TECHNICAL EXECUTIVE RESUME WRITING TIPS: HOW FAR BACK DO I GO?

As a director-level or executive-level candidate in the IT and technical field, the decision about the amount of information to include in any resume is very important. Among those considerations is how many years of experience should you show on your technical resume? Many have differing opinions about how far back a candidate should go on his or her resume. Prevailing thought among those in the resume industry has been to include about 10-12 years of work history on a resume. Professional resume writers will often cite potential age discrimination, lack of employer interest, and space as the core reasons to not include any information beyond the 10- or 12-year mark.

In my opinion, for someone at a director level or going for an executive role, 12 years of work history just won't cut it. While you don't want to portray yourself as too old on paper, you also don't want to mistakenly communicate that your experience doesn't match up with those you will be competing against. I can also tell you that 12 years of experience will not attract executive recruiters or corporate executive decision makers to your corner, either.

In my experience, people want to get an understanding of how you started out and how you progressed to where you are today. Of course, when they read your technical resume, they don't want it to be 5 pages in length either. Creating some type of abbreviated entry for your older history going back about 20-25 years can provide them with the information they desire without drastically increasing the page count of your resume while maintaining the focused branding message you are seeking as a technical executive.

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RESUME TIPS FOR TECHNICAL CONTRACTORS AND CONSULTANTS SEEKING IT OR TECHNICAL EXECUTIVE ROLES

It can be a tremendous challenge for someone whose technical background has been predominately as an independent contractor or consultant. Their technical positions tend to be short-term in nature. When they go for an IT executive or technical executive role, it usually results in their resume being excluded from consideration during the HR screening process.

The main reasons are:

1. The resume indicates job hopping.

2. The resume is not effectively branded for a corporate technical executive leadership role.

3. The resume is so long that most people won’t want to read it.

How Do I Overcome These Issues?

Creating an effective technical resume for an executive-level candidate that has been a consultant or contractor is not impossible. Creating common entries and listing client engagements within the entry can improve the appearance of longevity and help to streamline the resume so that all the appropriate information can be presented in 3 pages or less.

By focusing on what you achieved at each client, it places the emphasis of your experience on the elements that will resonate best with hiring executives and recruiters. Highlighting some of these key ingredients in the resume’s executive summary will help focus your message to the reader more clearly, creating a compelling value proposition as a technical executive.

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TECHNICAL RESUMES FOR INTERNATIONAL CANDIDATES

For technical candidates with an international or global background, applying for positions in the US is very different from what you have experienced overseas.

For technical candidates with an international or global background, applying for positions in the US is very different from what you have experienced overseas. Most international technical and technology professionals prepare and send a CV (curriculum vitae) to a prospective employer. A CV is a more exhaustive listing of all your work history, marital status, hobbies, interests, etc. US employers don't care about much of that information. In fact, it would be illegal to ask a candidate about some of these things. Moreover, most US employers are not interested in reviewing a resume that is 5 or 6 pages in length, or even longer!

Generally, US employers want a candidate to be able to communicate the value they would bring as technical executive in a resume that is 2 or 3 pages in length. All those great programming jobs or the position as an engineering intern you had way back when should not take up as much space on your resume as they did on your CV. In fact, depending on what they were and where they happened, it may not make much sense to include them at all!

In addition, it isn't necessary to list all the technologies you used to develop a certain software or deploy a new system. That generates too much detail and adds to your page count. It also diverts the attention of the reader and takes their focus from what should be your core message.

So when preparing your executive-level technical resume, consider your audience and the things that they are interested in before you deliver a document that is really designed for a separate group entirely.

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TECHNICAL & IT JOBS OUTLOOK 2012

Despite the fact that unemployment is hovering close to 10%, many employers, particularly those in the technology space, have open requisitions that they have not filled. The lion's share of these state that the inability to find qualified candidates is the main reason that the positions are still open. How is this possible?

Well, it is. Most of the premier technology companies have stiff standards regarding experience, education, and credentials for the candidates they want to hire. The fact is, these companies have not been able to find these qualified candidates here, so many of them have gone overseas to places like India, China, and South Korea to recruit their best and brightest to come to the U.S. through a company-sponsored work visa.

Like it or not, that's been happening for the past decade or so, with a large uptick over the last few years. If you would like to have access to these opportunities, it is important to gain experience, training, and certifications now in emerging segments within the tech sector. So here are a few things to keep in mind and to help you build your brand.

• Mobile App Development
• Infrastructure Virtualization (Server and Desktop)
• Cloud-based Services
• Data Management, Business Intelligence & Analytics
• Healthcare IT & Bioinformatics
• ERP & CRM Integration
• Managed Services & Service Delivery
• IT Service Management
• Workforce Optimization

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Are You Running on Resume Advice Overload?

If you spend more than 15 minutes online searching on “resumes” (or, more properly, “résumés”), you will quickly find yourself swimming in a bottomless sea of advice. It’s everywhere, and everyone seems to have their take on just what it means to write a successful resume these days.

And if that isn’t bad enough, for every piece of advice, there is a resume writer out there claiming to be the best choice for you.

Without a doubt, deciding which resume service to use can be a daunting task, ESPECIALLY if you are a technical candidate. There’s so much high-frequency chatter from those who claim they can produce a quality IT, engineering, manufacturing, or other technical-based resume, but when you probe a bit, you find that it is all just noise and that they don’t really have a clue about how to market you, much less about what you do.
And to top it all off, they give you the same advice they would give someone in a nontechnical field.

Here at IT Tech Exec, we are proud of the quality work that we do, and we want all of our customers to understand the type of resumes that we produce. It’s not about creating a graphic design spectacle or even a campaign poster (“Pick me! Pick me!”); our basic philosophy is simple: 

We give your target audience what they want.

The reason so many people struggle with writing a resume is that they are trying to impress themselves and not their audience. In any kind of writing, knowing your audience is vital, what they want to see, what they want to hear, and what they want to know. And more often than not, what impresses you about you is not always the same thing as what impresses them about you.

That is where our value as resume writers comes in. Let us serve as that objective voice that can guide you regarding what your audience wants to get from your resume.

To help you get a solid understanding of the documents we produce, we have provided three sample resumes here. They cover different types of technical arenas.

• IT Development
• Technical Leadership
• IT Executive Level

It’s important to understand, however, that every resume we create is unique and markets you. To find out more about our services, visit us at http://www.ittechexec.com

3 RESUME MISTAKES FOR TECHNICAL EXECUTIVES

Whether you are a technical executive (CIO, CTO, or tech firm CEO) already or a technical manager or director looking to advance into an executive role, there are 3 common and potentially fatal mistakes that are made when preparing a resume.

#1: Too Much Information

To have become a technical executive or director, you had to achieve and excel throughout your career. So I know that you have a lot of great information to communicate. You simply cannot list it all. Well, let me rephrase that…you cannot list it all and still have a resume that is appealing to your audience. I suggest that you consider the activities that best position you for this next step and distill your information down to those key points.

#2: Being Too Technical

If you have a technical resume that has a ton of technical details and technologies listed, this is a major concern to recruiters and hiring executives. In their experience, you are communicating that you are too hands-on, which means that you won't know how to back off and manage the operation from a strategic standpoint because they will be stuck in the day-to-day operational issues.

#3: Keyword Alignment

Many IT executives simply don't like listing keywords in their resume. The problem is, most technical hiring executives will receive a short list of candidates for a particular position after they have been screened by HR. Most HR screens use keywords to help match your resume and qualifications with the position requirements. Having a specific keywords or core competencies section helps HR to match your key skills with those listed on the requirements document for the position.

Developing a strategy that addresses each of these 3 common mistakes when creating an executive-level technical resume will put you well on your way in a competitive job environment.

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