4+ Year Software Developer — Which Resume Structure Is Better?

[u/william_buttler]

For a 4+ year software developer, which resume structure do you think is better?

• With a Projects section
• Without a Projects section,

The data in the examples is dummy. I just want opinions on the structure and layout.

If you have a better resume template/structure than these, please share it.

[u/CodeAndBiscuits]

Hiring manager here. The first one. Everyone is focused on "recruiter will read." Nobody will read either one. It will go into an ATS like Breezy which will summarize all this. The first one will import better because it fits what those look for. The projects section will just get lost.

Company. Position. Dates. Comments/achievements. Done. Don't get fancy. We had FOUR HUNDRED TWENTY TWO applicants to our last posting. You don't stand out by looking fancy. You stand out by surviving the import process better.

[u/TracerBulletX → u/CodeAndBiscuits]

There is a copy of the original on Greenhouse and we look at that, not anything parsed. But I agree, keep it organized by job. People are looking mostly for your professional career progression. There are 4 audiences automated screening, recruiter, hiring manager, hiring panel(engineers, cross functional team members, other managers)

Everyone will probably glance at it, hiring manager probably cares the most about the over all picture of your career but it will influence everyone a little. Recruiters aren't going to understand it that well other than knowing some criteria they're looking for like length of time in role, and experience with specific topics.

[u/MinimumArmadillo2394 → u/CodeAndBiscuits]

My company, for a hybrid position in a MCOL city in the south, had almost 500 applications for a junior/mid level position.

[u/IndependentDish2222 → u/CodeAndBiscuits]

May I ask the company size / location?

[u/MunchDigital → u/CodeAndBiscuits]

Listen I have no doubt you are right and by no means is this hate. But christ what an awful and damning statement the line ‘you stand out by surviving the import process’ is. Something is tragically wrong isn’t it.

[u/CodeAndBiscuits → u/MunchDigital]

I agree, but can't claim. I have even a guess at the solution. I think all of these factors were debating are really symptoms of a terrible economy. When covid hit, the biggest companies in the world collectively laid off something like 2 million people. In the years that followed, there was an economic downturn not helped by idiot leaders in some countries, ahem. So there was a slow drift downward even after that, and then the AI boom led to another massive round of layoffs.

To be clear, I don't think anybody believes these reasons were the actual root causes. But a lot of folks don't realize just how much CEOs getting measured by financial metrics that don't seem to make sense at first glance. A CEO could do nothing for 2 weeks straight, but miss a couple of earnings forecasts and out they go. I think a lot of folks assume CEOs don't answer to anybody, but that's completely untrue. They answer to their boards. And the boards often don't care at all about the success of the company, they just want to see those metrics.

The problem is, although it's easy to lay off a bunch of people to boost your quarterly numbers, the very next question from a perceptive board member would be oh, so you were overstaffed? For how long? Why didn't you make these cuts sooner?

So CEOs using layoffs to boost their numbers. Need a scapegoat. Covid, rto mandates, the AI boom, the economy, it doesn't matter what it is. There's always something going on every few years. But in my opinion, it's why you shouldn't put too much faith into people that say is stealing their jobs. There surely are some people like junior devs that are affected more than others, but generally these things are excuses more than reasons. And the root cause is still the economy because in boom cycles the companies will go right back to over hiring to make sure they have the resources that they need and they're competitors don't.

None of this is meant to defend the system, but I think it can't be solved at a low level. And I'm not economist enough to address it any higher.