<p>When you guys put that you know a programming language on your resume how do you word it? For example, do you say you are familiar, proficient, etc.... with the language?</p>
<p>I've been saying proficient, but I don't know what's classified as proficient and whether it's an under/over statement for me.</p>
<p>Are you simply familiar with the language(s)? Is proficient a better word? I would carefully choose a word that correctly describes your experience with the language(s).</p>
<p>To be honest, I don’t know which category I fit in.</p>
<p>I learned the language on my own by going through a book. << IMO, this makes me familiar with the language. I used the language in one class to program a microcontroller. << IMO, this makes me proficient in the language.</p>
<p>Is there a hierarchy of words to use?</p>
<p>No matter what word you choose, someone’s going to disagree with you. Particularly if the word is “proficient” - I’d have expected multiple years of experience, not one class.</p>
<p>Rather than attempting to self-assess your skill level, it might make more sense just to list them all out. If it’s important to the interviewer, they’ll follow up.</p>
<p>What do you mean by “list them out?”</p>
<p>Maybe “experience using… <em>list</em>”</p>
<p>and then the interviewer may ask about that, in which case you can explain.</p>
<p>Don’t stress too much about it. Your skill will be apparent readily enough in an interview.</p>
<p>Personally, I say “familiar” for languages I’ve dabbled in, “proficient” for languages like in our case (went through book and class and project), and “fluent” for a language I’ve been coding in for a year.</p>
<p>You’re a college student, interviewers are not going to expect many years of experience.</p>
<p>I literally just list them out. I have a header that says computer skills and then under it all in a single line, separated by bullets between them, I list them like this.
C++ 
MATLAB Office Access SolidWorks</p>
<p>Edit: the spacing is off but you get the drift.</p>
<p>I put them at the bottom in a short skills section, and list them all on one row.</p>
<p>I don’t have a list on my resume, and I don’t really think it’s necessary for a software developer with some work experience (although it may be useful for non-software people). However, I may mention languages and platforms in my previous work experiences (e.g. “algorithm development in Matlab”, or “web application development in Ruby”).</p>
<p>I think most people assume that a software engineer is proficient at multiple languages and that he or she can learn any language fairly quickly.</p>
<p>When I’m applying for a job that lists specific technologies or programming languages, I write about them in my cover letter.</p>