The Best IT Resume Tips of 2014

CIO.com takes a brief look back at the IT Resume Makeover series and some of the best resume advice from the past 12 months.

The Best IT Resume Tips of 2014

Over the last year, our resume experts and career consultants have helped numerous IT professionals put their best foot forward. Here’s a quick look at some of the top resume tips from 2014’s IT Resume Makeover series.

Clear Out the Clutter

Instead of a “laundry list” of job responsibilities and daily tasks, focus your resume on how you’ve solved problems for employers — and in what context.

Know Your Audience

Tailor the message to your audience. Ask yourself who will read your resume and what they expect to see.

Tell a Compelling Personal Story

Finding a career success story within your work history will make your career narrative more interesting and engaging for potential employers.

Use Sales Tactics to Sell Yourself

A sales resume is built on metrics: sales figures, number of deals closed, revenue targets achieved. Without these metrics, it can be nearly impossible to differentiate yourself from other sales candidates.

Keep Your Resume Fresh and Updated

Make time to review and refresh your resume each year. Make sure all information about current and past employers and responsibilities is correct and add any new skills, experience or knowledge you’ve gained.

Don’t Sell Yourself Short

This is the place to showcase your achievements. Make sure to hone in on unique achievements, successes, skills and knowledge to really grab the reader’s attention.

Don’t Lie

It can be tempting to embellish your work history, exaggerate your IT skills or even claim to hold advanced degrees. In the long term, this can not only kill your chances to land a specific job, it can be a black mark that follows you your entire career.

Avoid Information Overload

Most employers want to quickly see dates, the scope of an applicant’s responsibility, the types of projects managed, and other pertinent details, but make sure you’re not using too much detail, which can become overwhelming to a reader.

Avoid Buzzword Burnout

If your resume is crammed with buzzwords, jargon and gibberish, you’re dooming yourself. Make sure your language is plain and clear to better appeal to readers.

Know How (And When) to Break the Rules

If you’ve created something big at the beginning of your career and spend the rest of your professional life building on that initial success, you must turn the traditional resume on its head to showcase that accomplishment.

Position Your Accomplishments for Maximum Impact

Typically, a resume has between 10 and 15 seconds to make an impact on a recruiter, hiring manager or HR professional. That’s why it’s crucial that attention-grabbing achievements and information be positioned close to the top of the first page, where it’s more likely to be seen and have maximum effect.

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