Software Engineer skills

Essential skills

• Programming fundamentals: Employers check these through coding exercises, technical questions, or examples of code you’ve written.
• Problem-solving: Employers assess how you break down a problem, explain your approach, and handle edge cases.
• Debugging: Employers may ask you to investigate a bug or describe how you found and fixed one.
• Software design: Employers look for your ability to organise code into clear, maintainable components, often through a design discussion or code review.
• Testing: Employers check whether you can choose useful tests and explain how you verify that changes work.
• Version control: Employers may review your experience using tools such as Git and ask how you work with branches, commits, and code reviews.

Technical and specialised skills

• Languages and frameworks: Employers check whether your experience matches the role through technical questions, a coding task, or discussion of past projects.
• Data structures and algorithms: Employers may use coding exercises to see how you choose an approach and consider efficiency.
• Databases: Employers check your understanding of data modelling and queries through practical questions or project examples.
• APIs and system integration: Employers may ask how you design, use, or troubleshoot APIs and connected services.
• Cloud and deployment tools: Employers assess relevant experience by asking how you’ve deployed, monitored, or maintained software.
• Security and reliability: Employers may ask how you handle data protection, common vulnerabilities, failures, and recovery.
• Specialist knowledge: For areas such as mobile, embedded, machine learning, or infrastructure engineering, employers check role-specific tools and concepts through focused questions or work samples.

Soft skills

• Communication: Employers check how clearly you explain technical decisions and listen during interviews or team exercises.
• Collaboration: Employers may ask for examples of working with teammates, designers, or other stakeholders.
• Adaptability: Employers assess how you respond to changing requirements or unfamiliar tools through examples and scenario questions.
• Ownership: Employers look for evidence that you follow work through, raise concerns, and take responsibility for outcomes.
• Receiving feedback: Employers may ask how you’ve handled review comments or changed your approach after feedback.
• Prioritisation: Employers check how you weigh deadlines, risks, and competing tasks in practical scenarios.

How to show these skills on your resume

• Built a [type of application or feature] using [language or framework], applying [relevant design or testing approach].
• Investigated and fixed [type of issue] by using [debugging method or tool] and verifying the change with [tests or checks].
• Collaborated with [team or stakeholders] to deliver [project or improvement], contributing [your specific responsibility].

How to build them

• Practise programming fundamentals by solving problems, then explain your approach and test your solution.
• Build small projects that use the tools and technologies relevant to the roles you want.
• Read and improve your own code: simplify complex sections, add useful tests, and document important decisions.
• Use version control regularly and practise reviewing changes with others.
• Learn through code reviews, pair programming, open-source contributions, or a study group.
• Strengthen communication by describing your projects, trade-offs, and lessons learned in plain language.
• Review job descriptions to identify skill gaps, then choose a project or learning goal to address one gap at a time.