Any solid senior software engineer resume samples? I need to update mine as I start looking for jobs. Not a lot of samples talk about how to format it when youve been at one company for a long time with multiple roles.
That 75th percentile might even be enough to get to an interview, depending on how sparse the company’s pipeline is. But in terms of optimizing content to advance from 75 to 90+ percentile – the best method is something that jumps out at the person reading. That might be an elite degree, or a popular project, or an unusually relevant background for the company.
Basically, you need a clean resume and at least one “thing” that jumps off the page and differentiates you from other candidates.
Sometimes I wonder how the hiring process would change if applicants could see the resumes they’re competing with.
I ended up with this: https://henryfjordan.com/resume-2020.pdf
It got me plenty of call backs and a new job within a few months. Looking at it again now, I might remove/shrink the "profile" section and move "skills" down below "experience". The resume is very number heavy, which I think worked well selling me as someone who got stuff done. Under my "Experience" section I put my general responsibilities first and then a list of achievements for my main job that was basically a listing of big projects I worked on. I figured that since I really only had 1 real developer job that I should make sure to communicate what that job was like in addition to my achievements. If I had worked at 3 different places, I think it would have been more of a given that I've run into Agile and Jira and all that, but with 1 job I needed to be more explicit.
I also took a lot of advice from an article that I cannot find now, but it described the 3 audiences to consider when writing your resume: HR/Recruiters, Hiring Managers (your potential boss), and Peers/Interviewers. Each is looking for something different. HR is looking that you match the keyword-bingo and don't have red flags (The profile and skills section are mostly for them). The Hiring Manager cares the most about impact, so sell your achievements to them. Peers are mostly just looking for something to talk about in interviews, so I put a line about a video game I made during a hackathon to serve as a conversation starter in interviews.
I hope this helps!
Assuming you are talking more to the latter part of that spectrum, this is what I would expect to see:
1) A rough timeline (say down to month or quarter resolution) of roles within that company (and others if you have them), with a concise role description focused on what you were responsible for; give me an idea of your day-to-day in that role.
2) Projects and achievements. "Shipped X" "Added Y capability" "Improved Q performance by U %" is much stronger than "Worked on Z subsystem". Be prepared to describe anything in here in great detail if asked. Group achievements are fine but call out what you did (e.g. "Part of X team, delivering 9mm in new revenue by adding [system]. My contribution was [describe]).
3) Strengths and skills. Be honest but blow your own horn a bit. Anything you claim here a good hiring manager will consider testing.
4) Maybe education & certs etc., depends on relevance and position
Hiring managers want to understand the impact you've had before, and what you may bring to their team. If you write yourself up as a fungible IC, that's how you'll be pigeonholed.
Formatting. No more than 2 pages for an engineering position. Making it stand out a bit isn't bad, but much more important to make it clear and easy to read.Personally I don't care too much about format unless it is hard to follow.
Two classic ways to do this are time-based (so all above is interleaved) or functionally (e.g. a short role timeline, but also a project area, etc.). They are both fine if written well, but concentrate on the story it tells.
Honestly people are more used to the first format (timeline) but be careful not to bury your strengths if you do. If you chose the second approach to more easily emphasize them, make it clear by formatting.
Finally - remember a resume should not be a mere logbook of your work, more of a highlight reel.
I have no presence online, I don't do open-source, I went to an absolute no-name regional school, my work experience is nothing more than "Company, title, date range" and I worked for unknown companies for the majority of my career. I constantly get contacted by recruiters and I got all my jobs through LinkedIn still
I am now in a leadership position at a very competitive public company with a market cap over 100b (to illustrate that this works in general)
Companies are desperate and will interview anyone half-decent. If anything, resume is a red flag. I interview more than 100 people a year and I haven't read a resume in years
[total year range] Name of Company
-> indent [year range of last position] position title
duties, interesting projects
duties, interesting projects
I'd also always include months
I just looked at my (out-dated) resume and, for my first two long-term jobs, I just put the years, one of two specific titles, and a list of major accomplishments.
That said, I've never had to go through an HR screen so my resume probably never mattered much.