“6 Mistakes IT Professionals Make on Their Resumes”
About a month ago, I asked readers to submit their resumes for a chance to win a resume rewrite from job search website TheLadders. I received a wave of submissions, and I read every resume that popped into my inbox. In the process, I learned why resume stories are so popular on CIO.com: Most IT professionals don’t know how to sum up their skills and work experiences in a way that sells them for a job.
As one IT professional who submitted her resume wrote in an e-mail to me, “I am still a lot better at technology than I am at marketing myself.” (Ironically, the woman who wrote that had a strong, well-written resume, as did a few other candidates.)
What struck me the most was the number of IT professionals who seem like exceptional candidates for jobs: They’re clearly qualified, possess a ton of useful experience and are skilled in sought-after technologies. The problem? Their resumes do them a disservice simply because these IT professionals don’t know how to articulate what makes them unique, the value they’d bring to hiring organizations, and their key skills and strengths.
