As the Senior Director of Talent Management at Precision Technologies, I encourage everyone to review their technology resume and avoid the most common mistakes people make. If you are not sure where to begin when improving your technology resume, follow the detailed advice given in this blog. Your resume is your one-way ticket to a job interview, and it’s so important that it portrays everything it needs to for you to succeed. So, take out your resume, take notes, and let’s begin.

The Purpose of Your Technology Resume
The main, and most important, purpose of your resume is to showcase your skills. It’s important to make hiring managers aware of your professional accomplishments, technology skills and tool exposure. Your technology resume should be very robust, and it should cover everything you have worked on in the last 15 years (if applicable) to show your progression; however, it should not exceed three pages.

Your technology resume is essentially your face before you meet the hiring managers or are asked to participate in a phone screen. Your resume determines whether you will receive an interview. It also distinguishes you from other applicants.

What to Include
There are many important aspects to include in a winning technology resume, but let’s start with the basics.

Format and Fonts: It is imperative to use easy to read fonts and keep it simple without usage of lots of color. A two-column format for the first page can help you showcase your technical skills and ratings. The first column includes skills, certifications, and ratings on those skills. The second column includes the experience. This is a different approach that is used to stand out, and it’s valuable and easy for a recruiter to read and understand.

A Professional Email Address: A general mistake I see on many resumes is the email that is included is not professional. A professional looking email address could include a combination of the first and last name and a certification that they want to highlight, i.e. Nimisha_pmp@gmail.com. Right away, this email address screams that you are PMP certified professional.

Online Portfolio Links: At the top of your technology resume, along with your email address, you should include links to your social profiles. You should also include links to your personal website or online portfolio if they include any professional work or projects you have completed. If you are a developer, include links from websites such as Trailblazers or Github to showcase more of your background.

Order of Resume: Another factor to consider when improving your resume is to list your experience in reverse chronological order. On an average, a recruiter takes 7.4 secs to review a resume. As a recruiter, I want to see your most recent and relevant experience, and then work my way down to see your progression.

Use Data and Statistics: With every experience or project you include, you should also list the metrics achieved. For example, if you were responsible for saving more than 20% of the costs of development in a project, you should include that metric in your project experience or in your general summary at the top of your resume. This is a great statistic to include as it shows you were a key element in the success of a project.

Education and Certifications: A key aspect to include in your technology resume. As part of your education section, I like to see the inclusion of certifications. If you have a certification with a verifiable ID that a recruiter is able to check on a website, it should be included with the listed certification. When writing your resume, begin with education and create a subsection underneath for certifications that includes the ID and link to the website for verification. If the certification you hold has a logo, then it should be portrayed on the top right next to your name. You can also include a certification if you are actively pursuing it, but not yet certified in. Simply list the certification and place “(pursuing)” next to it.

Technical Skills Grid: To showcase your skills in your technology resume, you have the opportunity to include a skill grid. This should be placed on the first page of your resume and show the tools you have used. It’s important to also include the versions of the tools you have used. It’s critical for recruiters to know if you have been working on the most recent versions of specific tools and technologies. This also saves the recruiters time and disregards the need for a phone call to ask what specific version was used.

What to Exclude
Keep it crisp and relevant: When applying to jobs, your resume needs to be relevant to that job. If there is anything in your resume that is deemed irrelevant for a particular role, then it should be removed. Remember the resume is an advertisement for you highlighting your skills and qualifications.

Another thing to be mindful of is the amount of experience you list in your technology resume. If you have had a very long career, list your experience from the past 15 years. Everything else after this time period should be removed as it may not be relevant to the role. A resume that includes experience from the past 25 years and longer actually hurts your chances of getting an interview. Remember to keep it relevant, keep it short, and keep it recent.

How to Stand Out Among The Crowd
The very top of your resume should have an executive overview of your experience. This is the biggest thing that a recruiter takes into consideration. Use relevant action words focusing on outcomes and not responsibilities. This summary should not only explain what you have done in prior positions, but also explain where you want to be in your career. That clarity allows for the perfect match with the role you need. The executive overview should be very well written, about five to six lines in length, and should be written in your own words. This is your mission statement and it’s one of the first impressions that is made on hiring managers and recruiters.

Your technology resume is the first impression you have on recruiters and hiring managers. Be sure it is relevant to the role you are applying to, showcases your skills efficiently, and highlights the important aspects of your career. Good luck with your future interviews.

About Nimisha Golchha
Nimisha is the Senior Director of Talent Management at Precision Technologies. She began her career with Precision in 2013 as a Junior Recruiter and was responsible for recruiting talent, talent management, and talent retention. As she grew within the company, she began to lead the Talent Management Initiative and was responsible for mentoring her team, strategy building, and professional consulting practice. Since the start of her career with Precision, she has witnessed the immense growth of the company and has grown into her current leadership role.

About Precision
Precision Technologies Corp. (PTC) is a leading full stack IT Company with a diversified portfolio comprising staffing services, application development, and mobility solutions and beyond. Since 2010, our clients have leveraged our staffing and consulting experience to obtain escalated technical services across the industries. We often are told that our solutions are very precise, cost-effective and process driven, thereby delivering intended results. https://precisiontechcorp.com/