Should I list every programming language I've touched?

No - list only languages and frameworks you're genuinely proficient in and that appear in the job description. Padding with unrelated tech dilutes keyword relevance and looks unfocused to both parsers and reviewers.

Do I need a GitHub or portfolio link on my resume?

Yes, include it in the header near your email. ATS parsers extract it as a URL field and recruiters click it directly - just make sure the header isn't inside a text box or graphic the parser can't read.

// ATS OPTIMIZATION GUIDE: SOFTWARE ENGINEER

Software Engineer ATS Resume Guide

Keyword and formatting guidance for a single-column software engineer resume optimized for Greenhouse and Lever. Tech stack highlights, action verbs, and structure advice.

// SEMANTIC KEYWORDS

Recommended Skills & Keywords

Crucial entities parsed by ATS screening filters.

ReactTypeScriptNode.jsSystem DesignCI/CDAWSPostgreSQLDockerREST APIsGraphQL

// POWER ACTION VERBS

Strong Impact Action Verbs

Replace weak statements with these high-velocity verbs.

ArchitectedDeployedOptimizedRefactoredScaledAutomatedImplementedDesigned

// PARSING PITFALL

Common Formatting Mistake

Avoid this to keep your CV parser-compliant.

Using tables, multi-column tables, or progress percentage bars to list coding skills. Standard ATS parsers read across rows rather than columns, merging unrelated skills, while graphic bars are completely ignored.

// STRUCTURE ADVICE

Layout Design Directions

Best practices for organizing content sections.

Create a dedicated Technical Skills section grouped by category (Languages, Frameworks, Developer Tools) and place it near the top of the resume. For experience bullets, always start with an action verb and end with quantifiable results.

// STRATEGY CHECKLIST

3-Step ATS Optimization Plan

Action steps to raise your ATS match score rating.

1
Isolate technical keywords and place them in a clean comma-separated list.
2
Ensure the contact header has no text inside templates or footers.
3
Export the final output as a clean, text-based PDF rather than a scanned raster image.

// EXAMPLE BULLETS

Sample Software Engineer Resume Bullet Points

Adapt these to your own achievements - keep the numbers real.

Architected a microservices migration for a 500K-user platform, cutting average API latency by 42%.
Deployed CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions and Docker, reducing release cycle time from 5 days to 4 hours.
Refactored a legacy monolith into 6 independent services, improving deployment frequency by 3x.

// FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Software Engineer Resume Questions

Straight answers for this role's ATS screening.

Most tech companies use Greenhouse, Lever, or Workday. These parsers read text top-to-bottom and left-to-right, so avoid multi-column layouts and tables.

// TEST YOUR CV

Check Your CV for Software Engineer Roles

Scan your resume against ATS filters to get a score breakdown.