When It Comes To IT Job Resumes, There’s No One-Size-Fits-All
by Joe dymondYou can shop for resume tips online. You can read the career books. Or you can just consult your word processing program. It’s easy to find pre-made templates for your resume. Just add your job history and send it along to prospective clients.
But is that really enough? Odds are it isn’t. You should have several different resumes for several different opportunities by the time you start mailing your packages.
With the job market tightening, you can bet that you’re not the only person applying for the position. Far from it! Today’s IT employers have stacks of resumes on their desks stacked so high that finding the right applicant becomes another full-time job.
Worse yet, most of those resumes will come from applicants who sent out as many resumes to as many companies as possible, choosing expediency over a good research and good writing. If you let that employer know that you’ve put thought into your efforts, you’ve already placed yourself above the pack.
Before you begin, take stock of yourself. Sit down in a quiet place with a pen and paper and ask yourself two questions:
1. What have I done?
2. What can I do?
Most people don’t think much about the work they do on a day-to-day basis. But eventually, it all adds up. Giving specific numbers and statements rather than vague sentences makes it clear that you actually have the necessary know-how.
Someone who worked in IT for five years and wrote that on their resume may feel they’re equipped for a great IT job. But to take it a step further and set themselves apart from the pack in the stack could list the exact number of projects they had done, the number of accounts they handled, and the size of those accounts.
This establishes you as a well-rounded applicant with a clear head on your shoulders and shows that you can handle the most demanding deadline pressure.
Next take into account the business you’ll be applying to.
Smaller businesses have smaller staffs, which probably leads to a greater variety of demands for the employees. A resume for one of these ought to focus on the breadth of your experience, and make it clear that you’re adaptable enough to deal with whatever problem that might arise. This would also be a good place to list the classes you might have taken, or the programs you’ve used. Knowing a little about something is better than knowing nothing at all, and lets the company know you can learn the rest.
If you’re aiming at a larger company, keep in mind that they probably have the staff to deal with the extra tasks a smaller business would bother you with. At a large business, it’s more than likely that the job you’ve been hired for is the one you’ll focus on – period. As such, this would be a good place to be as specific as possible. Don’t skimp on the details, but your resume should focus more on your qualifications for the job in question rather than the big picture.
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