The Best IT Resume Tips of 2014

Over the last year, our resume experts and career consultants have helped numerous IT professionals put their best foot forward. Here’s a quick look at some of the top resume tips from 2014’s IT Resume Makeover series.

For a deeper dive on resume tips with expert commentary, please read, IT Resume Makeover: Top 11 Resume Tips From 2014.

Instead of a “laundry list” of job responsibilities and daily tasks, focus your resume on how you’ve solved problems for employers — and in what context.

Tailor the message to your audience. Ask yourself who will read your resume and what they expect to see.

Finding a career success story within your work history will make your career narrative more interesting and engaging for potential employers.

A sales resume is built on metrics: sales figures, number of deals closed, revenue targets achieved. Without these metrics, it can be nearly impossible to differentiate yourself from other sales candidates.

For a deeper dive on resume tips with expert commentary, please read, IT Resume Makeover: Top 11 Resume Tips From 2014.

Make time to review and refresh your resume each year. Make sure all information about current and past employers and responsibilities is correct and add any new skills, experience or knowledge you’ve gained.

This is the place to showcase your achievements. Make sure to hone in on unique achievements, successes, skills and knowledge to really grab the reader’s attention.

For a deeper dive on resume tips with expert commentary, please read, IT Resume Makeover: Top 11 Resume Tips From 2014.

It can be tempting to embellish your work history, exaggerate your IT skills or even claim to hold advanced degrees. In the long term, this can not only kill your chances to land a specific job, it can be a black mark that follows you your entire career.

Most employers want to quickly see dates, the scope of an applicant’s responsibility, the types of projects managed, and other pertinent details, but make sure you’re not using too much detail, which can become overwhelming to a reader.

For a deeper dive on resume tips with expert commentary, please read, IT Resume Makeover: Top 11 Resume Tips From 2014.

If your resume is crammed with buzzwords, jargon and gibberish, you’re dooming yourself. Make sure your language is plain and clear to better appeal to readers.

If you’ve created something big at the beginning of your career and spend the rest of your professional life building on that initial success, you must turn the traditional resume on its head to showcase that accomplishment.

Typically, a resume has between 10 and 15 seconds to make an impact on a recruiter, hiring manager or HR professional. That’s why it’s crucial that attention-grabbing achievements and information be positioned close to the top of the first page, where it’s more likely to be seen and have maximum effect.

For a deeper dive on resume tips with expert commentary, please read, IT Resume Makeover: Top 11 Resume Tips From 2014.