CV tips for software engineers and IT graduates
How to present projects, tech stacks, internships and impact on a software engineering CV for local tech companies and remote roles.
What tech recruiters scan for
Tech recruiters and engineering managers look for three things quickly: the technologies you use, what you have built, and the impact it had. Make those easy to find.
Structure
- Contact details with GitHub and LinkedIn links.
- A short profile: your level, main stack and the role you want.
- Skills grouped by type: languages, frameworks, databases, tools.
- Experience, newest first.
- Projects with links.
- Education.
Write impact-focused bullets
- Built a REST API in Node.js and PostgreSQL serving about 2,000 requests a day.
- Reduced page load time by 40% with caching and lazy loading.
- Wrote unit tests that raised coverage from 35% to 70%.
- Worked in two-week sprints with a team of five, using Git and Jira.
Name the technology inside the bullet, so the reader sees where you used it.
Projects matter, especially early on
For graduates, two or three solid projects can outweigh coursework. For each one: what it does, the stack, your role and a link to the code or a live demo. A final-year project, a hackathon entry or an open source contribution all count.
The skills section
Group skills and list only what you can discuss in an interview. For example: Languages: JavaScript, Python, Java. Frameworks: React, Django. Databases: MySQL, MongoDB. Tools: Git, Docker, Linux.
Remote and international roles
Write in clear, simple English, mention your time zone and availability in your profile, and highlight experience with remote collaboration tools.
Format
The Scholar template suits technical CVs, with a four-column skills grid. For online portals, Clarity keeps everything ATS-friendly.