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So, I’ve seen many opinions and thoughts about how to do a “Proper” resume and I thought I’d open this topic. There are several different idea’s that people have about what a Resume is supposed to have on it, how long it should be, “Do’s and Don’ts”, etc. and I figured I’d seek out some more insight here with fellow IT Pros.
So Here are a few questions that always come up:

  1. How long should the Resume Be? I’ve always heard that if you have a 2-page Resume, you might as well not even submit it. That the employer may even rip off and toss the 2nd page in the trash and go off only the first page. That an employer may just sift yours out and only look at the 1-pagers.

  2. What kind of content should it contain? I understand you want your Experience, Certifications, and a Degree if you have one that represents you are qualified for the job. Do you need to include your Hobbies, Projects, and possibly a career statement on it as well?

  3. Cover Letter. I have a hard time with this one personally as I don’t always know what to put on it or how to word it best. Is this a super important part of submitting your Resume with the application? How long should it be? I’ve heard a paragraph is good enough or maybe even just a few sentences. It’s supposed to sort of “Sell yourself” to the employer before they get to your Resume. I’ve gotten my current job without one, but in the future good advice on this would be super awesome and helpful.

  4. Page format. What kind of margins should you have for your Resume? What fonts are preferred for a Resume? How should you put your Name, E-mail, Phone Number, etc. on this very important document? I’ve generally kept my name, phone number and E-mail towards the top along with my address. I haven’t been slammed for it yet, but yet again, do all corporations look at this the same?

  5. Type of Paper. I know this might seem petty, but does the type of paper your Resume is printed on really matter? If you go out and put in the extra money to pick up some sturdy Resume paper, either in Ivory or White, does it show more “Want” for the job? I’ve submitted mine with the Ivory Resume paper and on just plain white printer paper. I have tended to get an interview with the Ivory Resume paper more than the White printer paper. That may have just been the places I applied vs. what employers are really looking at though.

There may be more here that I’m missing, but that’s the point of this post. Pointers on Resume building would be helpful for me, and probably a lot of other Spiceheads that browse here as well.

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Length, simply put: as long as it needs to be. Just make sure the good stuff is on the front page.

Content - don’t waste much time on fluff, most hiring managers don’t care. Highlight you skills, education and experience. show how they benefit the employer and where they can be used.

Cover letters - those are where you sell yourself. A cover letter is your sales pitch. It’s your own private infomercial, how do you get the manager to buy your slapchop?

Format - is mostly irrelevant: is that there is no standard you need to try and uphold. You need to keep it clean and easy to read. Whatever format gets you to that point is the one you need to use.

Type of paper? if you are actually working with printed form resumes, use at least bond stock. Nice weight to it but won’t break the bank to get a few reams of it.

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I’m with the Captain Frosbyte- should be as long as needed… 2-3 pages is not outlandish if you’ve been in the industry a couple decades or more.

Many of the CIO resume makeover articles are worth looking through.

No hobbies, projects, etc.; strictly business, just the facts.

I would not go crazy on fancy paper (if you submit one in printed form)… crisp white standard stuff is fine.

I generally put a summary toward the top as opposed to adding a cover letter.

The format should be easily readable by non-technical people- not too wordy, avoid super small of font sizes and no exotic fonts.

Above all, I suggest you only circulate your resume when and where appropriate (as opposed to blasting it everywhere and letting the competition snarf your well thought out and personalized hand crafted ideas).

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This topic is so open ended which makes for a good number of opinions, many of which are neither right or wrong

Having reviewed hundreds of resumes as well as peddling mine when the need arose, here are my thoughts

  1. One page is ideal. You want your resume to be concise and convey your most recent, relevant experience. Once you go multiple pages, details can get lost in the piles of other resumes

  2. You’ve nailed this one. Experience, Certs (if you can back them up with actual knowledge) and Degree. Hobbies are usually there if someone doesn’t have relevant experience or is applying for a more junior position

  3. Not a fan of the cover letter. As someone who is reviewing a lot of resumes, do I have time to read the stories of everyone applying. No. Let your experience speak for itself. The phone interview is where you can talk to some of the stuff you would have put in a cover letter

  4. Format: it needs to look clean, an uncluttered. Don’t go with some crazy font :slight_smile:

  5. Paper…make sure it looks good in pdf format

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I abandoned font formatting and presentationally important details when it became too hard to upload my resume to most application sites. So, I stick with the basics.

Header

Qualifications - in bullets

Experience - last 3 employers are detailed, and most of the rest are just (available upon request)

Education

Professional references

Additional references upon request

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Two pages if you have relevant experience - 1 page if you less - never ever more than 2

A resume is meant to peak interest to get you the interview where you can expound upon your myriad of skills

Tailor the resume to each position you apply for, adding and dropping content as required

I use the following format:

Name

Address

Contact info

Objective - what type of position in what type of company you are looking for

Summary - what you are as a professional

Skills - HW/SW/Protocols

Experience

Education, Training and Certs

Cover letter if requested to tell them about you, what you can bring to the table, also to peak their interest and slanted toward their job opening reqs.

Any paper is OK - make sure to print on a laser if possible so as not to smear the ink if it is fresh - carry copies in a folder, envelope or leather type binder.

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  1. For length, I don’t like going beyond 2 pages because it turns into a lot to digest. The rule of thumb that I’ve heard was one page for every 5 years of experience.

  2. Unless you’re fresh out of school, education isn’t important. It can be one line, maybe 2 at the end of the resume, but that’s not what employers are looking for in IT. Experience is #1, and certifications can be important as well. I’ve heard mixed opinions on including personal projects, but it comes down to your experience. If you’re stuck doing helpdesk and want to get into sysadmin or server admin work, don’t have any work experience with servers, but have built and maintained a server in your spare time, then that would be a good project to list. The bottom line is everything on your resume should be relevant to the job.

  3. I always create a cover letter. If the hiring manager decides not to read it that’s their prerogative, but I always put in the effort to create one. Your resume shows your experience; your cover letter tells them why you want the job. When I was hiring at my last company for a helpdesk tech, I didn’t ignore resumes without cover letters, but for ones that did have cover letters a bad cover letter got the resume tossed. What I mean by “bad” is riddled with typos (as written communication is very important, and this also shows a lack of attention to detail), unfocused, or no perceived real desire for the job. I wasn’t looking to hire someone who was just looking for a paycheck; I was looking for someone who was eager to learn that I could train to be an asset.

  4. I use half inch margins all around to give me the most space on the page. I include my name in a slightly larger font on the left, and my phone & email on the right. I’m not sure what the reasoning is behind it, but I know that adding the address has gone out of style. If I think it may be an advantage, sometimes I’ll list city and state but no more than that.

  5. I’ve never had a problem submitting resumes on regular printer paper. I’ve rarely had to actually submit a paper resume though - the vast majority have been online. I just bring paper copies on regular printer paper to my interviews.

The biggest thing on your resume is you want to make sure you have zero typoes and mistakes. No mis-capitalizations, no added apostrophes. Make sure you are consistent: if you start with bolded headings, continue throughout; if you start with sentence fragments for your bullet points, don’t use full sentences later; if you add periods at the end of bullet points, continue throughout. Use a resume template through Word, or pay a couple bucks to use an online resume creator that formats it all pretty. This is your first impression on a new person, possibly on your new boss - having a beautifully formatted resume with flawless grammar shows you mean business.

Edit: Also consider the type of resume you put forth. Are you going to focus on your work experience or your projects? It may depend on the type of job you’re applying for. Prior to applying for my current position, I had always had my Work Experience category as the biggest. The heading would be the company, and under that I’d list various responsibilities. For this job, I was applying to a completely new field where much of my work experience wasn’t relevant. So instead I focused on Projects. My headings were specific projects, and under that I listed what I did to run or contribute to that project. It was much easier for me to show why I would be an asset to a company in a new field than a work-oriented resume would have been.

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This is all awesome info! Thanks!

I have a question though about putting certifications on the Resume. I happen to have several that could take up half a page. Would it be better to only put your Highest level certifications on the Resume and include a transcript of all certifications with the Resume and/or Application?

For Example, Microsoft provides a transcript of all the certifications that have been earned and provides all the information about when it expires, the Cert ID, and so on.

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Needs to be as long as it needs to be. I’ve been in IT over 35 years, my resume is 3-4 pages. I don’t detail more than the last 15 years.

As for format, I have a table on page 1 with a list of skills. Then on to my work history. Most recent first. Start with a line or 2 about the company, what they do. then a list of accomplishments and quantifiables (saved $xxx, improved productivity x%, etc). Then general responsibilities.

Older than 15 years, I list companies, dates, title.

Put nothing personal, unless it is directly relevant to the position. ie, your applying to a chain of fitness stores, and you a re a marathon runner.

Use a san-serif font, 11 pt. standard white paper, if submitting a hard copy. You want something that will OCR easily.

Consistent format, proper grammar, no spelling mistakes.

Keep this in mind, when we review resumes, the first pass is not to find candidates, it’s to discard. You have less than 10 seconds of my time to convince me to put you in the review later pile. I will use any excuse to trash your resume. Messy, bad spelling → bin. Your first page has to scream “You want to consider me”.

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Put only highest level certs. Do not include transcripts. Put only certs relevant to the position. Aplying fot a sys admin position, next to your name, add CCNA, MCSE. Don’t really care if you have A+.

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Two words: Comic Sans. Everybody loves that font.

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Best thing I ever did for my resume was to hire a resume writer. I’m likely going to go back to them soon since it has been about 4 years now and my resume is in need of a major update. For senior level positions 2 pages is great. One thing the resume writer was very picky about is that so many places use automatic parsing. Especially for certifications that are required have it both spelled out and in the standard acronym, for example Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) . That way you are more likely to make it past any automatic screening.

Almost every time hobbies and projects should stay off of the resume, but their are exceptions. Suppose you are applying for some sort of kernel programming job, and you have volunteered for the Linux kernel. That is relative so include it.

Another thing is on content be specific and give results. Again as an example from my background “Experience with Identify Finder software to discover PII on file servers” instead write “Deployed Identify Finder software and quarantined over 10,000 files containing Personally Identifiable Information (PII), which reduced the risk to the firm by removing PII from world readable files.”

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Hang on - I can’t use Brush Script anymore…?!?

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Best cover letter ever (NSFW):

580×783 78.5 KB
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I do not have a ‘general resume’ other than the one i post to a couple random jobsites. If I am actually interested in a job I will create one with the relevant experience. I try to keep it to one page with a bullet point list of relevant stuff for the job I am applying for.

I generally only list current experience. I do not have my Windows NT server, Windows 2000 and before, Netware 3 and 4.1 listed on the resume anymore. If it is management or leadership experience add it going back as far as you can.

I would add ‘Team Lead desktop support team 1999-2002’ but I would leave off all the Windows 95 skills, etc.

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Some do, some don’t. My current employer had “heard” of Network+, but looked like I was speaking Greek when I mentioned A+/Security+/CompTIA. It’s just like any other part of a CV/resume IMO: read the description and guess as to how they will want to read it. Non-answer, I know; but it’s still kind of a dark art to me even after 15+ years in IT.

I look at it like playing cards: give them enough to make a decision on what they’re asking for, if you give them too much you can scare away a potential score. (Not implying anybody lie, that would be dumb. Just saying if you give somebody Alphabet Soup when they’re just asking for a person to answer a phone and reset passwords…)

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I approach it with the same idea of a dress on a pretty girl. Just long enough to cover everything important, but short enough to keep it interesting. Problem is, when you’ve been in the business for a few years, it can easily turn into War and Peace . So, what I do is I go back 7 years (I figure if it’s good enough for the IRS, it’s good enough for everyone else - And my resume my can still weigh in at 4+ pages), and I focus on that UNLESS there’s a reason to go back further (like their looking for some experience that happened years before).

A lot of stuff that happened before that 7 years, I cover in the cover letter. I mention I’ve been in IT for 20+ years, and along the way I’ve done this, this and this (like being co-founder of an ISP, and having worked in Emergency Management, and so forth). I also direct them to my LinkedIn site for more information regarding me. This is also where I mention my being a Veteran, and so on

I always try to cut out the fluff. I can be very wordy, so when I write the resume, I try to cut out excess words and use bullet points to highlight what I’ve done (and if you can tie those bullet points into money saved or an increase in performance, even better).

I never mention hobbies and I never list references on the resume (I’ll give them those when they ask for them). Beyond the fact I went to college and have a BS (my degree isn’t in Computer Science), I don’t list too much education except to mention certifications, and that very briefly. A lot of that can wait for the face to face.

Last piece on the resume. Times change, styles change, so you have to keep it always and forever up to date. And for if you’re submitting resumes like crazy, and not getting any hits, go back to your resume and look at it. And give it an honest, hard look because that’s probably what your problem is. Just like we study Technical Material, you need to study how to write resumes and cover letters. This is a tool, and just assuming you know how to write one (or worse yet, have a tool that writes one for you) isn’t enough. Get every edge you can and treat it as a matter of survival. It is after all.

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Lots of good advice above. I keep a 1-page version and a longer, detailed version.

In vinyl terms, there’s a single, and then there’s a double album.

Both can be re-labelled and slightly remixed, depending on need.

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Another point, know what you are applying for. Entry Level and Jr positions, keep it to one page no one is going to look at the second page, and if they do, it’s to see just how over qualified you are. Low level positions where you have the needed qualifications - cover letters are optional.

Higher level positions, really look at the posting it’s your first insight into the person reviewing your submission- is it short and efficient - Match it with your resume and (optional) cover letter style bullets and summaries… No fluff, no filler, clean and concise. Does the posting have some weight to it, long, lots of detail - Follow suit with your resume and cover letter (not optional!), Does the posting have some life to it? colorful words, energetic style? Channel your inner bard (or Billy Maze) and spin a tale on your cover letter, use paragraphs on your resume not bullets.

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With regard to length, the one-page-max rule went by the wayside some time ago (probably around the time that it became more acceptable to change jobs every two years rather than staying at one place for 5 to 10 years – or more – at a clip). You should only restrict yourself to one page if you can comfortably fit everything to one page. Drives me bonkers to see resumes in 8-point type with giant margins because someone is trying to follow this rule. Here’s a better rule: If it’s hard to read, reformat it so it’s easy to read (and easy to skim, which is so important during that first weeding out period that Serge7400 mentioned).

I think a summary/objective at the top is a good idea as long as you have something legit to say. “I am looking for a position that will match my experience and allow me to grow as a professional” is a generic waste of space and says nothing about you that any other candidate couldn’t say.

Other things that I like to see on resumes:

  • “Measurable” accomplishments. If you’ve streamlined processes, reduced waste (particularly with regard to wasted time), saved money, etc., make sure you mention it.
  • Initiatives. Did you start a new program? Contribute to a big project? Institute new policies that benefited the organization, coworkers, end users?
  • Ways you’ve applied your skills (when appropriate). It’s likely that people who are applying for the same job will share some of the same skills. Rather than just giving a laundry list of the things you know how to do, indicate how you have applied your skills in current and prior positions.

Here’s an example: I write for the Wombat Security blog. If I would do my resume, I could add a bullet point that says, “Writing for the company blog” or I could add a bullet point that says something like, “Lead writer and content manager for the company blog. Write an average of two posts per week covering industry news, cyber security research and trends, and company products and updates. Project manage other blog contributions, including review cycles and content uploads. During my time as a content manager, readership increased by more than XX% year over year and the number of subscribers went from XX to XXX.”

The latter is certainly longer, but it says a lot more about how I’ve used that skill than the former, and that’s worth the extra length.

Re: cover letters, in my experience, they generally do not travel with the resume, they stay with HR or the hiring manager. We usually have multiple people interview candidates, and only the resume (not the cover letter) is shared. (Another reason that a good summary/objective can work in your favor.)

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