A resume is usually the first thing an employer judges you on as a professional. It’s important that your resume is visually appealing, organized and will grab the attention of the reader. According to an eye-tracking study, recruiters spend an average of 7.4 seconds reviewing a resume, so you must make every second count.
There is a lot of general resume advice out there, but in the tech industry, it is crucial to highlight the most vital parts of your IT and professional experience while avoiding common mistakes.
Following these tips will help you put your best foot forward and land your next position in tech.
1. Put certifications and relevant tech skills at the top of your resume.
The most important qualifications should be listed first on your resume. Current IT Certifications, experience in coding, or anything related to the Information Technology field should be listed at the top. If your certifications and skills are related to the jobs you are applying to, list them.
Additionally, don’t overrepresent or exaggerate skills or certifications to look more experienced. Recruiters and hiring managers will ask about the certifications or technologies listed. If you’re unable to expand upon them and explain your involvement with each, there’s a good chance you’ll be eliminated from consideration.
2. Check for grammar issues and misspellings.
This one sounds like common sense, but you would be surprised at how many resumes recruiters receive that have simple spelling and grammatical errors.
The quickest way for someone to discount your resume is to have glaring mistakes. In fact, 59% of recruiters will reject a candidate because of poor grammar or a spelling error. before they’re even finished reading their resume. Obvious errors can make you look careless and sloppy,
Spell check tools do not catch less obvious errors such as tense inconsistencies, unnecessary capitalization, run on sentences, and missing commas. The easiest way to ensure your resume is ready for distribution is to have someone read through your resume and make improvements to it based on feedback. If you’re working with a staffing firm, your recruiter is a great resource to utilize for this.
Building a strong tech team is a challenge, especially with the current tech talent shortage. Making sure the team you are building is cost-effective and has the necessary skillsets is always the priority.
As organizations look for new and unique ways to accomplish this, many are seeing success in hiring veterans. Not only are they hard workers and have many of the necessary skills already, they also bring a multitude of other benefits to the table.
3. Keep your resume uniform.
Keep the font size, font type, and format the same throughout. This makes for the most visually appealing resume. It also keeps it looking neat, as well as professional. A hard to read resume with inconsistent font sizes, spacing, and font types looks disorderly and careless to recruiters. The layout is important, as well as sticking with standard page margins.
Preparing for an interview is an important ritual in the job search process. You must make sure you are ready and confident in how you approach the interview. This means having a full understanding of the company, the responsibilities of this role, and why you and your skillsets are the right fit.
Taking the necessary steps will not only help you but also the employer can fairly compare you with the other candidates.
Preparation can lead to an excellent interview, which means you might land the dream job you’ve always wanted! Here are a few steps to make that interview easier.
4. The shorter the resume, the better.
A good rule of thumb is to keep your resume under 5 pages. Recruiters look through resumes all day and want to be able to identify the most important information first. Having a drawn-out resume immediately puts you as an IT candidate at a disadvantage.
Rather than listing each function of every job you have ever had, pick 2-3 key impacts you made in those roles. This allows for the recruiters and hiring managers to get a good idea of your relevant experience at a glance.
While your credentials are important to land the job, simple resume errors can increase your chances of being rejected. That is why it is crucial to follow these tips to thoughtfully craft and carefully review your IT resume before submitting it to potential employers.
At SkillStorm, we’re experts in ensuring you’re ready to land your next tech job. If it’s time for you to update your resume or you’re looking to find your next role, our Recruiters are here to help! Check out these 5 tips to prepare for a job interview or email us at techcert@skillstorm.com.