What my Software Resume Looks Like

How to keep it clean, legible, concise, and a bit casual.

To begin with, you can take a look at my resume, and then we will go from section to section discussing each one, including tips, tricks, the reasoning behind choices, and what I aim to convey within each.

Right Side vs Left Side

The first thing you might notice is that my resume is divided vertically into two sections. I give the right side a lot more space because it is the first place I want recruiters' eyes to go after they have seen my photo.

The right side covers the most pertinent information in regard to my candidacy, who I am as well as my professional and educational experience. Often this is what recruiters are looking for, so I want them to be able to find it without even having to look.

Dividing the resume into two, keeping the right side clutter-free, and having section names that stand out clearly, has allowed my resume to skimmed exceptionally quickly.

Section 1 — Who I am

I start with my name in large letters, follow it up with my professional title, and finish with a friendly blurb someone can read in about ten to twenty seconds, which will tell them who I am. As a personal choice, I tend to keep mine slightly more casual by including non-software hobbies. My aim in doing this is to show that I am a rounded and friendly individual with interests outside of work.

Section 2 — Professional Experience

Pretty straightforward, where I have worked, my title while I was there, followed by a few bullet points about my roles and accomplishments.

I try to think in terms of what a recruiter looks for. Let’s look at my most recent position. I list my key skills: resolving issues and quick implementation of solutions, experience with large codebases, and the individual development and implementation of a complete system. I am highlighting my hire-able skills rather than just prattling on about my day to day responsibilities.

Section 3 — Education

Where and when I have attended school, the name of my acquired degree(s) and certification(s).

Section 4 — Other

Other is where I list anything that shows I am passionate about software outside of work. I need to update it and add personal projects, but anything you can throw in here will pad your resume nicely. Personal projects, open-source collaboration, code mentoring programs, etc.

Section 5 — A Picture of Me

Having a photo on my resume is probably my most controversial addition, as it goes against everything taught in school about resume building.

I, however, really like having a picture for three reasons. It helps my resume stand out, makes me more memorable as a candidate, and if it is a well-taken photo, paints me as friendly and professional.

I have a picture on my LinkedIn and Glassdoor profile, why should my resume be any different? I want it to be the first thing a recruiter sees so that they have a picture of me in their mind as they read through the right side of my resume. By having them follow this sequence, I am aiming to have them tie everything they read to their friendly and professional mental image.

One of my mantras is that if a company won’t hire me because my resume has a splash of colour and a photo, I probably would not have fit in there anyway.

Section 6 — Professional Skills

In this section, I list my coding languages, frameworks, libraries, so on and so forth. I use skill bubbles; they are awesome. If you can’t add skill bubbles, try to figure out another method to show how comfortable you are with each.

Remember! However, this section is for skills in which you are confident.

Anything you decide to put into this section is fair game in an interview. So if you used a framework in that one Javascript class you took four years ago, it probably doesn’t belong here. You don’t want to be in an interview having to explain that you, in fact, don’t remember a single than about a technology that you were highlighting.

Keeping this section focused on your strongest skills also makes it very quick to skim. If you do want to mention a skill you feel is pertinent to the role, but you aren’t very comfortable with it or used it very briefly in the past, save it for a cover letter, which I cover in this article

Section 7 — Personal Skills

This section isn’t the most important. It is mostly filler, especially when I did not have much experience. It pads your resume a bit. I tend to quickly list my top five skills that I feel make me a strong software employee.

Section 8 — Languages & Citizenship

If you only speak the language of the location in which you are applying and only have one citizenship, you can omit this entirely.

If you speak multiple languages, however, I would recommend including them. You never know who a company deals with and they may very well see value in it. They might have clients that speak that language or another office in a country that uses that language.

For citizenship, I included it because I was applying for jobs in the UK but only had experience with companies in Canada and wanted to emphasize that there would be no work visa hoops for me to jump through.

Section 9 — Contact & Social

Here you just put how a company can reach you and your relevant online presence.

If you want to ask me any questions or just connect and talk about code, or anything comp-sci related, why not join the Discord Server that I admin