How to Write Great Resumes Part 2

How to Build an IT Résumé

Remember the hard work you put in at school studying, at work building a solid reputation and a valuable set of skills? If you want it to pay dividends and get you the right job, you need to convincingly tell your story in an attention-grabbing résumé.

RÉSUMÉ COMPONENTS

A standard IT résumé will consist of the following sections:

• Header
• Objective statement or summary of qualifications
• Education
• Certification
• Technical Skills
• Experience

The Header

Your résumé header should include:

• Your name in bold type at least 2 points larger than type througout the rest of the document
• Your mailing address including city, province/state and postal code
• Telephone number – use a number that is used and “controlled” by you, exclusively, and that accepts voicemail that only you check. If you do not have a telephone where people can leave you messages which you can consistently retrieve, do include your telephone number. For example, if your forgetful 7-year-old sister is in charge of taking down all messages at your home – do not include that number. If you include a phone number, be sure to check your voicemail frequently. We recommend using a single telephone number so any and all voicemail messages are consolidated in a single location.
• Email address – if your email address is silly, inappropriate or unprofessional (for example iamnotfunny@yahoo.com) get a new email address that you can use for professional purposes. An address based on a combination of your first and last name, possibly using punctuation such as underscores or hyphens to divide them, will seem both professional and customized to your identity.

Objective/Summary of Qualifications

Your résumé’s Objective Statement will be one of the first things an employer reads. Therefore, it presents your first and best chance to grab their attention, announcing to them that you are the best candidate for the job and that you bring solutions to current company challenges.
Do not fall into the traditional trap of telling the HR Recruiter that you would like:

“To obtain a position as a systems administrator that utilizes my experience and knowledge of administering optimized secure LANs.”

Instead use this objective statement to market yourself and convey a powerful message about what you offer, while stating the position for which you are applying. To write a powerful objective statement:

• Avoid clichés such as “I am a hard worker.”
• Be aggressive and creative, but do not lie. You must be honest and not overstate your abilities. If you do, you could end up in the wrong role and seriously damage your credibility. Portray your knowledge and abilities accurately—but confidently.
• Include personal characteristics using key words that convey your soft-skills and personality traits, such as, for example: approachable, self-motivated, team player, team leader, personable, outgoing, leader, effective communicator, customer service skills, receptive, strong soft skills, motivator, positive influence, sales and marketing, professional. There are many, many more similarly powerful descriptors you can and should use. Find the ones that best encompass your greatest strengths.
• Keep your objective short and concise.
• If possible, highlight your key skills and traits identical to those listed in the company’s job description. Try, however, to rephrase and use enough synonyms to suggest you are not simply mimicking their statement of job requirements.
• Use adjectives, terminology and phrases important to IT employers.
• Do not try to be modest—writing your résumé is a rare chance to sing your own praises without seeming conceited.
• Describe your relevant past experiences—work, volunteer, and extracurricular—in terms of duration, scope, responsibilities, accomplishments, and recognition.
• Emphasize your soft-skills—especially if your professional work experience is somewhat thin.

Experienced candidates often find that an objective statement no longer than five or so lines works best. In it, one should attempt to accomplish many or all of the following:

• Summarize your experience most closely related related to your job objective.
• Demonstrate your understanding of the key components of the position – i.e. customer service, vendor management or team leadership.
• Detail your skills which will enable you to effectively do the job – i.e. attention to detail, creative thinking, problem solving, etc.
• Provide any educational background that complements your relevant professional experience.
• Touch upon personal characteristics that contribute to making you a good choice for the position, i.e. self-motivated, creative, dedicated, proactive, works under pressure, etc.

Your objective statement can be formatted as either a paragraph or a list.
Because of the high volume of résumés that result from most every job posting, it is always a good idea to let the HR Recruiter know explicitly which open position for which you are applying. You can highlight the position title in the first instance where it appears in your objective statement by using a bold face font. For a great example, please refer to the Sample Experienced Résumé.

Education

When detailing your education, the key elements are: your college or university name, the official title of the degree you earned, your graduation year and, if it is impressive, your grade point average (GPA).

COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITY

Prestigious College

If you attended a prestigious college, list the name of the college first, then the degree, then the graduation year, then your GPA.

Cornell University, B.S. Computer Science, 2003	3.66/4.00 GPA

Normal or Non-Prestigious College

If you did not happen to attend a prestigious school, do not worry, list your degree, then the name of the school, then the graduation year, then your GPA. For example:

B.S. Computer Science, University of Phoenix, 2002

3.66 GPA

Degree

Typically include your degree and any relevant concentration. List any graduate degrees prior to any undergraduate degree.
If you attended college, but did not receive a degree from that school, note your studies relevant to the position for which you’re applying. For example:

Web Design and Programming, Cornell University 1999-2000

GPA

Whether to include your GPA on your résumé depends on how high/impressive it is and what in what country you hoping to work. In the U.S. you will want to include your GPA if it was 3.5 or above. In India, include your GPA if it is 7 or above. If you are unsure, ask a college placement officer. If you graduated more than 3 years ago, you may omit your GPA unless it was very impressive—the more time that has passed and the more professional work experience you have acquired, the less relevant your GPA will become.

Certifications

Certifications should be listed separately within the educational experience section of your résumé.  Remember, when listing certifications use the correct abbreviations. Many résumé-scanning programs will only register strictly correct abbreviations. If you want or need to fill space, feel free to write out the certification, completely and unabbreviated, followed by the correct abbreviation in parentheses.

Additional Course and Training

This is a good area of the résumé to point out your skills in other areas that make you more attractive as a candidate and help you stand out from the crowd.

Certifications:
CompTIA A+ Certification, Microsoft MCSE
Additional Courses and Training:
Exchange 2000 Server: Server Administration

Skills

After the summary section, the most relevant and important section of your résumé from the perspective of an HR Recruiter is the skills section. This should be incredibly detailed, concise and well organized.
Divide the section into subcategories so the reader can quickly scan through your knowledge of programs and applications. Possible categories include: hardware, software, operating systems, networking, office productivity, programming/languages, web applications and database applications. You should only list programs/applications that you could confidently discuss in an interview. Correctly formatted, a skills section would resemble the following:

Programming:	HTML, Visual Basic 5, C++, Java, Java Script, ASP
Networking:	Windows 2000/NT, Linux, FTP
Applications:	SQL Server 7.0, Goldmine 4.0, Microsoft Office, Adobe Acrobat Writer, Corel WordPerfect
Design:	Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft FrontPage.

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