Software Engineer Resume Example

This is the ultimate guide for you to write a professional resume for your software engineer job application. See our proven-success software engineer resume example and get inspired.

Software Engineer Resume

No need to start from the beginning. Edit this resume sample with your information and keywords from the job posting.

What to include in a Software Engineering resume

The mandatory resume section you should include in your software engineering resume are:

• Contact information
• Summary
• Work Experience
• Education
• Skills

But if you want to go more you can consider adding these optional resume sections:

• Projects
• Awards and honors
• Certifications
• Languages
• Hobbies and interests

Now you know what details to include in your resume. But knowing how to enter your information correctly in these sections is also very important for you to get hired as a Software Engineer. You can find out more by reading the guide below.

How to write a Resume for Software Engineer

As a software engineer, you need to highlight your relevant skills and expertise which could be helpful for your software engineering career.

A software engineer may be liable for working on projects related to software and applications. His/her duties may include developing and managing software systems and testing software applications. They are still collaborating closely with stakeholders and cross-functional teams to communicate project statuses and proposals.

Therefore a candidate who is willing to apply for a software engineer position needs to focus on mentioning relevant software engineering skills, programming languages, and the knowledge of methodologies etc. to be successful in their job search.

Here is the step-by-step guide on how to craft your job-winning software engineer resume.

Write a Powerful Summary

The resume summary is the best place to market yourself in a resume. Because the resume summary will be the first place that the recruiter’s eyes go in a resume. Therefore, try to make your resume more impressive by including your major accomplishments and key competencies.

But never write an objective statement. Objective statements express our aims and targets after getting employed. This kind of information will not impress the recruiter. But your achievements will do. Take a look at below example summaries for a software engineer resume.

List your work experience in the reverse-chronological order

Recruiters don’t want to see your entire work history if you have over 15+ years of experience. They prefer to include the most recent and relevant work experience to be on a resume.

The work experience section of a resume is a great place to tailor your resume with the keywords from the job posting. When you target your resume to a specific job application, this is a very important thing you should do. Customize your professional experience in your resume according to the job description by addressing the needs of the job with your related background.

Don’t mention your job responsibilities and duties in this job description space. Because recruiters already have a full awareness of the job duties of a software engineer. Instead, a great way to make your resume job descriptions stand out from other software engineering resumes is list your accomplishments in bulleted points with quantified results followed by powerful action verbs and show them what you have achieved in the past with the help of your most relevant skills.

Take a look at the below example job descriptions.

Software Engineer
Proximo Int.
2016-2020

• Coordinated over several tasks with over 50+ program developers and project managers to implement strategies, schedule planning, and collaborate with client representatives.
• Used Laravel framework to build more than 20 APIs for certain software programs.
• Communicated with stakeholders on progress updates, collected suggestions and worked to fix particular software specific bugs.
• Developed error analysis for the company server and reduced downtime by 25% and warranty costs by 40%.
• Developed test scripts for automated testing for 10+ new software.
• Configured tools to satisfy the server specifications of several web applications.

Software Engineer
Proximo Int.
2016-2020

• Develop and direct methods for evaluation and review of operating systems.
• Testing new software applications and fixing bugs.
• Managing the lifecycle of software development.
• Developing and designing web-based enterprise solutions using a list of Java technologies.

What if you don’t have software engineering experience?

Not everyone has the same amount of work experience. Maybe you’re just getting ready for your first software engineering experience after college graduation looking for how to become a software engineer. So in such a case you may be wondering how you can fill this gap in the Work Experience.

That’s not really a problem. Mention your internship and volunteer work experience if there are any. If you have received educational achievements in college, you can give more value to your inexperienced Software Engineering resume by prioritizing them.

Not only this, you can also create a portfolio by adding your completed projects. Then insert a link to that portfolio in your resume header. It will make your SE resume much more impressive.

Anyone has to go for a first job. So the first thing you need to do is make sure it is a Junior SE or Training position when you apply for a job. You can easily get a job by applying for such jobs without any prior software engineering work experience.

Use action verbs to make your resume stronger by using our action verb finder tool that helps you find the necessary action verbs for your profession.

List the Educational Qualifications Smartly

Many employers require that software engineers possess at least a bachelor’s degree in software engineering, software development, computer programming, computer science, or a technology-related field of study. Therefore, including your highest educational qualifications chronologically, will be an advantage for you. Hiring managers in software companies will also require a portfolio of recorded samples or links to your portfolio websites to see your projects.

When listing your educational qualifications, remember to mention the relevant coursework as well. This will help the recruiter to understand your knowledgeable areas.

What about adding your GPA into the education section of your resume? Do you need to add it? Note that you should add your GPA if and only if it is more than 3.0 and if you are a recent graduate. Otherwise, it is better to avoid including it.

Below are good and bad education section examples of a software engineer resume.

Further, you can make stand out your resume if you could add following Certifications to your Software Engineer Resume;

• Amazon Web Services Certified Developer
• Google Certified Professional Cloud Architect
• Oracle Certified Associate (OCA): Java SE Programmer
• Oracle Certified Professional (OCP): Java ME Mobile Application Developer
• PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)

Focus on Core Technical Skills

If you demonstrate too many skills on your resume, recruiting managers will assume that the particular candidate has a broad experience and is not enough to perform well in a competitive work environment. Therefore, be wise enough to list your relevant skills only. It could get you noticed and help you to get your dream job.

Are you not sure what buzzwords are or how to spot them? Use the Cresuma buzzword finder to find what buzzwords you have in your resume.

Let’s look at the most preferred skills for software engineers.

Technical Skills for a Software Engineer Resume

• UI/UX
• C, C++, C#
• Data synchronization
• Project documentation
• JIRA
• Testing and deployment
• Data Structures
• Computer programming
• Oracle (SQLPLUS)
• JAAS
• Project management
• Machine learning
• Debugging
• SQL
• Unix
• PHP
• AWS (Amazon Web Services)
• JavaScript
• Web development
• Angular

Best Soft Skills for a Software Engineer Resume

• Adaptability
• Teamwork
• Leadership
• Approachability
• Attention to detail
• Critical Thinking
• Creative thinking
• Communication
• Time management
• Flexibility and adaptability
• Quick Learner
• Problem solving and logical thinking
• Research
• Team player

Tips for making your Software Engineer Resume stand out

Tip #01 – Use action verbs

Action verbs or power verbs always bring strength to your resume. Therefore use relevant action verbs in your resume wherever possible and whenever possible. Truly this trick is a great way to grab the attention of a typical recruiter or hiring manager to yourself.

• Analyzed
• Accelerated
• Solved
• Rebuilt
• Applied
• Modified
• Decoded
• Verified
• Enhanced
• Performed
• Provided
• Developed
• Maintained
• Designed
• Documented
• Partnered
• Improved
• Assured
• Coded
• Directed
• Oversaw
• Implemented

Tip #02 – Quantify your achievements

Qualifications and experiences are not everything. Recruiters will impress after seeing your achievements on your resume. Therefore If you could mention them with quantified results, they will impress more, and consequently, you will have a higher possibility of having the job opportunity.

Tip #03 – Write an impressive cover letter

Even though you have a fully optimized software engineer resume that will not be enough to land you the job. Because it is equally important to submit a good cover letter together with the resume. Usually recruiters read the cover letters first and if and only if they get impressed with the cover letter, they will move to have a look at your resume. So it is very important to learn how to write a cover letter for a software engineering position before submitting your job application.

Software Engineer Resume Sample (Text Version)

MICK SHEVILTON

Senior Software Engineer

+44659845689

mikeshelton@gmail.com

Park Avenue, New York City

LinkedIn – https://linkedin.com/in/mike-shevilton

Summary

Self-starting IT professional with more than 8 years in the business application development field. Skilled at whole System Development Life Cycle. Created new features for a web application and increased the costume satisfaction rate from 20% within 3 months and Awarded as the employee of the year in 2019.

Work Experience

Software Engineer – 2018/Jan to present

The Redmond, Washington

• Developed and maintained an inventory management tool using Java.
• Modified new features for a Web application and improved the income of the company by 10% each year.
• Designed and maintained an e-commerce site that combined with PayPal and other payment gateways APIs.

Junior Software Engineer – 2014/Jun to 2017/Nov

SoftTech, Boston

• Provided the service to analyze, create and maintain a Web application accessed by 10 million users worldwide.
• Developed the web application, found the errors and Innovated new strategies, tools and methodologies to debug them.
• Generated back-end programming based on Python, C++, PHP and MySQL frameworks.

Education

Master’s Degree in Computer Science – 2012/Jun – 2014/Jul

Harvard University, Cambridge

Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science – 2008/Oct – 2012/Feb

University of Virginia, Charlottesville

Skills

• Python
• Java
• PHP
• HTML
• Flexibility
• MS SQL Server
• C#
• JavaScript
• Quick learner
• Critical thinking
• Team oriented
• Flexibility
• Adaptability 6

Languages

English – Native Speaker

German – B2

French – Working Knowledge

Certifications

AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional(AWS – 2016/Oct)

URL – https://aws.amazon.com/certification/

Certificate No – AW78-2323

Oracle Certified Professional (OCP) Java SE 8 Programmer(Oracle – 2014/Mar)

URL – https://academy.oracle.com/en/resources-oracle-cerficaons.html

Certificate No – OC2658-4545

Additional Activities

• Facilitate monthly meetings of the Software Developers’ Club.
• Published different blog articles for tech-related web sites.

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