Regardless of where you currently are in your IT career—be it contracted work, full-time work, traveling between cities—it is always important to keep your resume up-to-date and especially focused on your career goals. Even if you take some time to work admin positions, or build up your experience acquiring new certifications, it is important to showcase all of your experiences on you resume in the most effective ways. When you are applying for new and different positions, potential employers not only should be able to easily navigate your resume but your passions and career goals should be very clear form the get-go. Oftentimes, experiences and strengths get buried in endless bullet points and between varying positions. Here are some tips from our recruiting firm to help you clean up your resume for that next job search.

1. Identify your true interests and goals. Look through your resume – are the first few listings the jobs that are most relevant o your future aspirations? It is important to emphasize early on your resume the job experiences that are most relevant to your future goals. However, don’t discount the other positions you have held, they often will tell of other traits that employers are curious to know.
2. Emphasize the jobs that should stand out to employers. Organizing your IT resume into various sections is a good idea. This way, you can draw your employers’ attention to the important things. A set up should be: IT experiences, other experiences and professional overview (certifications, qualifications). Your relevant IT experience will be the first thing they see but then your other experiences will follow to close any time gaps and then your relevant qualifications. It is important to have qualifications listed in a separate section because too frequently they will get lost amongst job descriptions. Skills should actually be brought to the employer’s immediate attention in their own section, as these are important requirements they will be looking for you to meet for a particular position.
3. Going the extra mile. In your job descriptions, specifically within your IT experience, be sure to include examples of times that you went beyond your day-to-day responsibilities. How have you contributed to the company’s growth and success? Such achievements should be showcased so a potential employer can assess the value-add that you will bring to their team.