Because of what I see daily in resumes that I review, I thought it might be helpful to others if I wrote down my thoughts on what I look for in a resume and provided some hints on creating a more successful resume. Be sure to read this entire article and don’t miss the general remarks section for some specific hints that may be very helpful to you. I have written this article from my point of view as an Business Owner / Application Development Manager. Other managers may view things a bit differently from me. In any event, I believe if you apply what you read here and do a little research on the web into resume writing techniques, your success rate in winning interviews will be enhanced.

What is a resume?

A resume is a tool to win an interview, nothing more, nothing less. It is basically an advertising piece and should be thought of as an advertisement. As with any advertisement, communication is the primary goal. If an ad does not communicate the proper message, it will not be successful. The format of the message is important, but the content of the message is most important. In marketing, it is important to strive to keep the viewer focused on the core message and not overwhelm them with unimportant details that obscure the real message. The same goes for a resume.

A good resume, like a good ad, should showcase the benefits of the goods being offered (in this case you are the goods), not just the features. In sales, it is taught to emphasize the benefits of a product, not its features. A resume that merely includes a long list of acronyms will be lost against a resume that engages the reader and convinces him or her that they will benefit from hiring the candidate. When you list your projects / positions, be sure to explain benefits that you brought to the team. For example: “Because of the design changes I recommended, the project was completed 2 months ahead of schedule and came in 10% under budget”. Be sure you can back this statement up with how your design enabled these benefits during the interview.

A winning resume has 2 general sections: the Assertion section and the Evidence section. In the Assertion section, you have a chance to showcase your unique achievements and to convince the reader that you are someone that they should interview. The Evidence section backs up what you say in the Assertion section.

The Assertion section usually consists of topics such as:

• Objective
• Summary of Qualifications
• Skills and Accomplishments

The Evidence section may contain:

• Education
• Work History (or Project History)

Organization

I am less concerned with how a resume is organized than I am with how well it is organized. Can I find the information that is important to me? Do I have to dig into long paragraphs to ferret out a few tidbits of information? A good general structure is to divide your resume into sections such as: Objective, Summary, Skills, Education, Projects (or Work History). You should organize your resume to fit your profile – if you have less work history (you’ve been in the work force only a short time), you may want to emphasize your education. Conversely, if you don’t have formal education, but do have extensive job experience then organize it in a manner that showcases your work or project history. One word of caution – don’t try to cover up lack of experience, you will be asked how long you have been working in your field in the interview. It’s OK to “put your best foot forward”, but it is not OK to knowingly mislead the reader.

Contact Information

Your resume should include your contact information (even if it is an agency phone number) and the address of your website or blog. Note that if an applicant for a senior developer position does not have a blog or technology web site, I am more than a little disappointed. Maintaining a technology website or blog shows that you are serious about keeping up with your chosen profession. As an aside, a very good book to read is “After the Gold Rush: Creating a True Profession of Software Engineering (Best Practices)” by Steve C McConnell. In this book, Mr. McConnell stresses the importance of being a Software Professional, not just a developer. This truth is all the more important in this competitive economy.

Objective

Always include an objectives section. What are you looking for in your next position? What kind of organization are you looking to join? A well-thought out objectives section helps me see that the candidate is a good communicator and helps me to understand his or her career track. Your objective, of course, should intersect with the company’s needs. If a small software company is looking for a development team lead and they receive a resume with an objective of “OBJECTIVE – a position of responsibility in a forward thinking, fast-moving company where my technical and leadership skills can be challenged and expanded”, they will take notice. Just be sure they are a forward-thinking, fast-moving company or want to be one.

Summary (or Summary of Qualifications)

According to The Rockport Institute - “The “Summary” or “Summary of Qualifications” consists of several concise statements that focus the reader’s attention on the most important qualities, achievements and abilities you have to offer.” This is your opportunity to showcase your best attributes and is probably the “spiciest” section.  Be aware that this is often the first and sometimes the only portion of your resume that a manager may read, so spend some time getting it right. This is where you sell yourself to the reader. Just be sure that whatever is in the summary is backed up by experience later in the resume. Keep this section brief and to the point. Think of it as an executive summary.

Skills and Accomplishments

First, list your specific accomplishments. This should be a bulleted list or heading / detail list that describes significant accomplishments you have achieved. This is the latter part of the assertion half of the resume. Blow your own horn, but don’t brag. An example of one entry might be: “Was a featured speaker at the 1998 International Association of IT Professionals annual convention in Baltimore, MD. Topic: ‘Comparing J2EE and the .Net platform’”

Next, list your skills by category. Typical categories for a programmer might be: Operating Systems (e.g. Windows 2003, UNIX, AIX, etc.) Environments (ASP.Net, Web Development, WebLogic, etc.), Languages (C#, VB 6.0, C++. Java 1.4, etc.) , Tools (Visual Studio 2005, Borland JBuilder, etc.) and Databases (Oracle 9i, SQL Server 2005, etc.). List your skills left to right in order of strength. For example if your languages are listed thus: “COBOL, VB, VB.Net, Java, C#”, my assumption is that you are most skilled in COBOL and least skilled in C#. You can and should list the skills first that are required by the position as long as you are well-versed in those skills. Don’t list C# first unless you have significant skill in C#. This is your segue into the evidence section.

Education

If you have less experience, this probably should be the next section. If you are low on formal education, but have a lot of experience, than put your work experience first. Be sure to list any honors received, any certifications earned and any important training you have. If you are working towards a certification and have made significant progress (perhaps you are working towards PMI certification which can take some time), it’s OK to list that, too. However, don’t list things like “Plan to have MCSD later this year”. If you have one more test to take for the MCSD and are planning to take it next month, then yes, list it as a certification in progress.

Projects / Work History / Experience

Call this section what you like and organize it accordingly. Some reviewers may not like it if it is not chronologically organized, but I don’t care. I want to see the experience you have that matches the requirements for the position. In fact, if you have worked on many projects, I would encourage you to list the ones that most apply to the position. This section should be at most 2 pages, not 15 pages long. Include extra work history in an addendum, if you feel it is important. I suggest that each entry contain details similar to these:

• Company Name and a one sentence description e.g. The Hartford, a fortune 100, industry-leading insurance company based in Hartford, CT.
• Dates From / To
• Position e.g. Senior .Net Developer
• Responsibilities – keep it brief and to the point. Don’t mix technologies with responsibilities. For example, “Extensively worked with Shared Assemblies” is not a responsibility. “Was primary ASP.Net developer” is a responsibility.
• Project description (or general description of work done on multiple projects). Include what contributions you made to the project. Keep the general description of the project as brief as possible while still conveying the scope of the effort. If the project is a publicly accessible site, include a hyperlink. Never include a link to a non-public test or dev site.
• Skills / Technologies / Tools used

It is very important to accurately describe the responsibilities of your positions so that your experience is properly emphasized. If, for example, you performed team lead duties such as mentoring junior programmers, mention that.

General remarks

• A resume should not be 15 pages long. Keep it to 2 to 4 pages. Yes, I really mean an absolute maximum of 4 pages, 3 is better. If you have so much experience that you need more space, tailor your resume to the position you are applying for and offer a more complete work history as an addendum in a separate document.
• Be sure to showcase your skills and experience fully, but never exaggerate, even a little. The worst thing you can do is say that you are experienced in a technology and in the technical interview be forced to admit you’ve never really used it. If this happens, you have lost all trust with me and will probably not be hired.
• Never say you are an expert unless you can write a book on the subject and are recognized by others as an expert in your field. Expert means expert, not “pretty good”. If you are an expert in a subject, you should know as much or more than I do in the subject.
• Always spell check your resume and proofread it. If a candidate can’t take the time to proofread a resume, how well will they pay attention to detail in their work? Get someone else to proofread it for you as well. Spellcheckers don’t catch everything.
• If English is not your native language, have someone whose native language is English proofread your resume for English phrasing.
• Always write in the third person: “Designed a Java-based CMS for the US DOE” not “I designed a Java-based CMS for the US DOE”. It is OK to use third person pronouns as well (He, She did this or that). I know this feels awkward, but it is accepted practice and tends to assist in keeping the tone of the resume professional.
• Don’t use yellow highlighting or bold text in a Word document to emphasize what you think I’m interested in. It is very distracting and if you follow my guidelines, the information will be easy for me to find.
• Keep the layout and style simple and professional. It should be well-organized and look good, but be simple enough to be clear and easy to read. Remember that your goal is communicate your experience and skills. Too much information that is inappropriate or ancillary to the position only obscures what is important to the reviewer.
• Never include code samples or documents that may be proprietary to a previous client / employer
• Dress for success – if possible, learn something about the company’s culture before the interview and dress appropriately. If in doubt, women should wear a suit or other business attire and men should wear a suit and tie.
• Search engines in place on job boards parse your resume and pull out keywords like “Java” and ASP.Net”. Make sure keywords show up in every position in which you used the technology or tool.

Managing Your Resume

Keep your resume up to date. Don’t wait for the next time you need your resume to update it. Whenever you finish a project or reach an important milestone in your career, update your resume right away. This ensures you have a resume that will require relatively minor editing when you do need it. In addition, it enables you to see our accomplishments on paper. We sometimes forget just how far we’ve come through the years in our career. Writing it down can be an amazing morale booster.

Keep a Master Resume (that you update as just stated). This copy of your resume will contain all of your important history and will grow to many pages over time. When you need to submit a resume, open your master copy and and create a scaled-down version that is targeted at the position you are applying for.

Post a generic copy of your resume on your web log or website. Yes, I’ve mentioned the website / blog again. Are you getting the point? I value the effort a senior developer puts into his or her website.

Summing Up

Your resume is an important tool to help you land the best positions available. Having a well-written, well-organized resume that contains relevant information and presents that information in an interesting way gives you an advantage over the sea of other candidates. If you need help, there are resume writing companies on the web and if you do a web search, you will find numerous articles to assist you with your resume. Take the time to give it your best effort – it will be worth it.

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