IT Resumes: Think Twice About the Advice You’ve Been Given

A recruiting manager with an IT staffing firm warns IT professionals to use the resume advice they get from the local employment office, outplacement firms and professional resume writers at their own risk.

CIO — Recruiters, professional resume writers and other career experts give out tons of advice on how best to write a resume that will stand out from the competition. Their intentions are noble—they want to help people land jobs—but the problem with their advice is that it doesn’t always apply to IT professionals and the nature of the work they do, says Shana Westerman, a recruiting manager with IT staffing firm Sapphire Technologies.

“People go to the unemployment office or they go to outplacement resume writers who don’t give advice that is applicable to the IT field,” she says.

Westerman notes that IT resumes are different from resumes for professionals in other fields because IT workers have to capture a range of skills—both technical and functional—on their resumes. Because technology changes so rapidly and because so much IT work is project-based and involves “so many moving parts,” generic resume writing advice can do a great disservice to IT professionals, says Westerman.

Westerman sees first-hand how generic resume writing tips play out on IT professionals’ resumes. She screens, on average, 300 resumes per day searching for IT workers to place with her clients, who are IT line managers and executives at large and midsize companies looking for contract and permanent employees. Westerman says many of the IT resumes she gets from job seekers are too short on specifics for her and her clients’ needs. When she finds a candidate whom she thinks would be a good match for a client, she says she often has to ask the candidate to beef up his resume with more information about his skills and experience.

“You’re not going to meet with a [hiring] manager if your resume doesn’t get you the meeting. Your resume is the one and only tool that gets you an interview,” says Westerman.

She adds that even when she advocates for a particular candidate, the client still wants to see on the candidate’s resume all of the capabilities she’s mentioned. “If they don’t see what I say on the candidate’s resume, their interest will wane,” Westerman notes.

Here, she shares the generic resume advice IT professionals should run from.

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Mike Hanes
ProVisionTech

ProVisionTech Jobs – Dallas IT Jobs – Dallas Technical Jobs

Dallas IT Recruiter Guy

Integrity in Recruiting
972-200-7171


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Job Tips and Job News – Resumes – Content That Grabs Attention and Builds Interest

Your resume has two main purposes:

1. To represent you and your career in a way that keeps you in the running for a job opportunity when you aren’t there in person. Therefore, it’s important that it gets enough attention that it actually gets read.

2. To build enough interest in the mind of the Hiring Manager that he or she invites you for a job interview. Your resume needs to position you as the uniquely qualified job candidate that can be a hero in their job.

Here’s how you grab attention with a first-rate Career Story. Tell a brief, interesting story that links you directly to the Hiring Manager’s needs.

Use descriptive words that show energy, action, and tell a winning story of a successful person. (Describe yourself as the hero!)

Include skills and experiences that match what the job requirements and qualifications.

In other words, present your career in a way that grabs the Hiring Manager’s attention. If you don’t, you’ve lost them for good.

For example, turn this Career Summary…

Read more here

Mike Hanes
ProVisionTech

ProVisionTech Jobs – Dallas IT Jobs – Dallas Technical Jobs

Dallas IT Recruiter Guy

Integrity in Recruiting
972-200-7171
        


    "Save Time, The Best Resources, Guaranteed!"

                

Tags: Job Tips, Resumes, Resume writing tips

Posted via email from ptg’s posterous