INDUSTRY STATS
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, IT and Software Engineering positions are at a much faster than average growth rate, which is 22%. With that said, there are currently 1,847,900 jobs in the market right now. The total number of jobs is expected to increase by 409,500 to 2,257,400 in the period of 2020-30.
What’s more, the median annual wage for the IT and Software Engineering jobs was $110,140 in May 2020. The lowest 10% earned less than $65,210, and the highest 10% more than $170,100.
Our conclusion? The IT and Software Engineering job market is facing competition due to decreasing demand.
Top Senior Developer sections that make the best resume
- Header
- Professional summary
- Experience (with numbers and results)
- Relevant skills
- Education
- Certifications
How to write a Senior Developer resume experience section
Senior Developer Resume’s Job Experience Checklist:
- Use 4-6 bullet points per job title;
- Don’t go further than a decade behind when describing your job history, unless you’re applying for an executive position;
- Combine job responsibilities as well as achievements with numbers in results when you describe your past work;
- Start each sentence with a power verb and avoid overused buzzwords;
- Use either C-A-R or S-T-A-R methodology, when describing your experience.
The work experience samples below come from real Senior Developer resumes that got people hired at top companies. You can use them as an inspiration to build your own resume:
- Coach line reports to support personal development
- Performance Management for line reports
- Provide feedback to maintain and improve performance
- Collaborate with stakeholders to ensure delivery of work
- Lead technical discussions
- Mentor Junior/Mid level developers
- Collaborate with fellow developers to ensure delivery of high code quality
- Work on improving platform on a wider scale for the technology department
- Design, deploy and support custom modifications and integrations inside Salesforce using apex classes, triggers, batches, and several other tools
- Responsible for the development of Mulesoft applications both on-premise or cloud
- Configuration and sustain of CloudHub for all the clients
- Global single point of contact for complete Financial analytical content tool on reports, data sources, KPIs, Dashboards tool
- Conceptualized & Developed a solution for Key User Analytics for partner extensibility on SAP standard content such as KPIs, Dashboards and Overview pages useful for reporting
- Reduced Time Complexity in financial analytical reports by leveraging HANA in-memory capabilities
- Developed & Owned Totals and Balances tool used to store period balance aggregates used in Financial Statement reports for quick rendering of YTD G/L account balances
- Designed & Created analytical reports for IFRS15 revenue from contracts with customers & IFRS16 compliance reporting
- Conceptualized & Developed version controlled lease accounting application supporting IFRS16 legal dev
- Gained strong functional knowledge across multiple functions: Procure-to-Pay, Order-to-Cash, Logistics Manufacturing & Execution, Sales & Financial operations & accounting scenarios
- Developed new features using Salesforce Commerce Cloud platform as backend and backbone.js, React, sass, less and etc on the frontend
- Troubleshooted various frontend and backend issues, performance and security problems
- Developed CLI node.js tools for in-house usage
- Unit tested the code using mocha/sinon/chai/proxyquire
- Led knowledge sharing sessions
- Learned about: server-side JavaScript, node.js, common.js, testing JS code, Salesforce Commerce Cloud platform
- Made RESTful APIs from scratch using Symfony and Yii frameworks
- Refactored legacy code
- Helped building unified Vagrant development environment
- Contributed to the team with Linux, GIT and Yii framework knowledge
- Learned about Continuous Integration (CI), deployment procedures, Domain Driven Design
- Co-planed and co-constructed a highly optimized MVC framework serving RedTube.com
- Maintained the legacy system of few traffic heavy web systems
- Provided solutions to problems related to web application performance, security, payment gateways, external services
- Integrated numerous of external services such as payment providers and carrier systems (PayPal, virtual post terminals, ePay.bg, EasyPay, FastPay, Econt), SMS gateway, Amazon SES, etc
- Learned about: memcache, CDN, unit testing, efficiently troubleshoot and solve server load problems
- Part of the Remote Apps development team.
- Implemented Caching in the application to improve performance.
- Mentored freshers in the team.
- Always been a part of doing R&D work.
- Built web applications with ASP.NET using C#, MVC and SQL as a backend.
- Developed and consumed REST / SOAP Web Services to extract information from the database and other services.
- Cross system interface development using Web API to enable external application integrations
- Contributed as one of the lead developers, in building company's next flagship product targeting at both cloud platform and on-premise customers.
- Became the go-to-person of the team and helped bridge the communication with stakeholders to drive development forward.
- Drove initiatives of knowledge sharing among team members with a focus in writing clean code.
- Improved Continuous Integration (CI) process which play an integral part in maintaining product quality.
- Refined branching strategy as well as the deployment process, which helped to reduce overhead of development cycle.
- Coached junior developers on good engineering practices as well as sharing product knowledge.
- Developing and maintaining Ruby on Rails applications for both customers and administration
- Developing PHP MySql applications for customers,
- Developing templates, modules for Drupal projects
- Developing templates for Crownpeak Projects
- Maintaining LAMP stack sites of customers
- Providing guidance to team members.
- Template and module creation of the Drupal sites
- Mass-data update of Eloqua instances using REST API
- Data migration between Eloqua instances using REST API
- Maintaining of the International sites
- Template and Module creation for Drupal sites
- Creation of microsites
- Development of projects and activities carried out with C # version 2005 to 2012;
- Development of projects and activities carried out with .net Core
- Project development using Laravel
- Active participation in projects of Institutional Sites, Systems, Intranets and SharePoint Portal for clients such as Kroton Educacional (Sharepoint and Virtual Store System), Corretora Souza Barros, Hcor (Intranet and Website), Leroy Merlin (Intranet), Carrera, C&C
- Development of internal products
- Lead the team of 3 developers from concept, to Beta testing, to release
- Developed, tested and released PEEX services using the Azure platform
- Secured £120K in Sponsorship from Microsoft
- Engaged and directly coordinated with third parties including Music Reporting Service 7Digital, E-Commerce Solutions Luccern, and Microsoft Azure Cloud Services
- Managed applications as an Senior Developer
- Responsible for converting business requirements to a technical solution.
- Acted as Technical Specialist in Oracle 11 g, Geocoder and Mapinfo
- Developed the customized report in Crystal report
- Internal On-Demand cloud computing platform
- Stack : Node.js, React, Storybook, Mocha/Jest, Lerna, GitLab, Jenkins, Docker.
- Development of a custom HTTP(S)/WebSocket proxy in Node.js.
- Upgrades : Webpack, Node.js, migration from mocha to jest...
- Implementation of Lerna : Refactoring of the monolithic project into separate modules published on a private npm repository.
- Performance optimization on pain points.
- Development of new pages for the marketplace app in Node/React.
- Maintenance and upgrades for existing web services in Drupal 7.
- Stack: Drupal, Node.js, jQuery.
- Development of internal tools in Node.js.
- Thorough knowledge of game programming, development, optimization, and architectures, software design and mobile application development, testing techniques, debugging and troubleshooting methods, documenting game designs and codes as well as creating game prototypes
- Working knowledge of standard game development software such as Unity and Construct 2 as well as various code editors and testing tools
- Strong knowledge on developing HTML 5 and Flash games
- Collaborated with game designers, producers, developers and artists to ensure highest quality product as well as assisted in play testing
- Pre- and Post-Trade Compliance reporting framework spanning multiple regulators across the globe.
- ESMA Sovereign Debt Short Sell Compliance reporting solution and SEC RegSHO reporting.
- Creating and maintaining transaction reporting framework for European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) reporting ETD & OTC derivatives and Markets in Financial Instrument Directive/Regulation (MIFID) reporting.
PRO TIP
In writing your Senior Developer resume, you will no doubt want to list your previous duties - as you should. But steer clear of just listing your duties, instead of your achievements. Make your resume stand out by communicating what you have done, and not merely what the job needed you to do.
Action Verbs for your Senior Developer Resume
Recommended reads:
Senior Developer Resume Skills’ Tips & Tricks to Impress Recruiters
Resume Skills Section Checklist:
- Ensure your hard skills section (including technologies) are exactly matching the job description.
- Don’t simply list your soft skills. Apply the “show, don’t tell” principle - let your job achievements speak for themselves.
- Find a way to showcase your skills beyond the skills section.
- Your resume’s skill section is important to ATS systems - so don’t skip it.
Top Skills for your Senior Developer resume
- Python
- Java
- Javascript
- GIT
- SQL
- HTML
- Teamwork and communication
- Creative problem solving
- Analystical thinking
- Owning up to errors
- Self-learning
- Time management
PRO TIP
Add a Talent Section to your resume, where you can pick your top 3 soft skills and describe how you used them to complete a project or balance departmental communication.
Senior Developer Resume Header: Tips, Red Flags, and Best Practices
CHECKLIST For Your Senior Developer Resume Header
- Your name and surname in a legible and larger resume font
- The job title you’re applying for or your current job title as a subheading to your name
- Link to your portfolio or online profile, such as LinkedIn
- Address (City and State for the US; just your city for rest of the world)
- Email address
- Headshot (required or welcomed in the EU; not required and sometimes frowned upon in the US)
Stick to popular email providers such as Gmail or Outlook. And use these professional formats to create your username:
- first.last@gmail.com
- last.first@gmail.com
- firstlast@gmail.com
- f.last@gmail.com
- first.l@gmail.com
Recommended reads:
PRO TIP
Include a link to your portfolio in your Senior Developer resume header. Most companies will require that you include one in your resume, and even if they don’t, it’s an excellent opportunity to directly show them your proudest projects.
Senior Developer Resume Summary Best Practices
Checklist: What to include in your Senior Developer resume summary:
- Years of experience;
- Highlight top 3 skills and proficiencies;
- One big professional accomplishment you’re most proud of, that you can tie with the aforementioned skills;
- Use short, direct sentences - but no more than three - to keep the HRs interested.
Resume Summary Formula:
PRO TIP
Your summary section should act as a professional taster. Use it wisely. Effectively convey your professional profile and let the hiring manager know that if they hire you, they won’t be disappointed. Make sure to include keywords from the job description too! Elaborate on your abilities further in your experience section. Again, cater to the job description.
Recommended reads:
Listing Your Education, Certifications and Courses
Resume Education Section Checklist:
- Ensure your hard skills section (including technologies) are exactly matching the job description.
- Don’t simply list your soft skills. Apply the “show, don’t tell” principle - let your job achievements speak for themselves.
- Find a way to showcase your skills beyond the skills section.
- Your resume’s skill section is important to ATS systems - so don’t skip it.
Top Certifications for your Senior Developer resume
Recommended reads:
PRO TIP
There are dozens of certifications that you can claim as a Senior Developer. But, some are more effective than others. That’s why you mustn’t include every certificate other applicants might have. Try instead to earn and list a few of the difficult ones.
Senior Developer Resume: Additional Writing & Formatting Tips
There are three basic resume formats you can choose from:
- Reverse-chronological resume format;
- Functional resume format;
- Hybrid (or Combination) resume format;
The most optimal format for your particular case will depend on your years of experience, as well as whether you’re switching industries or not.
Reverse chronological resumes are best suited for experienced individuals who are sticking to their industry. The experience section takes a central place, and its bullets contain your responsibilities and achievements, coupled with numbers and results.
Functional resumes are used by less experienced jobseekers or career changers. Note that it’s not a format that recruiters prefer, as most are used to the classic chronological alignment. Instead of a list of job titles, functional resumes focus on your skills, and through what experiences you gained them.
Hybrid resumes are great for both experienced and entry-level candidates, as well as career changers. They combine the best of both worlds - most often in a double column format, where one side of the content is focused on your experience, whereas the other - on your skills, strengths, and proudest moments.
Senior Developer Resume Summary best practices
Here are more resume tips regarding your layout and style:
- Clear and legible 12p resume font size;
- Use 10’’ resume margins - that’s default for a great resume design;
- Use a one-page template resume length if you’ve got less than 10 years of experience; otherwise, opt for a two-page resume;
- Save your resume as PDF before sending it to the recruiter.
To take it a step further, check out how your resume can stand out without leaning too much on the creative side.
Recommended reads:
PRO TIP
Sometimes you’ll want to go after a job which requires more experience than you have. Instead of using a typical Senior Developer resume layout, you can use a creative layout. Getting noticed is the most important challenge and a creative resume layout might help you get invited for an interview as most of other accountants have boring resume designs.
Other sections to include in your resume
Depending on the type of company (corporation or start-up; innovative or traditional), job seniority level and your location, you may want to include more sections to your Senior Developer resume:
Senior Developer Resume: How to Make Yours More Creative & Stand Out
When you send your resume to a potential employer, chances are it's the fiftieth one they've seen that day. That's why you need to make your Senior Developer resume stand out for the right reasons. That means showing your personality, not just your professional experience. Employers are far more likely to remember a candidate who seems like a genuine person and not a robot. Do this by including your passions (which is also a great place to demonstrate skills on a resume), share your favorite books, or even what your usual day looks like.
What Makes a Great Senior Developer Resume: Key Takeaways
- Choose a resume layout that sends the right message across and fits your current career situation;
- Create a resume header that shows your desired job title, and easy to find contact numbers;
- Be specific about your experience, accomplishments and future goals in your summary;
- Feature detailed metrics and specific examples that show the impact you made in your previous roles when describing your experience;
- List soft skills backed by examples;
- Add all of your technical skills and certifications that you have and match the job description;
- Show off a dash of personality in your resume that will demonstrate your culture fit and the right mix of hard and soft skills.
