If you're writing a resume for a technical position here are a few resume
tips.
1) Technical Skills Come First
The first resume tip is to put your technical skills, training and
knowledge at the top of your resume. Make sure it is detailed and
organized and that your technical expertise is clear. Keep in mind that
prior to finding its way to the prospective employer the resume is going
to be read by a gatekeeper, and will likely be electronically perused for
the important keywords. The best resume tip to get your resume in front of
the employer is to make sure you include relevant keywords, such as
industry or job jargon, an all operating systems and programs with which
you are proficient.
2) Customize Your Qualifications
The second resume tip is to document your qualifications according to
their relevance to the position for which you are applying, with the most
relevant listed first. Your degree or certification is only listed if
relevant to the available position. Don't worry about reverse chronology.
If, for example, you are applying for a system administration position and
one of the prior positions you've held is as a system administrator that
job should be listed first - no matter where it appeared in your work
experience chronologically.
3) Quantify Your Past Results
The third resume tip is to be factual with your experience, quantifying
it where you can. You could, for instance, enumerate the code lines you
debugged, the amount of money your budget costs saved, or note the number
of computers and servers whose maintenance you were responsible for.
4) Use Action Words
The fourth resume tip is to be active rather than passive in your
resume. Begin each sentence with an action, keeping it in the past tense.
For example, which description do you think is better?:
- I was a call center rep
- Provided product fulfillment services to an average of 25 customers
per day
It is important to clearly describe the value you provided to the
employer in the past tense and starting with an action word.
5) Give Yourself Credit
The fifth resume tip is to blow your own horn. This is not the time to
be shy. Treat your resume as a marketing and sales tool for yourself.
Write it as if you are the product and the employer the consumer. Sell
yourself. If you have a significant accomplishment that doesn't seem
relevant to the job list it separately, but do list it.
6) Be As Short As Possible While Still Being Totally Clear
The sixth resume tip is to keep your resume as concise as practical,
without minimize the point size to make it hard to read, or eliminating
needed white space. If your resume includes fewer than six years of
experience you should be able to keep it to one page. Unless you are
applying for a senior executive position, however, you shouldn't exceed
three pages. Some of the ways to be concise is to leave out the details of
projects of which you were not the key part. Articles and pronouns can be
eliminated - you don't need a, an or the - and you definitely don't need
I.
7) Don't Give Any More Information Than The Reader Needs
The seventh resume tip is to eliminate all unimportant, or
non-pertinent information, as well as those things that will give away
your right to be considered without bias. You should never include on your
resume: your marital status, any indication of your health or age, or any
associations that would make clear your religious, sexual preference or
political affiliation. You don't need to tell a prospective employer, for
example, that references are available, nor do you need to name
supervisors at this point.
8) No Silly Mistakes
The final resume tip is to check for errors. Check yourself for
grammatical and punctuation errors as well as typographical mistake.
Submit your resume