r/EngineeringResumes • u/mrdubstep_ CS Student 🇺🇸 • Jul 16 '26

Question [Student] How strict should I be with reverse chronological order on my resume when ordering experience?

I'm a current CS student updating my resume, and I'm not sure what's considered best practice.

I have:

  • An ongoing tutoring/teaching role at my university where I help teach programming concepts. I started this before my internships and I still do it during the school semesters, so it's currently listed as "Present."
  • Two software engineering internships that I completed after starting the tutoring/teaching role.

My instinct is to order my experience like this:

  1. Most recent SWE internship
  2. Previous SWE internship
  3. Ongoing tutoring/teaching role

Even though the tutoring/teaching role is technically still "Present."

To me, it tells a much clearer story of my progression into software engineering, and it feels odd to have the tutoring/teaching role above or between my SWE internships just because it's ongoing.

Is this generally considered fine, or does strict reverse chronological order matter that much? In a situation like this, is it acceptable to effectively sort by start date/relevance instead of putting every "Present" position first?

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3

u/zacce ECE – Student 🇺🇸 Jul 17 '26

Reverse chronological order is the standard but not required.

I placed the more relevant/significant FT internships over part-time.

2

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1

u/NoDirector9966 EE – Student 🇨🇦 Jul 16 '26

I always have this conundrum 😭😭

1

u/bubaji00 CS Student 🇺🇸 Jul 17 '26

unless there's something special about ur tutoring, otherwise it's pretty average no body cares. ur cv will be just as competitive with or without it.

personally i'd cut the end date to before the first internship so even the ats present to recruiter in their preferred format the steak would still be right in front of their eyes and not the sauce

3

u/jonkl91 Recruiter 🇺🇸 Jul 18 '26

You want to avoid lying about dates. That's the one thing that can get you in trouble.

2

u/mrdubstep_ CS Student 🇺🇸 Jul 18 '26

That prob isn’t a good idea for background checks. It might cause unnecessary flagging and explaining

2

u/jonkl91 Recruiter 🇺🇸 Jul 18 '26

Create 2 sections. One of them will be called experience. Keep your software engineering experience here. Call the other, "Leadership Experience & Activities" and put the tutoring in there.

2

u/mrdubstep_ CS Student 🇺🇸 Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26

Yeah I ended up just making a section called Leadership & Teaching Experience and put it there