Resumes

Powerful Technical Resumes

A resume is a crucial marketing tool, effectively showcasing your technical skills, relevant experience, and notable accomplishments to potential employers. As recruiters typically allocate only a few seconds to scanning each resume, it is imperative to present your qualifications clearly, concisely, and compellingly.

Mandatory Sections

Contact Information

This section allows recruiters to reach you easily. Include your full name, phone number, professional email address, and links to relevant online profiles like LinkedIn.

Why it’s important: Your contact information must be accurate and easy to find so recruiters can reach out to you for an interview.

Tips:

  • Use a professional email address based on your name, avoiding nicknames, numbers, or special characters.
  • Refrain from including unnecessary personal information such as age, marital status, or religious preference, as this can lead to bias and is irrelevant to your qualifications.
  • While it’s acceptable to include a photo on resumes in some countries, it is not the norm in the United States or Canada and may even hurt your chances of getting an interview.

Summary Statement

A Summary Statement, also known as a “Professional Summary” or “Profile,” is a customized overview of your skills, experience, and career goals tailored for each job application. Ensure that your career goals are clearly defined and unambiguous, as they serve as the guiding force behind your professional journey.

Why it’s important: A strong summary statement grabs the reader’s attention and highlights your most relevant qualifications for the position. This is particularly important because recruiters often scan a resume for only a few seconds. A well-written summary should encourage them to read further.

Tips:

  • Keep it brief, ideally three to five sentences.
  • Tailor it to each job, highlighting the skills and experiences that align with the job description.
  • Focus on your accomplishments rather than just listing your responsibilities.
  • Use action verbs and quantify your achievements with numbers to demonstrate your impact.

Professional History

This section, also called “Work Experience,” details your relevant work experience, starting with your most recent position and working backward chronologically.

Why it’s important: This section provides a detailed look at your previous roles and demonstrates how your skills and experience have translated into tangible results.

Tips:

  • Focus on technical accomplishments that showcase your proficiency in problem-solving, project management, and collaborative efforts. For instance, instead of stating, “Developed a mobile application,” write, “Collaborated with a cross-functional team to design and develop a mobile application that streamlined inventory management processes, resulting in a 15% reduction in operational costs.”
  • Use action verbs at the beginning of each bullet point to make your descriptions more impactful. Some powerful action verbs include achieved, earned, completed, accomplished, developed, increased, managed, led, and implemented.
  • Tailor this section to each job description, highlighting experiences and achievements relevant to the position. For example, if a job description lists “incident response” as a required skill, include bullet points that showcase your incident response experience.
  • Emphasize the skills you gained in each role and provide specific examples of how you applied those skills. Especially in a technical resume, you should list the specific tools and technologies you used. For instance, you could write, “Developed and implemented a new customer relationship management (CRM) system using Salesforce, resulting in a 10% increase in customer retention.”
  • For each role, clearly outline your responsibilities and accomplishments.
  • Highlight your accomplishments using specific metrics and results.
  • Mention the skills and experience level you had for each role.
  • Only include the most recent 10–15 years of your career history. You may want to remove very short-term jobs unless they are highly relevant to the position you are applying for.

Education

This section lists your educational background, including degrees, certifications, and relevant coursework.

Why it’s important: This section demonstrates your educational qualifications and any specialized knowledge or skills acquired through coursework or training.

Tips:

  • List your degrees in reverse chronological order, starting with the most recent.
  • Include the institution’s name, degree earned, and years of attendance.
  • You can omit graduation dates unless you are a recent graduate.
  • Consider adding a “Relevant Coursework” section if you have coursework directly applicable to the job, mainly if you have limited work experience.
  • If you have considerable experience in your field, list your Education section after your Professional History section, as your experience will likely be more relevant to potential employers. However, if your education is your strongest qualification (for example, you are a recent graduate or applying for a job in academia), list it first.

Skills for Technical Resumes

Here are some good skills to include in technical resumes for security professionals, software engineers, systems administrators, DevOps engineers, and SREs. Please note that this is not an exhaustive list, and the specific skills you should highlight will depend on the particular requirements of each job description:

  • Security Tools and Practices: Security professionals should highlight their knowledge of security protocols, best practices, and tools for identifying and mitigating vulnerabilities. Include experience with firewalls, intrusion detection systems, security information and event management (SIEM), and vulnerability scanning tools. You can also mention any security certifications you hold, such as CISSP or CISM.
  • Cloud Computing: Cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform are ubiquitous in the tech industry, so list any certifications or experience you have with these platforms. For example, mention your AWS Certified Solutions Architect certification or experience deploying and managing applications on Microsoft Azure.
  • Programming Languages: Technical roles often require proficiency in multiple programming languages, so list all the languages you are comfortable with, including Python, Java, C++, JavaScript, Go, Ruby, and PHP. In your Professional History section, provide specific examples of how you used those programming languages to achieve results. For instance, you could write, “Developed a web application using Python and Django that automated a key business process, reducing processing time by 50%”.
  • DevOps Tools and Methodologies: Familiarity with DevOps principles and tools is highly valued in today’s job market. Include experience with tools like Docker, Kubernetes, Jenkins, Git, and Ansible. In your Professional History section, describe how your experience with DevOps tools and methodologies improved efficiency or solved a specific problem. For example, you could write, “Implemented a continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline using Jenkins and Docker, reducing deployment time from days to hours.”
  • Operating Systems: List your experience with various operating systems, including Windows, Linux, Unix, and macOS, especially if you’re applying for a role as a Systems Administrator or SRE. Specify the distributions you have worked with, such as CentOS, Ubuntu, or RedHat, and any specific tasks or projects related to those systems.
  • Databases: Include your experience with relational databases like MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Oracle, as well as NoSQL databases like MongoDB or Cassandra. Mention any skills related to database administration, data modeling, or query optimization.
  • Networking: A strong understanding of networking concepts is crucial for many technical roles. Mention any experience with TCP/IP, DNS, VPNs, firewalls, and load balancers.

In addition to technical skills, soft skills are also essential for technical professionals:

  • Communication: Technical roles often involve collaborating with teams, explaining complex information to non-technical stakeholders, and writing clear and concise documentation. Showcase your communication skills by mentioning presentations you have given, technical documentation you have written, or instances where you have effectively communicated with both technical and non-technical audiences.
  • Teamwork: Highlight your ability to work effectively as part of a team, collaborate on projects, and contribute to a positive team environment. Provide specific examples of successful team projects in your Professional History section.
  • Troubleshooting and Problem-Solving: Highlight your analytical and problem-solving skills, especially in complex technical issues. Provide specific examples in your Professional History section where you successfully identified, diagnosed, and resolved technical challenges.

Sections and Details to Avoid in a Resume

  • Irrelevant Work Experience: Only include work experiences relevant to the specific job you are applying for, especially if you have more than 10-15 years of experience. Remove older jobs and expertise from over 15 years ago, or minimize them to a single line. For example, if you’re applying for a software engineering position, your experience as a cashier ten years ago is likely irrelevant. Focus on showcasing your technical skills and expertise. Even with fewer qualifications, focusing on directly applicable experiences and skills is better than padding your resume with irrelevant information. You can include irrelevant jobs if they are from the past 10-15 years, and you need to fill space on your resume as long as you are honest about your experience in an interview.
  • Unnecessary Personal Information: Avoid including personal details like your age, weight, height, marital status, religious preference, political views, or any other personal attributes that could be controversial or lead to bias.
  • Photos: While photos are acceptable in some countries, they are not the norm on resumes in the United States or Canada and can even lower your chances of securing a position. Focus on showcasing your skills and experience, not your appearance.
  • Reasons for Leaving Previous Jobs: Keep your resume positive and focused on your accomplishments and skills. Avoid providing reasons for leaving previous jobs, as this information is irrelevant at this stage of the hiring process and doesn’t add any value to your application.
  • References: You do not need to include references on your resume. Hiring managers assume you have references and will ask for them if they are interested in your application.
  • Hobbies and Interests: While some hiring managers may find hobbies interesting, many don’t read them, and it’s generally best to use the limited space on your resume for more relevant content. You may include relevant hobbies if you have space to fill and limited professional experience. Remember that listing hobbies or activities perceived as controversial may lead to discrimination.
  • Objective Statements: Objectives are outdated. Instead, use a professional summary to provide a concise overview of your qualifications and career goals in two to three sentences, written in the third person.
  • Excessively Long Summaries: Avoid writing long paragraphs in your summary. Instead, summarize your qualifications and career goals in bullet points, highlighting 3-4 of your most relevant experiences. Your entire summary section should be 3-5 sentences at maximum.
  • Unprofessional Email Address: Use an email address that is easy to read, easy to type, professional, and non-offensive. It should be based on your name and avoid nicknames, numbers, or special characters.
  • Job Duties and Responsibilities: Avoid simply listing your job duties and responsibilities. Instead, focus on your accomplishments and quantify them with numbers, metrics, and data to demonstrate your impact. For example, instead of stating, “Responsible for managing social media accounts," write, “Increased social media engagement by 15% and generated a 10% increase in leads within six months.”
  • Buzzwords and Clichés: Avoid using generic buzzwords and clichés like “team player," “hard worker," or “results-oriented." These terms are overused, don’t offer any value, and make your resume sound like everyone else’s. Instead, use strong action verbs and specific examples to showcase your skills and accomplishments.
  • Extraneous Design Elements: Keep your resume design clean, simple, and easy to read. ATS software may need help to process complex formatting or design elements. Use a basic font, standard formatting, and a clear visual hierarchy. Limit the use of bolding, italics, and underlining.
  • Information in Headers and Footers: Avoid putting essential information, such as your contact details, in the header or footer, as ATS software may not be able to read it correctly. Include this information within the body of your resume.
  • Untruthful Information: It’s crucial to be honest on your resume. Avoid exaggerating your skills, experience, or accomplishments. Misrepresenting yourself can have serious consequences and damage your credibility.

Technical Resume Evaluation Checklist

Content and Relevance:

  • Keywords: The resume should include relevant keywords from the job description throughout, including in the headline, summary statement, skills section, and work experience.
  • Quantified Achievements: Look for specific, measurable accomplishments demonstrating the candidate’s impact in previous roles. Numbers, metrics, and data should be used to illustrate these achievements.
  • Tailored Content: The resume should be customized for the job and company, highlighting relevant skills and experiences.
  • Skills Emphasis: Technical resumes should strongly emphasize skills, especially in-demand technical skills for the target role, along with the specific tools, technologies, and products the candidate has experience with.
  • Relevance and Brevity: Include only the most recent and relevant work experience, generally limiting the resume to one or two pages for senior professionals with extensive experience. Older jobs and irrelevant information should be removed or minimized.

Format and Design:

  • ATS-Friendly Formatting: Use a simple and clean layout, such as reverse chronological or hybrid, with a standard font like Arial, Times New Roman, or Calibri in a font size between 10 and 12 points. Avoid using tables, text boxes, headers, footers, images, graphics, or uncommon fonts, as these can be difficult for ATS software to process. Additionally, ATS software will frequently convert the document to plaintext when parsing the file, so it’s a good idea to convert your document to plaintext and ensure it remains legible after the conversion.
  • Clear Hierarchy and Organization: The resume should be well-organized with clearly labeled sections, making it easy for ATS software and human readers to scan and find important information quickly.
  • Conciseness and Readability: Bullet points should be used effectively to highlight accomplishments and keep the resume concise and easy to read. Avoid lengthy paragraphs or dense blocks of text.

Other Important Elements:

  • Professional Email Address: Use a professional-sounding email address based on your name, avoiding nicknames or unprofessional language.
  • Contact Information: Include your phone number and relevant online profiles, such as LinkedIn. Make sure this information is easily accessible and not hidden in headers or footers.
  • Proofreading: The resume should be thoroughly proofread for typos, grammatical errors, and formatting inconsistencies. Errors can create a negative impression and may lead to automatic rejection.