How to keep your IT resume up-to-date

If you are in the information technology (IT) industry, you already know the importance of keeping up with the rapidly changing IT industry demand, technology advancements, new methods, and tools that you need for your next challenging IT role or project. Moving from one project to another using totally different technologies and methods within less than a year is very common in IT. Keeping track of new learning and accomplishments is essential and should be reflected on your resume.

Following are 8 tips to keep your IT resume up-to-date:  ​

1. Update your Professional Headline – choose a headline that is aligned with your target role and highlight your specialty area / unique value proposition statement. For example: “Senior Project Manager (PMP, CSM) | SaaS / Enterprise Applications Delivery”.

2. Review and update your Introduction section – it is your short professional story - your personal elevator pitch. Is it presenting your “professional brand” and what you bring to the table? Any new capabilities or soft skills that should be highlighted? Think about your differentiators and use the right keywords in your introduction. Make sure it aligns with your current career objectives and explains the value you can create to the hiring company or client.

3. Update your Key Area of Expertise (or Key Competencies) section with your most relevant competencies and soft skills that are in high demand for your target IT role.

4. Keep track and update your resume’s Professional Experience section with your accomplishments. Where possible include impact and measurable results. For example: “Reduced annual operational costs by $250,000...”, “Reduced number of post-production defects by 30%...” “Successfully launched an awesome product in less than 6 months from inception to production, generating revenue of $10+ million, exceeding projection by 20%”. You can also highlight recent / relevant accomplishments as part of your Introduction section.
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5. Condense work history that is over 5 year old. Consider removing listed responsibilities and accomplishments that are not value added, or not contributing to your current career objectives. You can move any position that is older than 12 years ago or not relevant to your target position to an Additional Experience section, listing the position in one line that includes company name, position, and duration.  ​

6. Ensure alignment between your Introduction and your Professional Experience. Does your professional experience section include responsibilities and accomplishments that support your introduction and your career objectives?

7. Update your education section with relevant new certifications and training. You can highlight any new professional affiliations or awards / recognitions received from employers or clients under an Awards, Recognitions and Professional Affiliations section.  

​8. Make sure you are using the right phrases and keywords recruiters and ATS systems are looking for. Update keywords in your resume’s Introduction, Key Areas of Expertise (or Key Competencies), Professional Experience and Technical Skills sections.  Add any new tools, software packages, methods with strong market demand that you have recently used and gained an in depth knowledge of. In order to get a sense of market demand you can simply search on job boards for jobs associated with a name of a tool, skill or methodology. Here are three examples for project management related keywords searched on a job board and the number of jobs associated with these keywords nationwide:  
“Portfolio Management” – 14,000 ; “Scrum” – 29,500 ; “JIRA” – 23,000
You can search for any other keyword relevant to your target position and location to get an idea of industry demand. 

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Do you or someone you know need help with updating your resume and LinkedIn profile?
 
Please visit www.itcareertransformation.com for more information and to schedule a free initial consultation to discuss your career goals and how best we can help!

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