How to Write a Software Engineer Resume and Land the Job

Key Points

• What contact information to include
• How to start writing your resume
• What work experience and education to highlight
• Professional skills to present
• How to format your resume specific to your own software engineer experience

By 2029, employment for software engineers and similar computer science roles is projected to increase by 22%, and for a good reason. Developing video games, websites, software products, and running network control systems, software engineers create and maintain many things we use daily. Software engineers work with several professionals, including marketers, customer success staff, graphic designers, and project managers.

The field is also quite broad. For this reason, software engineers must possess an array of expertise, and this is especially true depending on the type of software engineering you choose. For example, software developers must design and enforce IT standards, while application software developers are more focused on designing customer-focused software.

Due to the broadness of the profession, it’s essential to have a software engineer resume that showcases your education and professional experience. In this article, we’ll teach you how to craft an effective software engineer resume. First, we’ll discuss formatting options, and then move into displaying critical information on your resume.

Creating a strong resume is especially crucial, as recruiters only spend an average of 6 to 10 seconds scanning resumes before they start making decisions. If you have a disorganized resume format, recruiters might spend even less time reviewing the content of your resume. Aside from helping your software engineer resume reach the top of the pile, proper formatting can also demonstrate your attention to user experience.

First and foremost, you should ensure your resume formatting uses proper spacing. Resumes with crowded text come across as messy. Too much space between text evokes the same feelings. Unlike a curriculum vitae (CV), resumes should not exceed one page.

To fit all your education and technical skills, add page breaks, bullet points, and bolding when needed to fit all your education and technical skills. Additionally, italicizing key points from the job description can help highlight your skillset. Although adding color to your resume can be impactful, it can also be damaging if used too often. Be mindful of overusing color and use the “less is more” mantra.

With these essential formatting basics in mind, you’re almost ready to begin crafting the perfect resume. Before you add in details regarding your education and work history, though, make sure to have a general idea of the structure of your resume.

A software engineering resume should include these sections:

• Contact information
• Career summary
• Work experience section
• Education section
• Technical skills

The last thing to keep in mind before writing your software engineer resume is applicant tracking systems (ATS). Although resume builders can be helpful, they don’t always account for ATS. ATS screen resumes solely based on keywords and can’t read .jpg or .png files, which is the format many resume builders often use. For this reason, you should be cautious and ensure your resume is a .docx or .pdf file. However, check the employer’s preferences to make sure.

Now that we’ve covered the resume format, you’ll want to ensure hiring managers can contact you. Even if you follow every tip in resume writing but include incorrect contact information, all of your hard work will be for nothing. Your resume contact information should include your:

• Name. If you go by a nickname or by a different name, include it in your resume. However, make sure to be consistent and use the same name on all the documents associated with the application, as well as your LinkedIn profile and any online accounts you want to showcase.
• Mailing address. It’s important to use a permanent mailing address in your resume. If you are a student applying for a software engineering internship or job, you might want to use your permanent address. If you don’t feel comfortable putting your home address on your resume, simply include your city and state.
• Email address. If you’re applying for a software engineering job and are already employed, it’s wise to use a personal email account. If your personal email address is not professional sounding, sign up for another free email account.
• Phone number. Make sure to include your personal phone number. Additionally, you should ensure that you have a professional voicemail that includes your name if a hiring manager needs to leave a message.

Additionally, you can include a personal website to show off your web development skills. If you’re active online, add a link to your LinkedIn profile and other professional social media profiles. Although a professional software engineering resume and cover letter are essential, including a link to a project demo, a web application you designed, or personal website can help you land your dream job.

Next, include a resume summary or professional summary. For a software engineering resume, this section should include information regarding your technical skills. In this section, you’ll want to include your software engineering skills and the programming languages you are familiar with, and the years of experience you have.

Here’s an example of a resume summary below.

Once you’ve written a professional summary, it’s time to present your work experience. Although including years of experience in the resume summary is an option, you may also include it in this section. This section is the ideal place to highlight front-end development and relevant skills.

Regardless of whether you have paid experience, you should still include a work experience section. Have you volunteered or completed projects in school? Make sure to include this information, as well.

In addition, try to be specific where you can. For example, let’s say you want to highlight your web application experience. Simply writing, “experienced in web application development” isn’t very descriptive and doesn’t include any metrics. Have you worked on one development project or 100? A strong resume should include:

• Previous employers
• Quantifiable accomplishments
• Length of time worked at each job
• Job duties

Although it’s important to be descriptive, conciseness is key in this section. Make sure to include details about relevant work experience without being wordy.

After the work experience section, showcase your education history and additional credentials. If you have limited career experience, it might be wise to put your work experience after your education history. Hiring managers go through resumes quickly and can overlook details.

This section is incredibly important for a recent college graduate in search of an entry-level software engineer job. For someone with a senior job title and many years of experience, your job history might be more important to highlight.

If you don’t have a degree, change the title of this section to “Skills and Certification.” Software development is a growing field, and developers are needed. Coding bootcamps and certifications add clout to any software resume.

For the education section, include:

• Name of the school you attended
• Degree or certification
• Dates you attended school
• GPA

If you want to strengthen this section, consider including any awards you may have received and relevant courses.

The skills section for a software engineer resume should include several relevant skills. Software engineers who possess strong problem-solving and analytical skills and interpersonal and communication skills are highly sought after.

Soft skills, such as communication, attention to detail, and teamwork, aren’t measurable but still incredibly important to include in your resume. Building software often happens in a team setting, so showing that you possess these soft skills is important.

Additionally, your resume should include hard skills. In most cases, software engineers should know one or two coding languages. However, the more, the better. Even if you’re not completely fluent in the common languages (like Python, PHP, SQL, or CSS), your ability to learn new languages can be important to mention.

Relevant skills may include:

• Web API
• Agile Scrum Team
• Process analysis
• Project management
• SaaS
• Version repository
• Computer architecture

Before you send your resume, make sure there are no errors. Mistakes in spelling, contact information, and other imperfections can make you appear less professional. A typo in your phone number is easy to overlook but could make getting contacted by the hiring manager more difficult.

At Joblist, we know every job search is different. That’s why we’ve made finding your dream job that much simpler with our quiz page, which helps us create a personalized set of job matches for you. Visit Joblist today to start your search for the perfect software engineering job!