IT Resume Thread

Yeah I am pretty sure I got help back in the early 00's here.

Now I hire IT ppl, and hot damn ppl need help on resumes. :ROFLMAO:
I also posted here back in the mid 2000s and now also handle hiring... it's painful seeing some of the resumes that cross my desk.
 
I also posted here back in the mid 2000s and now also handle hiring... it's painful seeing some of the resumes that cross my desk.
Would it be possible to give us a few examples, properly anonymized of course, and then tell us how you would rewrite those examples.
 
Totally a fair ask - I'm not sure this would be entirely appropriate but I'm very happy to provide some high level stuff.

As a disclaimer - I largely look at resumes/interview candidates that have been prescreened by our recruiting team. With that said, they're really just looking for what appears to be relevant experience, not keywords or any of that sillyness.

I'll note that there are of course some variances in cultural norms - when I look at resumes I want to understand the value you can provide to my company, a high level view of what you've done, and what your key accomplishments are. In other scenarios an exhaustive CV may be a better fit, but in my experience these are a net negative unless you're applying for contracting/government positions where a robot (or idiot) is doing the resume review.

1 - Don't just send a PDF copy of your LinkedIn profile. It shows zero effort, and the formatting is consistently mangled by their export. Do, however, send me a PDF. If I get a .docx or .rtf file I'm immediately going to roll my eyes.
2 - Don't just list your responsibilities - I want to know the outcomes of those responsibilities. "Solved customer tickets" is not interesting, but "Resolved 300+ customer tickets per year, with 98% CSAT" is.
3 - Similarly, if there are specific projects that you were involved in or ran, share the outcomes. For example, "Created tool X to perform task Y" would be better noted as "Created tool X to perform task Y, resulting in Z% reduction in person/hours of work per month".
4 - Be ready to speak to any metrics you list. I don't need paperwork proving it, but I at least expect a plausible and coherent explanation. If you claim to have eliminated thousands of person/hours of work for your team I'm going to be really interested in how you accomplished that.
5 - Spell check your resume. Spell check it again. Get someone to proof read it, then spell check it again.
6 - Try to provide a high level overview of what you've done. If your resume is more than 2 pages long, there's no way that I'm going to give it a thorough read.
7 - If you're working at a contracting company (e.g. Accenture) I'm not interested in a laundry list of the projects you've been on _unless my company is included in that list_. Try to summarize the projects/goals/outcomes into bullet points rather than approaching every gig as a totally separate position/job within your resume.
8 - Tailor your resume to the position you're applying for. If you want to be an SRE, I really don't care about your internship at the local animal shelter or work as an accountant. Maybe list it under an interests/volunteer section, but it's not applicable work experience.
9 - If you don't have a ton of work experience, don't try to bullshit me. Your job as a cashier at McDonald's does not count as technical troubleshooting of PoS equipment. Show me project work, Udemy/Coursera (or hell, Youtube) courses you've completed along with what you put together with that knowledge.
10 - Reach out to the hiring manager, or members of the team you're applying to be on. You would be AMAZED at what a difference it can make in terms of getting you a sympathetic interview if you apply for a position and reach out to me on LinkedIn with relevant questions or an ask for 15 minutes of my time to inquire further about the role. That said, I'm not interested in a social hour with a stranger - come with good questions. Even if you wind up not getting the position, or not pursuing it further, there's a good chance I'm going to remember the interaction in a positive light.

youtube.com/watch?v=ciIkiWwZnlc (not my content) is pretty largely in alignment with my thoughts on the matter and has some great advice with real world examples.

Bonus coming out of a resume I received today - use consistent formatting. If one job description is done in narrative form, they all should be. Likewise, if one is done in bullet point form (please, please do this) they all should be.
 
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