What Hiring Managers Actually Look for in Developer Resumes

What Hiring Managers Actually Look for in Developer Resumes

We spoke with engineering managers at companies of all sizes to understand what makes them stop scrolling and actually read a developer resume. The answers were surprisingly consistent.

Projects Over Job Titles

A senior title at an unknown company means less than a well-described project with clear impact. Hiring managers want to see what you built, what technologies you used, and what the outcome was.

Specificity Wins

"Improved performance" is vague. "Reduced API response time from 1200ms to 180ms by implementing Redis caching and query optimization" tells a story. Numbers, technologies, and outcomes are the trifecta.

GitHub Is a Bonus, Not a Requirement

Open-source contributions and a green contribution graph are nice to have, but most hiring managers understand that many developers write proprietary code all day. If you do have public work, link to your best repositories, not your profile page.

Clean Formatting

Developers tend to over-design their resumes or use overly clever layouts. A clean, well-organized one-page resume with clear sections is more effective than a visually impressive but hard-to-scan document.

The Tech Stack Section

List technologies you can actually discuss in an interview. Padding your skills section with tools you used once three years ago will backfire when the interviewer asks about them.

Key Insight

Hiring managers spend an average of 30 seconds on an initial resume scan. Make those 30 seconds count by leading with your strongest, most relevant work.