Resume examples · Free template included
Software Engineer Resume Example
Engineering resumes are read twice: once by a recruiter scanning for stack and seniority signals, once by a hiring manager looking for evidence you shipped things. Both passes are fast, so the useful information has to be unmissable: your stack, your scale, your outcomes.
What moves the needle at this level is specificity — "cut p95 API latency from 800ms to 210ms" says more than any list of frameworks. Technologies get you past the keyword filter; measured outcomes get you the interview.
The example
Maya Chen
Software Engineer
maya.chen@example.com · +1 (512) 555-0148 · Austin, TX · linkedin.com/in/mayachen-dev
Summary
Software engineer with 6 years building web applications in TypeScript and Python. Cut p95 API latency from 800ms to 210ms at a marketplace serving 300k monthly users. Most at home where product decisions meet production code.
Experience
Software Engineer II — Cartway (marketplace platform)
Apr 2023 – Present · Austin, TX
- Own the checkout service processing $2M/week; led its migration to event-driven architecture, cutting failed-payment retries by 62%
- Cut p95 API latency from 800ms to 210ms by profiling hot paths and adding targeted caching
- Mentor 2 junior engineers; both promoted within 18 months
- Drive the on-call runbook culture: incidents per quarter down from 11 to 4
Software Engineer — Brightfield Analytics
Jun 2021 – Mar 2023 · Remote
- Built the customer-facing reporting dashboard (React, Node, Postgres) used by 1,400+ business accounts
- Introduced end-to-end tests with Playwright; regression bugs reaching production dropped ~40%
- Shipped CSV/PDF export pipeline handling 50k-row reports without timeouts
Junior Software Engineer — Halewood Studios
Jul 2019 – May 2021 · Denver, CO
- Delivered 30+ client features across 6 production codebases, mostly React and Django
- Rebuilt the internal asset library, saving the design team ~5 hours/week
Education
BS, Computer Science — University of Colorado Boulder
2015 – 2019 · Boulder, CO
Focus on distributed systems. Teaching assistant for the intro data structures course, two semesters.
Certifications
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate — Amazon Web Services (2024)
Skills
TypeScript / JavaScript · React · Node.js · Python · PostgreSQL · AWS · System design
Languages
English (Native) · Mandarin (Conversational)
What matters for a software engineer resume
Lead with your strongest stack match
Mirror the posting’s exact terms (React vs. React.js matters less than being findable). Put the stack they ask for in your summary and skills section if you genuinely have it.
Quantify impact, not activity
"Worked on the payments service" is a duty. "Owned the payments service processing $2M/week" is an accomplishment. Every bullet should answer: how much, how many, how fast.
One page until staff level
Under ~8 years of experience, one page forces the right cuts. Two pages is for staff+ engineers with genuinely relevant depth.
Skip the objective, keep the summary sharp
Two lines: years of experience, your domain, your best metric. Nobody needs to read that you are "passionate about technology".
FAQ
Should a software engineer resume be one page?
Yes, for most engineers under staff/senior-plus level. One page forces prioritization — the strongest signal of judgment. Go to two pages only when the extra content is genuinely senior-scale.
Do I list every technology I have touched?
No. List what you can discuss fluently in an interview, weighted toward the posting. A skills section with 30 entries reads as 30 shallow claims.
Should I include side projects?
Early career: absolutely, they are your evidence. Mid-career and up: only if a project is genuinely impressive or fills a gap your job history does not cover.
More examples
Data Analyst
Five years of SQL, dashboards, and A/B tests — with the one analysis that paid for the salary.
Project Manager
PMP-certified, $2.5M portfolios, 96% on-time. Methodology mentioned once, outcomes everywhere.
College Student (Internship-Seeking)
Junior year, no internship yet, one page. Education up top, real work in the middle — yes, the café counts.