Euphemisms for "Software Developer"

Question

I've held software lead positions, performed architectural tasks, and aspire to lead or architect roles, but will take - and currently have one - software developer positions (hey, what's a guy facing unemployment to do?). I used to start off my resume with an "Objective" section, along the lines of "Seeking an architect/lead role ...", but removed it in the interest of trimming an already long resume. I believe a resume should start out by clearly stating what you are and have to offer, but am unsure on how best to describe myself. "Software Engineer/Developer" seems like undersell. I can't truthfully claim to be a lead or architect now.

How best would you identify yourself if you were in such a situation, to catch eyes?

Answer 1

Frankly, I've taken to making revised resumes with top grafs written to match the particular customer/employer. I can make a pretty fair claim to be a security expert, cryptography architect, web architect, senior developer, and team leader. if I put them all in, people say "he's too old" and "he's overqualified."

Answer 2

Write a cover letter explaining exactly why you're a good fit for their particular job. Give details. Talk about their particular needs, and why you can fulfill each one. Cover business needs as well as technical needs; make sure you understand what their business is, and how what you do would be supporting that. Consider your resume to be a supporting document that helps to show that the cover letter is correct.

Feel free to change the resume itself, thoughout, to focus on what the potential employer is looking for. Update the job descriptions to highlight previous experience that bears on this particular job for which you're applying. Do the same for outside interests and so on.

If you find you have trouble doing this, you probably need to do a bit more research on the company and the position. My company's website has lots of information about who we are, what we do, and what we're interested in, and yet I get many "generic" resumes and cover letters that provide no indication that the applicant has done more than found the e-mail address to which one should send a resume. That gives me a bad impression right from the start.

When you do this research, go beyond just the company pages. Blogs often provide a lot of insight into what the company does and what they may be looking for. Go beyond the company web site itself and look for blogs and other postings by people who work in the group in which you'd be working.

Answer 3

I'd think the key is to mention cases where you were a lead or did architectural tasks as the bullet points under being a "Software Engineer/Developer" as it can be a very broad title.

You may want to think of a particular skill you want to highlight like being a "problem solver" or "handles translating business requirements into technical specifications" or something similar for what part of being a developer do you want to be doing.