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Additional Tips

Resume Writing Tips for Technical Professionals

Contents

Bullets, not paragraphs
Clarify dates
Education
Objective or Summary
Explain the gaps
No more one-page resumes

 

Bullets, not paragraphs

  • Long paragraphs are nothing but clutter on a resume. If writing a summary or objective, keep it to two sentences at the most.
  • Paragraphs make it difficult to see the main ideas or key points on a resume. Lots of white space is good.

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Clarify dates

  • Put the month and the year. Do not omit months unless you were at a position for longer than 5 years, and if it is not your current job.
  • Companies want to know exact dates, ie May 1998 to June 1999.
  • Just putting the years on a resume looks deceiving to the trained resume reader, and we are going to ask you the exact dates of employment anyway so you may as well put it on there.
  • For example, 1998 - 1999: what does this mean? It could be December 1998 to January 1999 (2 months), yet it could be almost 2 years. Be honest with your potential employers.

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Education

Put your education at the end of your resume, unless you are fresh out of school and you are applying for an entry-level position, if the position is academic-related (in which case the emphasis is on your education).

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Objective or Summary

  • The philosophy is changing with respect to objective statements.  Many resume experts are saying it is not necessary to have an objective on your resume.  Instead, you should have a summary of your accomplishments or a highlight of the skills you bring to the table.
  • However, if you feel like you need an objective on your resume, it should identify what you want to do with clear and precise wording; it should identify what you want to do with clear and precise wording.

    • A position as JAVA developer working on Web-based applications.
    • To work as a business analyst in the telecommunications industry.
  • Refrain from being vague, lofty or ambiguous.

    • To work for a firm where my technical, managerial and leadership skills  will have an immediate impact on the firm.

  • The reader should be able to ascertain what it is you want to do. This helps identify whether or not you are a fit for the position.

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Explain the Gaps

There will undoubtedly be gaps in many peoples' resumes. These gaps must be explained at some point or other. In some instances, however, it may be appropriate to explain it in a cover letter. The bottom line is, that it must be in writing.

  • If gaps are less than 2 months, there is no need to explain on the resume.

  • Longer gaps must have an explanation. Whether you had heart surgery or were unemployed might make a difference.

  • If you were unemployed, that must be explained as well.

  • As long as you are honest with the reader of the resume, you have nothing to worry about.

  • Don't cover up the gaps by omitting the months of employment, you'll have to explain it eventually, and then you look like a liar.

  • If you are worried no one will look at your resume because you have gaps, it will definitely get passed-over if they are not explained.

  • You do not need to fill in the gaps with places of employment if they are not relevant to your career objectives. However, you will need to explain why you were not employed in your area. Again, it may be best to explain the gaps in a cover letter.

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No more one-page resumes

  • The idea of the one-page resume is history.

  • You should only have a one-page resume if you are right out of school, or you have a short work history. In fact, if you do not have a degree and you have limited work history, it might be best to limit your resume to one page.

  • What has replaced the one-page resume is the skill's list. The more skills/qualifications you possess, the longer it should be, as long as it is not more than one page.

  • You might not get to your work history until the second page.

  • They used to say that employers look at resumes as if they were passing a billboard on the interstate. This is no longer true, especially since the market for talent is extremely competitive. Therefore, a list of highlights, skills, accomplishments and/or qualifications will give an employer an indication of your skills before he/she goes through the entire resume.

  • This is like a table of contents for the resume; it encourages the reader to read on.

  • If your resume exceeds three pages, it is imperative that you have a qualification highlights section. Again, because employers must go through so many resumes, it is very easy to skip over unreadable ones.

  • Your first page might contain the following

    • Contact information
    • Brief objective/career goals
    • Two-line summary
    • List of qualifications/skills

  • Also, you should have a separate section for your technical skills. This section should be detailed if you are technical. You might break down this section into programming languages, operating systems, databases, networking, Internet, software applications, hardware, etc.

  • If you are not technical and your objective is more management oriented, then there is no need to detail as such. If you are technical, then you it is to your benefit to break down your technical skills.

  • Network Professionals tend to sectionalize by networking experience, hardware, software, operating systems and Internet.

  • Programmers should sectionalize by programming languages, operating systems or platforms, and databases.

  • Systems administrators should sectionalize by operating systems, databases, software and programming languages if applicable.

  • Database administrators should focus on databases, database development languages, programming languages, operating systems, and software.

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Please send your comments to Marc.