IT Resumes

A Checklist for Your Tech Job Search

January 5, 2018

While the tech job market always seems to be hot, January is an especially good time to be searching. Many companies begin their fiscal year in January and have the budget to hire new IT professionals. IT recruiters also find that companies often start development life cycles in January. With new applications to develop, companies will have their technical recruiters looking for new software programmers, web developers, UX/UI developers, etc to hire. It’s also worth noting that it’s very advantageous to get hired at the beginning of a development life cycle. Having experience with a project from beginning to end (or beginning to maintenance) looks excellent on a resume. IT staffing firms love to see that kind of experience on your resume. So if you’re ready to look for new IT jobs, January is the time to do it! Here’s a checklist to prep yourself.

Your Resume: Get it updated and clean out old/irrelevant experience (probably anything older than the last 10 years or anything that’s in a totally different, irrelevant field). Remember to use your bullets to show off your contributions and achievements at the companies you’ve worked with. Help hiring managers and IT recruiting agencies see the value you bring as an employee. Post your updated resume on the job boards, especially if it’s been a while since you last searched.
Your LinkedIn Profile: This is almost as important as your resume. Since the vast majority of people in tech use LinkedIn, it can sometimes be considered a red flag if you don’t have a profile there. Make sure you update your LinkedIn profile more concisely than your resume. You can use your resume to elaborate on your technical skills and experience.
Your References: Check in with them and let them know you’re job searching. Give them an idea of the kinds of roles you’re looking for. Thank them for their help with your job search. (And don’t forget to thank them again when you land your new job!)
Your Portfolio: If you’re a Graphic Designer, Web Developer, UX/UI Developer, or have a skill-set in a similar vein, you may want to get your portfolio ready. Make sure you have your latest and best samples of your work added in. Be aware of copyright issues and don’t openly break them if your company won’t allow you to share examples of your work for them. No employer wants to hire somebody who seems untrustworthy.
Call IT Recruiters: If you’ve already developed a relationship with recruiters, give them a call and send along your latest resume. If you haven’t worked with IT staffing companies before, now’s a great time to do it! Find an IT recruiting firm that has a great reputation and reach out with your job search materials. A good technical recruiter will help you find a job that you love and can succeed in.

Tech job search checklist — Get ready to land a great new IT job. Photo credit: TeroVeslainen via Pixabay.

What to Cut from Your Tech Resume: Experience

December 1, 2017

Tech professionals don’t have to heed the same 1-page resume rule that most other professionals do. IT recruiters and hiring managers are usually a lot more permissive of longer resumes. This doesn’t mean that you want to submit novellas, though. To land a new job, you need to be able to show some restraint and edit your resume down to something more concise. Here’s how to edit your experience.

Cut anything over 10-ish years. There are certainly exceptions to this rule, but in general, you won’t need anything over 10 years. Since technologies change so frequently, you’ll be discussing technologies and skills that may be completely irrelevant to the roles you’re applying to. Don’t waste space on your resume talking about obsolete technologies you’ve used. Keep that space open to talk about your more recent jobs!

Focus on the jobs you’ve done in the last 5 years. This is true for anyone, no matter how much experience you have on your resume. Technical recruiters sometimes see resumes with equal bullets dedicated to each and every job. That’s not only unnecessary; it actually may hurt the overall effectiveness of your resume. Your resume should help a hiring manager imagine you in their open role. The most recent jobs are likely the ones that have prepared you to do this kind of work. Detail out what you achieved in your last few roles, the technologies you used, and how you contributed to your team/company. Giving this kind of crucial information is what helps you land great IT jobs.

Cut any irrelevant experience. If you worked a job in a completely different industry, don’t worry about adding it into your resume. You only want it there if you need to account for your career in the last 5 years. Even then, if you need to have the job on your resume, just list it and the years or months you worked. IT recruiting agencies would suggest that you never waste bullets on irrelevant experience.

Want to see our open IT jobs? Follow us on LinkedIn. We post new jobs daily!

tech resume tips — Don’t leave any experience over 10 years on your resume. Photo credit: naturalpastels via Pixabay.

This Language Will Help You Land (More) IT Jobs

November 2, 2017

If you’re a programmer, you’re probably always looking to improve your skill-set and beef up your resume. IT staffing firms certainly see programmers who inadvertently limit their job search options by focusing on the same languages, year after year. If you’re thinking about learning a new language soon, a good bet would be Python. Here’s why Python would be the best investment in your career right now.

It’s useful to a wide range of employers. IT recruiters find that learning Python widens your job search options because it’s a language that many companies want to use across various industries. This may be at least partially because it’s free and lowers overhead costs. Python isn’t just big in the tech space (which is of course huge in itself), though. It’s also used in hot job sectors like Science, Medicine, Finance (Fintech), Retail, and Entertainment.

Employers like it because it’s trendy. Python works for so many of the trends employers want to participate in right now. It’s a language that works for Scrum and Agile development, which technical recruiters find is much more popular than Waterfall. It’s also a language that works better for open-source technologies, which many innovative, progressive employers want to use. Lastly, Python is a trendy language among employers because it gets frequent updates. Employers never see it as a stale, archaic language.

It appeals to programmers, which appeals to employers. Employers, especially in the tech space where it’s a job seeker’s market, want to pick languages that attract top talent. Make yourself a more viable job candidate by playing into this trend and adding Python to your arsenal. Python attracts programmers right now for a few reasons. Firstly, it’s easy to learn (partially because it’s so readable– it includes English words). It’s also being taught more and more frequently in universities and colleges. Secondly, it’s popular among programmers who want an alternative to the highly corporate, controlled .NET, as its open source. Lastly, IT staffing companies find that Python appeals to programmers because it’s a craftsmen’s language. It allows programmers to really show off their skills and demonstrate a deep mastery that other, less flexible languages don’t allow.

IT job search advice — Python is trendy with employers right now. Photo credit: 3844328 via Pixabay.

Should You Use Resume Gimmicks?

September 29, 2017

If you’re an IT professional searching for your next job, you probably want to steer clear of any resume gimmicks. We’ve all heard or read about tricks that make your resume “stand out” to IT recruiters or hiring managers. Maybe it’s sending your resume in hard copy, using a creative, flashy format, or any number of other unconventional ideas. The problem is that resume gimmicks are usually terrible ideas that will actually seriously hurt your credibility with IT staffing companies and employers. The one exception to this rule is if you’re formatting to show off artistic skills that are relevant to the job listing. Graphic designers, UX/UI developers, and similar roles can often benefit from a resume that’s formatted with aesthetic creativity. For everyone else in tech, though, here’s why you need to create the standard, conventional resume if you want to land great IT jobs.

Resume gimmicks make your resume look even more generic. Ideally, IT staffing firms suggest that you tailor your resume to every job you’re applying to. This shows a real interest in the role, the work, the company, or all three. Tech employers are notorious for asking technical recruiters to help find candidates who are passionate about the work they do, their company culture, etc. When you offer a gimmicky resume, it doesn’t help make your resume look like you’ve tailored it to the role, and thus can lead employers to think there’ s a lack of passion for the position, technologies, company culture, etc. Often people will mass produce and send out gimmicky resumes. Gimmicks are rarely tailored to the employer. Based on this pattern, you’ve already potentially taken yourself down a few notches in the employer’s eye.

Resume gimmicks make it harder for employer and IT recruiting agencies to see exactly what skills, experience, and technologies you have. Most tech positions require that you have certain technologies, skills, etc. Not having them can be a huge problem and seriously impede your ability to handle the workload. For this reason, the strongest resumes cleanly lay out what skills or technologies the candidate has and how they’ve applied in them in previous positions. Don’t distract IT recruiters or employers with something flashy and irrelevant, like an unconventional format. You also don’t want to take space away from achieving this goal. Often, these gimmicky resumes require extra space for graphics—space that you could be using to show off your technical acumen. You don’t want to hurt your chances for landing a job because an employer sees your funky resume, but isn’t sure you have hands-on experience with a certain programming language or web platform.

Resume gimmicks make it seem like you’re trying to hide something. Often the people who use gimmicky resumes do so because they’re not confident in their experience or technical skills. Rightly or wrongly, some supspicious hiring managers will nix a resume just because it’s gimmicky-looking. Particularly in tech, where positions are so imperative to a company’s success and salaries are higher, a manager can’t risk making a bad hiring decision. It’s just too expensive. Don’t risk being rejected just because your gimmicky resume set off a suspicious hiring manager’s radar! Create a simple, straight-forward resume that shows why you’re ready to contribute to an employer.

Fix This Mistake on Your Tech Resume

September 27, 2017

Having a brief, but effective resume is important when you’re looking for new IT jobs. While most recruiters would say the 1-page rule is less important for IT professionals, it’s still advantageous to create a resume with all the fat trimmed. Considering how pressed for time most IT recruiters and hiring managers are, you shouldn’t expect a long, leisurely read of your resume. In fact, sometimes a resume that’s repetitive, full of excessive technical details, or even unnecessary personal information, hobbies, etc can just take you out of the running for a job completely. This is especially true when you’re entry level. Technical recruiters expect a shorter resume when you have less than 5 years of experience. Here’s one of the worst ways IT staffing companies see IT professionals waste space on their resume: advertising for their previous employers.

This mistake is pretty easy to spot. Many candidates will put a sentence or two under the name of the company on their resume. They’ll describe the products the company offers, its reputation, most notable awards, etc. Sometimes this will be integrated into the bullet points under the employer. Some artful candidates will try to link their own role to this description of the company. No matter how it’s done, though, this practice is a terrible idea. Here are two reasons why you’re only hurting yourself and turning out a less-than stellar resume when you do this.

You’re losing space to boost your own candidacy. Especially when it comes to the text and bullets under the employer, this is the time to showcase your skills and achievements. Bullets under a job should help an employer picture you as a new and valuable asset to their team. When you waste even a sentence describing what your previous employer did, their awards, etc, it’s a shame. That sentence could have been more proof that you are an excellent catch for employers! When you’re entry level, you’re wasting even more precious space. Considering how short IT recruiting firms expect your resume to be, every sentence becomes all the more valuable. Even if you’re not entry level, you’re potentially losing a recruiter or hiring manager’s interest. When a hiring manager comes across information about the company, not the candidate, they may just start skimming the resume. Keep their attention by making sure every bullet point under each job is something they want and need to know, not something they could look up on the web or a Fortune 500 company directory!

You look less professional, if not naïve and entry level. Like most resume mistakes, this one can lead IT staffing firms and hiring managers to assume that you are pretty entry level or don’t have a firm grasp of professional norms. Considering how much responsibility tech professionals often get (as most of their work is so mission critical and imperative for the success of the company) it’s important you look completely professional and trustworthy.

Don’t let a small mistake like this potentially mar your candidacy. Delete those lines advertising your former employer. Replace them with achievements, contributions to your team, and the kinds of skills that will excite your potential employers.

Want to see our open IT jobs? Follow us on LinkedIn. We post new jobs daily!

IT resume mistakes — Want to make sure your resume doesn’t wind up in the trash bin? Start by not advertising for former employers. Photo credit: Ramdlon via Pixabay.

Q and A about Jumpiness in Tech Resumes

August 14, 2017

When you’re working in the tech field, there’s a lot of temptation to jump around from job to job. Between IT recruiters who reach out to passive candidates, new roles that offer hands-on experience with hot new technologies, and employers who offer roles with big pay raises, it can be hard to stay loyal and stick with your IT jobs for the expected 1, 2, or more years. As a general rule, It’s important to avoid all of this temptation, though and try to maintain some decently long stints at each employer you work at. Here are some common questions and answers that IT staffing firms often get asked about about jumpiness in a tech career.

Is there ever a time when jumpiness is ok for IT professionals? Especially in tech there are times when some jumpiness is completely acceptable. Contracting is the most obvious example. IT recruiting agencies find that hiring managers don’t mind a couple of years of contracting in a resume. This can be pretty normal for the field and can certainly help as you begin your career or seek out experience with new technologies. Additionally, it’s also fine to have shorter stints at jobs for the usual reasons: a company is acquired or you must move to a different part of the country.

Why is jumpiness a problem on a tech resume, then? Employers in the tech field have a few reasons why they prefer to hire candidates with long, solid stays at most (if not all) their jobs. Firstly, many tech roles are well-paid. This means that a company needs to make a good investment and hire a candidate who’s reliable, prepared, and ready to make some big contributions. Losing candidates every six months, even sometimes every year, can be a bad investment for an employer. It’s hard to contribute a lot to the company when you’re not around long enough! It’s also hard to rely on a candidate when employers are constantly concerned they’ll be leaving for new opportunity with a higher salary, fresher technologies, etc.

Another reason employers don’t want to hire people with excessively jumpy resumes is related to training. Many tech roles require in-depth training for candidates to really contribute to the workload. There’s a ramp-up period that can’t be avoided. Due to this ramp-up period, employers don’t want to hire IT professionals who won’t stick around for a long time. They don’t want to be training a new person, and thus losing time and productivity, every six months, year, etc.

The last reason tech employers want to see less jumpiness in a resume is that long stays at a company can indicate more experience with long-term projects. Long-term, organizational projects can take years. If you’ve never been any place longer than a few months, you haven’t been able to participate in one of these kinds of projects from start to finish (or even close to it).

How do you polish jumpiness in your own resume so it’s appealing to technical recruiters and hiring managers? If you have the kind of jumpiness that’s acceptable, make sure to indicate the reasons why you left jobs. Did you leave a job after 3 months because the company was acquired? Write that as your last bullet. Keep it brief and professional. A long bullet with a sob story won’t help market you to employers. In fact, it will likely hurt you.

If you have a rash of contracting jobs in your career, make the bullets in each of them great. Show off your contributions and professional achievements. You want employers to see that even though you weren’t at a company long, you added value while you were there.

IT resume tips — Jumpiness in a tech resume won’t always land you the job. Photo credit: Pexels via Pixabay.

2 Easy Ways to Improve your Technical Resume

August 4, 2017

There’s no getting around it: creating a good resume is a pain. IT recruiting firms never find that candidates enjoy the process. Some will even ask if they can avoid updating theirs. (If you’re serious about landing new IT jobs, you can’t.) Technical resumes can be especially arduous to write. You need to explain your previous jobs in enough detail to impress technical recruiters, but also avoid giving so much that your resume becomes unreadable to hiring managers who aren’t as tech savvy. Here are two easy ways to make sure you share your best resume with IT staffing companies and hiring managers.

1. Make sure your Technical Proficiencies section is complete and honest. You want this section to be up to date with all the skills you can claim a real competence in. Make sure not to leave any skills out. As IT recruiters or hiring managers scan your resume for certain technologies or skills, you wouldn’t want them to move on because they were missing. The same is true for ATS’s (applicant tracking systems) and searches within big recruiting sites. Including important keywords will make sure your resume is seen by search engines and software used in the hiring process.

On the flip side, it’s also important not to add in skills or technologies that you can’t claim a real competence with. If you’ve only had slight exposure to a certain technology, don’t include it. You don’t want to find your way into an interview where you can’t answer questions about a technology, complete a coding test, or fail a whiteboarding session miserably. You’ll quickly ruin your reputation with employers and IT recruiting firms if you falsely represent yourself as having certain technical experience and skills.

2. Elaborate on how you used the skills and technologies mentioned in your Technical Proficiencies section within the bullets for your jobs. This part is just as important, if not more so. Technically adept hiring managers and technical recruiters want to see how you used a technology at previous jobs. Make sure to dedicate at least one bullet per technology or skill. Even if they’re scattered throughout your career history, they’ll still help managers see that you’re prepared to apply the skills you list in your Technical Proficiencies section in their open roles.

Tips for IT resumes — Try these tips to make your resume more appealing to IT recruiters and hiring managers. Photo credit: vloveland via Pixabay

A Checklist for Writing Your Best IT Resume

August 2, 2017

Job hunting in the tech industry can differ from any industry. As an IT job seeker, your search is affected by things like technical jargon, the tools hiring managers use, and the speed at which technologies change and projects become irrelevant. If you’re serious about looking for new IT jobs, you want a resume tailored to this industry and the needs of the hiring managers in it. Here’s a quick checklist that IT recruiters suggest using as you complete your resume. This list will make sure your resume is especially appealing to hiring managers in the tech space and technical recruiters.

1. Does your resume match up with your LinkedIn profile? Especially within the tech space, IT staffing companies and hiring managers use LinkedIn as part of their hiring process. If your resume doesn’t basically match up with your LinkedIn profile, it’s time to fix that. You especially want to avoid making it seem like you’re hiding anything or lying about anything in your career history or skill-set. Appearing dishonest is the fastest way to be blacklisted with IT recruiting firms and employers.

2. Is your resume full of quantifiable, concrete, professional achievements? The bullets under each job should be taken up with statements like ‘Improved network downtime by 25%.’ Or ‘Increased web traffic by 50%.’ Hiring managers are more likely to pick people who they can picture working with their team and contributing to their company’s goals. This is especially true in tech, where the salaries are higher and a bad hire can cost a lot. Nobody wants to be the manager who hires a programmer who can’t code fast enough or the network architect who designed a faulty network. Make it easier for hiring managers to picture you succeeding in their open roles. List the concrete contributions you made at previous employers, using numbers and percentages whenever you can.

4. Is your resume easy to read? Did you focus on your last 10-15 years of experience? Did you use a simple font with basic, even spacing? Did you use a conventional resume format, or a ‘creative one’ that might require some extra time to figure out? Did you forgo giving every single technical detail of your work at every previous job? Keep in mind that IT recruiting agencies and hiring managers don’t have much time to pore over every line of your resume. In fact, if you apply with a resume that’s crammed to the gills with lots of technical details for 7 pages, or provide a resume that’s in a ‘creative format’, you might just be taking yourself out of the running for a job right off the bat. Make your resume easy to read and keep it brief and efficient. If your experience is a good fit, you can give more detail in a phone or in-person interview.

IT resumes — You’ll land more IT jobs if your resume ticks off every box. Photo credit: TeroVesalainen via Pixabay.

Have Gaps on Your Technical Resume? How to Handle Them

May 5, 2017

People in most fields are uncomfortable with gaps in their resumes. IT recruiting firms find that if you can handle them correctly, though, these won’t hurt your chances of landing IT jobs. Here are some of the basics that IT recruiters think you should know about gaps on technical resumes.

1. Small gaps are not a problem. Especially in the tech field, where contracting and project-based work are pretty common, gaps of 3 months or less aren’t a huge deal. Layoffs happen, contracts end, and interview processes can certainly drag out the time between unemployment to being hired. IT staffing firms won’t bat an eye at a gap or two between contracts on your resume.

2. A gap beyond 6 months will require more explanation. IT recruiting agencies find that employers will be more concerned with an unemployment gap of 6 months or more. This is at least in part because there’s such a dearth of qualified IT professionals to fill the open jobs in pretty much all of the US. The unemployment rate for tech professionals is notoriously low- lower than the national average. In January, the tech unemployment rate was only 2.9 percent, while the national average was closer to 4.7 percent. If you’re not getting hired for a job after 6 months, employers wonder if the problem may be you, not the market! If you have a gap like this, make sure to address it your resume. Give a brief, professional reason why you were unemployed. Did you take time off to take care of a member of your family, raise a young child? Have a health issue yourself? Take time off to go to school? These are all the kinds of reasons that technical recruiters find will not scare off potential employers. Make sure to note this on your resume!

3. Make the most of your gaps. If you’re unemployed for a longer period of time and are not encumbered by responsibilities to your family, health issues, etc, you should take this time to keep your skills sharp. Do a side project on your own. Volunteer to do work for a local charity or non-profit. Get a certification. Learn a new technical skill. IT staffing companies find that if you can do things like this with your gap, you’ll be much more appealing to employers. After all, technologies change at lightning speed. You want to stay in the game and stay sharp so you’re ready to hit the ground running when you do land a new role!

Want to see our open IT jobs? Follow us on LinkedIn. We post new jobs daily!

Gaps on technical resumes — Got gaps shorter than 3 months? Don’t worry about it! Photo credit: Aitoff via Pixabay.

Use This Checklist Before Posting Your Technical Resume

April 28, 2017

Most IT professionals don’t enjoy writing or updating resumes. Besides the fact that writing resumes is an inherently unpleasant activity, technical resumes can be even more difficult. IT recruiters find that many candidates struggle with the balance between providing enough detail for technically-savvy readers and so much detail that managers and technical recruiters feel like they’re looking an unreadable novel of technical jargon. But in the end, creating a great resume is always worth it because it lands you great IT jobs. Here’s a checklist that IT staffing companies suggest you use before posting your resume.

1. Do you have a ‘Technical Proficiencies’ section at the top of your resume? Pull out all of your technical skills and put them in one well-organized section at the very top of your resume. This section is one of the best ways to catch the eyes of hiring managers and IT recruiting firms who are sifting through hundreds or thousands of resumes. Don’t forget to constantly update this section, too. As you learn a new programming language, master Scrum, or get new certifications, add them in. (IT recruiters would suggest that you only list technologies you have professional experience or certification in here. Listing hobbies won’t help you here. You don’t want to suggest you have a skill that you actually don’t. You’ll either be found out in an interview, or worse, on the job!) You could be missing out on IT jobs if you don’t!

2. Are your bullets effective? Do the bullets under each job just list the basic responsibilities of your roles? Time to fix that. Entice IT staffing agencies with bullets that list your achievements in these roles. Help them see the value you added to your team. You might have some technical details in here, but the point isn’t to be as thorough as possible. Focus on adding bullets that help an employer picture you, making a difference at their company from day one!

3. Did you list more than 15 years of experience on your resume? Time to cut back. There are a few reasons IT recruiting companies would suggest you do this. Firstly, you want to protect yourself from age discrimination. Unfortunately, most IT recruiters would agree that the tech field can be especially unforgiving when it comes to age discrimination. Since you don’t have to give more than 10-15 years of experience on your resume, just protect yourself and stop there. Another reason that technical recruiters would suggest you delete experience after the 10-15 year mark is because the resume isn’t really helpful after that point anyways. You want to highlight the kinds of technologies and projects that employers are working on now. Since the field is changing so quickly, the experience after 10-15 years may not even be relevant! The last reason to delete experience after 10-15 years is for length. IT professionals can have longer resumes, but you don’t want to post a resume that’s as long as War and Peace. Nobody really wants to read it and it might even turn off hiring managers. So take the old experience off your resume, it’s not helping and it may even actually hurt you!

Want to see our open IT jobs? Follow us on LinkedIn. We post new jobs daily!