You’re ready to take your tech career to the next level… but is your resume? Check out this software engineer resume sample from a real client we worked with here at Let’s Eat, Grandma, and find out how to write one that’s just as great.
By: Daniel Lorenzo | Content Marketing Manager at Let’s Eat, Grandma
As a software engineer, we know you have an awful lot of talent. To make it to this level, you’ve had to learn programming languages and excel at projects that a writer like me can’t even wrap my head around!
However, if you’re getting ready for a new job, there are a few annoying challenges you have to face before you can get back to banging out that code. Number one on that list: updating your resume.
No matter at what stage you are in your career, it can be difficult to get your accomplishments down on paper. It’s even more difficult when you’ve heard so many conflicting pieces of resume advice.
That’s why we’re here with this helpful software engineer resume sample. Here at Let’s Eat, Grandma, we’ve written over a thousand successful resumes for job seekers across every industry and experience level. Our professional business writing consultants know a thing or two about resumes, and we’re happy to share our winning formula with you.
This client (name changed) came to us with 20 years of solid experience, but a resume that still wasn’t getting results.
We helped him turn his experience into a concise, attractive, metrics-based resume that made his accomplishments shine.
Check out the Before-and-After of this resume sample below, then read on for some actionable tips:
Before:
After:
What makes this a great software engineer resume sample?
#1: Condensed to One Page
While 2-page resumes for 10 or more years of experience are no longer unheard of, we always advise striving for one page whenever possible
In this case, Christian’s many years of experience pushed him onto the first 1/3rd of a second page. Our writer could have settled for this, but decided he was close enough to one page that we could easily gain him the bonus points with a recruiter that come with a tight one-pager.
How’d we do it? We rephrased his lengthy professional experience description based on relevance to the job descriptions he was applying for.
We also did some reformatting and redesign, and quite a bit of the following step…
#2: Old Experience Removed
Christian’s original resume went all the way back to 1993. Since his most recent positions had quite a bit of relevant, impressive content, we capped the resume at 2000.
By cutting the older experience, we eliminated redundant content (especially important in a field like software engineering where technology is constantly being updated) and prevented any triggers for age discrimination.
Worried that cutting experience from your resume will prevent you from showing the breadth and longevity of your career? Never fear! We recommended adding all of your experience on your LinkedIn profile, which is not limited by length.
#3: Neat, Formatted Skills Section
As a software engineer in 2019, we know that you’re likely fluent in a lot of software techniques, languages, platforms, and methodologies. From C# to jQuery to vmWare, your industry comes with a wide variety of technical terms that you do want to list to showcase the breadth of your skillset.
HOWEVER, we don’t ever want to see a ton of technical jargon just dumped haphazardly into 4 whole lines on the page.
While you might be concerned about getting all of these software terms in as keywords to pass through the ATS systems, never forget that your resume also has to be readable to a human.
Instead of just listing your technical skills one after another, format them like we did Christian’s, with distinct, bolded categories.
You and I both know you’re ready for the next stage in your software engineering career. Now get ready to write a resume that shows you are!
For even more resume help, visit our homepage and upload your resume for a FREE Career Score.
Find out how our business writing experts can get your materials in shape and land you your dream job!
(And, be sure to check out the Career Warrior Podcast for more answers to any and all of your job-search questions!)
