Resume must-haves for a job in Boston tech

Tech job skills have always been in-demand among Boston area employers. As recruiters for IT and technology jobs, my firm, Signature Consultants, reviews hundreds of resumes each day. Here are 10 tips for resumes that make your tech job experience shine.

Be sure to proofread

We know you weren’t an English major, but your resume is how you make a first impression among recruiters and hiring managers. Before they decide whether to bring you in for an interview, they’ll be looking at how well you present yourself. Grammar and spelling errors, inconsistency with font choice, and lack of detail can show that you aren’t putting enough time and care into your job search.

Put significant achievements front and center

Why make a hiring manager take longer than necessary to determine if you’re a fit for the job? Most resumes have a Summary or Objective statement or paragraph at the top, and this area can be used to articulate your most relevant skills and how you can put them to use in a new job. If you have skills that are in high demand or if you’ve earned impressive certifications, this is the place to mention those.

Let achievements speak for themselves

One more note on the Summary or Objective statement: Go easy on the adjectives. If you use this type of statement on your resume, it’s important to keep it concise. Let your references use superlatives to describe your performance, but when you’re writing about your own accomplishments, keep to the facts. A summary statement like, “Fifteen years of high-tech management experience in the financial sector,’’ gives an employer a good sense of where you’re coming from.

Don’t overstate your abilities

There are numerous ways to share a list of your technology skills on your resume, but one of the most important things to remember is not to get caught up in the “more is better’’ school of thought or the “more keywords, the better’’ concept. This means controlling your urge to list every skill you’ve read about. My advice is not to list a skill unless you’re completely proficient in it and can demonstrate your ability with concrete examples.

Provide context

When listing your skills, the more context you can provide regarding your experience and expertise, the better. Genuine insight comes when candidates explain how their skills were used in particular jobs or projects, which is why my colleagues insist on including detail about the extent of your skills in the body of your resume. In fact, if you list a skill on your resume, but don’t bother to write about how that skill was used, hiring managers will think you don’t really have it. Make sure the bullet points under your various jobs and experiences include detail on the technologies you worked with.

Describe your skills in a way that the reader can understand

A bullet point on your resume that says, “Reduced ticket time by 40 percent’’ is a significant achievement, but it doesn’t tell the reader how you achieved this accomplishment or what skills you used to do so. On the other hand, a bullet point that includes this statement, “re-architected an accounting system by using Java/J2EE technologies,’’ clearly tells the reader what your experience is and how it may or may not be applicable to their job opening.

Delete obsolete skill references

This may seem obvious – i.e. why confuse the recruiter by list a skill you no longer use or one that’s fallen out of demand in the market or is not pertinent to the job. But some job candidates don’t want to eliminate skills or experiences if doing so will show an employment gap. In this case, we recommend talking generally about the skill and more specifically about the achievement (the opposite of the advice above). For instance, instead of emphasizing the mainframe programming languages you’ve worked with, focus on the applications you built and their value to the business.

Acknowledge keywords

Recruiters often rely on software to scan resumes for certain keywords, which is why it’s important for candidates to visually scan their resume before submitting it. I suggest taking a few minutes before submitting your next resume to do this short exercise: read the job description one more time and take note of the skills required, educational degree, specific licenses or other certifications or qualification that are mentioned. Those are all keywords. Now look at your resume and highlight those keywords. If they’re missing, but can be added, do so. Sometimes it’s appropriate to list them, such as in a “core competency’’ section and other times it’s better to incorporate them in the body of your resume.

Not all certifications are the same

Certain certifications are impressive and important – such as attaining the PMP certificate if you’re a project manager. But including an endless list of certifications on your resume – or worse, including a generic term like “pursued ongoing training’’ – waters down the descriptions of your work and doesn’t really convey the extent of your experience.

It’s not just what you’ve done, but where you’ve done it

It’s true, to an extent, that you become known by the company you keep. Hiring managers make assumptions about you and your experience when they look at the previous employers mentioned on your resume. For instance, they know that IT experience at a Fortune 500 company differs from the same role at a startup. Also, some firms have a reputation as being a tough hire; if you’ve worked at such a company, you may be a more desirable recruit. If you have work experience at companies that lack recognizable brand names, you may want to add context on your resume, e.g. “joined the company as a startup and supported its growth from 30 to 1,000 employees when it was acquired by X.’’