Resume Tips

1. Do not use small fonts (size 9 and under). It simply won't get read like that, likewise, fonts size 14 and over will be simply too large and is also hard to read. Size 12 is ideal. Keep the typeface or font simple - Arial or Roman.

2. Abolish your objective

   "Don't put an objective on your résumé," says Carole Schlocker, who runs iSpace, a technical staffing firm. How to put this gently? No one cares what you want. Companies want to know what you can do for them.
   An all-too-common résumé starter: "Objective: To use my technical skills in an enterprise-wide environment to grow with the organization and help them to be competitive and profitable." The objective starts with the desires of the applicant and plays into the rotten stereotype of the me-first, prima donna techie.
   In lieu of an objective, try a summary with a maximum of four bulleted points. If it runs longer, then it's really not a summary but the exposition itself. Here's an example of a two-bulleted summary:
   

• More than 10 years working with Oracle applications, customizing them for global organizations
• Specific expertise in the following Oracle modules and versions: Oracle Procurement and Spend Analytics, Oracle Hyperion Financial Management

In summaries, avoid generic words and phrases like "project management," "sales support," "leadership," "team player," "problem solver" and "excellent communication skills." That's because summaries are too short and can't provide the proper context for these words, so they end up being meaningless and waste space.

3. Get your résumé in search shape

Most tech résumés go through a whirlwind life cycle, from keyword search to a nontechnical hiring manager or a recruiter to a CTO or a tech-savvy CIO who is looking to fill a specific need. The challenge is to write a résumé that speaks to these different readers. And that first reader is usually a résumé-search application, not a person.

To get past the search filter, you'll need to do a little research on jobs in demand during a recession and related job descriptions. The goal is to find the acronyms, the résumés and the keyword phrases that the software will be looking for. This can be an arduous task, and there's no getting around it, but things can go a little faster if you have multiple versions of your résumé touting different keywords.

Keywords are tricky, too. For instance, do you fill your résumé with the term "Access," "MS Access" or "Microsoft Access"? All, of course, mean the same thing. But what will the search value? "It's probably safe to use two of the three," says Schlocker.

The keyword decision process, says Schlocker, goes something like this: "Most corporate recruiters are just out of college. These are young kids who are very good with search engines. They get a job description, enter in keywords and then start searching. That's how your résumé is going to come up." Or not.

It's also good practice to use keywords and acronyms (along with their spelled-out names) in both the technical skills list and inside the body of the résumé. Not only does this optimize the search, but human eyes down the road will be able to connect technology to the job.