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First off, I'm a computer science student and I'm planning on doing an internship next year. Currently I'm working for a non technical company for the summer but I'm completing technical programming projects. I'm also updating my resume so that I can start applying for internships in September. This is where my problem lies, I'm wondering:

Is it necessary to put the name of the company under work experience?

Now the only reason I'm asking this is because the company I'm working for is called "Joe's Cleaning Services" and in my opinion having that on a resume when applying to technical companies is unprofessional. What I'm planning on doing is just putting the position title (which looks much more impressive). Is this a good idea? I've been reviewing a number of other CS students resumes and I've seen it done this way before, but from a recruiter stand point is this a bad thing?

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If the company is your current employer (and maybe even your previous one before that) - I would say it is absolutely necessary, since you will be using these as references.

Further back - I guess it becomes a matter of style.

As a manager who hires, my first reaction to your question was "yes, all the way down". I'm still not sure it's a great idea to skip them - it would look a bit odd, and anyone reading the resume would immediately think "yeah, but where were you an xyz?"

So, you worked for a company that doesn't have a sexy name as far as development goes? Probably 95% of developers have this same problem eventually.

Format the resume so that the job titles are the primary headings in your history, and be sure to include a short list (2-3 bullets) of responsibilities under each job. That way it will be very clear that you were a developer and not a cleaner.

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  • I like your idea of formatting the resume in a way that highlights the job position but still keeps the employer name and I'll probably use this. But how would I go about formatting the resume in the future when I potential have work experience where the employer name IS the part I would like to highlight. Or is it not that big of a deal to keep an employer name like Google or Apple in a smaller, less noticeable format?
    – Paul Warnick
    Jul 17, 2015 at 0:34
  • to be honest - I'd keep the same job title over company priority - while the people hiring you would be excited about getting someone who worked for Google, they're really looking for someone who was a developer at Google
    – HorusKol
    Jul 17, 2015 at 0:44
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    @PaulWarnick: For IT workers what you do is far more important than where you did it. The only people that would put a higher priority on the name of the company you worked for are people you are unlikely to be interviewing with as they wouldn't have a clue as to what you do.
    – NotMe
    Jul 17, 2015 at 1:46
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    Hate to break it to you kid, but most of us work for Joe's Cleaning Services. It'd be best to get accustomed to that idea now.
    – ThatGuy
    Jul 17, 2015 at 9:31
  • What if your key duties involve cleaning existing code?
    – Stephan Bijzitter
    Apr 5, 2016 at 19:41
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I would highly recommend leaving the name of the company on your resume.

Unless there's some reason you can't put the name of the company, such as if you were a contractor and can't disclose your clients (in which case you'd probably be employed by a contracting agency or self-employed and would put that), omitting the names of the places you've worked would draw more attention than not. Honestly, I've never seen a resume that didn't include the employer and a job position or several that omitted the employer name would raise questions, and that would detract from me asking other questions more relevant to the job at hand.

Lots of companies need technical people, including companies that do non-technical things. The description of the work that you've done and your accomplishments are far more important than the name of the company you worked for. The only exception may be something like working in adult entertainment where the name of your employer may turn off other perspective employers.

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Is it necessary to put the name of the company under work experience?

I don't believe I've ever seen a resume that omitted a company name.

Now the only reason I'm asking this is because the company I'm working for is called "Joe's Cleaning Services" and in my opinion having that on a resume when applying to technical companies is unprofessional.

There's nothing unprofessional about hard work - no matter the name of the company.

What I'm planning on doing is just putting the position title (which looks much more impressive). Is this a good idea?

For me, it would look odd and raise some suspicions. I think the company name should be stated.

Since it's only a summer job, unless you really need this job to show particular experience, you could choose to see how your resume looks if you just omit the position entirely. I suspect it would look better than a job title without a company name.

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  • Thank you for your answer. The only problem is that this is my first legitimate technical job. Without this on my resume, I'll have no relevant work experience. Aside from that I agree with everything you said.
    – Paul Warnick
    Jul 17, 2015 at 1:35
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    Awesome thank you, that's exactly what I'm going to do.
    – Paul Warnick
    Jul 17, 2015 at 1:40

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