CV and ATS guide for software engineers
Recruiters spend seconds on title, latest stack, and whether you owned a system or only attended standups. Lead with the product and the outcome, then the tools.
Common ATS gaps
- Skills listed only in a two-column table, so Java or Kubernetes never lands in the parse.
- Slash groups on the JD (PostgreSQL / MySQL) while the CV only says “databases.”
- No dates on roles, or month-year mixed with “2022-Present” in a way parsers split.
Keywords that only count with proof
Name the stack you actually ran: language, datastore, cloud, and one production constraint (latency, cost, load). Do not add Gurobi, Kafka, or “led” if the work was a ticket you watched.
Common questions
- Should a software engineer CV be one page?
- One page is enough under ~5 years if every bullet earns it. Past that, two pages is fine — empty second pages are worse than a tight two.
- Do I list every language I have touched?
- No. List languages and platforms a work or project bullet can defend. A Skills line without a proving bullet is how you fail a JD match later.