Association of Information Technology Professionals

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Association of Information Technology
Professionals

• September 6, 2007

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Resume

• Next week Resume Center starts 1st floor
• http//www.emurse.com
• Jon Sturm

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How to build a great Resume

• 1st step to marketing your self
• Concisely worded and achievement oriented
• Key skills and experience first
• Print on heavy resume paper Brilliant white,
  ivory, or off white.
• 1-2 pages 1 page preferred - if you have less
  than 10 years' work experience, you should only
  need a one page resume.

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Personal Information

• Name
• Address
• Phone number
• Formal Email - not your WOW or CS screen name
  email address CTsniper007_at_hacker.com Or
  OrcKiller1000_at_torrents.com

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Profile

• Your profile should be a carefully worded
  summary, two or three sentences in length, of
  your key areas of experience (including the
  number of years' relevant experience), your
  principal skills and abilities and perhaps an
  indication of your career aspirations.

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Education

• List the college/university name, city, state,
  your degree, major, concentration, and graduation
  date by month and year. List your most recent
  college first. Under the education section, you
  may include information about
• Courses relevant to the type of job you are
  seeking
• Class projects (including projects,
  presentations, reports, and research)
• GPA if over 3.0 (major GPA and/or overall GPA)
• Academic honors, Dean's List, and scholarships
• Research, senior projects, or thesis
• Professional training, overseas study programs,
  certificates and licenses
• Computer skills (give specific names of systems
  and programs)
• Languages (indicate skill level conversational,
  intermediate, advanced, fluent)

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Experience

• List your career-related experience, including
  full-time or part-time jobs, summer jobs,
  volunteer experience, cooperative education, and
  internships. You may include experiences
  unrelated to your career area if you focus your
  job description on transferable skills, such as
  customer service, communication, problem solving,
  project management, teamwork, and leadership
  skills. You do not need to list every job you
  have held. The descriptions for your relevant
  experiences should be longer than those not
  directly related to the work you are seeking.
  Highlight your skills and accomplishments.

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Experience 2

• Use KEY WORD nouns to indicate your skills and
  experience, such as strategic planning, customer
  service, BA, MBA, GIS, Java, HTML, web page
  design, systems analyst, manager, robotics,
  calculus, project management, research, problem
  solving, team leader, etc.
• Use verbs like advise, analyze, appraise, audit,
  consolidate, coordinate, decrease, direct,
  evaluate, facilitate, forecast, implement,
  initiate, manage, negotiate, persuade, etc.
• List your job title, the employer's name, city,
  state, and dates of employment by month and year.
  Avoid writing in full sentences and leave out
  pronouns (I, me, my). Write your job descriptions
  in short concise phrases in a paragraph format.

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Example of job description short phrases

• Demonstrate knowledge of object oriented design
  and formal development methodology. Extensive
  experience with C, Delphi, networking (Novell,
  NT) and HTML web page design. Develop and support
  internal client server 3 tier model systems.
• Develop and maintain computer programs that
  support internal and external audit work.
  Evaluate accounting processing controls within
  data processing and data conversion functions.
  Audit security controls and data storage
  procedures.

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Additional Information

• You may include a variety of activities and
  additional types of information on your resume,
  such as those listed here. Focus on positions you
  held, your level of involvement, accomplishments,
  projects, demonstrated leadership roles,
  committee work, communication skills,
  organizational skills, and any skills related to
  your stated career objective.
• Campus/student organizations
• Community service
• Volunteer experience
• Team and group projects
• Computer skills
• Publications
• Foreign languages
• Leadership roles
• Professional membership

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Resume Keywords

• With online resume databases and thousands of
  resumes pouring in via email, many HR departments
  now perform keyword searches to weed through
  these submissions.
• This means you need to make sure your resume
  includes relevant keywords to the industry you're
  in or it may be overlooked.
• First, make sure you include the keywords from
  the job listing you're applying to!
• To find other appropriate keywords, study job
  postings for your field. Chances are the keywords
  you see cropping up in these ads are also what
  employers search for.
• Other sources for industry keywords
• Employer websites
• Industry-affiliated websites
• Messageboards and forums about your career sector
  
• Government job descriptions like Occupational
  Outlook Handbook
• Only list keywords that apply to you.
• Only use words for skills you actually have.
• Do not load your resume with multiple keywords
  saying the same thing it may help you make it
  through a database search, but when a human sees
  the keyword-loaded resume she will immediately
  put it in the garbage.

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10 things to leave out

• 1. Photos
• The only people who need to include photos in
  their CVs are models and performers.
• 2. Any sort of failure
• This covers exams, marriages, businesses, etc.
• 3. Every vacation and Saturday job you've ever
  had
• Some of these may be relevant while you're
  looking for your first job, but after that
  they're meaningless. This doesn't apply to solid
  work experience breaks.
• 4. The words 'I', 'he' or 'she'
• Your CV should normally be written in the first
  person ('I'), but you never actually need to
  write 'I' in a CV. Some people used to write
  their CV in the third person ('he' or 'she').
  Again, you don't need to include the 'he' or
  'she'.
• 5. References
• These needn't be mentioned in your CV. Don't
  include names, addresses, emails and phone
  numbers. The phrase "References are available
  upon request" should be left out too.
• 6. Reasons for leaving each job
• These are often negative points and leave you
  open to being misunderstood.
• 7. List of all your schools
• This isn't necessary or of any interest to the
  employer. But do include your most recent
  educational establishment.
• 8. Salary information
• This can only be used to reject your
  application. If an advertisement specifically
  requests this information, you can always include
  it in your cover letter.
• 9. Patterns, borders and graphics
• These give your CV a cluttered appearance.
  Besides, what you think is tasteful may not be to
  the liking of the employer.
• 10. Binders and folders

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10 more things to leave out

• 1. Lists of publications
• If you're a scientist or academic, include these
  only if they are asked for. However, significant
  publications may be included as achievements.
• 2. Very personal information
• Don't include your age (although your date of
  birth is OK), weight, height, health, sex, race
  or marital status. It's irrelevant and some facts
  could be used in a discriminatory way.
• 3. Jargon and abbreviations
• Avoid using any information that won't be
  understood by someone outside your job or
  organisation. The exceptions to this are
  abbreviations recognised industry-wide.
• 4. Poor photocopies
• Always use good original laser prints. Poor
  quality copies suggest you're sending the CV out
  to lots of companies because you're desperate.
• 5. Mistakes and typos
• Always check your CV for incorrect spellings and
  factual errors. Then check it again. Then ask
  someone else to check it. Errors make you look
  careless and disorganised.
• 6. Excessive wordiness
• This is a working document, so keep it factual
  and don't go over the top with conversational
  descriptions.
• 7. Negatives
• Don't be apologetic over what you believe may be
  missing from your CV. Focus on your positive
  attributes.
• 8. Irrelevancies
• Don't include your gap year travel history,
  previous managers' names, the middle name that
  you never use, etc.
• 9. Cheap paper
• If you post a printed copy of your CV or you
  take a copy of your CV to an interview make sure
  your CV is printed on good quality paper. This
  will make your application stand out and it costs
  very little to buy quality paper.
• 10. Exaggerations

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Sample Resumes

• http//www.bestsampleresume.com/programmer-resumes
  .html
• http//www.bestsampleresume.com/technology-resumes
  .html
• http//www.bestsampleresume.com/it-resume.html

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Jin Kang with a Quck tour of Linksys DD-WRT
Firmware
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More serious side of AITP

• Microsoft oFone
• Google Earth easter egg
• I can fly
• Acer/Gateway
• 802.11n
• Touch Screen iPod