When you have got the best entry-level software engineering job for you, you can just apply, but how do you begin with your resume? You must always keep in mind that your resume will be the first thing that your recruiters and the hiring managers will see and if you really want to make a good first impression, it might just begin with a good resume.
Here, we will guide you through the process of building a junior software engineer resume. Before that, we will give you little information about what is expected of a junior engineer so that you can easily figure out the things that you need to highlight. After that, we will look into the details and find the things you need to add to stand out.
Expectations From A Junior Software Engineer Resume?
It is very important to keep certain things in mind while preparing the resume for the job of a junior software engineer. The first is that you are applying for a junior, not a senior post, so you don’t need to show much work experience, rather you need to focus on the other aspects of your life which make you suitable for the job.
The most important thing that is expected from a junior software engineer is a passion for the field. Some open-source code contributions and side projects are beneficial adds to your resume showing your want to hone your skills and go beyond yourself. Having a passion for the field helps a lot when you are looking to get into the job of a junior software engineer.
The confidence in your skills and abilities should be visible in your countenance. So before you even apply for the job, you need to make sure that you have the skills required for the job. In a junior engineer, the recruiters expect a basic handle on technology. Everything apart from that is a sweet bonus.
Also, the applicants must be willing to learn and hone their skills. When you are a junior developer, you are basically a blank slate, so what they care about is if you are willing to absorb the knowledge that they are going to impart, therefore your casual projects where you wrote code for fun, might put some weight in your resume.
Resume Structure
There are a few things that your junior software engineer resume must have:
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Contact details
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Employment history
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Software projects
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Education
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Awards, accomplishments, and/or hobbies
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Technical skills
Although these are very important details of software engineer resume, its structure is pretty flexible and how you arrange the sections will depend on your background. Recent computer science or a technology-related degree, for that matter, should make you prioritize your education, and if you have taught yourself how to code, then you can move the Software Projects section of the resume a little higher so that there is some extra emphasis put on it.
You should not make your resume too lengthy because the recruiter will most probably take a very quick scan of it. The message is to keep your resume short and straightforward with a heading and easy-to-read fonts with the required amount of spacing.
Contact details
A small but very important aspect of your software engineer resume is your contact details. They should be aptly provided and you need to make sure that there is no error in your phone number, your mailing id or your address. You can also add the links to your Github profiles and LinkedIn. And that would be all that you will need here.
Employment history
If you have not had much work experience, it is understandable as you are applying for the role of a junior developer. But if you have, you can provide the details of it. You can add the related jobs, starting with the most recent ones. Here, you have to mention your role, the name of the company, and the duration of your work there. To add to this, you can put a bulleted list of your projects and what you learned.
If you have some work experience that is not related to the field, you can just add your two most recent jobs and all the above-listed information. All that matters here is that the recruiter sees that you can work with the team and contribute to the companies goals.
Software projects
If you do not have any formal education in the field, then this section would probably be the most important section for your recruitment. Even if you do not have any relevant work experience, showing some quality projects might gain some attention from the recruiters and get you an interview.
If there are a number of side projects under your belt, it is best to choose 5 from it. You should prioritize the ones that highlight your skills and the ones that are required for the job posting. You should add projects which show your diversity like:
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Design
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Mobile development
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Front-end development
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Back-end development
Then you also need to make sure that you have described each project well enough, by mentioning the problems you faced while working on them and how you tackled them. Also, mention the technologies you used to build them. These will also show the recruiters your passion for the field.
Education
If you don’t have much experience but have gained a very good education, in your software engineer resume you should add all the information regarding your education, including the certificates that you have got. You can also include the final-year projects that you have done.
Hobbies and accomplishments
Mention the extracurricular activities and the awards and achievements that you have in the different fields. Also if you have attended any technological conferences and meetups, you can add those too.
Technical skills
Then in the end you can list all your technical skills so that the recruiter knows exactly what you are capable of.
