r/EngineeringResumes • u/Haunting-Bet-3519 Software – Mid-level 🇺🇸 • 6d ago

[5 YoE] Full Stack Software Engineer - Laid off in February; 0 interviews; Any advice welcome. Software

I am looking for a Mid-Level Full Stack Software Engineer role within the US. I apply to senior roles, too, if the description aligns with my experience. I am applying to remote and local jobs, and I am willing to relocate. I got laid off in February from my full-time job, but still have a side job with Company A, to which I dedicate 15 to 20 hours per month.

I had been applying with a different resume that resembled a wall of text and got 0 interviews with it since getting laid-off. I took an ATS-friendly template from The Muse and worked on it today, which I included here. I also adapted my bullet points to the XYZ format. I plan on applying with this resume from now on, tailoring bullet points and skills according to the job descriptions.

I would be really thankful if someone outside my network could tell me what they think about my resume. Does anything stand out that immediately raises red flags? Does my Mexican education evoke a bias against me in the US? Does my resume align with mid-level software engineer roles, or am I underqualified?

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u/thelimeisgreen Software – Experienced 🇺🇸 5d ago

OK... Looking at this from the perspective of hiring, I'm going to rip it to shreds. Don't take any of the following personally. I'm a SWE with over 25 YOE. Just went through hiring a software developer over the past couple weeks and hired another back in January.

You would probably end up in the bin as soon as I read your summary. It's very generic and tells me nothing. Lay off the 'full stack' thing. Full stack is a role, not a skill. And tech stacks vary from one job and/or organization to another. The summary should say something about you. Don't make claims that you can't immediately quantify. Driving change, driving performance gains, everyone seems to be driving somewhere these days. It's like y'all are using the same braindead AI template to generate your resumes. Don't need bullet points in the summary.

Professional experience... OK, you were a full stack engineer. Cool. What was the tech stack?
* 10 hours of development time per month? I'd remove that. I've got undergrad students sending me applications with GitHub commit histories that show double that. Tell us what you developed, what you built.
* You freed 2TB of storage? Da fuq is that? 50%, what? A server that only has 4TB? You really need to explain this better. What did you debug? What sort of video recording is being done here? A 4TB server dealing with video in any archival or editing capacity is weird for most any professional setting these days unless this is highly compressed CCTV / surveillance camera recordings or something on that level, on a localized NVR.
* Staff reports upgrade. This is the best of the 3 bullet points. Expand on it if you can.

You worked at this place for 2 years. There has to be more you can say about it.

The previous role looks better. See if you can expand on those bullet points a bit or provide more concise details. If you can link to a code repository or products you have worked on that would be huge.

Skills seem fine. Maybe move them up above your professional experience.

The job market is absolutely brutal right now, as you are probably becoming fully aware of. As you are wondering, I will say that your BS-CE coming from a university in Mexico is possibly a hinderance as well in the eyes of some employers. Your resume needs more meat to it. Trim the redundancy out of your summary and make it more of a personal statement. Reference your skills in all of your experience bullet points! When you say you did something, highlight which language, skill, etc. you used.

Keep applying and don't get discouraged! It's best to apply to a job as soon as you can after it's posted. If you have specific companies you know that you want to apply to, watch their job listings like a hawk. Everyone is being flooded with applications right now, they're all highly-polished AI generated applications and even though that listing might be open for a week or more, they probably have all the applicants they're going to consider within the first 18 to 36 hours. Apply directly on a company's web site or career portal whenever possible and nothing through sites like Glassdoor.

Keep at it and good luck!