# FDE job ads want more API depth than the word 'REST' on a CV

> The evidence that persuades recruiters is a project with real authentication that survives errors, pagination and rate limits.

Original: https://fdetimes.net/en/analysis/fde-api-skills-cv-evidence/

GenLogs' job ad for a Forward Deployed Engineer does not say "familiar with APIs". It asks for deep experience with REST APIs, webhooks and OAuth2/SAML/Auth0 flows. The word "REST" on its own in a CV's skills line tells a recruiter nothing about which of those you have actually done.

GenLogs is not an outlier. DataCamp, FullStack and Simplilearn all put APIs in the foundations when they describe the FDE role. When a skill appears in almost every description of a job, naming it on a CV does not make you stand out; recruiters need to see evidence that you have connected two real systems.

So if you are aiming for an FDE role, the question is not whether to put APIs on your CV. What matters is whether the CV shows that you have been through the places where APIs tend to break.

## Where does a real integration usually break?

Imagine you need to sync a customer list from a company's CRM into your own product. Say the CRM holds 12,000 records, each page returns 100 of them, and the rate limit is 60 requests a minute.

The first calculation is easy: 120 requests, which take at least 2 minutes, so the code has to know how to pause and retry when it gets a 429 rather than dying on page 61.

Next, suppose the OAuth2 access token lives only a short time and expires when you are on page 80. A demo stops there with a 401. A real integration refreshes the token itself, carries on from page 80 and does not write the 79 pages it already fetched a second time.

Webhooks have their own traps. When the CRM reports that a record has changed, the same event may arrive twice, or arrive just as your service is restarting. A demo ignores these cases; a real integration has to plan for them.

APIBouncer's guide to building a portfolio with APIs sees the problem the same way: loading states, errors, empty results and rate limits are the details that show the person who wrote the code knows the craft. The same guide argues that working with API data that is inconsistent, paginated and occasionally broken is a real skill, and one worth showing.

**Key point:** The best evidence of API skill is being able to tell the story of an integration that broke and how you fixed it.

## FDEs do not just call APIs, they design them

The CRM example is only half the job: the side that calls someone else's API. The GenLogs ad asks for the other half too. Its FDEs must turn customer needs into technical requirements, API specifications and data model designs, then lead the implementation of integrations between GenLogs' product and external systems.

That means you are both a consumer of APIs and the person who decides the contract between two systems. The hard part is that the decision has to survive in the customer's environment. The Pragmatic Engineer reports that OpenAI's FDEs write code directly on the customer's infrastructure and use the customer's tools, not in a sandbox of their own.

That is also why DataCamp lists integrating with the customer's data, APIs, infrastructure and internal identity and permission systems as daily work, and treats the engineering foundation as non-negotiable.

FullStack lists the full set of REST, GraphQL, webhooks, OAuth and SAML for plugging AI tools into enterprise software, while stressing the human side of integration.

In concrete terms, that human side is questions such as: who holds the API keys, who approves access, who is responsible when the customer's system changes its schema. Technical documentation rarely answers these for you.

## Some job ads never mention APIs

This is where it is easy to misread the market. Databricks' AI FDE job ad, updated in November 2026, focuses on taking GenAI applications to production, on evaluation, optimisation and cloud deployment. Its requirements do not name APIs.

But not mentioning them does not mean they are not needed. It is hard to imagine a GenAI application entering an enterprise system without going through authentication, calling internal services and receiving data from other systems.

The Pragmatic Engineer notes that almost every recruiter hiring FDEs looks for a solid software engineering foundation. APIs are part of that foundation, implicit in the requirements rather than written out. So the skill only becomes an advantage when you show you have gone beyond the basics.

## The ad says one line; the real work is much heavier

The table below matches what job ads ask for, what you will do on the customer's site, and what you can put on a CV as evidence.

| The ad says | At the customer it means | Evidence to have on your CV |
|---|---|---|
| REST, GraphQL APIs | Syncing paginated data while coping with rate limits | A data sync project with retries that resumes from where it stopped |
| Webhooks | Receiving events that may be sent twice or arrive while the service is down | A webhook handler that never writes duplicates and logs missed events |
| OAuth2, SAML, Auth0 | Working through the customer's identity and permission systems | A sign-in flow with token refresh and role-based access |
| Writing API specifications | Turning customer needs into a contract between two systems | An API specification you wrote, with the reasons for your design choices |
| Leading integrations | Working with the people who own the customer's systems | A line describing who you worked with and what you agreed |

Anyone can copy the first column onto a CV. The third column only exists once you have actually done the work.

## Turning a skills line into evidence

Simplilearn's FDE roadmap puts REST API design and basic authentication in its first step, the engineering foundations. The roadmap also sets a concrete, checkable output: a REST API project with authentication.

That is a reasonable floor. But look at the third column of the table and it is clear the floor is not enough to stand out.

Raising the project is not complicated. Add a real OAuth2 flow instead of an API key hard-coded in the source, and add an endpoint that receives webhooks and copes with duplicate events. Then write a README that walks through each failure: what you did when rate-limited, when the token expired, when the API returned an empty array.

The line on your CV should change too. Instead of "Proficient in REST APIs, OAuth", write which system you connected to which, which authentication flow you used, which errors you handled and what the result was. If you have built integrations at work, pick the hardest one to describe, especially one where you had to work with another organisation's IT team.

When reading job ads, watch the verb attached to the word API. "Work with APIs" is the level of calling APIs; "write API specifications" or "lead integrations", as at GenLogs, is the level of design and ownership, so be ready to explain what you decided.

And when an ad does not mention APIs, as at Databricks, treat it as an implicit requirement and prepare in exactly the same way.

Before an interview, test yourself against your own project: if a webhook reports the same record changing twice, just as the token has expired on page 80, is your data still correct? If you can answer with a true story rather than a definition of OAuth, your CV has something the word "REST" cannot say.

**Try this week:**

- Pick a public API with OAuth2 and write a small service that syncs paginated data, retries when rate-limited and refreshes its token automatically
- Rewrite one API line on your CV using the pattern: which system, which authentication flow, which errors were handled, what the result was
- Practise explaining in two minutes what happens when a token expires in the middle of a data sync

## Sources

- [Forward Deployed Engineer – GenLogs (Venrock jobs)](https://jobs.venrock.com/companies/genlogs-2/jobs/84968873-forward-deployed-engineer)

- [What is a Forward Deployed Engineer? (DataCamp)](https://www.datacamp.com/blog/what-is-forward-deployed-engineer)

- [The seven skills that define a forward-deployed engineer (FullStack)](https://www.fullstack.com/blog/the-seven-skills-that-define-a-forward-deployed-engineer)

- [Forward Deployed Engineer Roadmap (Simplilearn)](https://www.simplilearn.com/career-roadmap/forward-deployed-engineer)

- [What are Forward Deployed Engineers, and why are they so in demand? (The Pragmatic Engineer)](https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/forward-deployed-engineers)

- [AI Engineer – Forward Deployed Engineering (AI FDE) – Databricks](https://boards-api.greenhouse.io/v1/boards/databricks/jobs/8546367002)

- [Build an Impressive Developer Portfolio Using Free APIs (APIBouncer)](https://apibouncer.com/guides/build-your-developer-portfolio-with-apis)