VoiceTAP (what’s VoiceTAP?) conducted a call on “How to write resumes for technical and consultancy jobs”. The expert on call was Pooja Garde, who has worked as recruiter for technical job related companies for a few years. Listen to recording of this discussion by clicking on the podcast link below.
Click here to listen to VoiceTAP Resume Writing for Technical Jobs call
A resume makes the first impression of a candidate with a recruiter, so it is important to get it right. A badly-written resume could mean you never make it past the first stage to an interview. You obviously need to mention all your basic education details, but that’s not what sets you apart. A well-written resume should tell a recruiter at-a-glance what technologies you have worked on or know about depending on whether you are a fresher or an experienced worker. Here are the specifics on how to write a good resume for technical jobs:
For freshers
Limit your resume to a maximum of 2-3 pages. Give an introduction / description of your career objectives in the beginning, followed by education details, technologies you know, and end with major achievements in school or college. Include your college CGPA / GPA because a few companies look towards hiring candidates with strong academic backgrounds. Write about what technologies you know, but make sure that you really do know them. Companies want candidates who know how to do a given job well rather than looking for a long list of programming languages that you might know about. The same precaution must be maintained when mentioning extra-curricular activities. Be prepared to be grilled about whatever you write in those sections; if you are not prepared to be grilled then it’s best to drop whatever you don’t know that well. At a fresher level, recruiters don’t have much to quiz a candidate on experience, so they look for what the attitude of the candidate is instead.
For experienced candidates
A resume for an experienced candidate should go beyond just a mention of technologies you know; list project details you have worked on including a short project description, who the clients were, and most important of all – your role in the project. This gives a recruiter a good idea on whether you fit the job profile they’re looking for or not. Also mention any achievements that you’ve had, such as professional certifications (Microsoft Certified, Sun Certified, etc) or internal company awards (Star of the Month / Quarter, etc). Structure for your resume is similar to that of a fresher – career objective, basic education details, project details, achievements. Your resume should not be longer than 10-11 pages.
In technical jobs, some candidates want to stick to technical jobs while others want to move on to managerial positions – be specific in mentioning this in your career objectives. A recruiter could be looking for a candidate for a managerial or technical role and giving them this information makes it easier for them to choose. If you have job-hopped, make sure to mention why you shifted jobs. In case you give valid reasons then you’re good, but if you job-hopped simply to get a better salary multiple times in the past then companies might be apprehensive about hiring you because of ‘stability’ issues. Some of you might have taken time off to work as an entrepreneur and then things didn’t work out as planned; mention briefly that you worked in a business from so-and-so period, and then give an explain about it in the interview.
Miscellaneous tips
Freshers need to be as concise as possible when writing their resume; experienced ones should mention projects they’ve worked on and they role they worked in. Mention specific technologies you have worked on – for instance, you know Java then mention specifics on whether you know / worked on J2EE, J2ME, Struts, etc. Also, recruiters tend to avoid resumes which list library / banking / hospitality management systems as projects worked upon since these are way too common, and often with copy-pasted stock descriptions. Avoid long paragraphs, because no recruiter wants to spend too long reading a resume; stick to bullet points and / or short sentences.
For further resume writing tips, you might also want listen in to our previous call on this topic.
