EXAMPLE SOFTWARE ENGINEER RESUMES: BALANCE TECHNICAL DETAILS WITH COMPELLING CONTENT





If you found these software engineer resumes inspiring, you may have an interest in our other resume examples. Some popular examples include this restaurant manager resume, these nursing resumes, this CIO resume, this CTO resume, this CEO resume, this CFO resume, these administrative assistant resumes, and these blue-collar resumes.
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Software Engineer Resume Before & After
Use the slider below to view our stunning before and after transformation of this software engineering manager resume.


Software Engineer Resume Project Brief
DIY technical resumes are often filled with dry technical details that will put a reader to sleep. While many times the technical details are important for keyword reasons (to ensure your resume performs in applicant tracking systems, aka ATS), as shown in this software engineer resume, there are ways to include the most important software engineering resume keywords while still writing a compelling, achievement-rich resume.
As this resume was for a management-level candidate, the body of the resume and job descriptions focus primarily on leadership and management accomplishments. A similar strategy would be used for any management or executive-level technology resume or any director of engineering resume.
Technology details are listed near the end of a resume in a separate section. Still, technical qualifications were important to this software engineering manager, so enough technical detail was retained in the experience section to convey the depth of experience in context. As you can see from the before version of this software engineer’s resume, this is a complete reversal from the DIY approach taken.
Conservative color, shading, and thoughtful resume design helps us include a great deal of information while still keeping the resume easy to read. The graphic on the front page will be skipped by ATS systems and the text inside it will be lost. While it is impossible to tell without looking at the source file, we have taken the text that is inside the graphic and placed it underneath the graphic. Even though the ATS will skip the graphic, it will “read” the text underneath it so that the important application development and management keywords aren’t missed.
Early military experience, which many employers value, is shown at the end of the resume, although without detail.
VP, Software Engineering Resume Before & After
Use the slider below to view our before and after transformation of this VP of software engineering resume example.


As shown in this VP of software engineering resume example, the visual appeal of your resume can make a huge difference in the overall results it produces.
But, the content of your software engineering resume should always be your first priority.
Design choices should be made strategically and always with the goal of making your resume more easily skimmable (leave a dynamic impression and convey key points with a glance) and more easily readable, for those who read it in depth.
Put yourself in the shoes of the resume recipient.
Respect your reader.
Reviewing resume after resume is monotonous and boring. As illustrated by this executive-level software engineering resume example, design elements can be used to highlight important information and break up the monotony of reading typical resumes.
This resume includes a quote at the beginning from a former U.S. president. This is an uncommon technique but is effective in this case because the quote reinforces this client’s personal brand in a powerful way.
Also take a look at the previous experience section of this example resume. Did you see that it was undated? Even if you noticed, it is unlikely that it was the first thing you noted. A previous experience section like this is very helpful when you have older experience that is still relevant, yet you don’t want to include dates to age you and potentially be the cause of age discrimination.
One final important point: check out the education section. This candidate did not have a college degree. But, rather than just leaving it completely off the resume we included the coursework he had taken toward a degree. This helps to rank for the important educational degree keywords and also helps to take attention off the lack of a degree by human readers.