The IT sector in Australia is growing and now is a great time to look for a new position. Whether you’re already in the field and looking for a fresh opportunity, entering as a graduate, or looking to transition from another industry, the most important first step is to curate an impressive resume tailored for IT.
What follows is a comprehensive guide to creating a stellar resume to help you secure your desired role.
The Right Focus For Your Resume
Regardless of the position you’re looking for, your resume should showcase the right technological proficiency and experience required to thrive in this ever-evolving and exciting sector.
To impress potential employers, your CV should demonstrate your ability to safeguard information, implement and upgrade security software, restore data, educate staff about security risks, and collaborate with other IT experts. This includes showcasing your aptitude with attention to detail, analytical and judgment capabilities, and programming acumen.
Let’s now look at how you can create a great CV, focusing first on format, then turning to additional detail for the most important sections.
The Right IT CV Format
From our extensive experience working as IT recruitment specialists, we suggest using the chronological CV format. It offers the advantage of familiarity for recruiters and automated resume parsing software (applicant tracking system software or ATS).
When it comes to your resume layout, we suggest:
- Contact details (name, contact number, email)
- Summary
- Work Experience and Major Achievements
- Education
- Technologies and Certifications
- References
We’ll now delve deeper into individual sections with specific advice about what to include.
Start With A Professional Summary
Your IT resume begins with a succinct and targeted professional summary emphasising key relevant skills and experience.
To position yourself as the ideal candidate, be sure to clearly articulate your qualifications and how they align with the requirements of the open role. You may also like to indicate why you’re interested in their specific business, or why you feel you’re a great fit for the company culture. You can expand on this in your cover letter.
It is very important to customise your resume to each position you apply for. With so many open information technology jobs, it can be tempting to apply with a general CV and a customised cover letter. But in our experience, it is not worth the time saving as recruiters are experts at spotting a generic resume. You run the risk of them relegating yours to the ‘no’ pile by failing to demonstrate an interest in the specific company and/or role.
Work Experience and Major Achievements
This section is perhaps the most important part of your CV. It allows you to highlight your experience and skillset and demonstrate how they align with the requirements of the open role.
When it comes to effectively displaying your skills, first review the job advertisement and description, taking note of the key duties and responsibilities. See if you can align your work experience and major achievements with them, as this further highlights your suitability for the position.
As you describe your experience and achievements in the information technology field, include the types of projects you have worked on and use metrics to quantify the results you’ve achieved. For instance, reducing the number of security incidents or improving response times.
Technologies and Certifications
You can use bullet points as a concise way of showcasing your technical proficiencies and additional certifications you’ve undertaken, such as CISSP, CEH or CISM. You can also add in any security clearances you have obtained (i.e. NV1, NV2, and PV), and vendor-specific certifications such as Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) or Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE).
It is best practice to spell out acronyms on the first reference in your resume. ATS software might not search for acronyms; the first person to read your CV may not be technology-minded.
A Final CV Tip: Check Language, Grammar and Proofread
It’s important to ensure your resume is written in a professional tone using active voice, proper grammar and spelling. A thorough proofread is necessary when you’re finished compiling your IT resume. It is easy to miss small errors, so ask someone else to review it as well, such as a trusted colleague, friend or family member.
Another option is to rely on the expert eyes of a specialist IT recruitment agency, like us here Continuum. We have many years of experience reviewing CVs and helping our candidates customise theirs to match the role they’re considering.
If you would like extra assistance in ensuring your information technology CV is in optimum condition, please reach out to one of our recruitment specialists. You may also like to peruse our multitude of open IT jobs.