We see a lot of resumes. Let’s say ~500 per month. 1000′s per year. Some are good. Many are bad. Not because the people are bad, but because people, humans in general, are just little pattern matching machines. We judge ‘good’ from ‘bad’ based on experience. Usually this works pretty well. Sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes great technical folks get passed up by good hiring managers because of subtle details in their resume that matched a ‘bad’ pattern in the manager’s head. This sucks. Hopefully these tips will help.

***Warning: These tips are for technical resumes. Managers should cover their eyes.

• Think like a marketer, make it punchy. Make your resume more specific to the position. Don’t lie. Do be selective. Resumes are often too long. People have lots of knowledge and experience. Choose what you include, highlight based on the position you’re going for and trim out the rest. That verilog circuit design experience may be cool, but is it relevant to the front-end PHP postion you’re applying for? Cut it and highlight applicable skills.
• Pick a title. People often wear multiple hats but your job titles should not. Listing job titles like “Lead Developer / Project Manager / Technical Writer” is bad. Even if true, this is confusing to the person reading the resume. It appears less focused. Think about the position you’re trying to get. Select the most relevant title and ditch the rest.
• List the technologies that you used at the job for each listed job. Again, these are the technologies that you used . This is different from the technologies in the “environment“. Nothing will get you killed in a technical interview like listing a bunch of technologies that you only have a summary knowledge of. This will throw your entire skill set into question. If you used it at the job, list it and be ready to speak to it. Why did you choose Symphony over Cake? etc..
• Regarding education: if you don’t have a degree, don’t worry about it. It’s better to play to your strengths than to list random classes you’ve taken. If you have a degree, list it with right details. School, year, degree earned, etc. Including a GPA? Unless it’s stellar, don’t bother.
• Certifications? If you have 500 certifications, pick the relevant ones. Being a “certification whore” isn’t always looked at as a good thing. People with too many are sometimes assumed just to be cramming for the tests. You want to list them if they’re relevant and add real credibility. CCIE (with number) is great for a Networking Position. A+ Certification for a Flash Developer, cut it.
• Extracurricular: Contributions to Open Source projects are golden. Involvement in ACM, NANOG, IEEE, etc., great. Things that show you love what you do are always good. A one liner showing diversity or talking about your hobbies is cool. Avid Skateboarder, woodworker, closet roboticist, cellist, etc… If it’s not work related be careful about adding Too Much Information. You never know who your audience is.

That’s all for now. Stay tuned for our post on Technical Interviewing Tips!