How to write a strong Software Engineering Résumé! 📝

In one of my previous posts, I have mentioned that I will touch upon how to create a résumé for your next job and today I am gonna guide you through how to do just that! 😁

As you probably know, having a good résumé it's essential towards having your next dream job. But, where do you start, how many pages it should have, what should you include and what not? These are some of the many questions you might have. Don't worry I will go through most of them in this article! 😊

My Résumé (Example)

Let me cut it out straight to the end and give you an example of my résumé which I have spent a week writing and perfecting.

Number of Pages

Starting with essentials, your resume shouldn't be longer than one page, the only exception is if you are a Senior Software Engineer with years of experience and you cannot fit it in one page. But even then, you should accurately pick your work experience that is still relevant today. Résumé's goal is not to show the recruiter everything you have ever worked on, rather give a quick overview of your skills, experience and education.

❗️ Remember, recruiters on average spend less than 6 seconds viewing your résumé. They are very likely to skip most of the information as they are just skimming through it. They have hundreds of job applications, so you should focus on keeping it short and concise.

About

This is the most basic section, you should add your basic contact information, personal portfolio if you have one (highly recommend!) this is my portfolio I use. Also, I like to add my picture to give a sense of my personality (make sure you have a professional picture!).

Bonus point: add your motto for a personal touch!

Some people may argue that a Summary shouldn't be included in your résumé, but I like to add it as it gives recruiters a quick way to understand who you are and your top achievements without having to even read to your Work Experience section.

Again, try to make it short containing your experience and your most achievements you are proud of. You shouldn't make it longer than 250 characters.

Skills

Skills is an essential section you must include. Not only it gives your recruiter a quick way to see if you are a match or not for the job, but also it makes sure that it passes the ATS scan. If you don't know what ATS is, it's basically a tool that recruiters use to scan your résumé for keywords. So, if your résumé lacks most of the keywords that are required by the job post, the recruiter won't even get to spend 6 seconds on it as it will just be filtered by an automatic HR tool.

You don't have to add all the frameworks you know and any programming language you ever tried. By specifying a skill, it means you are comfortable with it and you are ready to work with it in your next job!

Work Experience

This section is THE MOST important part of your résumé and this is where you should spend most of your time polishing it.

You want to include your most recent work (make sure it's relevant to your field) and also describe in 12-20 bullet points your achievements at this company!

Describing your achievements is the important part of this section as this is where you really want to stand out from other applicants!

This is a formula I use when writing each accomplishment:

“Accomplished [X] as measured by [Y] by doing [Z]” — Laszlo Bock

This is a very efficient way to show what you actually achieved and how you did it and also preventing your accomplishment from looking fluffy.

By providing the [Y] - measurement, you can gain more trust and attention from the recruiter as you can prove what you actually provided some value to the company you have worked for.

Here are some verbs so you can use to make your accomplishments look different:

Also, you noticed probably that I added Leveraged knowledge in .... This is basically telling what technologies you gained knowledge in while working at this company. It will also expand the keywords on your résumé, which will increase your chances to get through the ATS scan. WIN-WIN 😁

Education

Education is still an important factor for some companies out there, so make sure to add your degree and main curses of your studies if it's relevant to the job post.

This is a section where you can add more information to your résumé if you still have some space left.

You can include some extra activities like Hackathons, Accelerators, Courses you took that you believe are relevant to your next job position.

Also, including multiple languages you speak will make you look cool. 😎 Jk, this can actually be important to a company if they require you to speak multiple languages.

Writing Your Résumé

Now, that we have discussed the most important parts of it, let's actually write it!

There are a few ways to do it:

• Find a Résumé Template on google, usually you can find .docx or google docs templates.
• Design your own in your design software like Figma or Adobe XD. This however might require more work and design skills.
• Use LaTeX résumé templates like Awesome-CV (the same I use) in order to write your résumé.

Personally, I prefer the latest as I really like this template 😊

Testing Your Résumé

You might write your résumé at this point and think that it's really great. But, I recommend first, uploading it to resumeworded.com (great tool, highly recommend!) to test your résumé.

I had to spend a few days just polishing my résumé until I got a green/yellow score in most of the sections. Don't be lazy and spend some time with this tool until you get comfortable with the score! You don't have to get it to 100% tho...

The next step will be to show it to a friend that works in the same field as you, so he can give you real feedback on your résumé.

Conclusion

Writing a résumé is not an easy task, especially if you want to maximize your chances to get accepted by your dream job!

There are a lot of details you must be aware of like the ATS scans recruiters use for filtering résumés, knowing that recruiters don't spend on average more than 6 seconds looking at your résumés and how to describe your work experience so it won't contain fluff!

Also, feel free to send me an email at zgirvaciandrei@gmail.com with your portfolio, I will try my best to get back at you with a quick feedback and some steps that you can do to improve your résumé! 😊

Hope you enjoyed this article. Let me know in the comments if you found it helpful, it will mean so much for me!

Good luck applying for your dream job, I believe in you! 🤗

p.s 🤫 I recently started a podcast called The Anxious Developer where I share my knowledge on how to reduce your stress, become more present and productive as a Developer. I would love to hear your thoughts on it! 😊

*Remember, you are worthy, you are loved and you matter! Have a great day! ❤️