IT Resumes

Is Your IT Resume Mobile Ready?

In today’s world, searching for IT jobs requires more than just polishing your resume and printing it on nice paper for IT recruiters.  Especially if you’re trying to attract IT recruiting firms, it’s important to make sure your resume is adapted for a more digital world. Here’s how to make sure your resume can be most attractive to technical recruiters.

  1. Polish the content on your resume. IT staffing firms will be less likely to want to work with you if your resume is difficult to read, doesn’t show off your professional achievements, or is so long it could be a novel.  Check out more tips here on how to update your resume to attract IT recruiting agencies.
  2. Make your resume mobile-friendly. This means a few things.  Make sure it’s clean and brief. Don’t use any graphics, odd formats, or colors.  Cut out all extraneous information.  (It’s worth noting that IT recruiting agencies prefer this on mobile formats or otherwise.)  Try emailing yourself your resume and checking it on your phone.  Busy IT staffing agencies and hiring managers often have to look at your resume that way.  Make sure the view is good.
  3. Don’t forget hyperlinks. If you have a website, professional blog, or online portfolio, don’t forget to provide links to it.  IT recruiting companies may also appreciate seeing a link to your LinkedIn profile.  Take full advantage of all that a digital resume can do to bolster your candidacy.

 

IT resume mobile ready
Test your IT resume on your phone – it may help you land your next IT job. Photo credit: FirmBee via Pixabay.

 

1 Way to Improve Your IT Resume

Here’s one straightforward way you can improve your resume to attract more IT recruiters and hiring managers: replace every bullet that starts with ‘responsible for’ with a professional achievement.

Why aren’t ‘responsible for’ statements on your resume as attractive to IT staffing firms?  Because these statements simply tell IT recruiting companies what the description is/was for your IT jobs.  While this is somewhat useful, it doesn’t really bolster your candidacy.  The best bullet points, the ones that IT staffing agencies love, demonstrate the value that you can bring to a new employer.  These kinds of bullet points may give some information that overlaps with a job description, but they’re very different to a hiring manager or technical recruiters.

How do you write bullet points that IT staffing companies and hiring managers want to see?  Think about times you’ve improved a process, gotten a tangible or measurable result, or been commended.  If you don’t have any examples like this, think about you responsibilities in various jobs.  Try to identify who benefited from these responsibilities and how.  You can use this information to create results-oriented statements about what you did.  These are the kinds of things you want added into your resume under each job.  They help employers picture what value you might be able to add to their company, team, etc.

So try taking some time to improve all these ‘responsible for’ statements on your IT resume.  It will help you attract a lot more IT recruiting firms and hiring managers.

 

Fix IT resumes
‘Responsible for’ statements don’t help your candidacy for IT jobs. Photo credit: picjumbo via Pixabay.

 

 

Leave This Off Your IT Resume!

When you polish up your resume to attract IT staffing firms, you may be tempted to create fancy tables or graphs to show your technical proficiencies or achievements.  Perhaps you’ve even heard that these kinds of elements might make you stand out to IT recruiting firms and hiring managers.  This is terrible advice, though.  Here’s why IT staffing agencies will respond better if leave fancy tables graphs, pie charts, etc off your IT resume.

Firstly, while it may take skills to create a pie chart or graph on your resume, this isn’t the impression that elements like this often give to IT recruiting companies and hiring managers.  If you have a strong resume with good experience and a great arsenal of technical proficiencies, you don’t need any special gimmicks to make your resume stand out to IT recruiting agencies.  If you do use these elements, you’re distracting from the strength of your candidacy and suggesting you may not understand professional norms.

Another reason IT staffing companies wouldn’t suggest you use any graphs, pie charts, etc on your resume is that these may make your resume more difficult for hiring managers or technical recruiters to read.  Since IT recruiters and interviewers are often pressed for time, they won’t usually appreciate a graph that will require them to slow down and decipher it.  Even if it’s simple, an element like this will still require more time to read than a simple, well-formatted resume.  At best, you’ll simply irritate interviewers or technical recruiters.  At worst, they may actually abandon your resume altogether in favor of one that is easier to look over (and thus establishes great candidacy faster).

So use a simple, clean format for your IT resume.  Fancy charts won’t win you IT jobs.

 

Pie Chart IT Resumes
Don’t put one any pie charts on your IT resume, no matter how beautiful you can make them. Photo credit: OpenClipartVectors via Pixabay.

 

 

Why Do IT Recruiters Need Your Most Updated Resume?

When you’re searching for new IT jobs, polishing up your resume is important whether you’re working with IT recruiting firms or not.  While it’s obvious that you need to update your own resume when you’re searching on your own, many candidates assume that IT staffing companies will update their resumes for them.  While technical recruiters do go over your resume and lightly edit it, they can’t provide a great portrait of your career if you can’t give them something to work with.

It behooves you to give the best, most polished version of your resume to your IT recruiters because you are the person who knows your career and professional achievements best.  Your IT recruiting agencies will know how to tailor what you give them to entice a hiring manager. Think about the process like cooking.  Your IT recruiting companies might be the chefs, but even the best chefs can’t cook something great if they’re missing half the ingredients for the recipe.

Remember that as the candidate, you’re very invested in the outcome of this process.  If your IT staffing firms can’t send over a great resume for you, you’re not going to land any IT jobs.  So take the time to give them a great, general resume to work from.  It may yield you a great IT job in the end!

 

IT resumes
Take the time to update that IT resume, it will be worth it in the end! Photo credit: StartupStockPhotos via Pixabay.

 

Remember This During Your IT Job Interviews

Have you ever wondered why your interviewers often ask you about your career, even if your IT staffing agencies have already given them copies of your resume?  Here are a couple reasons why your interviewer may need you to walk them through information that’s already on the resumes your IT recruiting firms have provided them with.

  1. They simply don’t remember it. IT recruiters would suggest you not take this personally at all.  Your interviewer may be talking to many candidates.  They may be handling various projects at the same time—in addition to interviewing.  If your interviewer asks you about something that’s already on your resume, your technical recruiters would urge you to answer it pleasantly anyways.  Being rude or condescendingly pointing out that the information is on the resume definitely won’t land you any IT jobs!
  2. Your interviewer may have questions because your resume is full of technical details. Especially in IT, resumes can be long and full of complicated details for various projects.  Don’t be upset if your interviewer needs to ask you something that is already covered on your resume. Your IT staffing companies would urge you to patiently respond to any questions, remembering that your resume might be too long and complicated for them to remember perfectly.
  3. Your interviewer might be less technical, and thus need you to re-word or explain things on your resume. Your IT recruiting agencies may be able to let you know this before the interview, but sometimes they may not.  If your interviewer isn’t as familiar with the technologies you’ve worked with, or possibly isn’t technical at all, they may ask you questions that you’d think your resume can answer.  Again, your IT staffing firms would suggest you answer them patiently and offer to clarify further if needed.  The key here is to make sure you demonstrate an ability to communicate well, even with people who have less experience or understanding of certain technologies.  This can be a moment where you really cement your candidacy!

 

ITJobInterviewsResume
Your interviewer may have a lot going on before they meet with you that day. Photo credit: cloudhoreca via Pixabay.

 

How to Trim Your IT Resume

As experienced IT professionals update their IT resumes, keeping them concise is often an issue.  IT staffing firms and hiring managers certainly understand that IT professionals aren’t beholden to the 1 page resume rule that many other professionals are.  However, you certainly won’t attract more IT recruiting companies and technical recruiters with an absurdly long resume.

How can you decide what to keep on your resume and what IT recruiters will consider a waste of space? Here are some basic priorities to consider.  Firstly, make sure your list of technical skills is complete and near the top of the resume.  This is one of the most important parts of your resume, as it helps IT staffing companies see at a glance if you might be a fit for IT jobs.  Don’t cut from this area.

Secondly, keep all relevant jobs and projects on your resume. When it comes to cutting material, irrelevant jobs (or at least excessive bullets below them) should be the first to go.  You’ll also want to cut any jobs that were more than 10 – 15 years ago.  Even if they’re relevant, they likely won’t strengthen your candidacy because they were just too long ago.

Lastly, don’t hesitate to cut volunteer activities, interests, or other personal information that isn’t directly related to your career path.  Interested in hiking?  You don’t need to add this on your resume.  Volunteering at a coding class in your community?  IT staffing agencies will want to read about this on your resume.

 

Hiking IT resumes
You might love hiking, but IT recruiters and hiring managers don’t need to see that on your resume. Photo credit: Unsplash via Pixabay.

 

 

 

Delete These 2 Words from Your LinkedIn Profile and IT Resumes

One strong tactic you can use is to polish up your LinkedIn profile and resume is deleting words that will turn off technical recruiters and potential employers.  Here are two words that won’t attract IT recruiters or hiring managers if you have them in your LinkedIn profile or resume – particularly in a summary or objective section.

  1. Don’t waste space in your summary or your taglines on LinkedIn with the word ‘motivated.’ Because it’s been so overused, it doesn’t mean much to IT staffing firms or interviewers.  What really carries weight with IT recruiting companies and hiring managers are demonstrations of your motivation.  Did you move up the ranks in a help desk department at a previous employer?  Did you volunteer for some extra projects at your last IT jobs? Listing actions and results like this on your profile is a much better use of space!
  2. In the same vein, you won’t be impressing any IT staffing agencies or potential employers by calling yourself ‘driven’ on your LinkedIn profile or resume. Again, the word is far too over-used to be effective.  It’s also not interesting to IT recruiting firms when you call yourself driven.  If you had a reference call you driven, it would carry far more weight.  However, since it’s a quality that’s hard to define, it’s important to consider that your opinion can’t really count here. You are, of course, biased about your own employability.  When you pronounce yourself driven on your LinkedIn profile or IT resume, you’re really just stating something that IT recruiting agencies already know: you think you’d be an asset as an employee.  Use the space on your LinkedIn profile or IT resume to tell them something they don’t know.  What’s your technical background?  What projects have you led?  What have you achieved in your career?  This is the kind of information that IT staffing companies want to see—not that you think that you are driven.

 

Delete
Don’t leave ‘motivated’ on your IT resume! Photo credit: gustavofer74 via Pixabay.

 

An IT Resume Mistake that Designers Often Make

IT recruiters often work with various kinds of designers and creative professionals to find IT jobs.  Often, technical recruiters come across resumes for these IT professionals that are done with pictures, unconventional formats, and multiple types of font.  If you’d like to attract IT staffing firms and hiring managers, doing this with your resume may actually be hurting you.

Why would it turn off IT recruiting agencies and potential employers to showcase your design skills and creativity on your resume?  For one thing, it may make it harder for IT staffing agencies to find the information they need to decide you’re a great candidate for particular roles.  Since IT recruiting firms often sift through hundreds of resumes daily, their time is limited.  They may not have time to decipher a format that is anything beyond simple and conventional.  The same is true for potential employers—except even more so.  Hiring managers are interviewing, and usually doing so on top of a large workload.  Their time to read through resumes will be even more limited.  Make it easy and fast for IT staffing companies and employers to decide you’re an interesting candidate by using a conventional, clean resume format.

The second reason a creative resume format may hinder your job search is that it may suggest that your skills and experience aren’t strong enough to speak for themselves.  Gimmicky resumes are often used by professionals who aren’t as confident in their own candidacy.  Use a conventional format and showcase your experience, technical proficiencies, and other skills.  You can always showcase design skills in a portfolio or links to relevant work.  If you use a more conventional resume format, you will get more attention from IT recruiting agencies and hiring managers.

 

FancyDesign
Fancy fonts don’ belong on your IT resume, even if you’re looking for creative and design-oriented roles. Photo credit: ClkerFreeVectorImages via Pixabay.

 

 

Doing This on Your LinkedIn Profile Won’t Help Your IT Job Search

LinkedIn profiles have arguably become one of the strongest assets for IT professionals in their search for new IT jobs. Technical recruiters and IT staffing agencies often contact candidates based on the strength of their LinkedIn profiles, rather than their resumes. The best profiles, the ones that attract hordes of IT recruiters and IT staffing firms, are like elegant code: concise and powerful.

Most IT recruiting firms have drilled into their candidates that a resume needs to be as brief as possible (without sacrificing quality).  IT recruiting companies are looking for even briefer LinkedIn Profiles. This means that it’s crucial to delete unnecessary information. One prime example of information that you should definitely take out of your profile is a listing of college or grad school courses.

IT staffing companies do want to see your certifications and relevant trainings (this usually means courses outside of school).  However, you’re definitely going to risk losing their interest with a list of other courses that aren’t completely relevant to your career goals. You can save this list for your resume, which IT recruiting agencies will likely ask you for later. When it comes to your LinkedIn profile, keep things a bit leaner than your resume—it will make a big difference in how recruiters see you.

 

IT job search classes
Don’t list all your programming classes on your LinkedIn profile. Photo credit: srfparis via Pixabay.

 

 

Fix Your LinkedIn Profile, Kick Your IT Job Search into Gear

In 2016, one of the best things you can do to attract IT recruiters and IT staffing agencies is to update your LinkedIn profile. While technical recruiters and IT recruiting companies will definitely need a resume, your LinkedIn profile is almost as important. Here is one major mistake to avoid as you update: Giving excessively long descriptions of all the IT jobs you’ve ever held.

Why is this a problem and what should you be doing instead? Firstly, consider your LinkedIn profile akin to a movie trailer for your real resume. IT recruiting firms tend to see hundreds upon hundreds of LinkedIn profiles. Make it easy for IT staffing agencies to decide you’re a great candidate to contact.  Very briefly list the best information about your career. If your profile is long and full of extensive details, it’s less likely that you’ll get a call from IT staffing firms.

Here’s how to clean up your profile a bit if you have too much information under each IT job. Copy all the material to a new document so you can start fresh. Now use that info to create only a handful of statements that are all about your accomplishments at these IT jobs. Check out this blog post for some great verbs to help you build powerful sentences. With fewer bullets that really showcase your worth, get ready to impress IT staffing companies and kick your job search into gear!

 

LinkedIn Profiles IT Job Search
Time is of the essence, so cut down descriptions of your IT jobs on your LinkedIn profile! Photo credit: steinchen via Pixabay.