When preparing to write your technological resume, the most important step is organizing the information you are going to provide, clearly and in a manner that will get you noticed. While anyone searching the Internet has heard of "keywords", most people associate them only with search engines and webpage searches. It is important, however, when writing a technological resume to include keywords and keyword phrases within the content of your resume.
To identify the keywords and keyword phrases that will be the most effective in your technological resume; choose them from the original job posting. Remember that your potential employer had a specific person and a specific skill set in mind when they wrote the posting. The words they used are the ones that describe what they want. Using their words in your resume content will help potential employers identify you as the person who best fits their needs.
Include technical and career summaries
The cleanest format to use in a technological resume is one that includes a technical summary and a career summary. There are several pitfalls to avoid, however, when you’re creating these categories. Potential employers are looking for results. They really don’t care what you’ve done or where you’ve been unless you can identify exactly how you impacted the organization in terms of your contributions. When writing your technical summary, your goal is to clearly identify your technical skills. The best format is one that allows you to include subcategories for each technical skill set. Include all programs and applications, certifications, operating systems, web and database applications, programming/languages, networking/protocols, and office productivity.
If your technical experience level varies per category, it’s a good idea to identify the skills that are proficient and the ones that may be general knowledge only in your technological resume. Don’t overexeragerate your knowledge, as nothing will kill an interview faster than your inability to discuss a program or skill that you’ve claimed proficiency in.
Use figures and statistics to highlight your effectiveness
The career summary is the area in your technological resume to highlight your contributions and impact in previous positions. For each position held, include a brief summary of the responsibilities that came with the job. Follow that with a synopsis of how your performance in that position had a positive impact upon your employer. It’s a good idea to include examples of your impact on your department as well as the company as a whole. Employers are looking for enhanced efficency, bottom line profit, budgetary impact, and numbers!
The most impressive results are measurable so use statistics and figures whenever possible. List the most impressive accomplishments first and work your way down. Be careful not to spend too much time detailing the technical aspects of what you’ve done here. Remember that your employer will see the ability in what you were able to supply as an end result. They don’t need a technological resume with a 10-page description of how you did it. If you’ve contracted work as opposed to having been an internal employee, do the same for each position. Include your most impressive projects, name of the company you were contracted by, why they hired you, the scope of your project, how you choose to accomplish your goal, and the end result benefit to your employer.
Don’t forget communication skills!
An extremely important piece that many professionals in the technological field overlook in their technological resume is the inclusion of communication skills in your technological resume. We highly suggest including a separate category for these skills. Unfortunately, in this industry, more than any other, candidates are so technically proficient that they don’t take the time to work on or polish their communication skills. Hiring a candidate with the most impressive technical skills won’t help an employer at all if the candidate can’t or won’t communicate with the rest of the team. If you’ve taken interpersonal communication classes, describe them here. If you haven’t, it’s something you should consider. In the meantime, however, you’ll want to let your potential employer know that you do consider these skills important and do have them.
Excellent listening skills, strong oral and written communication skills, the ability to work well with other members of the team, etc., can be included in just a few lines and will, in many cases, put your technological resume above those who don’t consider these traits to be an important part of their ability to do the job. There are many types of resume templates available on the market, find a style that allows you to communicate the information above and take the time to personalize each resume to each position you’re applying for. Too often, professionals write one resume and then slap a cover letter on it and send it out. Every position is not created equally; your resume shouldn’t be either.
