Resume Advice for IT Professionals

The most successful resumes are brief and to the point. Hiring managers can be short of time, and if they don’t find something compelling on the first half of Page 1, they probably won’t bother to read the rest.It’s also best if the length corresponds to the number of years the candidate has spent in the field. Potential employers expect the resume of an experienced IT applicant to be longer than one of a newcomer. In no case, however, should its length exceed three pages.

 

Dates Ranges Must Be Specific

Start dates and end dates of employment ranges should contain both month and year. Managers care about this level of detail, particularly when a period of joblessness enters the equation.

 

Bad Grammar Makes a Bad Impression

If writing skills ever needed to shine, it’s on an application for an IT position. Poor spelling and bad grammar will overpower the strongest tally of skills and experience. Such a resume is more likely than the rest to land in the shredder, seriously curtailing the applicant’s IT opportunities.

 

Standing Out with Active Verbs

Applicants who sprinkle passive verbs throughout their resumes can easily sound too submissive. Phrases like “chosen for” and “charged with” have led more than one potential employer to reach for the snooze alarm. By speaking instead of the ways in which they “managed,” “handled,” “developed,” “supported” or “completed” a certain project, hopefuls in search of IT careers will look like the go-getters they really are.

 

Proper Placement of Education and Certifications

Although IT degrees from prestigious schools belong at the top of Page 1, no law prohibits the applicant from listing lesser credentials at the very end. However, on any IT resume, the right certifications can trump education, so these should appear at the top.

 

Most Interests Aren’t That Interesting

Unless they have a strong relation to the IT career in question, hiring managers are likely to skip over a candidate’s outside interests. When attempting to shorten a too-long resume, this could be the perfect section to omit entirely.

 

Keep the Summary Technical

The summary section of any IT application should be free of generalities. Any information appearing here must remain technical, and it should also be short. An exhaustive laundry list of technological expertise could amount to overkill.

 

Truth Trumps All

Any resume must be honest. Embellishments and outright lies easy to uncover, and in any ensuing interview, awkward attempts to explain away non-existent experience will quickly land the applicant out the door.