Resumes are always a challenge, but tech resumes are a beast of their own. In one page, you’ve got to impress these huge companies and explain why they need to hire you without sounding too cocky. Here are the 10 most common mistakes on tech resumes:
1. Handing in a five-page resume
Kudos for being able to fill up five pages with past internships and odd jobs, but these resumes are skimmed in about 15 seconds. Help yourself out by making sure the stuff they actually see is the most valuable.
2. Using lengthy paragraphs in each bullet point
Nobody is going to read through long paragraphs about each job. None of your bullet points should be more than 2 lines. Keep it brief.
3. Listing team-based successes
They don’t want to hear about what your team accomplished, they want to hear about what you accomplished.
4. Using technical jargon
Simply describe the skills you possess and results you’ve achieved without using too many acronyms and tech-speak.
5. Creating a disorderly mess
Avoid clutter and mess and use a clean template. Design is often one of those things tech companies are interested in when hiring, so this is a big no no.
6. Explaining your responsibilities at a job
Shockingly, the people reading your resume tend to already know the responsibilities of a software engineer. They want to hear about your accomplishments not the requirements of the job.
7. Including the phrase “references available upon request”
This generic statement does nothing and means nothing, so just leave it out.
8. Leaving out cool stuff you don’t think is “resume-worthy”
So it was just a side project and you didn’t make any money. If you developed an interesting app, started some small project, or whatever it is that makes you look good, include it on your resume.
9. Including every job you ever had
There is a happy balance between leaving out key details and oversupplying employers with too much information. No need to include that job you had at Pizza Hut in 10th grade.
10. Bad English
Check for spelling and grammar mistakes, and make sure you sound polished. If English isn’t your first language, ask a native speaker to help you out. You want to make sure you are communicating well so the employer gets the best possible image of you as an applicant.
http://www.businessinsider.com/common-m … mes-2014-4
