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Ryan McCormick

Dedicated Dad, Software Engineer and Lover of Coffee

How to Build a Winning Resume

November 16, 2011 by Ryan McCormick 4 Comments

Building a winning resume always starts with a job focus/target job. If you don’t know specifically what job you are looking for, it will be difficult to build a targeted resume. Before you start, answer the following questions: What job are you looking for? What skill sets are important to this job?

Got it? Great! On to the components of your resume design.

UPDATE: IT Resume Template Download

Resume Design
A. Job Title and Summary
Focus on drafting your resume around your Target Job. Start off with your job title and a summary that is no more than 3 sentences. Be sure to clearly define what you are looking for. For instance, if you are looking for a position as a helpdesk analyst, your summary should read something like “Experienced Technical Support professional seeking a challenging helpdesk analyst role”. The key is to be specific.

B. Technical Skills
The next step after your summary should be a list of certifications, skills, programming languages, or anything else relevant to the job you are seeking. It is very important that your resume reads like a qualified candidate “above the fold” of the first page.

C. Experience
List previous jobs, job titles, dates, and key duties of every job you have held for the last 5-7 years.

UPDATE: IT Resume Template Download

D. Education
List all of your education, school names, areas of study, degrees, GPA, etc.. in this area. If you are a recent grad, and have limited work experience, be sure to list any internships or hands-on experience under B. Technical Skills above your Experience. Dates on education are optional according to preference. If you must list your high school diploma, DONT include your graduation date.

E. References
Reference WHAT??? Never list references on your resume. Also refrain from including “References Available Upon Request”. It is expected that everyone has references, and you only want to give them out when specifically requested from a prospective employer.

F. No-Brainer
Make sure to re-read your resume multiple times for grammar, spelling, punctuation, use of words, etc… Have a friend or family member look at it. Make sure you spell the names of schools you have attended correctly. Something as simple as spelling or grammar can ruin your chances of getting a job.

Design characteristics of your resume should follow a simple format with easy to read fonts. Font size should be no less than 10pt. Acceptable fonts are in the arial, helvetica, sans-serif family.

This article is meant as a general guideline to creating an effective resume. The general rule is that you want all relevant information “Above the fold” on the first page.

That’s all I got for now! If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to use the form below.

UPDATE: IT Resume Template Download

Related

Filed Under: Resume Writing Tagged With: best practices, design, linkedin, winning resume

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Morrie says

    December 9, 2011 at 11:23 pm

    Right on-this helped me sort things right out.

    Reply
  2. Eric Putkonen @ MinnesotaTechJobs.com says

    December 30, 2011 at 3:39 pm

    Great tips, Ryan!

    Similar to an article I wrote called, “Top 14 Resume Mistakes IT Professionals Make” (can be found at http://www.minnesotatechjobs.com/resumemistakes/).

    I would only disagree with a Summary being a definition of what you are looking for. You said, “if you are looking for a position as a helpdesk analyst, your summary should read something like “Experienced Technical Support professional seeking a challenging helpdesk analyst role”.” This is too close to the old “Objective” statements.

    In my opinion, this is totally redundant. It is a waste of space to say you are a Tech Support pro looking for a challenging helpdesk role. If that has been your background…it is obvious you are a Tech Support pro (probably all your previous titles were Tech Support, Held Desk, or variation). And obviously a similar role is likely what you are looking for. Adding ‘challenging’ doesn’t do anything.

    From my article, I will just pull a quote,
    “The bigger danger is that a recruiter may be considering your resume for positions that would be a fit for your background but different than what you are doing. So, the recruiter may not call because it does not match your objective. Basically, you get pigeon-holed. Unless you are changing careers or fields of work different than your work history, no objective need be listed on a resume.”

    Instead of being just an obvious statement, I would suggest including things you want to do or focus on (this will change with every job being applied for)…or what special things that specific job/company may find of value (again would change with every application). This way he Summary will highlight information of pertinence.

    Reply
    • Ryan McCormick says

      December 30, 2011 at 8:05 pm

      Thank you Eric! Great feedback!

      I agree completely, resumes should not have objectives as they state the obvious and waste space. I do however like using the summary approach, as it is a way to summarize how a candidate’s background fits key points of a job they are specifically applying for (above-the-fold on the first page). This approach also assists non-technical recruiters and HR people in qualifying candidates to technical needs. The example in my article was intended to be simple as to show how specific one must be, but while trying to convey something along the lines of your point – be specific and write something that is easy to quantify.

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. 7 Deadly Resume Writing Sins | IT Jobs Guy says:
    March 21, 2012 at 3:25 pm

    […] Previous Article: Learn How to Build a Winning Resume […]

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