The summer months can take on different meanings for job seekers. Some people may put their career aspirations on hold as they try to enjoy the longer daylight hours and (hopefully) vacation time. Others might take advantage of the emptier offices and distracted peers to ignite or jumpstart a job search. Either way, summer is not a bad time to spruce up your resume, especially with recent reports sending mostly positive signals about the hiring outlook.
According to a Dice hiring survey in June, nearly three-quarters (73%) of employers plan to hire more technology pros during the second half of 2013, compared to the first six months. Additionally, Foote Partners sees a big rise in IT employment, with 18,200 new jobs in June and an average monthly IT job growth rate up 43% from calendar year 2012, in its analysis of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ employment report. Meanwhile, a TechServe Alliance report sees the pace of IT employment accelerating, growing 5.71% since June 2012.
Resume advice is plentiful, but we spoke with three sources who offered the following do’s and don’ts for various types of job seekers.
DO customize your resume for the job opening: It might seem efficient to blast out one version of your resume for 50 different jobs, but you’ll get better results by changing your resume for each specific job opening, emphasizing the relevant experience that applies to that job, says Matthew Ripaldi, senior vice president at Modis, an IT recruiting firm.
This is especially true for job seekers with years of experience and thus dense resumes. It might seem obvious, he says, but you should also check that the job position is still open and that your skills and background are a good match.
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DON’T eliminate older skills and experiences: With all the emphasis on social, mobile, big data and cloud, it might be tempting for experienced IT professionals to downplay their knowledge of older technologies.
But according to Tom Silver, senior vice president at Dice.com, experience matters. According to Dice surveys, two-thirds of managers are hiring people with six to 10 years of experience, Silver says, and one-third want at least 10 years of experience. “I wouldn’t discount skills because they’re old,” he says. “We realize that certain skills are hotter than others, but it’s important for technology professionals to show a complete and full picture of themselves.” By including a progressive array of skills, you’re showing your ability to evolve, Silver says, and that you mastered what were possibly yesterday’s hottest skills.
That is not to say you shouldn’t highlight your most recent skills or the ones most relevant to what the employer wants. Silver also suggests highlighting abilities that correspond with today’s hot skills. “There aren’t people walking around with big data experience from 15 years ago, but there are people with incredible analytics capabilities,” he says. “There’s value in that, and those people are now being sought after.”
Additionally, Ripaldi says, you could also limit the amount of detail you include for the older jobs you’ve held. “Your most recent position should have the most detail, and a lot of times, you can cover technologies you’ve used in the distant past in a summary of tech skills,” he says.
DO consider “resume add-ons” to illustrate your capabilities: Increasingly, candidates are posting examples of what they can do, particularly with coding, on a variety of Web sites and social media, Silver says. They might use a site like Stackoverflow.com or create their own Web site. “It helps complete the picture of who they are and what they do more quickly,” he says.
Dice is beta-testing a service that would enable employers to aggregate information from various Web sites (Twitter, Github, etc.) to form a “social profile” of candidates. “It will show them what the candidate looks like through their resume and their aggregated social information, relevant to the skills they’re looking for,” he says.
DON’T get overly creative: There’s nothing wrong with wanting to stand out, especially when applying for a job like Web design, but there is such a thing as getting too personal or creative, Ripaldi says. He has seen candidates provide links to Web sites that display their personal interests and even side businesses, “but some hiring managers might be concerned that you’re going to spend all your time on those activities instead of the job position,” he says.
Some candidates also go too far with resume design. “You see resumes with all sorts of shapes and designs, and it can get too busy,” Ripaldi says. “For a certain audience, it may work, but it’s not for everyone” (think investment bank vs. ad agency).
DO proofread — and proofread again: According to Ripaldi, resumes still cross his desk with grammatical mistakes and poor formatting. It’s less important to choose a particular font type or size than using a consistent style throughout the resume. “Don’t go with Arial 12 on the first page and something else on the second,” he says. Other areas to watch for consistency include margins, indents and use of periods. “If you’re a project manager with a three-page resume and the formatting isn’t good, it’s not a good reflection of that candidate,” Ripaldi says.
The importance of spelling and grammar extends to any communiques between you and the employer. “Treat all communications as if you’re still interviewing,” Ripaldi says. “If they ask you to send your thoughts on something or you’re thanking them for the interview, the content should be flawless.”
DON’T try to game the system: Some candidates insert keywords into their resumes that are only somewhat related to their actual capabilities. “Employers are getting smarter about what people are doing to make themselves appear more relevant,” Silver says. Trying to game the system will only make you look bad.
DO emphasize your business acumen: Especially for IT professionals aiming at leadership positions, it’s essential to show your understanding of how technology impacts the business, says Alan Guibord, principal at The Advisory Council International, which consults with senior IT leaders. “Companies are looking for IT leaders who can come in with game-changing ideas,” he says. “They want to see how you’ve shown innovation, helped the company leapfrog the competition, built an efficient organization and implemented ideas with bottomline impact on the business.”
Even if you haven’t evolved to that level, you can emphasize your collaboration with other management-level people. “Show that you didn’t work in a vacuum, but as a team,” Guibord says, “and that you’ve built strong relationships with your peers at the management level.”
This mindset shift can be difficult for IT professionals, he says. “The majority of people in IT grew up through the technology side and have trouble viewing themselves in the way the market wants to see them and then presenting that through a resume,” he says. A good place to start is through some careful rewording. “Rather than, ‘I implemented a new network’ or ‘I rearchitected the corporate database,’ show the specific business benefits and measurable benefits for everything you did,” he says.
So before grabbing your towel, beach chair and paperback, maybe spend a few minutes polishing up your resume in case the next knock on your door isn’t a summer guest but a new opportunity.
Brandel is a freelance writer. She can be reached at marybrandel@verizon.net.
