A well-written CV helps you stand out from other candidates. It is a reflection of who you are and is the first impression you make when you apply for a job.
When it comes to preparing a CV for an IT job, what you decide to include and delete may make all the difference between getting an interview and failing at the first hurdle. In this article, Bayt.com has come up with some helpful ideas to remember when putting together your next IT CV to help you stand out from the crowd and land your next job.
You may think that flashy layouts and daring selections will help you make an impression. And they might, but not for the right reasons. You would be shocked at how few CVs are just perfectly formatted and very simple, allowing the material to speak for itself.
Therefore, as a general rule of thumb, an IT CV should be no more than two pages long - so don't just cram all of your professional experience and talents into it. Give it a solid, readable framework. Although IT is a technical area, a convoluted document will not impress a recruiter, hence presenting it in a professional manner that will pique the interest of any prospective employer. Do not compromise clarity for peculiarity.
Many people prefer to use a general CV and send it to prospective employers but having a few templates will allow you to customize your application to a specific post and, in essence, develop your IT CV faster. Because there are so many various fields of IT, you can stray slightly from the core template based on the role.
Examine the job description and compare the role's requirements to what you have on your CV. Bring the important sections to life and include talents that you may have previously acquired. Customize your IT CV for a specific purpose. Perhaps reorganize a couple of things. Whatever you do, select which abilities should be highlighted the most based on the role.
Begin with the following as a structural guideline:
When writing your IT CV, include an excellent summary. One that displays your experience in a way that catches the recruiter's attention and provides examples of where you've succeeded in crucial areas throughout your career. If you don't use your summary to position yourself correctly while writing your IT CV, you might not get past the first shift.
You are not required to identify yourself as a person or your long-term career goals. Highlight your IT professional accomplishments and objectives. Avoid using extraneous adjectives such as ambitious, forward-thinking, and so on, since these will only serve to detract from the essential competencies you should be highlighting.
Your academic background and qualifications, the relevant IT sectors you've worked in, the products and processes you've worked with that may cross over, and the important job positions you've held are the five key points you should strive to address in your statement. Outside of these sections, information should be left out.
Back up your statements with facts and data to ensure your profile isn't just a paragraph of hollow claims. Include your university grades, the number of years of experience in the IT industry, and any outstanding results from previous initiatives.
The work experience section is where you can truly sell yourself. It is your opportunity to showcase your characteristics so make sure you iron out the specifics in a reverse- chronological order and ensure that the formatting is correct. Because, if the recruiter has to choose between ten candidates, you can bet they'll start with the candidate with the most relevant experience.
Highlight your most recent IT positions and extol the importance of the essential tasks you've done, with examples. Showcase your managerial responsibilities as well be it design, software development, coding, dealing with huge data, or operating technical support. Be detailed about the dates of your former job. Include as much information as possible and do not be embarrassed to admit that you currently have no job offers. You may not know but the employer may be searching for someone to start immediately.
To ensure that your CV is easy to read, consider using the standard work experience format, which is:
There are several fields in IT, but the core abilities and skills that you should have on your CV for an IT job are:
IT encompasses such a diverse range of sub-sectors that the answer to the qualification path to take will change for each individual. The easiest way to tackle this is to think about your preferred field of work and then look at the qualifications available in that field. You can choose from roles such as IT support engineer, IT manager, IT support technician, Java developer, and network engineer, to mention a few.
Make it short, concise, and memorable - as well as easy to read. Highlight any instances where you saved your organization money or used your technological expertise to address a critical problem in your previous employment. You can summarise your goals, provide context for your accomplishments, and provide examples of where you truly made a difference.
Also, it is human nature to downplay your achievements and instead play the modest card to avoid being too arrogant, but when it comes to CVs, these insecurities should be left at the door. Consider this: if your fiercest competitor was applying for the same position and you knew they were going to make a big show of their accomplishments, would you be subtle about your own? No. So, modesty is out of the question here.
Employers always pay attention to the added non-work bits about a candidate which you might not typically think are that important as it helps them have a glimpse at your work/life balance. You can include sports you play, side hustles, prominent events you have attended, and your hobbies, all this helps in distinguishing you as an interesting candidate.
To effectively develop the perfect CV for your IT job and land the job of your dreams, you have to achieve a proper balance. Although you want your CV to be easy to read and comprehend, there's no harm in demonstrating to a recruiter that you are well-versed in your industry. While technical jargon is generally frowned upon on CVs, it is unavoidable that some of the complicated concepts you'll mention on an IT CV will be unfamiliar to a layperson. Aim for a good combination of readability and knowledgeability – and if you're not sure if a recruiter or employer is aware of a new coding platform or piece of software, qualify it on your CV (e.g., I am proficient in the coding software platform MyCode). In all, you should approach your IT CV with utmost professionalism.
Remember to conduct adequate research on the company with which you intend to work for. Find out everything you can about the company, including its size, number of offices, and yearly revenue. If you get to the interview stage, the recruiting manager will most likely be impressed that you did your homework on the organization. That knowledge, combined with a strong IT CV, will serve you well.
Still, having doubts? contact our expert CV writers to help you create an IT CV that will help you land the job of your dreams.
