Software Engineering Resume: The Ultimate 2023 Guide With 20+ Examples

[Click here to directly go to the complete Software Engineering Resume Sample]

To get interview calls for top-tier software engineering jobs, you need an impeccable resume.

In this article, we will show you what it takes to make a resume that stands out and catches the recruiter's attention. To help you achieve this goal, we have provided section-wise explanations & software engineering resume examples.

Before we begin, here's a quick summary of our Software Engineering Resume 2023 Guide:

• Use the month & year format to present dates. Use the city/state code format to present location.
• Arrange information in your resume by order of relevance with the most recent event first. This method of organizing information is called the chronological resume format. Follow it if you don't have any employment gaps.
• Write a software engineering resume summary if you have over 3 years of work experience. If you don't, write a software engineering resume objective instead.
• Incorporate relevant software engineering resume keywords into different sections of your resume. This helps you write a job relevant resume.
• Don't use paragraphs to communicate the details of your work experience. Instead, use one-liner points & mark relevant words & phrases in bold. Doing this helps you draw the recruiter's attention to your key achievements within that point.

Implementing the above-mentioned steps will help you write a great resume. But that's not all there is to it. You will need to do more & get into the specifics of each section.

After all, you can't have an impeccable resume if each section is not perfect.

To write an impeccable software engineering resume, follow these 8 resume tips that we have mentioned below:

• Choose the right software engineering resume format
• Organize your software engineering resume using relevant sections
• Write your name at the top of your software engineering resume
• Research the resume guidelines around the personal information section
• Use your current job designation as the profile title
• Perfect the professional experience, summary, & key skills sections
• List the details of your academic background
• Use Hiration's Resume Writing Services

We will now cover these points in detail.

In case you're looking for a quick fix to your resume writing problems and don't have the scope to read this comprehensive guide, feel free to use our Online Resume Builder. It is designed to give you the resume help you need using AI intuitive features.

What's more? We also have a JD-Resume Match functionality to help you write a job targeted software engineering resume & 250+ resume templates and resume examples to help you with your resume writing needs.

We also have a pre-designed software engineering resume template within the tool that you can easily modify to suit your career trajectory.

Software Engineering Resume Sample

To make an impeccable resume, you need to follow the rules of resume writing and perfect each section of your software engineering resume.

Here's a perfect software engineering resume sample with impeccable sections. It uses the reverse chronological resume format to arrange information in the resume:

Choose the right software engineering resume format

What does it mean to choose the right software engineering resume format?

It means structuring your resume in such a way that it complements your career trajectory.

In total, there are three types of resume formats:

• Chronological Resume Format: This is time-based & well suited for professionals in all stages of their career. Recruiter & ATS friendly. Not ideal for professionals with career gaps.
• Functional Resume Format: This format is skill-based & is considered ideal for professionals with career gaps. However, we don't recommend it as this type of resume format is not ATS friendly.
• Combination Resume Format: This format is a combination of the first two resume formats. Taking a timeline & skill-based approach to writing resumes, this resume format is highly recommended for almost all professionals including professionals with career gaps.

Since the chronological resume format is the most widely used and accepted form of format, it is best to use it to structure your resume (as long as you don't have any gaps in your employment history).

Organize your software engineering resume using relevant sections

Now that you know what a perfect software engineering resume looks like, you will notice that we have used resume sections to organize information.

Of these, there are 7 must-have resume sections:

• Header
• Personal Information
• Profile Title
• Summary/Objective
• Key Skills
• Professional Experience
• Education

In addition to this, you can also include the following sections:

• Internships
• Certifications
• Awards & Recognition
• Additional Information
• Volunteering Experience

Organizing information using resume sections improves the readability of your software engineering resume. Using sections helps you optimize your resume for ATS compliance too. So use resume sections.

Read our Resume Sections Guide to learn all about resume sections.

Use our Online Resume Builder to curate your resume. It comes with a huge library of pre-filled resume templates that you can easily personalize to suit your qualifications and work history.

Write your name on the top of your software engineering resume

The first section of your resume is the header. Like all other sections, this needs to be perfect.

Here are some rules that you can follow to perfect the header:

• Don't write a generic 'CV' or 'Resume'. Instead, write your real full name at the topmost part of your software engineering resume.
• Doing this helps you instantly communicate to the recruiter that the resume belongs to you. Moreover, it also saves your resume from being misplaced or confused with someone else's.
• Considering this, it is important that you write your resume header in the largest font size of approximately 16-20 points.
• If you have a middle name, write your first name, followed by the first initial of your middle name in capital letters, followed by your last name. Example: If your name is Jared Paul Simpson, write it in this manner: "Jared P. Simpson"

Read our Resume Header Guide to learn more about resume headers & the importance it holds in shaping your resume.

Here's a software engineering resume sample illustrating the ideal resume header for your resume.

This is a snapshot of the header of a software engineering resume template that we have made using our Online Resume Builder. For more section-wise software engineering resume examples like this, read on.

Whether you're writing a resume for experienced Software Engineers or are writing a software engineering internship resume for beginners, a director of software engineering resume, or a software engineering manager resume; make sure that you consistently write your name right on top.

Research resume guidelines around the personal information section

After the first section i.e. the header, comes the personal information section of your resume. This is a must-have section for your software engineering resume because it is important & needs to feature in your resume at all costs.

But what should you put in this section?

Here's a list of the top 3 things that you should include in your resume at all costs:

• Updated mobile number
• Professional email ID
• Current Location

In addition to this, you can also include extra information as long as the resume guideline of your target company calls for it.

Hiration Pro Tip: Research the resume guidelines around the personal information section to make sure that your resume has all the information it needs. Additionally, make sure that your contact details are accurately presented without any errors to help a recruiter reach you for any official communication.

Here are some basic rules you should follow while composing this section:

• If you have multiple mobile numbers, present only one mobile number on which you are available 24x7. Make sure that you use your country’s ISD code as a prefix before your phone number. Example: +1 37648 21511
• Give your email ID details and make sure that it sounds professional. If you use funky names for an email ID {example: techfreakkelly(at)xyz(dot)com}, don't use it. Make a new email ID using the 'firstname_lastname(at)xy(dot)com' format.
• While presenting your location details, make sure that you use the city/state code format to present your current location. Example: If you are from Los Angeles, California; write it in this manner: 'Los Angeles, CA'.

Software Engineering Resume Sample for Personal Information Section

Read our Resume Contact Information Guide to get a better understanding of this section.

To know what an ideal personal information section of your software engineering resume should look like, take a look at the software engineering resume example we have given below:

This is a snapshot of the personal information section of a software engineering resume template that we have made using our Online Resume Builder.

To make use of this software engineering resume template, sign up on our platform to edit & download it for free!

Use your current job designation as the profile title

Profile title is the third must-have section of your software engineering resume. To do justice to it, make sure that you use your current or last held job designation as your profile title.

Doing so will help you communicate these key points to the recruiter:

• Your current job title/designation.
• Your functional industry.
• Your seniority in the organization.
• Your salary expectations.

Hiration Pro Tip: Write your profile title in the second-largest font size (approximately 14-16 points) to ensure that a recruiter recognizes it in one glance.

• If you are a software engineer, you can write your profile title in the following way: 'Software Engineer'
• If you are a software engineer who is hoping to shift into a data science role, & have done relevant certifications in data science, you can frame your profile title in this manner: 'Data Science Certified Software Engineer'
• If you're a fresh graduate hoping to write a software engineering intern resume, frame your profile title in this manner: 'Software Engineering Graduate'

Here's a software engineering resume example showcasing an accurately written profile title:

Are you curating your profile title the right way?

Does it need modification?

Is there a better way to illustrate your profile title?

Find the answers to all this and more with expert help from our Resume Review Service. Enquire now!

Perfect the professional experience, summary, & key skills sections

We will now discuss three key sections of your software engineering resume namely:

• Summary
• Skills
• Professional Experience

Your Software Engineering Resume Summary

The summary is an overview of your entire software engineering resume. This needs to be perfected at all costs. Why?

Because it is your one chance at presenting your key achievements and attracting the recruiter's interest.

A recruiter might or might not go through other sections in detail (or at all), but they will most certainly read your software engineering resume summary to evaluate your qualification for the job.

Here's a list of some software engineering resume tips for the summary section of your resume:

• Write a summary only if you have a minimum work experience of 3 years. If you don't, write a software engineering resume objective.
• Keep it short and crisp. A 3-5 lines paragraph summary is more than enough to attract the recruiter without losing them.
• Keep it effective. Since you just have roughly 5 lines to make an impact, make sure that your software engineering resume summary is achievement-based. In other words, make sure that you make the most of this space & highlight relevant achievements in software engineering. Quantify your achievements wherever possible.
• To save time and avoid repeated edits, compose the summary at the end.
• Begin your software engineering resume summary with a quick mention of the number of work experience you have and your job designation.
• Example: '5+ years experienced Senior Software Engineer . . . .'
• Composing your summary in this manner quickly communicates to the recruiter if you meet the work experience criteria.

To learn more about this, read our Resume Summary Guide learn the art of curating impactful resume summaries.

Attached below is a software engineering resume example (sample) showcasing a well written software engineering resume summary:

To draft impeccable summaries & get quick feedback on it, use our Online Resume Builder. Our platform simplifies the task of resume writing and helps you curate impeccable

Key Skills for your Software Engineer Resume

The second key section of your software engineering resume is the skills section. Why? Because recruiters want to know if you meet the skill criteria of a given job!

Let's say that a recruiter is looking for the below-mentioned skillsets for a software engineering job:

• Programming Languages: C, C++, C#, Java, Visual Basic, SQL, Python, React
• Web Design: HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, JSP, Servlets
• Database: Oracle, MS SQL Server, MySQL. Postgre SQL, MongoDB
• Web/Application Servers: Tomcat, IIS Server

These skillsets or skill criteria outlined by a recruiter are known as keywords.

Seeing them in your resume will tell the recruiter that you meet the skill criteria of the job vacancy he/she is hiring for.

All you have to do is scrutinize the JD of your target job and look for software engineering resume keywords. Once you identify them, check if they match your expertise. If it does, illustrate them in your resume.

Doing this helps you optimize your software engineering sample resume for keywords.

To simplify it for you, here's a list of the top 3 software engineering resume tips for the skills section of your resume:

• Make a technical skills subsection within a key skills section in your resume to separate your technical skills from your core software engineering skills.
• Do not use phrases like 'experienced in' or 'expertise in' to endorse your software engineering resume skills. Instead write it in this manner: 'Software Development', 'Software Testing', 'Server Management', etc.
• Incorporate relevant skill-based software engineering resume keywords only if you meet the skill criteria outlined in the JD of your target job.

For a better understanding of this section, read our Resume Skills Guide. It will walk you through the DOs and DONTs od this section & help you enrich your understanding of the same.

Here's a software engineering resume sample outlining the perfectly composed software engineering resume skills section:

If you want a second opinion on your existing software engineering intern resume or experienced software engineering resume; use our Resume Review Service!

Our resume strategists will give you the resume help you need in the form of informed resume-based analysis & industry parameters.

Software Engineering Resume: Professional Experience Section

The professional experience section of your software engineering sample resume is the third key section of your resume.

Let's say that the recruiter is impressed with what they see in the summary & skills section, they will be more likely to evaluate this section.

Your job is to optimize this section & make it recruiter-friendly.

How do you achieve this?

By improving readability, outlining your achievements, and making sure that the recruiter can identify key highlights of your career in one go.

To accomplish this, implement the below-mentioned software engineering resume tips:

• Use-one liner points (not paragraphs): This improves readability which encourages the recruiter to read this section. Moreover, it helps you with the ATS recruitment software as the tool can read & parse your resume all thanks to the effective presentation of information!
• Quantify your achievements wherever possible: This makes this section worth reading. Giving a bland account of your roles & responsibilities won't impress the recruiter. But outlining your achievements & quantifying them helps you show that you can drive results with your expertise.
• Group similar points under a unique heading a.k.a. bucketing: This communicates your key expertise area & important roles in one go. All a recruiter has to do is read the bucket heading & voila! the job is done!
• Highlight relevant words/phrases by marking them in bold a.k.a bolding: Doing this helps you divert the recruiter's attention to your key career highlights & achievements within each point.

Software Engineering Resume Sample for Professional Experience

When you implement all the tips we have outlined for this section, it helps you perfect it. For a better understanding of what you can do to perfect this section, read our Resume Work Experience Section Guide.

Here's a perfect software engineering resume example showcasing a perfectly composed professional experience section:

Are you doing what it takes to make the work experience section of your resume stand out? Will the recruiter be wowed into shortlisting your resume based on the content of this section?

If you're crippled with these questions, give yourself a good start with expert guidance from our Resume Strategists using our Resume Review Service!

List the details of your academic background

We will now discuss the education section of your resume. This is the seventh and final must0have section of your resume.

If you don't know what to put in this section, here's a curated list of the top things to put in the education section of your software engineering resume:

• Name of your school/university.
• Name of the courses you have pursued.
• The location of your school/university.
• Enrolment and graduation dates.

Refer to our Resume Education Section Guide to find out more about this section!

Here's a software engineering resume example showcasing a perfectly composed education section for your resume:

You will notice that we have added Top 2 percentile of the class.

You don't need to add a GPA or percentile metric if you have not performed exceptionally well in college.

Use Hiration's Resume Writing Services

At Hiration, we offer resume writing help to those who are seeking it.

We will now discuss the specifics of these services:

• Resume Review Service
• Online Resume Builder

Resume Review Service

If you want an expert opinion on your resume from a professional resume strategist, our Resume Review Service is the service for you.

Our Strategists review & give constructive feedback on your resume in compliance with the below-mentioned parameters:

• Compliance with industry norms
• Content Relevance
• Recruiter Friendliness
• Design Compatibility
• Conversion Scope
• ATS Compliance
• Global Compatibility
• Performance Assessment
• Resume Formatting (font, margins, the order of sections, etc.)

Online Resume Builder

Our Online Resume Builder is an online platform for resume writing & optimization.

It comes with the following features:

• Option to save unlimited resumes
• Intuitive next text suggestion
• Auto bold feature
• 25+ resume designs
• LIVE resume score
• JD-resume matcher
• Full rich-text editor
• Unlimited PDF downloads
• 100+ pre-filled resume templates
• 1-click design change
• A sharable link
• LIVE resume editor

Key Takeaways

Here are our key takeaways for our Software Engineering Resume 2023 Guide:

• To organize information effectively, use resume sections.
• Write your name right on top where the recruiter can see it.
• Use your current or last held job designation as your profile title. If you're a Software Engineer, write it as it is.
• Provide basic contact information + location details to enable a recruiter to get in touch with you.
• Outline your skills using a distinct key skills section.
• Keep your resume summary or objective short, crisp, and achievement-based.
• Use one-liner points to communicate your roles & responsibilities in the professional experience section.
• Quantify your achievements.
• Provide your education details.
• Use the reverse chronological format if you don thave employment gaps.
• Additionally, make a software engineering resume projects section to present past projects to showcase your expertise.

This brings us to the end of this article.

Implement the software engineering resume tips we have outlined here to perfect your existing resume.

Remember that you are one perfect resume away from an interview call. So go bonkers and get to work already!

Go to Hiration resume builder and create a professional resume for yourself.