Too Much or Too Little: Common mistakes when presenting technical skills in an IT resume

When writing an IT resume, the most common mistake is presenting too much or too little information. More often than not techies tend to go heavy on the technical information, often leaving out key soft skills and other important data.

When writing an IT resume, it’s extremely important that technical skills are presently clearly and concisely but even more important that the extent of your skills are quantifiable and you can show an employer how you use them. When adding a skill section to your resume, don’t exaggerate your level of expertise. There’s nothing worse than making the cut for an interview and having the door slam in your face when you can’t discuss a technical skill in which you claimed proficiency on your resume.

In most cases, listing the number of years’ experience you have in a particular technical skill will help you avoid this problem but if you have several skill sets that are general knowledge only, indicate a proficiency rating of novice, intermediate or expert. Even more important on an IT resume, however, is making sure that your job descriptions and skill levels include detailed descriptions of how each individual skill was used in the workplace. Employers don’t care how long you’ve been doing something if it won’t impact their bottom line. Providing these type of descriptions and using facts and figures will help a potential employee identify what type of contribution you can make to his/her organization.

When writing your IT resume, it’s important that you emphasize only the technical skills that are important to the position you’re applying for. Remove outdated skills or items that are irrelevant. In this case more is not better. Keep it simple, clear and concise. Within your Technical Skill section on your IT resume, separate each skill into a familiar category such as programming tools, networks, and/or operating systems. Take the time to list the skills in order of relevance to the job objective, starting with the most important and finishing with the least important.

Since most techies begin their IT resume with technical skills, you may want to start instead with a section on "soft skills." Current trends in the IT industry suggest that potential employers are looking for well rounded employees with strong communication and listening skills as well as the ability to work with or lead a team. Simply adding Communication Skills above your Technical Skill section just may get your IT resume moved to the top of the stack.

Communication skills to include are: Listening skills, Excellent Oral and Written Communication, Team Player, Team Lead, etc. This shows an employer that you are a professional that he will be able to use in a leadership position. With today’s trend towards offshore outsourcing, listing any foreign languages under the Communication section is also an excellent idea.

There are several formats that will work to display your technical skills

There are several acceptable ways to display your skills on your resume. The most common is in paragraph form with a single line for each type of skill set and a list of the skills separated by commas. The downside to this format is that it doesn’t allow you to provide details regarding how you actually used the skill. Using a List format in a table gives an employer a quick overview and could include a column that explains how you used the particular skill. The columns we suggest are Type of skill, years of experience, and how it was used.

All in all, the key to presenting your skills in a technical resume is to remember that too much information is usually not a good thing. Keep it simple, concise and clean. Focus on the results and show an employer how you can use your skills to affect his bottom line. Employers are result driven and simply telling them how good you think you are isn’t going to get you noticed. Showing him, however, will.

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