Tech professionals are a hot commodity, but landing a job in tech isn’t always as easy as outsiders might think.

With fierce competition for every position, finding your first junior role or jumping to a senior position can be challenging.

So we sat down with Bolt’s Recruitment team to discuss best practices for creating a winning resume for tech positions.

Responsible for full-stack hiring across Bolt’s 4 engineering hubs, the team knows what recruiters are looking for. Today, she shares some tricks to help you stand out.

If you’re interested in non-technical positions at Bolt, check out this article.

Getting headhunted

Good, experienced engineers don’t usually apply themselves — most roles are closed by headhunting.

Every week, technical role recruiters reach out to hundreds of potential candidates. So how can you be one of the lucky ones?

In technical recruitment, we create a sourcing strategy encompassing important keywords that help us target people with relevant experience.

Here’s a list of LinkedIn profile improvements to increase your chances of being headhunted:

Fill in your skills section;
Write a description of all roles, including a breakdown of exactly what you did;
Include keywords throughout your profile to make it easier for recruiters to find you;
Add your education history. Education’s crucial for technical roles, and recruiters typically look for people with a computer science background;
Mention the programming languages you’re competent in, e.g. Java, PHP or C# Sharp, and your years of experience.

Resume layout

Thanks to an array of online resume-making platforms, such as Resumake, you can choose from various layouts to suit your preferences.

Remember that, on average, recruiters only view a resume for just 7 seconds, so keep it concise.

Recruiters recommend keeping your resume to a maximum of 2 pages. If it’s 3, 5, or even 10 pages, that’s a red flag—most recruiters won’t read it all.

Personal information

Start your resume by providing your personal information:

Your full name;
Your location — this is important since headhunters select talent from all over the world;
Email address;
Link to personal websites, Linkedin, GitHub, HackerRank, and other developer programmes.

Technical skills

Keep this section short and simple with relevant skills you want the recruiter to know you have. Remember to cross-reference with the job description to ensure you don’t forget any skills the employer’s looking for — the more skills you have that match the job description, the better!

Your list of technical skills should include programming languages, operating systems, and architecture types. Having an exceptional skill level in every language is unrealistic, so include your proficiency level to let the recruiter know which you’re strongest in.

Use skill levels like advanced, intermediate, and basic, or fluent, proficient, and familiar. Make it easy for recruiters to verify your skills by linking profiles on platforms like GitHub, HackerRank, LeetCode, or React. Recruiters often check these profiles to assess your activity—for instance, seeing you actively practicing algorithms suggests strong potential as a candidate.

High activity on those platforms also means that the person invests their time into expanding their knowledge, and that’s a good sign for the Recruitment team.

Education

For roles in the computer engineering field, the value of education can’t be understated. As such, you must include all relevant education in your resume.

Here’s what you can include:

University, college, or institution;
The period you studied there;
The degree you earned;
Major.

add relevant information to your resume

Higher education

While higher education is valuable, it doesn’t have to come from a top university. A computer science degree, regardless of where it’s earned, is what matters most.

Of course, a Master’s degree from a leading university is ideal, but it’s by no means a requirement.

Additional education

Once you’ve detailed your higher education qualifications, consider including any relevant certifications.

In the technical engineering field, skills are expected to be practised, and coding languages are learnt by taking supplementary courses, especially for senior positions.

At Bolt, recruiters value candidates who actively expand their knowledge through various courses. This commitment to learning demonstrates curiosity, dedication, and a strong investment in personal growth.

For example, at Bolt, we use Node.JS, but we don’t expect everyone to be familiar with the language, nor do we look for people with specific Node.JS experience. Instead, an interest and eagerness to learn are just as important.

If you’re curious enough and willing to learn, switching from another programming language to Node.JS won’t be an issue. If you already know something, are studying, and are curious to learn another programming language — it’s a big plus for us.

You can show enthusiasm to hone your skills and brush up on coding languages via these additional resources:

Experience

For tech positions, experience is just as important as education. In this section, you can elaborate on the following:

Where you worked;
How long you’ve worked there;
Primary tasks and responsibilities;
Notable achievements.

It’s tempting to embellish past roles, but experienced technical recruiters can spot exaggerations. For example, if a candidate claims to have ‘improved all processes’ or ‘built everything from scratch’ with only three years of experience, it’s usually clear they’re overstating their contributions.

Be honest, avoid using fancy words to dress something up, and only list your relevant skills and achievements.

For recent graduates concerned about their lack of work experience, personal projects are a great way to bypass the issue. Personal projects can be anything related to the field and show your dedication and skills.

Advice for computer science graduates

As mentioned, completing a computer science degree isn’t enough to land a dream job. Competition is fierce, and a 2023 study shows that unemployment among computer science graduates sits at 7.6% — higher than the overall unemployment rate.

If you’re a junior and unsure what to include in your CV, visit the careers page for a junior software engineer position. Study the job description to identify key skills and terminology. You can then match these with your own experience and incorporate them into your resume.

Internships are the best gateway into the engineering field. Since Bolt mainly recruits middle and senior-level engineers and above, internship programmes and junior positions aren’t something that we currently offer. However, once in a while, we run short internship programmes.

To get accepted for an internship, there are a few interview stages where graduates need to perform coding skills, plus an interview with a hiring manager or the team to assess soft skills.

You can check our careers page for the latest tech internship opportunities.

What soft skills do recruiters look for?

While technical skills are paramount for engineers, certain soft skills remain essential. For example, effective communication, problem-solving, and creative thinking are key soft skills that can make a significant difference.

It isn’t possible to assess these soft skills by reading a resume, so candidates need to display them during the interview process.

During an interview, recruiters will keep a close eye on such qualities as:

Intelligence: we look for intelligent people who think systematically and can learn and solve complex problems;
Drive: we look for hardworking people who are motivated to tackle complex challenges with enthusiasm;
Integrity: we look for people who show empathy and are ethical, trustworthy, and honest. They demonstrate a consistent and uncompromising adherence to strong moral and ethical principles and values.

When you make it to the interview stage

Whether you’ve been headhunted, referred, or you’ve applied for a position, the interview process for Bolt tech positions is the same.

The process consists of 4 stages: an introductory call with a recruiter, a live coding interview, a system design and API challenge, and, finally, a non-technical interview. You’ll need to show a variety of skills throughout each of these stages.

Stage one: relaxed call with the recruiter

To begin, applicants can expect an informal call with the recruiter to discuss available positions in more detail. We typically have multiple openings for backend engineers across various teams, rather than just one role.

The introductory call serves as both a screening process and an opportunity to assess the candidate’s motivation, as well as identify any potential red flags.

Stage one: relaxed call with the recruiter

Although the interview’s informal, it’s still a job interview and an excellent opportunity to make an impression. Prepare by researching the company and all possible job positions, and make a case for why you’d be a good fit for the roles you’re interested in.

Stage two: algorithmic live coding interview

Candidates progressing to the next stage will be invited to demonstrate their technical competencies with a live coding interview. Bolt’s algorithmic challenge is held on the HackerRank platform in a language of the candidate’s choice and lasts 1 hour and 15 minutes.

The candidate will receive a task, and the interviewer’s available to answer questions and guide them from start to finish. The candidate’s technical skills are assessed throughout, but equal emphasis is attributed to their ability to communicate and ask questions.

The recruiters aren’t looking for perfect candidates who can solve every problem. It’s completely fine if the applicant is using the platform for the first time or feels nervous about being observed while coding. What they value most is the ability to own mistakes and ask for help or guidance when needed.

For a successful live coding interview, communicate well, explain your choices, be transparent, and own up to your flaws.

Stage three: coding challenge

Any engineering role that involves designing and building products will require an API design interview — the third stage of Bolt’s technical interview process. Here, candidates will need to assess, plan, design, and review an API that meets the problem presented by the interviewer.

coding challenge interview for engineers joining Bolt

API design interviews are a relatively new addition for tech companies and primarily act as a tool to determine an applicant’s seniority level.

At this stage, we’re checking seniority — if the person’s ever worked with architecture or been responsible for feature development.

You should prepare for this interview to avoid being lowered into a more junior position or missing your next job progression.

Stage four: non-technical interview

The process ends with another informal conversation. But this time, the focus is whether a candidate would integrate well with the team and is a good ‘fit’ for the company.

This is particularly important at Bolt since many recruits are relocated to one of our 4 engineering hubs. In 80% of cases, we relocate specialists from different countries, which carries significant risks for both parties.

This stage is just as much about getting to know the person and judging if they’re a good match for the team as it is about explaining the working environment to them.

From our side, we provide as much information to candidates as possible — the team environment, the challenges, and what this person will do.

Be prepared to detail why you’d be a great fit for the organisation and vice versa. You can score extra points by researching the company’s culture beforehand. And remember to ask questions — the more you know about the team and the company, the easier it’ll be for you to understand if it’s somewhere you want to join.

Diversity in computer engineering

The gender disparity in computer engineering is an issue Bolt and other leading tech companies are working hard to resolve.

Only 20% of computer science professionals are women, and there are multiple reasons for this. But for recruiters like us, we must promote gender equality and increase diversity in the field.

“We have a specific diversity project in our sourcing, and we’re trying to attract more and more female engineers each quarter.”

attracting more female engineers — join Bolt!

Searching for your dream tech job?

If you’re searching for a new tech role where you can build solutions for real-world problems, look no further than Bolt.

We’re always on the lookout for top-tier talent for our engineering hubs. Put your tech skills to the test in a collaborative environment that builds products used by 150 million customers worldwide every day.

If you have what it takes, dust off your resume, browse our careers page, and apply for a suitable role.

We look forward to seeing what you have to offer!

We’re hiring!