Technology field includes jobs that involve a wide range of duties such as designing computer networks, administering systems, and databases or developing software and websites. These duties are quite challenging and which is why it requires skilled and knowledgeable professionals who can fulfill various responsibilities. Also, competition for these jobs can be tough, so if you are looking to get hired, you will need an effective and stellar technology resume that makes you stand out from the competition.
Your resume is a marketing tool that will not only highlight your expertise, skills and accomplishments but will also demonstrate how and why you are the best fit for the applied job. Whether you are applying for a software developer, network administrator, or a data scientist job, the given below tips or guidelines will help you get a clear understanding of formatting with best writing ideas for your technology resumes.
Selecting the best resume format to communicate your experiences, skills or qualifications you hold is the first and most important step in resume writing. Always consider using the standard formats to draft a technology resume so that it's easy to read and understand. There are mostly three resume formats that recruiters expect to see and are considered to be most effective: chronological, functional, and combination.
Chronological resume highlights your work experience and educational details in reverse chronological order along with a brief description of your achievements. On the other hand, functional resume is the best choice if you are a career changer or have significant career gaps and mainly highlights skills and achievements relevant to the job applied. Combination resumes, as the name suggests, combines the best features of both the above formats, and focuses equally on tech skills and work experience.
Next action is to fill your technology resume with the information needed under different sections.
Put your contact details at the top (Header)
No matter what resume format you are going to choose, add your name and basic contact details at the beginning of your document. Start with your name in bold so that it is noticeable and then include your current residential address, valid phone number and professional email id using good and easy-to-read fonts. These personal details are important and should be accurate and you can align this section either left, right, or center.
Write an impressive career summary
Career summary is exactly like a movie trailer of the resume. This is the part of your resume where you can brag about yourself and compel the employer to read the entire document. As you are trying to communicate your candidacy for the technology job position, this section should be short and must include 3-5 sentences highlighting your professional progression, noticeable skills and traits.
If you are fresher or newly college graduate, use resume objective instead of a career summary where you have to mention your educational qualifications, career goals. and what makes you an appropriate candidate for the applied job.
Example:- Dedicated, enthusiastic and certified Information Technology Professional with more than 6 years of experience in network system designing, troubleshooting, installation, and maintenance. Expertise in requirement analysis, system development life cycle, technical documentation and help-desk support, software packages, and Linux operating systems. Possess excellent communication, programming, analytical, and problem-solving skills.
Mention job-specific skills
The skills section is a must in technology resumes as they give hiring managers a complete idea of your competence, capability, and areas of expertise. This includes your soft skills, technology knowledge, and experience with various programming languages, platforms, database, networking or development tools. Only include abilities you actually have and also add specific keywords that match with the job postings to make it more effective and relevant.
Although it is important to add all technical skills and technologies you use in this section, but it's not enough to simply list them without providing any additional information. So, you must rank your skill levels with technologies from beginner to expert level. Also, highlight your soft skills such as communication, leadership, collaboration, and problem-solving skills using bullet points.
e.g.- Technical Skills:
Expert: C++, C#, SQL, Java, Rest and SOAP, Windows OS
Intermediate: Linux OS, Perl, Ruby on Nails, J2EE
Highlight work experience with related accomplishments
The experience section of a technology resume must showcase the responsibilities handled and the projects completed using your technical skills. Use action verbs and bullet points to highlight how you contributed to the success of projects. Each bullet point has to be specific and describe only one responsibility handled at a time. If your responsibilities for the project are myriads, use several bullet points. That way, you won't be stacking everythign you did in the job in one single bullet. Moreover, the readers can see and understand your duties reading one bullet point at a time easily. Try to emphasize on the technical skills when describing your experience. As each project requires a different set of skills and experience, it's better to specify which one did you use to complete the project or fulfill your responsibilities.
Example:
Place education and training section after experience
In the education section, mention the name of the degree along with the name of the college/university, and year of passing. If you have done any specific job-realted training, menion that as well in the same format.
Reference:
If the employer has asked for a reference, provide at least two names. Or else, just write "on request" under the 'Reference' heading.
Once you have completed writing your technology resume, you should also pay attention to formatting. Don't be creative with the fonts and use underline, bold, italics sparingly. Most importantly, before submitting your technology resume, proofread it 2-3 times to avoid any grammatical, spelling, or typing mistakes.
For more help, refer to given below technology resume samples and customize yours accordingly.