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Resume Tips from the Experts
By Megan Fleming
Perfect skill set. What’s with the year-long gap in their career? This resume is full of typos.
Ever wonder what recruiters think when they read your resume? Well, we asked. So, before you write – or rewrite – your resume, take some advice from the people that just might be reading it:
Reply as Requested
Before you reply to a job posting, read the description carefully and make sure your skills and experience match the qualifications. If the company requires five years of C++ experience, you should have it. If they’re searching for candidates in a specific city, you should live nearby.
“Do look at the requirement you are applying to,” says Dani Woolwine, a recruiter at Columbia IS Consulting Group, an IT recruiting company in Connecticut. “One of the biggest problems we have is that people will just see a QA requirement and say, ‘I’ll just forward my resume.’ And they’re not qualified.”
Submit Smart
Candidates often overlook submissions processes, which help companies manage incoming resumes. Some companies require certain resume formats and others want reference request numbers included in reply emails. If you don't submit your resume as requested, you might be overlooked.
Sell Your Skills
Recruiters agree that a strong technical resume comes down to two words: skill set. Clearly define your skill set at the top of your resume, and you’ll have an advantage. “The managers don’t have a lot of time. They need to be able to look at a resume without reading it in depth to see what skills the person has,” says Jason Kreuser, corporate technical recruiter for Information Builders Inc. (IBI), a software development company.
Most people find that it’s challenging to boil down years of experience into a few pages. Start by creating a technical summary at the top of your resume to highlight your skills, then expand on them in the body of the resume.
Shailesh Bokil, director of recruiting and partner at CEI, an IT contracting and solutions business in Pittsburg, suggests breaking the technical summary into sections. “Don’t just lump the skills together into one paragraph,” says Bokil. “They should break up the technical summary section of the resume between hardware, operating systems, languages, databases, software, and things like that.” Remember to list the most current versions of software programs you’ve worked on.
How Many Pages?
One page? Two pages? Five? The one-page resume rule followed in many industries doesn’t apply to tech where candidates need more space to explain skill sets and job experience. Managers expect technical resumes to be three to five pages in length. “Don’t write seven-page resumes or one-page resumes!” says Gina Padilla, director of business development at Sharf, Woodward & Associates, Inc., a tech recruiting company in California. “Really look at the resume as a snapshot of yourself and figure out what message you want to give to anyone who is interested.” |
