Writing a technical resume is not easy, and many people hire professional services for that. But if you have firmly decided to write a resume on your own then you should familiarize yourself with its main points. The structure of the CV is more or less the same, but the specifics of your desired job will adjust what and how your resume should be written. In this article, we will give some tips on what should and should not be written in your technical summary.
It is not necessary to write a resume by some standard template. Moreover, some companies have their own templates. However, there are things that should be included in every summary: they are about common sense, not about the specifics of roles and areas of activity.
How to make a resume correctly: step by step instructions.
1. Contacts
There are several ways to get in touch with you, such as mail and Skype. If you do not mind making calls but rarely use Skype – provide your phone number. Be sure to check that your contact information is correct: it is important for HR to give the candidate feedback.
2. Skills
There is a phrase: “For every open position there is an unresolved problem.” The employer is primarily interested in your professional skills. That is why people hire professional resume writers from top online resume writing services. Give your recruiter/Team Lead/project manager the ability to quickly navigate your hard skills. The more important the information is (for the company to decide on your application), the higher it should be placed. To describe the skills in the second or third point: after the contact information and summary (if you decide to include it in the CV).
3. Experience
Your experience is what presents you as a professional. It is the thing that allowed you to master your hard skills, develop them, face many difficult tasks, come up with solutions, come up with ideas, improve your soft skills and solve more than one problem. It is important to use this point in your hospitality resume.
4. Education
For some companies, the education of testers, developers, and other technicians matters, so it is better to indicate your academic background briefly and clearly – university, faculty, specialty, level, and years of study.
Optional, but useful sections of the resume:
1. Summary
This section, which goes after contacts, is relevant for those who already have experience in the tech field. A summary is like a review of your resume. It is worth briefly describing your strongest skills, backgrounds, fields, and domain of work in which you work, and possibly your career goals. Two or three sentences are enough. The summary is your opportunity to present yourself for example not just as a “tester with 3 years of experience”, but as a tester with special experience in the back and with some achievements.
2. City
IT is a globalized field, and moving is not uncommon. If you are ready to move to other countries or cities or are also considering remote collaboration, you should include this along with your contact information. However, if you live in the same city you are looking for an office job, this item is not required.
3. Further education and certification
Have you completed 10 online courses? Studied full time at the academy at a large IT company? Have you obtained Oracle or ISTQB certification? Be sure to mention this in your resume. Firstly, for some companies, having a certificate may be mandatory, and secondly, the company will see that you are the person for whom training is not just a word.
4. Experience beyond the core business
If you have your own pet projects (participated in hackathons, helped develop social or government projects), we encourage you to add this experience to your resume. HR always pay attention to this: people who are not indifferent to life around and who are willing to spend their time learning new technology or developing a pet project, just genuinely love their business.
TIPS:
1. How to describe technical skills in a resume?
– The most convenient format HR’s consider is the list of hard skills, divided into groups. For example, in a programmer’s resume, they may be programming languages, databases, frameworks, and more. We do not recommend the use of scales by which some candidates attempt to visualize their experience with a particular technology: they need clarification and are not obvious to any recruiter or Tech Lead.
– Specify the skills you really own, not the ones you just read or heard about. Knowledge of theory is important, but every technician accomplishes the task precisely through hard skills.
– What to do with technologies that you do not already have a sufficient level of, but that is your goal? List them in Summary or LinkedIn. If you have had a non-commercial experience with them (for example, used only in pet project) but are interested in working with them in the future, add this too: it will be easier for a recruiter to navigate.
2. How to describe the technical experience in a resume?
Of course, what matters first is what tasks were within your area of responsibility and what were your personal accomplishments. But keep in mind: it is usually interesting for companies to know not only what you did, but also what team you worked for (5 people or 100), what technologies were in the project in general (not just the ones you worked with), what the essence of the project (in a nutshell) and how long you have worked for each company and position.
You can often see in the description of the experience the answer to the question: “What did you do?”: Developed functional, wrote automatic tests, etc. Typically, this list is the same as what companies indicate in job descriptions. You should also add items that answer the question “What did you do?” – describe your achievements. For example “Trained three juniors who are now middle-developers”, “Developed the architecture of two projects”, “Put the process of automatic testing in Java and wrote a framework.”
If you write articles for a company blog, speak within a team or at open events, publish your texts on the IT community sites or have recordings of your performances on YouTube – add it to your resume.
Conclusion:
Remember that writing a resume is a very important component because it is the first thing recruiters pay attention to and decide whether or not to invite you for an interview.
