How to show tech skills on your IT resume

Employers often screen candidates based on their technical skills, so technology job seekers naturally want to make sure they present their skills properly. As a result, creating the skills section of a technology resume section can be a challenge.

So what are technical skills, exactly?

Technical skills, as listed on a resume, include programming languages, tools and operating systems you have a high level of experience using either through employment or otherwise.

Typical resume issues technology professionals wrestle with include:

• Whether to list skills alphabetically or in order of importance.
• Whether to include every skill and how much detail to provide.
• How to differentiate between expert knowledge of a technology with passing familiarity.

Don't exaggerate

One recruiter's advice is simple: Don't obsess over the skills section of your resume to the point of embellishment. "In adding a skills section to their resume, a lot of people have a tendency to exaggerate their level of expertise in various technologies," says Scott Hajer, senior corporate recruiter for Software Architects. "They figure the more keywords, the more exposure."

Such tactics are likely to backfire, especially during a technology job interview. "We had a candidate who had a big grid on his resume, listing all the skills he had and rating himself on a scale of one to 5 in them," says Hajer. One of the skills was J2EE, with a "3" (for average ability) tagged to it. "When asked to talk about J2EE, he could not even define the term, much less talk about his experience in it," he says.

Some employers provide questionnaires asking candidates to rate themselves on particular technology skills, but they don't expect such ratings in a resume's skills section. Keep things simple. Denote each technology skill with the number of years of experience, or if you're intent on including a rating, use rankings like novice, intermediate, and expert.

Skills and their uses

The skills section should be buttressed with job descriptions detailing how those skills have been used in the workplace. For example, a resume listing Java, Oracle and UML in the skills section should describe how each technology was employed on a particular project. Those details provide employers with genuine insight into the depth of a person's knowledge and experience with those technologies.

Stay relevant

Consider these tips:

• Delete outdated skills or those with no relevance to the job you're pursuing.
• Separate technology skills into familiar categories such as operating systems, networks and programming tools.
• List skills in the order of their relevance to your objective, rather than alphabetically.
• If you've only read about it in Computerworld or on News.com, don't include it.

Resume organization

Technology job candidates may want to place the skills section after the job objective and before the experience section. But there are exceptions. If you're just starting out, you may want to place a greater emphasis on education and internships. If you're seeking management or sales positions, you may want to avoid crowding the resume with a list of technical skills. Instead, consider placing the list below the experience section or adding other elements, such as communication abilities and foreign languages, to the skills section.

Here are examples of one job seeker's technical skills section:

Paragraph format — the most common

Technical Skills

Languages: Java, XML, C, C++, JavaScript, SQL, HTML, UML.

Tools: JBuilder, Dreamweaver, Rational Rose, UltraEdit, Borland C++Builder, Oracle SQL*Plus.

Operating systems: Windows XP, Linux, Mac OS X.

List format — gives employers a quick overview

Technical Skills

List format with years of experience and skill level — more detail

An alternative is to denote only the years of experience.

Technical Skills

Test your resume

Figuring out the right way to present your computer skills on your resume is the first step in your job search. Now you need to make sure what you wrote is enough to get a hiring manager's attention. Would you like some help with that? Get a free resume evaluation today from the experts at Monster's Resume Writing Service. You'll get detailed feedback in two business days, including a review of your resume's appearance and content, and a prediction of a recruiter's first impression. Think of it as QA testing for your job search.