Essential Resume Writing Tips for Early Careers in IT

IT is a booming industry and everyone knows it. Whether it’s information and communication technologies or information technology, there is an abundance of desirable jobs for technologically skilled experts. Companies are always on the lookout for a particular set of IT skills and if you are a fresh graduate with the expertise required in the IT industry, there are surely many others out there like you. Some with more experience too. However, you can gain an edge in the competitive market by making an impactful resume.

Readability

Mentioning all the programming languages you know is not going to cut it. Your resume needs to say a lot more about you as a professional. Most employers skimming through resumes only read them half way through and decide whether they want to go on, so it’s important to make your resume as impactful as you can but don’t make the common mistake of cramming too much in it.

You need to make sure your resume is easy to read and absorb. So use clear fonts like Times New Roman and Arial. Place your text size somewhere between 10 and 12. Don’t forget to use standard margins and never print your resume on a colored page. Not only does the color contrast make the resume difficult to read but can also be pretty distracting.

Focus on a technical summary

At the end of the day, the employer is looking for someone who possesses the technical skills he is looking for. Most fresh IT graduates make the common mistake of either making their resume excessively long with lengthy details on individual projects and assignments or they summarize it into an insufficiently short, hard to decipher description.

When it comes to your technical expertise, try to strike a balance between the two extremes and make sure that you highlight your technical skills without having the manager search for it on your resume. Your technical summary section should allow the reader to quickly scan through all of your technical skills as an IT professional. Include the programs, languages, web applications and database applications here that you could discuss confidently in an interview.

Be relevant and refrain from exaggerating

It is understandable that it has taken years of academic and practical experience to develop the skills you have, but don’t go on bragging too much about your skills. This is one of the most common mistakes new IT professionals make. If you exaggerate your skills, it is most likely to backfire in your interview. You will likely be asked about the skills you mentioned and if you don’t know much about it to speak on, it might be a pivotal moment in the interview.

When listing down your skills, make them in the order of relevance to your objective instead of going alphabetically. Also, don’t include outdated skills or skills that are irrelevant to the job you’re applying for. If you’re applying for an IT position, your prospective employer doesn’t want to know you’ve won your local hotdog eating contests 3 years in a row.