A Better Technical Resume

If you're part of the nearly 50% of U.S. IT workers planning to change jobs in the next year, you'll want to make sure that your resume is as good as it can be. A recent article from eWeek shows you how.

Here are the 4 items from the list that I particularly liked.

1. "IT recruiters almost all use ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems) to review resumes. They parse what they receive and throw it into a database and search against it via keywords. I've heard this one before." I've had luck with and without a list of skills listed on my resume. One thing I did notice is that the longer the list of skills, the more calls I got for positions that I wasn't interested in. So I'd keep the list to just what you're willing to work with.
2. "There's a myth out there that you need to keep your resume down to one page. Two pages of really solid work history [that] will add more words to the ATS system." The key here being that you need to describe different roles/tasks and not just repeat yourself on the second page of your resume. I like to show "growth" either from increasing project sizes or an increase in project responsibility.
3. "Cover letters are important, but not critical. They're important if you're applying directly to a company, in which case you should customize it for that company by studying their site and getting all the information you can." I've never thought cover letters were of any use. Mostly because my experience has been that recruiters will toss them before forwarding my resume. They probably work a lot better for non-technical roles such as marketing and sales.
4. "Objectives should be at the top of a resume. You should customize your objectives section as best as you can, targeting it to the job you want." I believe in doing this one especially if there is no cover letter. Admittedly, I've been guilty of missing the objectives statement.

The full list of tips is available from eWeek's web site.