During the search and hiring of a C# developer, one thing differs from the usual recruitment challenges – reviewing candidates' resumés. It’s not enough to just gather many candidates for interviews and consider this halfway completed. The real trick is recognizing excellently written resumés containing everything an employer needs to know before hiring their future team member.
The essential aspects of an excellent C# developer resumé
A great C# developer will have an excellent resumé or portfolio submitted containing every vital aspect of their experience and background. Everything significant of their experience should be listed and well-written too. But technicalities are not all there is to C# developers. There are aspects describing their professional attitude, as well as information to help you envision a prospective member’s future in your company.
Overall, a great C# developer candidate should cover these main aspects within their resumé:
-
Outstanding technical experience and background
-
Notable soft skills and collaborative attitude
-
Proactive and problem-solving mindset
Suppose you confidently believe these aspects are covered in a C# developer candidate’s resumé through various sections. In that case, they invested solid efforts into presenting everything an employer needs and wants to see.
Things to focus on when reviewing a C# developer resumé
When recruiters, hiring managers, and tech leads review the resumés they receive from C# developer candidates, they focus on several essentials that must be included. These aspects must be well-phrased, in good order, relevant, and contextualized with the company and the job position requirements.
We had an insightful discussion with Sefa Teyek, a Tech Lead and C# tech expert at Proxify. From his experience, he gave us an in-depth insight into the main points of assessing a C# developer candidate’s resumé and what it must contain.
A professional resumé summary
When a C# developer submits their resumé, the first thing to notice is the summary. This is an incredibly beneficial aspect for those that will vet and assess – a resumé summary, at the very beginning, should include summed-up details of a developer’s experience and give a good overview of their soft skills too.
Initially, this section at the top in a brief overview format. It includes all the crucial information – the professional title, essential experiences and years of experience, best achievements, and top skills and values relevant to the position.
Undeniably, the resumé of a portfolio will almost immediately give you a clear perspective of how candidates present themselves.
Relevantly described skills and benefits for the company
Before applying for the job, a C# developer should be well-familiarized with the company/business they are applying for. Their previous experiences make their expertise for the role an all-including valuable asset.
“A web developer should know how their skills can benefit and contribute to the employer’s business by streamlining processes for increased efficiency from previous engagements.”
Sefa Teyek
If some skills or technologies in the resumé are not essential when working with C# but add value to the current position and engagements, a web developer should mention them. If engagements in the company would benefit from the candidate’s C# skills, they should be mentioned. A candidate must know which previous experiences they can merge in context here.
Excellent technical expertise with C# and .NET frameworks
As the first core segment after the opening sections, we arrive at the main one, C#, and .NET frameworks. An experienced candidate will know that this is a must-know and must-mention.
“Look for evidence of experience with the C# programming language. This can include years of experience with C#, and specific C# engagements a candidate has worked on. Also, experience with at least one of the .NET frameworks, such as ASP.NET, .NET Core, or .NET Standard.”
Also, you should look for the following:
-
A minimum of three years of experience in development with the skills mentioned above
-
Clean, readable C# code writing
-
Excellent understanding of C# design patterns
-
Excellent experience in writing reusable C# libraries
-
Excellent experience in SOLID principles
In this section, a candidate should clearly have described the relevant experience with C# and .NET. For example, if they mention a C# specific engagement. In that case, they might include information about the engagement in high-level detail, like 3rd party integrations, a description of it too, and how many clients or merchants they actively use. Also, they could probably include information, such as, departments they directly collaborated with or how fast they finished a workflow for this skill.
Their expertise with C# and .NET should be clear, explanatory, and preferably with a success-rate metric mentioned next to the tasks and projects they listed.
Familiarity with database technologies
Solid experience and knowledge of database technologies are crucial to master C#.
“C# developers often work with databases, so it’s important to look for candidates with experience with database technologies, such as, SQL Server, MySQL, NoSQL, or Oracle.”
Web development skills
Depending on the exact position the candidate applies for, look for specific, relevant skills and experience.
“If the candidate is applying for a web development position, look for experience with frontend technologies, such as, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Also, check for experience with backend web technologies like REST APIs.”
So, it all depends on the role they apply for. A knowledgeable C# developer can also apply for a few other developer roles. For each respectively, they should briefly elaborate on their previous experience in that position or what they did in that role notably:
-
Tech expert developer – They could mention developing application software, system software, or both and how they focus on applying engineering principles, testing, and maintenance – predominantly focused on more aspects in software.
-
Web developer – They may work on the frontend, the backend, or both sides of development (this is called fullstack development). They create a site or application's UI/UX interfaces, analyze and resolve issues, or even build from scratch through DB (SQL or NoSQL), backend (.NET Framework, .NET Core), and frontend (JavaScript, HTML5, CSS, etc.) relevantly.
Showcasing excellent familiarity with Visual Studio
A C# developer candidate must have excellent experience and solid Microsoft Visual Studio IDE knowledge, often used when working with C#.
“C# developers often use Microsoft’s Visual Studio IDE. Closely look for any relevant and substantial experience with this tool in the resumé.”
Testing and debugging skills
From a candidate’s resumé and portfolio, it should be pretty clear whether they are excellent at debugging and how they showcased this. Look for experience in the following:
-
Testing frameworks – xUnit, or NUnit
-
Debugging tools – Visual Studio Debugger
Collaborative skills
More often than not, C# developers work together in teams. Look for any indications that the candidate has experience working collaboratively with others, like experience with version control tools like Git.
In a way, it is a must to get along and deal with the rest of the developers in the company. Teamwork and general co-working skills are a leg up regarding being considered for the job.
Here a candidate should also clearly describe how they worked with other developers in their past, how they overcame challenges as part of a team with their position, and how they handled group vs. individual challenges.
Soft skills
While technical skills are essential, soft skills are just as needed for success as a C# developer.
“Look for evidence of strong communication skills, problem-solving abilities, and willingness to learn. A good C# developer should be able to solve complex problems using creative solutions. Look for candidates who have demonstrated strong problem-solving skills in their past work.”
A C# developer candidate is more than just technical expertise. Even if they showcase all the best technical knowledge, without sufficient soft skills, they probably won’t be among the best candidates for the role. As mentioned above, they must be great at collaboration and communicating with other stakeholders in the company.
Their resumé should give you a clear picture of how organized and time-respectful they are, how they present themselves, and how good their critical thinking is. You’ll notice this through the way they explain resolving past job challenges and finding the needed solutions.
Suppose they listed more exciting engagements that were optional to include. In that case, you’ll notice this could be their trait of curiosity and their need to learn and upgrade their skills – it is great to have a team member that is not easily satisfied with the status quo and continuously strives for excellence.
Additional documents
Assess any certifications or educational credentials about their proficiency in development using C# language and their experience with it.
As mentioned above, an ideal C# candidate will have a perfect combination of information included or conveyed for the reviewer – technical skills, soft skills, and additional details.
These additional information documents can be completed courses and participation in professional events and seminars. It can also be a separate portfolio displaying their previous engagements and roles or credentials and showing how much the candidate value and loves their job.
This gives you a glimpse of what you’ll introduce to your company, the company culture, and the future of your business. A learning-driven, eager, ambitious developer is always an asset to your company, as much as they are to themselves.
Conclusion
When you have a clear idea of what to look for in C# developer candidates’ resumés, you can evaluate their skills more efficiently and envision their future with your company. You can also easily predict the progressive success your engagements will take once you decide to go with a prospective C# developer you have carefully evaluated.
Remember all the checklist segments mentioned above; chances are you’ll choose among the pool of available candidates wisely and in no time.
