In the fast-paced world of information technology (IT), landing the perfect job requires more than just skills and experience. Crafting a well-structured resume is a vital step that can make or break your chances of standing out from the competition. In this episode of “The IT Job Coach” podcast, host Frank DeMaio delves into 13 common resume mistakes that IT professionals should steer clear of to enhance their job search journey.

1. Using the Same Resume for Every Job Application

One of the most prevalent mistakes is sending out a one-size-fits-all resume to multiple job openings. While this approach may seem efficient, it overlooks a significant opportunity for customization. Frank emphasizes the importance of tailoring your resume for each specific job, incorporating keywords from the job description, and showcasing how your experience aligns with the role’s requirements.

2. Including References on Your Resume

Frank cautions against including references on your resume, urging candidates to provide them at a later stage in the process. He highlights the necessity of notifying your references in advance, ensuring they’re prepared for potential calls from prospective employers.

3. Including a Photo of Yourself

In some countries, adding a photo to a resume is common practice. However, Frank advises against doing so in the United States, as it can introduce biases and detract from the focus on skills and qualifications.

4. Including Irrelevant Skills

The urge to list every technology you’ve ever supported is tempting, but Frank encourages candidates to streamline their skills section. He recommends highlighting skills directly relevant to the position while omitting outdated technologies and focusing on the most recent ones.

5. Using Buzzwords

Buzzwords like “team player” might seem impressive, but they lack substance. Instead, Frank suggests using action verbs and specific examples in the work experience section to showcase skills and accomplishments effectively.

6. Grammar and Spelling Errors

Overlooking grammar and spelling mistakes may seem minor, but they can leave a negative impression. Frank emphasizes the importance of proofreading and seeking feedback from others to ensure a polished resume.

7. Listing Every Job You’ve Held

Tailoring your resume to showcase only the most relevant experience is crucial. Frank advises candidates to omit past roles that don’t align with the position they’re applying for, ensuring a focused and impactful document.

8. Using Unprofessional Fonts

While fancy fonts may catch the eye, they can hinder readability. Frank recommends sticking to professional and easily readable fonts to ensure your resume’s clarity.

9. Making Your Resume Too Long or Too Short

Finding the balance between conciseness and inclusion of key information is essential. Frank suggests aiming for a one-page resume that effectively presents your qualifications and achievements without overwhelming hiring managers.

10. Lying on Your Resume

Honesty is paramount when it comes to resumes. Frank strongly advises against exaggerating qualifications, as it can lead to trouble during interviews and tarnish your professional reputation.

11. Focusing on Responsibilities Instead of Accomplishments

Frank advocates for highlighting quantifiable achievements in each role. Instead of simply listing tasks, he recommends demonstrating how you excelled in your position and made a tangible impact.

12. Disclosing Salary Requirements

While understanding your value is crucial, Frank recommends leaving salary discussions for later stages in the hiring process. Prioritize showcasing your qualifications and fit for the role in your resume.

13. Not Making Your Resume Applicant Tracking System (ATS) Friendly

With many companies using applicant tracking systems, Frank underscores the importance of using relevant keywords, avoiding complex graphics, and eliminating tables. Customizing your resume with keywords from the job description enhances its chances of passing through ATS filters.

Episode Transcript

Welcome back to another episode of the IT job Coach, the podcast that’s dedicated to helping you navigate the world of IT job hunting and career advancement. I’m your host, Frank DeMaio, and today we’re going to deep dive into something crucial for every IT professional your resume, we’re going to be discussing. 13 of the most common resume mistakes that I see. Hot that could be holding you back from landing that dream job in the IT industry. So grab a notepad and get ready to take some valuable notes before we keep going. I just want to say interviews, right? What’s up with those? They can make us so nervous and so worried about what’s going to happen. And you know how many times do we get to the interview? And then we don’t get past that and we’re turned down for the. So interviews are super important and I want to take a minute to really tell you about my most popular free course, the IT job interview master class. Just head over to itjobcoach.com/interview and you can get immediate and unlimited access to my free training. Course right now. In the IT job interview master class, you’re going to gain a comprehensive understanding of the interview process you’re going to develop a personalized interview strategy, and you’re going to gain the confidence needed to impress even the toughest interviewers. The only way to make success happen for you is to take action and get started. So let me help you secure your dream job and get past that interview Hurdle Head on over to itjobcoach.com/interview. That’s IT. JOB coach.com slash. Interview and get started on your preparation today.

Here’s the rundown.

Alright, let’s start with mistake. Number one of resumes that I see using the same resume for every job application. It might seem efficient to send out the same resume to multiple job openings, but in reality you’re missing out on a huge opportunity. I see this. All the time someone will ask me, Frank. Can you help? Me build a resume because I’m about to blast this thing out to 200. Job openings and I always tell them, please don’t do that. It may seem like, oh, you know, we’ll play the numbers game, we’ll throw out a bunch and we’ll definitely get an interview from that. Please don’t do that. You really have to look at each job in particular, identify the specifics of what they’re looking for. And then customize your resume to reflect that, and tailoring your resume to that specific job you’re applying for is really essential. Make sure you incorporate keywords from the job description. Highlight the relevant skills associated to that job description and what they’re looking for, and really showcase your experience and how it matches their needs and the number one thing I always tell them is.

Customize, customize, customize.

All right, mistake #2 putting references on your resume. Please don’t do this. Provide references later on in the process. Once you get to the Intel. You a lot of times if the interview goes really well, they’ll ask you for your references and you can provide them at that point. So make sure you bring copies of your references with you to your interview and the big reason that I tell folks don’t put them on your resume is that you really want to contact your references prior to giving their contact information. Now, now you may have already reached out to them, and I hope you did. You reached out to them and. Said hey, bill. Can you please be a reference for me? And I’m sure they said yes and they gave you their contact information. All of that. But if you send your references out to every application that you make. You never know who’s gonna call them. So give your reference. Do them a favor. Give them a heads up that they’re going to expect someone reaching out to them. OK, so give them a call. Say hey, Bob, thank you so much for, you know, being a reference for me. I just wanted to let you know that I applied to company XYZ. They asked for my references and they’re probably going to be giving you a call. This way they’re prepared. They if they see an odd number come up on their phone, they may answer it thinking OK, maybe it’s that place trying to get that reference, so don’t put them on directly on your resume. Provide them when asked.

What else you got?

Let’s talk about mistake #3, including a photo of yourself on your resume. Now, this really isn’t common in the United States. I don’t see this a lot on US resumes, but it’s very common in other countries, including a photo on your resume in the United States. Do not do this. It’s not. Only unprofessional, but it can lead to biases and discrimination which. That’s why they don’t want that on resumes in the United States focus on presenting your skills and qualifications rather than your appearance.

Top tip of the day.

Mistake #4 including irrelevant skills. You want to make sure you tailor your skills section to match the job requirements highlighting skills that are directly related to the position and emit those that aren’t relevant now. Here’s an example of something I see frequently when someone sends me their resume. Asking me to take a look at it. They will have 1/4 of a page with a giant parade. Half of all the technologies that they’ve ever supported going back 15 years or more, so you can see things like Windows 3.1, Windows 98 from a server perspective, you might see Windows NT 4.0 Windows 2000 server. Yes, that’s great that you have supported. All of those different versions going all the way back to those days, but in reality. A hiring manager and recruiter. They’re not going to care about all of those technologies that you supported 1520 years ago. OK, narrow that down to the most recent version. So if you have Windows Server 2022, put that on your resume right, and get rid of all the other ones. Now if you only have Windows Server 2008. My recommendation is just put Windows Server. OK, this is really not needed on your resume unless there’s one reason why it may. If you have Windows Server 2003 experience, don’t put that directly on your resume unless they ask for it in the job description. If in the job description for this position for some reason. They need someone with Windows Server 2003 experience. Put that on your resume. OK, but if they don’t ask for it specifically, put the most recent one and that should really tailor that skills section down quite a bit, making sure that you’re adding only the most relevant. Mistake #5 using buzzwords. Those overuse buzzwords like self, starter, you know, they team player. Those might seem impressive, but they lack real substance. Instead, use action verbs. Use specific examples in your work experience section to demonstrate your skills and accomplishments. There may be opportunities to use the word team player right, but don’t fill your resume with just a crazy number of buzzwords, thinking that that’s going to get you places it’s not.

What else you got?

Mistake number six. Grammar and spelling errors. It might sound like a small issue, but even one little typo can leave a negative impression. OK, so take the time to proofread your resume. Ask a friend, ask a family member to give it a run through. You know, I’m sure we all have that one person in our life that has that. Life for detail that goes through things with a fine tooth comb. Ask them and you know what? Don’t ask just one person. Give it to one person and then give it to somebody else and get their impressions and what their perspective is to. Grammar and spelling mistakes. Just set a poor tone and it’s really important that you’re going to want to make sure you take care of that. It’s an easy one, so make sure that’s high on your.

List what else you got.

Moving on to mistake #7 listing every job you’ve ever held. Your resume needs to be a targeted overview of your relevant experience. If a past job doesn’t align with the position you’re applying for, consider leaving it off. This will keep your resume focused and impactful. You don’t have to put that job on your resume when you worked at a pizzeria 20 years ago. OK, it’s important. To look at quality and tailor that resume down as much as you can. Keep the job experiences. To the most recent and to the most relevant, based on the job description of the position you’re applying for.

What else you got?

Let’s tackle mistake #8 using unprofessional fonts. Fancy fonts might catch the eye, but they can also make your resume difficult to read. Stick to professional, easily readable fonts like Arial Times New Roman, Helvetica. I like Calibri quite a bit, Garamond. Even, but don’t go into all those crazy fonts. Please don’t use old English text. Next, keep it professional and easy to read.

What else you got?

Let’s talk about mistake #9 making your resume too long or too short, too. So aim for a one page resume that represents your most relevant information and presents it in a clear way. Don’t overwhelm hiring managers with excessive details, and make sure you’re not leaving out key information. Due to brevity. So that means there’s a balance there, right? We want to make sure it’s. Concise and to the point, but we also want to make sure we have our key information in there. Hiring managers and recruiters are looking through resumes in like 10 seconds or less and on average it’s like 7 or 8 seconds. So you have 7 or 8 seconds to stand out in their mind and get you on to the next step, which would be an interview. So having a multi page resume isn’t going to do that. But with that said, if you’re applying for an executive position right, a longer resume may be. Need it and I have a whole episode just about resume length, so check out episode #2 where I go in depth about making sure that you have the right resume length.

What else you got?

Let’s talk about mistake #10 never, never, never, never, never. Please don’t ever lie on your resume while. Well, it’s important to showcase your strengths and it’s not OK to stretch the truth because that’s just going to lead to trouble down the line, especially when it comes to an interview. Once you know if you lie on your resume and you get into an interview and they start asking you about these things that are on your resume that you lied about. It’s not going to end well and you’re not going to get to a good place. Face so please don’t lie on your resume. Stick to the truth. Be who you are. You are very skillful. You’re very experienced. You don’t need to lie on your resume. Please don’t do.

That what else you got?

Mistake #11 focusing on responsibilities instead of accomplishments. I see this a lot. I see where folks just list out their daily tasks that they’re doing and. Yes, people understand that you have to update the task tracker when you’re a project manager. That that’s a given, but your resume also needs to showcase how you’ve excelled in your role and not just what you were tasked with. You want to use quantifiable achievements to demonstrate impact. OK, think about. About this, when you’re looking through your resume, think about quantifiable achievements, things you’ve achieved in your positions, and how you’re able to quantify them. And I’ll give you an example. So instead of saying something like, you know, a bullet point under one of your job experiences is responsible for supporting end users PC’s, yes. That’s a task for, say, a help desk person or a desktop support person, but changing. That two achieved an average 98% first call resolution rate for all end user support issues. Now when if you change that to that now that’s impactful, right? When I’m looking at that as a hiring manager or recruiter, I’m like wow, OK cool. They they supported end users, but they had a 98%. First call resolution with them. That’s awesome. They must really know their stuff.

What else you got?

Mistake #12 disclosing your salary requirements. While it’s important to understand your value, leave salary discussions for later stages in the hiring process. Don’t put that on your resume. Make sure you prioritize showcasing your qualifications and makes you a fit for the role. Leave off salary requirement.

What else you got?

Mistake #13 not making your resume a TS friendly or applicant tracking system friendly. Many companies are using applicant tracking systems to filter resumes, so make sure that your resume is a TS friendly. That means using relevant keywords. Using a clean format, right? Avoid complex graphics on your resume. That’s not going to help with a TS systems. And please leave off tables. Tables are very hard for a TS Systems digest, so keep that in mind. Relevant keywords very important and this is where.

Customize, customize, customize.

Comes into play. Use relevant keywords from the job description right, cause that’s a map of what exactly they’re looking for, and put those in your resume, but only if you have that experience and that knowledge. Wow, that was a lot to cover. Got through 13 mistakes. I hope you gained some valuable insights. Into these common resume mistakes that can hinder your IT job search. Number your resume is your ticket to getting noticed by potential employers, so take the time to craft it carefully. That’s all for today’s episode of the IT Job Coach. I hope you found this information helpful. As always, feel free to reach out with any questions or topics that you’d like me to talk about in future episodes, and until next time. Keep fine tuning that resume and best of luck in your IT job journey.

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