As a software engineer intern, you might struggle with highlighting relevant project experience on your resume when your job history is minimal. Our guide will provide you with strategies to effectively showcase your technical skills and academic projects to catch the eye of potential employers.
- Aligning the top one-third of your software engineer intern resume with the role you're applying for.
- Curating your specific software engineer intern experience to get the attention of recruiters.
- How to list your relevant education to impress hiring managers recruiting for the software engineer intern role.
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Don't stress out over your software engineer intern resume format
Remember, the elaborate design of your software engineer intern resume isn't what impresses recruiters most. They are primarily searching for candidates who meet the job requirements. The main aim of your resume should be to clearly and concisely explain why employers should hire you.
Here are four straightforward steps to consider in your software engineer intern resume design:
- Organize your resume based on experience: Start with your most recent roles. Besides using reverse chronological order, choose jobs relevant to the position you're applying for.
- Include your contact details (and portfolio or LinkedIn link) in your resume's header to ensure recruiters can easily reach you. If considering adding a professional photo, check acceptable practices in different countries first.
- Don't omit essential software engineer intern resume sections such as the summary or objective, experience, and education. These sections should reflect your career progression and align with job requirements.
- Maintain conciseness in your resume. For those with less than ten years of experience, a one-page format is advisable.
Regarding the format to submit your software engineer intern resume, PDF is preferable. PDFs are more likely to maintain their formatting when processed through recruitment software or ATS, saving you time in the application process.
When selecting a font for your software engineer intern resume, consider the following:
- Choose ATS-friendly fonts such as Exo 2, Volkhov, Lato, etc., to keep your resume's content legible;
- All serif and sans-serif fonts are easily readable by ATS;
- While Arial and Times New Roman are common choices, opting for unique typography can help your resume stand out.
Concerned about ATS compatibility with charts and infographics? Our recent study has debunked this and other myths.
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PRO TIP
Mention specific courses or projects that are pertinent to the job you're applying for.
Recruiters' preferred software engineer intern resume sections:
- A header with relevant contact information and headline, listing your current job title
- A resume summary or objective pinpointing what is most impressive about your expertise (that aligns with the role)
- An experience section highlighting the specifics of your responsibilities and achievements
- A skills sidebar to intertwine job advert keywords with your unique talents
- An education and certifications sections to serve as further accreditation to your professional experience
What recruiters want to see on your resume:
- Relevant technical skills (e.g., programming languages, software development tools, frameworks).
- Evidence of practical experience (e.g., previous internships, personal projects, contributions to open-source projects).
- Understanding of software development methodologies (e.g., Agile, Scrum, Waterfall).
- Problem-solving abilities and analytical thinking as demonstrated through projects or challenges.
- Education background in Computer Science or related fields, including relevant coursework and academic achievements.
Creating your software engineer intern resume experience to catch recruiters' attention
Remember that for the software engineer intern role, hiring managers are looking to see how your expertise aligns with their requirements. Here's where your resume experience section can help out. Make sure you:
- Include mainly roles that are relevant to the software engineer intern job you're applying for;
- Don't go too far back in your experience - recruiters will only care what you did a decade ago if it's really important for the software engineer intern role;
- Each bullet you include should say what you did, followed by the skills you used and the actual end result of your efforts;
- Quantify each of your achievements with numbers and possibly the overall effect it had on the organization;
- Highlight transferrable skills - or personal skills you've attained thanks to past jobs - that could be applicable within your potential workplace. This would showcase your unique value as a professional.
Formatting the experience section of your resume doesn't have to be an over-the-top deep dive into your whole career. Follow the software engineer intern resume examples below to see how industry-leading professionals are presenting their experience:
- Implemented a Python-based automation tool to streamline database management tasks, which saved approximately 10 hours of manual work per week for the team.
- Assisted in the development of a new feature for the company's mobile application using Java, enhancing user experience for over 100,000 users.
- Participated in agile development cycles, including daily standups, sprint planning, and retrospectives, contributing to a 20% increase in deployment frequency.
- Developed a scalable API in Node.js to support third-party integrations with the company’s existing services, serving over 500 requests per minute at peak times.
- Performed extensive unit testing and code reviews to maintain software quality, decreasing the bug rate by 25% over the internship period.
- Collaborated with cross-functional teams to define requirements for a new analytics dashboard, leading to enhanced data-driven decision-making across the company.
- Engineered a real-time data visualization tool using React.js and Socket.IO that improved operational monitoring capabilities for the customer support team.
- Contributed to the enhancement of the search engine algorithms, which boosted the platform’s search accuracy by 15%, as measured by user feedback and engagement metrics.
- Engaged in the migration of legacy systems to microservices architecture, increasing system resilience and facilitating continuous deployment processes.
- Authored a series of Python scripts to automate the collation and transformation of large data sets, leading to a reduction in errors by 40%.
- Contributed to the redesign of the user interface for the company’s internal tools using HTML5 and CSS3, resulting in a 30% improvement in user satisfaction scores.
- Provided critical support in troubleshooting and resolving critical bugs in the company’s web application, ensuring 99.9% uptime during peak business hours.
- Assisted in the development of an Android app feature using Kotlin, which led to a 20% increase in app downloads due to improved functionality and new services offerings.
- Took part in code sprints to fix urgent software vulnerabilities, effectively reducing potential security threats by 50%.
- Improved system logging and error-handling mechanisms in legacy code, greatly enhancing the troubleshooting process for the in-house development team.
- Played a key role in the design of a PostgreSQL database schema that streamlined data retrieval processes and cut down report generation time by half.
- Aided in launching a Ruby on Rails web application, writing and maintaining over 70% of the back-end code, which successfully handled 300+ users daily.
- Optimized and refactored legacy SQL queries, leading to a 20% performance increase in database operations and subsequently shorter load times for end-users.
- Developed an internal reporting tool using C# that enabled the team to generate performance reports 60% faster than the previous system.
- Automated repetitive software development processes using batch scripting, freeing up to 15 hours per month for more critical development work.
- Played a pivotal role in a team that delivered a critical update to the company’s e-commerce platform, supporting a 10% increase in online sales.
- Initiated a project to migrate desktop applications to web-based solutions using ASP.NET, which improved accessibility for remote employees and increased productivity by 20%.
- Performed comprehensive debugging on the main customer service portal, trimming down application crash incidents by 35%.
- Crafted and tested multiple SQL stored procedures that served as the foundation for a new customer data retrieval system.
- Contributed to a critical feature in the main software suite that enhanced data encryption, greatly reducing the risk of sensitive data breaches.
- Spearheaded a peer code review initiative within the intern team that improved code quality and reduced defects entering the testing phase by 20%.
- Engaged with the product management team to gather requirements for new software features, effectively bridging the gap between client needs and technical execution.
- Collaborated in a multi-disciplinary team to build a prototype for a new IoT home device using JavaScript and Node.js, which secured additional funding from investors.
- Identified and resolved a critical performance bottleneck in the company's cloud infrastructure, which increased service availability by 99.97%.
- Assisted with enhancements to the company's machine learning algorithms, which resulted in a more accurate predictive modeling system.
Quantifying impact on your resume
- Include the number of lines of code you wrote or bugs you fixed to demonstrate your direct contribution to the project.
- Mention the percentage of code coverage achieved through your unit tests to highlight your focus on quality and reliability.
- Specify the exact number of modules you developed or contributed to, to showcase the scope of your involvement.
- Indicate any reduction in processing time or resource usage thanks to optimizations you implemented.
- Record the number of users affected by the features you worked on to underline the impact of your work on the product's audience.
- Quantify any revenue or cost-saving outcomes from the features or improvements you contributed to.
- Measure the increase in system performance or efficiency metrics as a result of your optimizations or designs.
- Detail the number of technical documents or reports you authored to show your communication skills and knowledge transfer abilities.
Action verbs for your software engineer intern resume
What can candidates do about their resume, if they have no experience
Job requirements can sometimes be answered by other elements you could make more prominent in your software engineer intern resume.
Thus, you'd be substituting your lack of experience with your relevant:
- Education with details of skills you've obtained that align with the job
- Internships and short-term jobs that are once more dedicated to putting your expertise in the spotlight
- Skills section answering basic and - potentially - more specific job qualifications
- Strengths or accomplishments to show the unique value you present, even as a candidate with less or no professional experience in the industry.
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PRO TIP
Showcase any ongoing or recent educational efforts to stay updated in your field.
Software Engineer Intern resume skills section: writing about your hard skills and soft skills
Recruiters always care about the skill set you'd bring about to the Software Engineer Intern role. That's why it's a good idea to curate yours wisely, integrating both hard (or technical) and soft skills. Hard skills are the technology and software you're apt at using - these show your suitability for the technical aspect of the role. They are easy to track via your experience, certifications, and various resume sections. Your soft skills are those personality traits you've gained over time that show how you'd perform in the specific team, etc. Soft skills are more difficult to qualify but are definitely worth it - as they make you stand out and show your adaptability to new environments. How do you build the skills section of your resume? Best practices point that you could:
- Include up to five or six skills in the section as keywords to align with the advert.
- Create a specific technical skills section to highlight your hard skills aptitude.
- Align the culture of the company you're applying to with your soft skills to determine which ones should be more prominent in your skills section.
- Make sure you answer majority of the job requirements that are in the advert within your skills section.
A Software Engineer Intern's resume requires a specific skill set that balances both industry-specific hard skills with personal, soft skills. Discover the perfect mix for the Software Engineer Intern role from our list:
Top skills for your software engineer intern resume:
Programming languages (e.g., Python, Java, C++)
Data structures and algorithms
Version control systems (e.g., Git)
Software development methodologies (e.g., Agile, Scrum)
Database management (e.g., SQL, NoSQL)
Operating systems (e.g., Linux, Windows)
Web development (e.g., HTML, CSS, JavaScript)
Mobile application development (e.g., iOS, Android)
Debugging and testing techniques
Understanding of RESTful APIs and services
Problem-solving
Critical thinking
Teamwork and collaboration
Adaptability
Communication skills
Time management
Eagerness to learn
Attention to detail
Creativity
Openness to feedback
PRO TIP
Always remember that your software engineer intern certifications can be quantified across different resume sections, like your experience, summary, or objective. For example, you could include concise details within the expertise bullets of how the specific certificate has improved your on-the-job performance.
The software engineer intern resume sections you may underestimate: certifications and education
Your education and certifications provide insight into both your technical capabilities and personal attributes, such as perseverance. When crafting your software engineer intern resume, consider how you present these elements:
- For your higher education degrees, prioritize listing those most relevant to the job or indicative of your academic dedication;
- Include applicable coursework as a stand-in for relevant experience or if it might impress recruiters;
- Include incomplete higher education only if it's pertinent to meeting job requirements;
- If your degree is from a renowned university, mention how often you made the Dean's list to underline academic excellence.
Regarding certifications, it's not necessary to list all of them. Instead, match up to three of your most recent or significant certificates with the technical skills required in the job description.
Below, we've selected some of the top industry certifications that could be vital additions to your software engineer intern resume.
The top 5 certifications for your software engineer intern resume:
- Certified Software Development Professional (CSDP) - IEEE Computer Society
- Oracle Certified Professional, Java SE Programmer (OCPJP) - Oracle
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate - Microsoft
- Amazon Web Services Certified Developer – Associate (AWS Certified Developer – Associate) - Amazon Web Services (AWS)
- Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) - Scrum Alliance
PRO TIP
If you happen to have plenty of certificates, select the ones that are most applicable and sought-after across the industry. Organize them by relevance to the role you're applying for.
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Choosing between a software engineer intern resume summary or objective
Many may argue that, in recent times, the software engineer intern resume summary or objective has become completely obsolete.
But the reality is different as both of these resume sections provide you with an opportunity to :
- integrate software engineer intern-vital keywords
- showcase your accomplishments
- answer why you're applying for this particular role.
The difference (between the summary and the objective) is that the:
- Resume objective puts your career goals in a more prominent position.
- Resume summary focuses more on career milestones.
We recommend you select the summary if you happen to have plenty of experience you'd like to spotlight from the very start of your software engineer intern resume.
Meanwhile, the objective is ideal for those candidates who'd like to further prove their suitability for the role with their goals and soft skills.
We've featured some industry professional software engineer intern resume samples to the best resume summary and objective structures:
Resume summaries for a software engineer intern job
- Dedicated software engineering intern with six months of experience in a fast-paced tech startup. Proficient in Java, Python, and SQL with a notable contribution to a 10% efficiency improvement in our data processing pipeline. Seeking to leverage programming skills and passion for coding to solve challenging problems.
- As a former mechanical engineer with 2 years of experience, my transition to software engineering is backed by a strong analytical foundation. Skilled in C++ and automation scripting, I led a project that cut testing time by 30%. Eager to apply problem-solving abilities to develop robust software solutions.
- With a background in finance and a passion for technology, I am a career switcher with 1 year of software development training including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and React. My biggest achievement is designing a stock analysis tool that improved prediction accuracy by 15%. Ready to add value through technical skills and financial insight.
- Efficiently completed a rigorous 9-month coding bootcamp, focusing on full-stack development with an emphasis on Java, Python, and cloud technologies. As a career changer, I bring a diverse skill set, including project management and a team-player mindset. My pivot is fueled by a strong desire to build impactful software.
- Motivated computer science major seeking an internship opportunity to specialize in software development. With no prior professional experience, my drive is demonstrated through academic projects using JavaScript and React. Objective: to contribute fresh perspectives and collaborative energy in a tech-driven environment.
- Enthusiastic individual with a deep interest in artificial intelligence and machine learning, looking to secure an entry-level software engineering internship. No direct experience yet, but committed to applying theoretical knowledge from recent coursework in Python and data structures to practical tasks and real-world applications.
Four more sections for your software engineer intern resume
Your software engineer intern resume can be supplemented with other sections to highlight both your personality and efforts in the industry. Use the ones you deem most relevant to your experience (and the role):
- Awards - to celebrate your success;
- Interests - to detail what you're passionate about outside of work (e.g. music, literature, etc.);
- Publications - to show your footprint in the wider community;
- Projects - to pinpoint noteworthy achievements, potentially even outside of work.
Key takeaways
We trust that this Enhancv guide has been informative and useful. To summarize the essential points:
- Opt for a simple and readable format, focusing more on your software engineer intern achievements rather than just duties;
- Emphasize your accomplishments in the software engineer intern experience section over mere responsibilities;
- If lacking relevant experience, utilize various resume sections like education and volunteering to demonstrate your suitable skill set;
- Never overlook the significance of pertinent higher education, training, and certifications;
- Incorporate diverse sections in your resume to highlight not just your skills expertise but also your personality.
