When applying for technical positions it can be confusing to know what specifically to include on a resume. Creating a strong technical resume involves including specific sections and details that highlight your technical skills, experience, and achievements.
In addition to technology-related items, technical resumes need to include personal information, a professional summary, an education section, and professional work experience, regardless of whether the experience is tech-related or not.
Highlight Your Technical Skills
The technical elements that need to be included in a resume will be closely related to where a candidate is at in their career. That is, entry or junior-level candidates will list a broader range of skills on their resume, indicating an openness to learn and establish their foundation while discovering what aspects of technology they are drawn to. For mid-level technology roles, candidates will still list a broad range of skills and experiences on their resume but will begin to highlight a more specific skillset of technologies as they establish their specialty within the technology industry. Resumes for senior-level technology roles will focus on specific areas of expertise and highlight relevant experiences that demonstrate a mastery of these specialized technologies.
Technical skills are hard skills that indicate your level of knowledge or experience with specific programming languages or technologies. For example, you could list a variety of different technologies under a header:
TECHNICAL SKILLS
SQL • Python • RStudio • Microsoft Power Bi • Microsoft Office suite
Alternatively, you could indicate your level of knowledge and expertise with specific technologies:
TECHNICAL SKILLS
Expert: C#, SQL, AWS
Intermediate: Java, Python,
Beginner: RStudio
It is important to note that you should not misrepresent the level of knowledge or specific skills that you have on your resume. You should also always use the employer’s job description as a reference and list your skills exactly as they are listed in the job description. For instance, if an employer is looking for a candidate with experience in Amazon Web Services, and your resume only lists the acronym AWS, there is a good chance that your resume may get passed over.
Optimize Your Resume for Applicant Tracking Software (ATS)
An important element to know about creating an ATS-friendly tech resume is that this resume MUST be tuned to each role to which you are applying. While it might be easy to submit the same resume to many different positions, better results will be seen when a resume is customized to reflect the specific keywords and related job duties for each position.
While this process is more time consuming, UMGC Career Services partners with to assist you in refining your resume using the Resume SMART Editor to create, add, or improve the content of your resume. After this step, utilize the Resume Optimization tool to tailor your resume to a specific job description. Finally, the Aspire feature helps you improve your online LinkedIn profile.
Display Industry Certifications
If you have them, list them! The format you list certifications on your resume is up to you. Just be sure to include the name of the certificate, or certification, the granting company or organization, and the year, or month and year, the credential was earned. For example:
CERTIFICATIONS
- Code Academy Learning SQL Certificate of Completion | June 2023
- R Programming Certificate | Coursera February 2024
- Code Academy Power BI Certificate of Completion | February 2024
- Security+ | CompTIA | August 2024
Industry certifications or other tech-related certificates are an excellent way to boost your resume and indicate to the employer that you are serious about a career in technology. They also convey that you are staying current with the latest trends.
Showcase Your Technology Work and Experience
Highlighting your technical experience on your resume gives the employer a quick snapshot into what you know how to do. One option is to create a “Projects” header and provide the relevant information underneath the header.
TECHNICAL PROJECTS
Project Name: List the title of the project or the project name.
Technologies Used: List out the relevant technologies.
Project Scope: Briefly describe the project goals, objectives, and outcomes.
Additionally, including your LinkedIn URL to your personal information at the top of the resume directs the employer to where to find additional information about you since the amount of space on a resume is limited.
By following these strategies, you can effectively highlight your technology work and experience to make your resume more compelling to potential employers!
Raelynn F. Grasso is a Career Advising Specialist at the University of Maryland Global Campus and Adjunct Psychology Professor. She has experience leading and providing individual, group, and career counseling, as well as executing and developing programs to enhance college student enrichment. Ms. Grasso’s areas of research include career decision-making, epistemic cognition, self-efficacy, and college student development. She holds a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Utah, a M.S. and a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Aaron "Oz" Ozminski is the owner and managing director of Elite TechSources in Salt Lake City, Utah. He's been hands-on with business development and technical recruiting at 'ETS' since he opened those doors in 2013. Before ETS, he began working in business development and other technical recruiting leadership roles with several local and national IT consulting and recruiting firms. His early career in technical Marketing & Advertising aligned with a Bachelor’s degree in Organizational Communication with an emphasis in Advertising from the University of Utah.
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