Software Developer CV: example, skills and writing tips

Software developer CV example

The example below shows how the advice in this guide fits together on one page. The person, the companies and all the figures are invented: use the structure, not the content, and replace every detail with your own.

Notice what makes this CV useful to a recruiter: every line says what was built, with which stack, at what scale and with what result. The rest of this guide explains how to build each section in the same way.

Job title and professional summary

Name your specialism in the title

“Software developer” covers very different jobs. The line under your name should tell the reader, in a few words, what you build and with which main technologies, as long as it reflects your real experience:

Back-end Developer – Java / Spring Boot
Front-end Developer – React / TypeScript
Full Stack Developer – Node.js / React
Software Developer – C# / .NET / Azure
Mobile Developer – Android / Kotlin

Avoid vague titles such as “IT specialist” or “Tech enthusiast” if your actual job is software development.

Developer, engineer, full stack: which title fits?

Job ads use several titles for overlapping roles. Use the one that describes your work, and check each job description, because the scope behind a title varies between employers and countries.

Professional summary example: experienced developer

The professional summary (often called a personal profile in the UK) is three to five lines that answer three questions: what do you build, with which stack, and at what level of responsibility?

Front-end developer with 4 years’ experience on SaaS products. Builds reusable React and TypeScript components, integrates REST APIs and writes automated tests. Recently led the move of a design system to a shared component library used by 3 teams.

Professional summary example: junior developer

Junior back-end developer ([degree], [year]) with a [12-month] work placement on a business application. Hands-on experience building REST APIs in Java and Spring Boot, PostgreSQL, Git and unit testing.

Adapt these examples to your real situation. Never add a technology because it appears in a job ad, and replace phrases such as “passionate developer looking for new challenges” with facts about what you have built.

Software developer CV skills by area

Select the skills you genuinely use and that match the role. A technology used for three years in production does not carry the same weight as one you tried in a course, so say which is which.

A skills line such as this gives little information:

Java – Python – JavaScript – SQL – Git – Agile

This one is far more useful:

Java / Spring Boot (4 years, production) · Angular · PostgreSQL · REST APIs · JUnit · Docker · GitLab CI

Presenting your tech stack

A short, grouped stack section is easier to read than a long string of keywords. Separate your main stack from technologies you have used occasionally:

Languages: Java, TypeScript, SQL
Back end: Spring Boot, Hibernate
Front end: Angular
Data: PostgreSQL, Redis
DevOps: Docker, GitLab CI
Testing: JUnit, Mockito

Avoid star ratings or progress bars (“Java ●●●●○”): they are hard to interpret and are not read reliably by recruitment software. Show your level through context instead: years of use, products built, responsibility held.

The same rule applies to tools around the code. “Git” alone says little; “Git with feature branches, merge requests and code review in GitLab” describes how you work. “AWS” alone says little; name the services you actually used and what for. If you only used an existing pipeline or looked at Kubernetes pods, say so modestly rather than claiming you designed them.

Describing your experience and achievements

For each role, answer four questions: what did you build or maintain, with which stack, what was your role, and what result or level of complexity can you show? Where possible, follow this order:

context → your own action → technologies → scope → result

For example: “On a B2B SaaS platform (context), I rewrote the nightly reporting job (action) in Spring Batch with optimised PostgreSQL queries (technologies) for 1,200 client accounts (scope), reducing run time from 95 to 20 minutes (result).” The figures in this sentence are illustrative.

Too vague

Application development
Bug fixing
Attending meetings

More informative

Illustrative figures.

Developed new features on a B2B SaaS platform
Designed REST APIs in Java / Spring Boot
Built Angular / TypeScript screens
Modelled PostgreSQL tables and optimised slow queries
Wrote JUnit unit tests and reviewed merge requests in GitLab

The second version shows the product, the stack and your level of responsibility. Technical work can be quantified too: response times, processing times, error rates, incidents, deployment time, test coverage, number of users or transactions, time saved by automation. Use figures only when they are accurate and not confidential.

Achievement examples to adapt

Replace [X] and [Y] with your own verified figures, or leave the line out if you cannot support it.

• Reduced the response time of [an endpoint / a page] from [X] to [Y] ms by [adding indexes / caching / reducing network calls].
• Cut the run time of [a batch job] from [X] to [Y] minutes.
• Reduced incidents on [a module] by [X]% over [period] after refactoring and adding tests.
• Automated [build, tests and deployment] in a CI pipeline, reducing deployment time from [X] to [Y] minutes.
• Migrated [an application] from [framework or version X] to [Y], with no regression reported after release.
• Mentored [X] junior developers through code review and pairing.

For senior profiles, show more responsibility, not just more technologies: technical design, architecture decisions, code review, mentoring, performance, incident analysis, coordination with product and operations. If you act as a technical referent without holding the title, write “technical referent for the Java services” rather than changing your job title to “Tech Lead”.

Education and certifications

On your CV, use the format qualification – specialism – institution – year:

[Degree or qualification] – [specialism]
[Institution] — [year]

Developers come from many backgrounds: university degrees, engineering schools, vocational diplomas, bootcamps and self-teaching. For experienced profiles, recent roles and stack usually matter more than education, which can take less space.

Cloud or vendor certifications (for example AWS Certified Developer – Associate or Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate) can be listed if you hold them. Give the exact name and year. A certification complements hands-on experience; it does not replace it.

Making your developer CV easy to read for ATS

Many employers and agencies use an applicant tracking system (ATS) or recruitment software to store and search applications, often by technology. The aim is not to “beat” or trick an ATS: it is to make sure your key information is extracted correctly and easy to find.

• an explicit job title with your main stack;
• clearly identifiable employers and dates;
• experience organised role by role, with the stack for each role;
• languages, frameworks and databases written as text, not only as logos or rating bars;
• exact technology names (“PostgreSQL”, “Spring Boot”) rather than vague families (“databases”, “Java frameworks”);
• no hidden or invisible keywords.

When a job ad asks for a technology you genuinely use, use its name. “Full Stack Developer – Java / Angular – 5 years” is far easier to find and assess than “Software enthusiast building digital solutions”.

Tailoring your developer CV to each job

Yes, tailoring helps, especially if your experience covers several stacks. Your background does not change, but you can bring forward the experience and technologies most relevant to the role.

Before sending an application for a Java, React or cloud role, it helps to see which elements of the job description your CV already covers and which are missing. CVReader compares your CV with a job description and highlights the points of correspondence.

Compare my CV with a job description

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Junior developer or career changer

With little professional experience, the same principle applies: be precise about what you have actually built.

• Students and recent graduates: describe internships, placements and apprenticeships like real jobs, with the product, the stack and your contribution. Avoid a page made mostly of course titles.
• Personal and open-source projects: present them like small experiences: purpose, stack, features, tests, deployment. Add a GitHub link only if the code is clean enough to be read.
• Career changers: explain the transition in one line and keep your previous career visible. Do not present yourself as a senior developer on the basis of your overall years of work.

Former project coordinator retrained in web development through [training programme, year]. First experience as a [work-study / junior] developer on a React and Node.js application: front-end features, REST API integration and automated tests.

Trained or working in France?

If your development background is French, a few adjustments make your CV clearer to English-speaking recruiters.

French qualifications

Keep the French name and add a short explanation, for example:

• BTS SIO – Brevet de technicien supérieur Services informatiques aux organisations: a two-year French vocational higher-education diploma in IT services, with a software development option (SLAM) and an infrastructure option (SISR).
• BUT informatique – Bachelor universitaire de technologie: a three-year French university technology degree in computing.
• Diplôme d’ingénieur: an engineering degree awarded by a French engineering school, usually after five years of higher education.

There is no automatic equivalence between these diplomas and British, American or other qualifications, so do not present them as equivalent.

BTS SIO, option SLAM (French two-year vocational diploma in IT services, software development option)
[Institution] — [year]

French job titles and contexts

Translate the role, not the words. A “développeur informatique” or “ingénieur études et développement” is usually a Software Developer or Software Engineer. An “alternance” is a work-study contract: describe it as a work-study or apprenticeship role and show what you built. If you worked for an “ESN” (a French IT services company), name your employer and describe the client project by sector, without implying the client employed you.

Mistakes to avoid and final checklist

Listing thirty technologies

Without a clear main stack, the reader cannot tell what you really master. Give most weight to the technologies you use in production.

Naming a language without its frameworks

“JavaScript” alone does not say whether you have built with React, Angular or Node.js.

Using skill bars or ratings

They are hard to interpret and can be lost when the CV is parsed. Show level through context.

Mixing studied and production technologies

Separate what you have used at work from what you have explored in courses or side projects.

Writing “Agile” without context

Say how you work: team size, rituals, user stories, collaboration with product and QA.

Inflating your title

Keep your real job title and show extra responsibilities in the description.

Checklist before you apply

• My title states my specialism and main stack.
• My summary fits in three to five lines and contains facts, not adjectives.
• Each role shows the product, my own actions, the stack, the scope and, where possible, a result.
• Every figure is accurate, verifiable and not confidential.
• My main stack is clearly separated from technologies I have only explored.
• Foreign qualifications keep their original name, with a short explanation and no claimed equivalence.
• Employers and dates are easy to find, and technologies are written as text.
• Any GitHub or portfolio link points to work I am happy to have reviewed.

Software developer CV: frequently asked questions

What skills should I put on a software developer CV?

Prioritise the stack you actually use: languages, frameworks, databases, APIs, testing, Git and the relevant DevOps or cloud tools, with context showing how you used them.

Should I list every technology I know?

No. Give most space to your main stack and to technologies you have used in production. A long, flat list makes your real level harder to judge.

Should I add GitHub to my CV?

Yes, if it holds representative, readable projects. It is especially useful for students, junior developers and career changers. Experienced developers working on proprietary code do not need public projects.

Is a software developer resume different from a CV?

“Resume” is the usual American term; “CV” is used in the UK and much of the world. For a job application, the advice in this guide applies to both.

Do I need a different CV for every developer job?

You do not need to rewrite your career each time. Bring forward the stack and experience that match the role, without adding technologies you do not master.

Should a developer CV fit on one page?

There is no absolute rule. A junior profile often fits on one page. An experienced developer can use two pages if the extra information is genuinely relevant.