Software engineer resume guide

A strong software engineer resume makes impact obvious: systems, ownership, constraints, and measurable outcomes.

What recruiters look for

  • • Evidence of shipping: features, reliability, performance, cost
  • • Scope: users, traffic, latency, datasets, team size
  • • Ownership: end-to-end delivery, design decisions
  • • Collaboration: cross-team work, stakeholder alignment

Bullet examples

Example (performance)

Optimized PostgreSQL queries and caching for high-traffic endpoints, reducing p95 latency by 38% and lowering infrastructure cost by 12%.

Example (reliability)

Implemented canary releases and automated rollback in CI/CD, cutting production incidents by 18% and reducing MTTR from 45 minutes to 12 minutes.

JD match checklist

  • • Use the JD’s core terms only where you have proof
  • • Map each must-have requirement to 1–2 bullets
  • • Add missing evidence via a project or rewritten bullets