Everyone can use a little help with their resume. These ten resume tips can help technology professionals improve their odds on getting that next job.

Understand Attention Spans

Remember that people read resumes about halfway down the page / screen before deciding if they are going to continue reading, save it for later or hit the delete button. Anything marketable about you should be in the top third of the resume.

Make It an Appropriate Length

The length of your resume will depend on your experience. A one-year person with a four-page resume is in trouble as is a 10-year person with a one-page resume. Be concise and try to fit your resume into two to three pages. Need to cut it down? You don’t need an objective: It’s a waste of precious space unless you are a career changer.

General Summaries Bad, Technical Summaries Good

General summaries can help if used sparingly and appropriately. Technical summaries are more helpful since the first person reading your resume could be non-technical and only knowledgeable enough to look for keywords. However, they should not be a laundry list of every technology you have ever touched.

Dates Matter

Be clear about your dates of employment. Most companies want to see months, not just years, especially if you have some jumps or if you are currently unemployed (i.e. they want to see how long you have been out). It’s better to be upfront than to make them guess.

Highlight Accomplishments, Not Just Job Functions

The descriptions of your positions should ideally be a mix of overview and specific accomplishments. That way people know what you did day-to-day, but also what effect your activities had.

Quality Writing Still Matters

Long-winded paragraphs or bullets are mind-numbing, but short choppy sentences can appear simplistic. The ideal resume should have a combination of short paragraphs and bullets or possibly just bullets. In terms of very short bullets, combine related activities into one bullet where appropriate.

Use Action Verbs

The most overused phrases on resumes are “responsible for” or “participated in.” It’s hard to know if you were just a bystander or a true contributor or even a leader on a project. It’s okay to use those once or twice, but it’s much better to use something like “managed,” “completed,” “administered,” “developed,” etc. If you are having trouble coming up with action verbs, thesaurus.com should be your new best friend.

There Are No Rules About Education Placement

Education placement is variable. If you went to a particularly well-regarded school, have an advanced degree or have a very relevant degree to the types of roles you are pursuing, then it might be worth putting your education at the top of your document, but it’s acceptable at the end too. The same goes with certifications; however, if you have many, then it will take too much space to have them at the top. Assuming your resume has the experience to back the certifications up, your prospective employer will be intrigued enough to get to them at the end!

Not That Interested

The ubiquitous “Interests” section isn’t really necessary; however, if there’s something you are particularly proud of and it’s short and at the end, then by all means feel free to include it. There is always the possibility that when you put “competitive running” on your resume that the person reading your resume is a marathoner and gives you an interview for that reason. However, you should obviously exclude any activities that could be seen as polarizing or potentially offensive.

Be Prepared With A Versatile Resume Template

Sometimes it is valuable to have more than one version of your resume. For example, if your background could be applicable to manager or individual contributor positions, you don’t want to scare someone off with a heavy manager resume for a contributor role or vice versa. However, you should not make yourself crazy writing a new resume for every position that comes up. (This can be especially tempting if you are unemployed.) You should develop a resume template you feel comfortable with and then only make tweaks when necessary. Also, be sure to update your resume annually to avoid re-writing it in a panic when you really need it.

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