resume should be quite advanced. You do not need to list:
The best resume can help you to get a job even without many years of experience. If you don’t have much work experience, then you may include:
Software engineers should include relevant skills and work experience directly related to their desired job. Not every software engineer job you encounter during your job search will be the same, so read the job description carefully and create a resume specifically for that job. Is the prospective employer looking for someone who specializes in HTML or do they want someone who knows how to manage an SQL server?
A software engineer resume can stand out by:
Software engineering is a broad job description on job applications as engineers can design, develop and test software applications for companies, with tasks including testing, debugging and troubleshooting for software programs. In your job search, you may see a software engineer sometimes being called a developer depending on the duties of the role.
Software development is a subcategory of software engineering. Software engineers work on large-scale projects to design, develop and test software and computer systems for an organization. They might work with people across departments, including other engineers and developers.
Software developers are in charge of designing specific computer systems and software. They tend to work more independently, with other developers or programmers. They are responsible for working with operating systems or applications.
Keep your resume to one page. A one-page resume has a cleaner look and will be easier for busy hiring managers to scan. However, if you are a seasoned software engineer with more than nine years of experience, it’s OK for your resume to be two pages long.
Projects can help showcase your areas of expertise and make your resume look more authentic but they are optional. If you worked on a project that really shows your qualifications for the role it can be a good idea to briefly mention it in your resume and then go further in depth with the relevant details in the body of your cover letter.
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