| Specific
Resume for Engg. Jobs
|
1.
Introductory Statement
The
most effective resume will quickly grab the readers attention.
It is essential that you introduce yourself to the reader with a
compelling statement that encapsulates your experience. There
are 2 types of initial introductions: The objective for entry level
professionals and the headline statement for experienced
professionals.
Objective
Statement - This introductory statement is primarily used
by entry level professionals to target positions in which the job
seeker has no experience or limited experience. In this case,
you are building a statement that tells the reader what type of
position you are targeting.
Objective
statements tend to be less effective than headline statements
because you are stating to the reader information about "what
you want" rather then telling them "what you can do for
their company." Therefore, we strongly suggest using a
headline statement unless you are a student, entry level
professional or career-changer.
Example
of Objective Statement:
"A
self-motivated recent graduate looking for a challenging position in
software development."
2.
Summary
The
summary will follow the introductory statement. The summary
will consist of anywhere from 3 to 10 supporting statements that
provide more details about your experience and/or training.
These statements should reflect key areas that you feel are strong
requirements for the job position. The statements should be
compelling, detailed, yet easy to follow.
Let
us take a look at some statements that we may want to include in our
example:
The
above statement would highlight a key certification and highlight
your areas of expertise within your field.
This
would be considered a statement of personal strength. In this
statement you are informing the reader that you can lead teams and
you have had success doing so in the past.
This
is a good example of a strong closing statement that documents that
you have achieved success in your field in previous positions.
Format
- Generally, there a number of ways to
format the summary, but in this guide we will talk about 2 formats,
general format and executive format. First the general format,
which tends to be less formal and easier to read.
"A
results-driven Software Developer with demonstrated success in the
design, development and deployment of large-scale enterprise
applications for the financial industry.
-
Sun
Java 2 Certified professional with deep understanding of
object-oriented analysis and design with extensive experience
building software in C++ and Java.
-
Proven
ability to lead and motivate high performance teams.
-
History
of building software systems with improved functionality and
productivity, consistently meeting critical requirements."
Secondly
the executive format, which is commonly used by professionals
targeting leadership positions. In this format, the summary
statements will follow the headline in a paragraph.
"A
results-driven Software Developer with demonstrated success in the
design, development and deployment of large-scale enterprise
applications for the financial industry. Over 20 years of
experience developing software for large multi-national financial
organizations, credit card corporations and banking institutions.
Sun Java 2 Certified professional with deep understanding of
object-oriented analysis and design with extensive experience
building software in C++ and Java. Proven ability to lead and
motivate high performance teams. History of building software
systems with improved functionality and productivity, consistently
meeting critical requirements."
Use
whichever format you feel more comfortable with. The general
format tends to be easier to read, but the executive format is
considered to be the more "formal" approach.
Tips
for developing the summary:
1.
Focus on functional strengths first, such as years of
experience, areas of expertise, knowledge of key technologies,
knowledge of processes or methodologies, or any other items that are
DIRECTLY related to your experience or training. Then if you
have the room, you can add statements that reflect personal
strengths such as skills regarding communication, leadership,
troubleshooting, etc. If possible, you can use these personal
strengths in a combination with strong statements of functional
expertise.
Example:
In
this case you are documenting your technical support experience but
also mentioning your troubleshooting skills.
2.
Don't be afraid to mention any major certifications, training, IT
skills or education in the summary, even if you are building a
formal education section and a formal technical skills section.
If you are an MCSE and expert in Windows 2000, then let them
know in the summary, the tech skills section and the experience
section.
3.
Don't go overboard with the adjectives and self descriptions.
Usually 2 at the most per statement, otherwise the statements become
overwhelming and you almost loose some credibility.
Don't
do this:
"An
honest, loyal, well organized, self-motivated problems solver with
experience leading people, meeting new challenges, achieving goals
and producing positive results"
Honestly....
what does this statement mean? Nothing to an employer, its just a
bunch of fluff and overused self descriptions.
4.
Usually, its good to write the experience section before you write
the summary, then its easier for you to look at your experience and
summarize it. Also, its a good idea to browse the job
boards and pick out some jobs you would like to apply for.
Then pay attention to the key requirements and make sure those
requirements are addressed in the summary.
5.
Often times you hear about individuals that have multiple resumes.
Most of the time as busy professionals, we do not have the time
necessary to completely rewrite our resume for each specific job we
apply for. However, its usually not that time intensive to
make modifications to the summary that can help you target the job
much more effectively. After all, targeting, is one of the key
elements of marketing and that is what your resume is doing ----
Marketing or Advertising yourself to your employer.
3.
Education and Other Sections
You
have a number of options regarding the information that you may want
present. Usually, the further away from the college courses or
degree the less information you present.
Experience
is almost always a better seller than education, unless you are in
an Academic field. Therefore as you gain more experience,
focus less on your experience. With the exception of entry
level professionals, the education section should fall below the
experience section.
Information
that is required:
-
The
name of the degree or certification
-
The
institution where you received the degree or training
Information
that is ideal to include:
-
The
date you received the degree, certification or training (unless
you received the degree over 20 years ago)
-
The
city, state and sometimes country of the institution.
-
Graduating
with honors or Cum Laude
Information
that you may include:
-
GPA.
Make sure to also include the scale (3.5/4.0). Do not
include if your GPA is B average or below.
-
Other
honors affiliated with your performance
-
Social,
athletic and academic organizations
-
Scholarships
and academic awards
-
Listing
of key courses (only recommended for entry-level)
Other
sections - You will
often see a number of other sections within the resume. Of
course some of those sections are reserved for specific fields and
professions. For example, you will always see a list of
publications in the resume of an Author or Writer. But for the IT
resume here are a few sections that you may want to include IF they
quality is of information presented is of a high degree.
Professional
Affiliations - The Project Management Institute (PMI) is a good
example of a high profile organization in the field of Project
Management and membership is highly regarded. I would not
recommend adding this section if the extent of your professional
affiliations is something like.... Member of the South Orange
Country Computer Users Club.
Publications
- Again this is straightforward. Only provide this information
if your work was published within well know publication in your
field. If you are highly published, it is often a good idea to
create a separate document as an addendum to your resume.
Volunteer
Work - Sometimes IT professionals set up significant systems within
local organizations. In this case, it may be a good idea to
add this content, but it really depends on the extent of your career
and the level of effort involved in your volunteer work.
Other
options to be wary of:
Be
careful when adding information about your race, religion or sexual
orientation. For the most part they should play no bearing on
your ability to perform the job. There are a few exceptions,
such as if your experience was primarily setting up information
systems for Christian Churches and you are a member of a Christian
organization. By all means, you should include that
information. In these situations, let common sense prevail.
In
most cases, avoid adding the interests, sports and hobbies. If
you are too the point of adding this information, you should
seriously consider the detail in your work experience or the overall
length of your resume. I know it sounds good to talk about how
you were the golfing champion at your country club, but unless you
are prepared to only accept jobs where you can be the star on the
company golf team, you should probably leave that information out.
Overall
length of the resume is a highly debated topic. It is very
difficult to generally recommend a specific length for a resume
without knowing anything about an individual's career. For
people with limited experience, a 1-page resume is ideal. For
those with substantial careers a 2-page resume is necessary to
document experience. For IT Contractors its often ideal to
break down details of each specific project and 3-4 pages are
necessary. These days, it is more common to see longer
resumes, especially in the complex IT industry and especially since
it is much more common to electronically distribute resumes.
You really need to weigh the positives of quality information vs.
the negatives of excessive information.
In
summary, the technical resume should accomplish these goals:
-
Introduce
yourself with compelling, detailed information using brief
statements that summarize your career.
-
Identify
your key areas of technical expertise and IT skills sets.
-
Document
the scope of your work experience.
-
Demonstrate
your past success through statements of achievement.
-
Define
your training and education.
-
Utilize
action verbs and action oriented statements.
Above
all else --- GENERATE INTERVIEWS.
It
cannot be stressed enough. If your resume generates
interviews, don't change it. The resume is a tool and these
guidelines can help you build a more effective tool for generating
interviews. However, there is no secret system or no 100%
guarantees. These guidelines are based on research and
personal experience of our technical resume writers, based on what
has been successful for the majority of IT job seekers. And
remember, the resume is not the only tool you have to generate
interviews. You also need a good, aggressive job search plan
along with a strong initiative to succeed.
Freshersworld.com
wish you all the best of luck in your job search!
|
