Cheat Sheet for a Compelling Technology Resume

As someone that has seen hundreds of technology resumes, I wanted to offer advice to those in the job hunt. A differentiating resume can be the key that unlocks your next big opportunity. Yet, with no shortage of resume guidance on the internet, I still see so many bad ones.

Like any solid technologist, I won’t pretend to have all the answers, but I can tell you what stands out to me when I’m seeking candidates to hire. The tips here won’t necessarily be easy, but if you’re applying to someone like me, I promise you they are worth it.

5 Minute Gut Check

It’s common knowledge that for every job opening there are tens, if not hundreds of applicants. We all talk about it, but have you considered how that should impact your resume? Let’s say 50 resumes are considered for a single role, and a hirer gives each resume just 5 minutes to read, analyze, and determine if the person should be interviewed. That’s already over 4 hours of reviewing resumes alone. Unless a company is filling an executive position, that “5 minutes” feels like a reasonable measuring stick for most cases.

Can your resume be read, let alone be understood and make you stand out in 5 minutes or less? That might not be a hard and fast rule, but I’m telling you when I personally receive a resume that is 4-6 pages of solid text, that’s a BAD thing. At best, I skim it over and catch 10% of it, and rarely do I find the differentiating needle in the haystack.

Set yourself a goal of 2 pages (one page, front and back), spilling into a third only if you must. Not only will this ensure your resume is digestible, but it will naturally push you in the direction of the other recommendations in this article.

Avoid Diluting What Makes You Special

Every person has a laundry list of capabilities, but a few things that make them special. Say you have five things on your resume that make you stand out.  When your resume says 15 total things 33% of your resume is special – that’s a lot!  When your resume says 50+ things (and a lot of your resumes say many, many more), less than 10% of your resume is special, and those things are almost certainly missed when I as a hirer scan the sea of information (refer to the 5 Minute Gut Check).

Put the odds of catching my attention in your favor – skew your resume toward the special items and eliminate some of the noise.

Build a Resume, not a Job Description

A good question to ask yourself when adding a bullet to your resume is, is this a standard requirement of the role I was in?  If it is, chances are you can abbreviate it, consolidate it with other bullets or avoid it all together.  For example, if applying as an Adobe Experience Manager Developer, there’s no need to list out “built components, coded sling models, integrated OSGi services, completed JIRA tickets, worked with QA, supported deployments” when “performed all standard AEM development tasks” will do.

As a hirer, I can assume you “did” the standard tasks expected of a role. My goal in hiring is to find people that will be proficient and efficient in those tasks, neither of which your resume will tell me (even if your bullets say you are).

Prioritize Responsibilities over Tasks

Labor is easy to find, and every person applying for the job is, by definition, expressing an ability and willingness to do the tasks of the job. Sometimes a role being hired for needs just that, a laborer – someone to do “work” as required by the business. A person who only ever does tasks, however, is someone else’s “responsibility.” And that’s fine, it’s why we have managers (project managers, technical leads, team leads, etc.) in the first place.

Now put on the lens of a selfish hiring manager (ok, me again) that likes to reduce my responsibilities. I like working a healthy work week, seeing my family regularly, and turning work completely off when I go on vacation. I also enjoy projects going quietly with minimal escalations, not because challenges never arise, but because people are taking responsibility for their situations without me. So even if I’m hiring a developer or other technology role that could be filled by a “task doer” under my responsibility, I’m selfishly looking for someone that’s willing to be a “responsibility taker.”

When you’re laying out your past roles, tell me not what you “did,” but what you “took responsibility for.”

Showcase Your Value Contributions

As a technology leader, my team goal is to be the best in the world. Lofty goal? Maybe. But make no mistake, that is the goal, and there’s no way I can do that without team members that think beyond their own project and assignments.

Look over your resume. Does it answer any of these questions?

• What value did I deliver beyond what was asked of me?
• How did I contribute to a team being better tomorrow than it was today?
• What process did I establish to ensure success wasn’t reliant on perfect people?
• How did I solve a recurrent problem with a durable, long-term solution?
• What special achievements or recognitions did I accomplish?

Candidates that demonstrate outsized value not only make it to the top of the heap of resumes but can often demand outsized compensation when that resume turns into an offer.