The tech industry is quite competitive. If you want to land a dream job, it’s paramount to keep updating your resume. It’s also crucial to remember that employers are using applicant tracking systems to manage applications. With this understanding, you should be updating your resume to be both ATS and recruiter friendly.
But, how do you update a tech resume? Let’s find out!
Tech Resume VS Corporate Resume
People in the technology field use a tech resume to showcase their educational background, skills, and achievements. A corporate resume is a company profile that shows the business’s mission, vision, and goals. Companies use a corporate resume to promote their business to potential investors, creditors, or shareholders.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does an updated resume mean?
An updated resume is a list of your key achievements that remain relevant, keeping it current. This means adding achievements, promotions, awards, or added roles that have taken place within a year.
How often should I update my resume?
We recommend updating your resume every 6-12 months.
By updating your resume frequently, you’ll be able to see your weaknesses and strive to overcome them. Some easy ways you can boost your resume include taking an online course each year, participating in hackathons, or developing new software, apps, or websites.
How long should a tech resume be?
Most experts recommend a one or two-page resume, especially for entry-level positions. However, if you have many years of experience, it’s expected that you’ll have more to fill in your resume. Don’t fear showcasing your skills in more than one or two pages of a resume.
How to Update Your Tech Resume
Here are some tips to help you update your tech resume.
Remove any irrelevant skills: Most people include skills that aren’t really relevant to their profile. For example, most job seekers include skills such as Microsoft Word or Excel proficiency.
Quite frankly, these aren’t that important. In any case, they are basic skills any IT professional should have.
Technical recruiting aims at finding people who have skills such as HTML, Python, graphic design, search engine optimization, JavaScript, and so on. Besides these hard skills, employers also want to hire people who can handle a dynamic workspace. Such people need soft skills such as critical thinking, emotional intelligence, effective communication, and team playing.
Update your personal details: It’s important to update your personal information as you revamp your resume. If you’ve changed phone numbers, email, or address, it’s necessary to note it. Ensure to change these details so that they are up to date. Otherwise, an employer may want to reach out to you but can’t because the details are dated.
Scrape off irrelevant hobbies: If you’re a computer programmer, a recruiter isn’t interested in whether you’re a good swimmer or chess player.
Update the experience section: It’s common to find candidates highlighting that they worked at company X or Y for a certain time without any description of the experience. This is a bad practice — employers want to see what experience you gained from these companies.
Here, you can use numbers to show tangible achievements. Showcase your most relevant experience under this section. Also, don’t exaggerate or lie because most employers conduct background checks on potential candidates.
Make the resume ATS friendly: Employers use applicant tracking systems to sort applications. To make sure the ATS picks your CV, use relevant keywords, especially in the profile summary and skills section.
You cannot have one resume that fits all job applications. We recommend that you customize your CV depending on the job description. If you make it a habit to look at the job description, you’ll have an idea of the type of candidate the employer wants. Use keywords in the job description but don’t overstuff them.
Update the design and format: Keep your tech resume up to date by updating different portions, design, and format. A neat layout will make you appear organized which is an admirable quality for IT professionals.
There are many templates available online. Templates make your work easier, so don’t shy away from using them. You should use templates that show your experience in descending chronological order.
Understandably, tech people love graphics, but those aren’t recommended on the resume. Remember the resume will first go through the ATS. The bots cannot read tables, graphs, and images.
The tech field is very competitive, and to have a competitive advantage, you’ll need to keep your resume current.
Here are other related articles.
The Purpose of a Resume and What to Include in it
How to Stay Up to Date on IT Skills
Need more tips in updating your resume to land better jobs? visit our candidate services page.
