Writing a Technical Resume? Follow These Steps

First-time resume writers often start from a very general place, jotting down every job and academic opportunity that might stand out to impress a hiring manager. Over time, those bullet points become more detailed, accounting for specific roles and omitting less relevant professional experiences. As you move further into your career, it can also be wise to tailor your resume to your specific field. A graphic designer might have a very different resume than an accountant; a kindergarten teacher might present a very different resume than a dentist.

For those in the tech field, learning how to tailor a resume involves small but meaningful changes compared to other documents. Here are tips from three Jopwell staffers on how to create a technical resume that’ll get you the job you want. They highlight the problem areas of many technical resumes they’ve seen and advice on how to fix them.

Problem 1: Relying on Assumptions

Nadia Abouzaid, Senior Director of Professional Recruitment at Jopwell, says one major mistake people make is “relying on the idea that [hiring managers] will believe in your ability, rather than demonstrating your capability through your past work.”

She gives the example of a personal friend who has a Ph.D. in computer science but didn’t list the languages he knows on his LinkedIn profile. “He didn’t realize that people are just searching for keywords on your profile. You might think, ‘I’m a computer science major. It’s obvious that I know how to code,’ but no one’s interested in playing a game of deduction. They want you to explicitly tell them what you know how to do.”

You don’t want a potential recruiter or manager to overlook you just because you omitted the skills you actually have. To avoid that, include a skills section at the bottom of your resume where you list the languages, programs, and technology with which you have experience.

Be sure to use keywords that align with the job description, advises Neelufar Jamal, Enterprise Recruiting Lead at Jopwell. “If a company is looking to hire a software engineer with knowledge of Python, SQL, C++, C#, it’s important to ensure those keywords are on the resume,” she says, and mention noteworthy keywords: machine learning, agile, AI, data, automation tools, debugging, AWS, and Tableau.

Problem 2: Not Connecting the Dots

Kafui Nutakor, Data Scientist and Director of Engineering at Jopwell, says junior engineers (those early in their careers, generally with less than 5 years of experience) often “keep the description of their responsibilities too detailed and don’t connect their work to specific project objectives or higher level business goals.”

We’ve all been there — trying to add as many bullet points and adjectives on a given job as possible — but you don’t want to overdo it. While it’s good to be thorough, you don’t want to over-describe your day-to-day tasks and fail to connect that work to the bigger picture. Instead, be specific about what you individually contributed to a project, the outcome of your work, and the tools and methodologies you used in order to complete that project, says Abouzaid.

“The point of your resume is to demonstrate your proficiency,” she expands. “What better way to do that than saying, ‘I’ve already built X in Y language’” — and this is how it made a difference on the project with specific metrics.

Not sure how to phrase it? Nutakor offers a few examples.

Bad: “Implemented several features that increased the efficiency of our data pipeline.”

Good: “Implemented several features that decreased our data pipeline's processing time by 15%.”

Problem 3: Lack of Focus

While junior engineers can be hazy on the details when they are just starting out, Nutakor points out that senior engineers sometimes go overboard because they have more experience.

“A reasonable proportion of senior engineers develop a better sense of describing their projects in a more compelling manner after having a few roles,” he says. “However, across the board, many engineers with 10+ years of experience have resumes that are several pages long and look ridiculous.”

In some cases, the projects might be well described, but way too many are listed. In most cases, though, they amount to “a large collection of poorly described projects” that leave the reader with little idea of an engineer’s real accomplishments, Nutakor explains. You might think including every job you’ve ever had will make you appear exceptionally qualified when the result is that you appear unfocused. Being concise on your resume doesn’t mean you have to forego bragging rights. If you’ve worked on side projects that may not have been assigned by a manager, present those in a different way.

“Sticking to one page is advisable, however, there could always be exceptions to this depending on niche fields” Nutakor mentions. “For most people, the most recent/important roles should be featured on the first (single) page. Additional experiences can be featured in another section or on another page.”

Jamal suggests going into more detail about side projects in a cover letter. That’s a good place to “elaborate on personal projects or apps you have worked on,” she says. Just be sure to tie those anecdotes back to why you would be a good fit for the job at hand.

Abouzaid asserts that the one caveat to a long resume: Applicants who have a Ph.D. versus those who don’t. “If you’re a Ph.D., it would be totally acceptable to have a two-page resume because the expectation is that you’re publishing,” she says. “If you’re publishing, you want to put all of your publications on your resume, which potentially adds a lot of length.”

This section would look very similar to the experience or education sections of a resume and outline all the papers you have contributed to. Some people also include conference talks if they’ve presented on a paper, which can also push the page count higher but can be a good thing to include.

Problem 4: Skipping a Portfolio

A portfolio is “one place in which technical jobs might be more similar to creative jobs,” comments Abouzaid. She emphasizes the importance of technical applicants including links to their GitHub profiles or other projects so that recruiters can directly dig into their work. “If I were hiring an accountant, I wouldn’t expect them to direct me anywhere else,” she notes, but engineers want to show proof of their prowess.

Jamal adds that a good portfolio also includes any relevant certifications, such as completing a course or certification at somewhere like General Assembly. Share those proudly, she advises — and then go back to your LinkedIn profile and make sure you’ve included the same accomplishments there.