Resume Writing Tips
About IIT: Since 1995, IIT has been a leading provider of technology services. Our core services include IT Consulting / Systems Integration, Outsourcing and Staffing Services.
Writing Perfect Resumes
BE RELEVANT: There are a lot of things that you have done that you are proud of, but if it is not required in a specific job requirement, abbreviate (or completely eliminate) those irrelevant portions of your resume. Do not be emotionally attached to all of your achievements.
Your resume does not need to impress you. It needs to impress your target audience (recruiters and hiring managers) who have a specific need.
It is extra work, but have multiple versions of your resume. Create a new version to address the specific job opportunity. Be sure to include specific things in your resume that a job requirement talks about, and remove all bullets that do not relate to the specific job where you are applying.
NUMBER OF PAGES: If submitting a resume to a recruiter, it is OK if it is long, up to 6-7 pages. A good recruiter knows what a hiring manager wants to see, and he/she may be able to help you with what to keep and what to eliminate. But if you are not working with a recruiter, then its best to have a resume no more than 3 pages.
HIGHLIGHTS / BOLD FONTS: Some resumes we see use too many highlighted words, and lose the whole purpose of highlighting key words. e.g. if you are a Java developer, you don't need to highlight each occurrence of Java in a position. Once should do it. Similarly, secondary add-on skills like JDBC don't need to be highlighted. But some niche skills like cloud, AWS, Auzre can be...
To make it easier, you could use a methodology that no more than 4 words are highlighted in each position. Again, if you alter the resume for a specific position, highlight words mentioned in the position, and skip highlighting others.
PDF vs MS Word: Most large hiring organizations use some software that receives your resume, parses it and adds it to some database. We have seen issues with PDF format, where software was only able to parse 70% of the resumes. Whereas, most MS Word format resumes were parsed.
FORMAT: Use standard format - single column - your name on line 1, address on line 2, phone on line 3, email address on line 4... followed by Summary, Skills, Experience/Employers, Certifications and Education. This assures most resume reading software process your resume correctly. While multiple column format visually looks appealing, many software process them incorrectly. Your picture is unnecessary... Instead a link to your LinkedIn page (which has your picture) is recommended method.
BE RELEVANT: There are a lot of things that you have done that you are proud of, but if it is not required in a specific job requirement, abbreviate (or completely eliminate) those irrelevant portions of your resume. Do not be emotionally attached to all of your achievements.
Your resume does not need to impress you. It needs to impress your target audience (recruiters and hiring managers) who have a specific need.
It is extra work, but have multiple versions of your resume. Create a new version to address the specific job opportunity. Be sure to include specific things in your resume that a job requirement talks about, and remove all bullets that do not relate to the specific job where you are applying.
NUMBER OF PAGES: If submitting a resume to a recruiter, it is OK if it is long, up to 6-7 pages. A good recruiter knows what a hiring manager wants to see, and he/she may be able to help you with what to keep and what to eliminate. But if you are not working with a recruiter, then its best to have a resume no more than 3 pages.
HIGHLIGHTS / BOLD FONTS: Some resumes we see use too many highlighted words, and lose the whole purpose of highlighting key words. e.g. if you are a Java developer, you don't need to highlight each occurrence of Java in a position. Once should do it. Similarly, secondary add-on skills like JDBC don't need to be highlighted. But some niche skills like cloud, AWS, Auzre can be...
To make it easier, you could use a methodology that no more than 4 words are highlighted in each position. Again, if you alter the resume for a specific position, highlight words mentioned in the position, and skip highlighting others.
PDF vs MS Word: Most large hiring organizations use some software that receives your resume, parses it and adds it to some database. We have seen issues with PDF format, where software was only able to parse 70% of the resumes. Whereas, most MS Word format resumes were parsed.
FORMAT: Use standard format - single column - your name on line 1, address on line 2, phone on line 3, email address on line 4... followed by Summary, Skills, Experience/Employers, Certifications and Education. This assures most resume reading software process your resume correctly. While multiple column format visually looks appealing, many software process them incorrectly. Your picture is unnecessary... Instead a link to your LinkedIn page (which has your picture) is recommended method.