Dissecting A Technical Resume
A technical resume shares one thing in common with all the other resume types. In order to be effective, you need to impress your reader within 20 seconds and keep them interested until the very last word of your presentation. To achieve this, it is critical for your resume to have a very powerful introduction.
For technical or IT based resumes, there are two kinds of introduction that you could use. It could either be an Objective Statement or a Headline Statement.
An objective statement immediately tells your reader the type of position you are currently targeting. Also, this type of opening does not tell your employer what you can do for them. Instead, it tells your future employer what you want from them. That is the reason why this type of opening statement is best used by individuals who who have limited or no professional work experience at all.
A headline statement can be defined as a simple and concise statement that brings together an overview of your career experience.
After your objective statement, it is time for you to work your work experience section or body of your resume. There are various formats that you could use for this section but in this guide, we will just tackle the most common type of format that is being used to showcase one’s work experience.
Start out with a heading that consists of the following:
1.) the name of the company you had worked for
2.) the address or location of the company
3.) your job title or position
4.) the inclusive dates of employment
After that, you should include your responsibilities and achievements under each entry. It is also possible to include multiple positions or titles if it is applicable. If you are unsure of the exact dates involved with each entry, you could just simply use the year as a complete substitute to eliminate the months.
When it comes to showcasing your IT based skills, the good technique is to have a detailed outline of all your technical skills and divide them accordingly into their respective categories. The most common and basic presentation is as follows:
1.) System (the operating systems)
2.) Hardware (could be servers, network hubs or routers)
3.) Software (the different programs that you are capable of using with great proficiency)
4.) Languages (the different computer languages such as HTML or C++)
A good tip when structuring your skills section is to have at least have three items under one sub heading. If you only have one or two items to be listed under one subheading, you can just exclude them or still include them unless you really are proficient with it.
An educational background section for your resume can somewhat be left out. Unless of course if you are using an entry-level resume. Usually for this type of resume, the information being contained under this field is limited to the college courses related to the job position that you are applying for. Unless you are entering an academic field, it is better for you to have more information under your work experience section rather than your educational background section.
Your educational background section should include the following:
1.) the name of the certification or degree you had received
2.) the name of the school, university or institution where you had received the degree
3.) inclusive dates on when you received the certification, training or degree.
Optional information that you could include are the following:
1.) GPA (include only if you have 3.5 GPA or higher)
2.) other awards and honors you had received that is relevant with your performance
3.) scholarships, grants or academic awards that you had received
As opposed to the recommended length of resumes, the length of an IT based or technical resume varies from one candidate to another. IT could also depend on the needs of the employers themselves especially if they are looking for specific details in particular.
One page or two pages, use your best judgment to determine whether you want to include more or less information for your document. Sometimes, the layout themselves could play a big part in determining if one’s resume is effective or not.