While a well-structured resume goes a long way for many in building a first impression, many employers look to select technical professionals with the right skills and abilities. This is particularly true for engineers, analysts, project managers, and other IT professionals, whose capabilities must shine through to ensure they’ll function well in their roles. A well-structured resume can also help recession-proof your career.
Some positions require a person to have a technical background, even if their role will not require applying hard skills. For example, if you wish to be a project manager for an electronics business, you need to highlight skills in project management and electronics.
In this article, we will delve into how you can perfect your technical resume to ensure you stand out from other candidates and increase your chances of getting an interview and, ultimately, an offer.
What does a technical resume look like?
Technical resumes highlight your technical abilities and qualifications, including programming languages, software, and tools you are proficient in, specific accomplishments, relevant education and training, and any relevant professional licenses, affiliations or extracurricular activities.
If your career depends on a mastery of specific skills, don’t just follow any random resume format. Instead, spend time building a technical resume that makes your skills shine while introducing you to prospective employers as a viable candidate.
Professionals who have backgrounds related to technology, such as those in engineering, computer science, programming, DevOps, and more, will benefit from the technical resume format. Here is a step-by-step guide to building a technical resume that will shine!
Step 1: Choose Your Format
Choosing the format of your technical resume is an important step, as it can affect how your resume looks and feels, and how easily the information is read and understood by the potential employer. Your resume format should depend on the specific role you are applying for, your industry, and your experience level.
Consider the employer’s ATS (Applicant Tracking System), which many organizations use to scan resumes. Some systems are not very good with visuals, so avoid excessive formatting or graphics on your technical resume.
The chronological format is an excellent choice for technical professions because it emphasizes work history and experience in reverse chronological order, with the most recent position listed first. This allows recruiters and hiring managers to see relevant work experience and career progression quickly and easily.
It’s also important to note that the chronological format is the most common format, and thus is most likely to be understood and accepted by hiring managers, recruiters, and the ATS used by potential employers.
Step 2: Personal Information
Keep this section concise and to the point. Ensure that your contact information is up to date. Include your name, your professional email address, phone number, present location, willingness to relocate if applicable, and the link to your LinkedIn profile.
Don’t include personal information, such as your age, religion, or marital status. This information is not relevant to the role and including it on your resume could lead to discrimination.
A great way to supplement your qualifications and experience is to include a portfolio link in your technical resume. You can include a link to your portfolio by adding a line that says “Portfolio: (insert link)” in the personal information section.
Step 3: Summary
Now that you’ve caught the recruiter’s attention, let’s pique their interest with a well-composed summary.
A technical resume summary is a brief overview of your qualifications that highlights your relevant skills and experiences. You should tailor it to the position you are applying for, and it should be placed at the top of your resume immediately after the personal information section.
A summary should articulate your most important qualifications that can grab the employer’s attention. It’s also important to note that a summary is vital if you have a lot of experience, as it allows the employer to quickly understand your most relevant skills and qualifications, even if they don’t read the whole resume.
Step 4: Experience
Starting with your most recent role, elaborate on the various roles you’ve had as a skilled technical professional. Aside from putting your work experience in reverse chronological order, it would benefit you to give more details about your positions.
This is where the STAR method comes in.
After mentioning the role, the organization you were part of and the dates that you worked in that role, use the STAR method to give insight into each role.
With only a short sentence for each heading, STAR stands for:
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- Situation: Responsibilities or dilemmas your role involves
- Task: Specific tasks you needed to fulfill
- Action: Steps you took in fulfilling your tasks
- Result: Outcomes of your efforts in that past role
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For example:
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- Situation: Responsible for internet connectivity within the organization
- Task: Monitored internet and intranet consistency and troubleshot connection problems through hardware and software management
- Action: Liaised with internet providers and inspected office hardware for malfunctions
- Result: Maintained office connectivity and experienced no internet failures during my tenure as IT Technician
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You can see that these narrations were short but direct and efficiently presented the applicant’s skills, thanks to the STAR method.
Step 5: Educational Background
Like with your work experience, use reverse chronological order to list your educational background.
Here is a good format to follow:
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- Degree obtained (major and minor if applicable)
- School name and location
- Graduation date or dates attended (if less than 10 years)
- Honors received
- Extracurricular work (like volunteering, competitions, and many more.)
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It’s important to note that if you have a solid educational background and relevant education to the position you are applying for, you can place it higher on your resume. If you have more relevant work experience, you can place it lower on your resume.
Step 6: Licenses, Certifications, and Additional Training
Technical professionals have similar qualifications, so licenses, certifications, and training, can make you stand out from other applicants. Articulating them makes it easy for the potential employer to find.
When listing certifications in a technical resume, it’s important to use a consistent format to make it easy for employers to understand and quickly identify relevant certifications.
Here’s a suggested format to follow:
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- Name of the certification: List the full name of the certification
- Issuing organization: Include the name of the organization that issued the certification
- Date earned: Include the date when you earned the certification
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Example:
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- Certified Scrum Master (CSM)
- Scrum Alliance – January 2020
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It’s also important to order them in reverse chronological order, with the most recent first. It makes it easier to understand and follow. Tailor the certifications you list to the job you’re applying.
Step 7: Technical Skills
Including technical skills is an essential step in showcasing your qualifications and expertise to potential employers. Technical skills can be divided into two categories: hard skills and soft skills.
Hard skills are specific technical abilities that are quantifiable and directly related to the role, such as programming languages, software, and tools. When listing your hard skills, it’s essential to be specific and use the correct terminology. For example, instead of listing “familiar with programming,” you could list “proficient in Python, Java, and C++.”
Soft skills, on the other hand, are general skills that are not specific to a particular position but are important for success in any role, such as communication, problem-solving, and teamwork. When listing your soft skills, it’s important to use action verbs to describe your abilities, such as “communicated effectively,” “collaborated with team members,” and “analyzed and solved complex problems.”
Remember to tailor your technical skills section to the specific role you are applying for. Highlight the most relevant skills to the position and demonstrate how you have used them in previous roles.
When listing technical skills, be honest and focus on highlighting your strengths and qualifications. This will help you find a position that is the best fit for you and help build a positive reputation for yourself in the industry.
Step 8: References
Putting references in resumes is frowned upon as it exposes people’s contact information, so only include them if the application requires you to do so. Reach out to who you plan on using as your professional references (think of your previous direct supervisors) and ask their permission now, to be used as a reference so you are ready to provide a list of professional references upon request during the hiring process.
These are the steps for a well-composed technical resume. Remember to personalize them to suit the technical role you are applying for, and make sure not to omit necessary sections because collectively, they will help you stand out and show you are a valuable candidate.
LOOK TO ADVANCE YOUR TECHNICAL CAREER THROUGH ACS PROFESSIONAL STAFFING.
We have the know-how to assist IT, engineering, and administrative professionals who are just starting out or venturing into a new role. We can get your technical resume into shape to help you secure the career you want. As a full-service staffing partner, we provide you with a superb candidate experience. Our recruiters will help you find the perfect fit, especially in today’s competitive career market.
Contact ACS Professional Staffing now!