How to make a CV for IT professionals

We get asked by IT professionals how they can make their CV stand out.

Don't just say you're an IT professional with key skills for the job. You'll need to do much more than that to get the recruiter's attention. We know that because we're industry-leading, professional CV writers. We use the world’s most effective CV writing methodology to increase your chances of getting your next IT role by 40%.

Read on to find out how our world-class team can create a high impact information technology CV the recruiters can't argue with.

What should you include in a professional IT CV?

Your professional IT CV should be broken up into a number of sections; the key ones are as follows:

• Professional Summary

• Key Skills

• Career Highlights

• Career History

• Earlier IT Career

• Qualifications

• Professional Development

• Personal Details

• Recommendations

This article will explain how to prepare for each section and the examples will hopefully help to jog your memory. Below are a few tips!

Top tips to write a high-impact CV for IT professionals

• Your IT CV is only as good as the person it represents and the info / evidence that it contains!

• An IT CV is not a list of jobs! It is a sales document designed to provide evidence that you have the track record and skills to perform the role you are applying for!

• For the most part, behavioural competencies should be avoided in place of harder skills!

• Too little information will fail to communicate the context of your examples!

Information Technology Professional Summary

The Professional Summary should be the first thing that a recruiter reads. It is designed to give a brief description about you and highlight the key areas that your future employers are looking for.

After reading this section, the reader of your CV should find your application relevant and feel motivated to read the rest of the CV. This section has 3 key components:

What are you in your IT profession?

Examples below:

• An experienced Technical Architect

• A PHP Software Developer

• A PRINCE2 Certified Project Manager

What is your USP / value proposition as an IT professional?

Examples below:

• Scoping complex business requirements and creating complex front office banking solutions that facilitate improved trading ability and maximisation of profits

• Leading £multi-million IT infrastructure projects to deliver high performing IT environments that support business objectives and optimise TCO

What are your most important 4 - 5 ‘value added’ skills?

Please avoid behavioural competencies!

Examples below:

• Applying knowledge of infrastructure technology stack to ensure that SAP solutions are secure, stable and high performing

• Rapidly assembling project teams to ensure human capital is high quality and drives through best-in-class project delivery

IT Career Highlights

Career Highlights (your biggest and best achievements) are what will set you apart from your competition. It is your opportunity to provide hard evidence that you are good at your job and turn your CV into a sales document / business case rather than a list of jobs with a raft of unsubstantiated statements.

An achievement is something that you have been involved in where your actions created a tangible and positive outcome (delivered business benefits). You should use specific examples from your experience as an IT professional and ensure the examples that you chose provide relevant evidence in line with the role that you are applying for.

In order to construct these examples, we use a framework known as STAR, which is an acronym for Situation, Task, Actions and Result.

• Situation gives background to the example i.e. what was the problem

• Task is the overall purpose of your involvement or capacity in which you were involved (which part of the situation / problem did you own?)

• Actions are the specifics of what you did (5 or 6 is just right)

• Result is the outcome, ideally in statistical measurable terms using pounds, percent or any other quantifiable term.

Pick your best 3.

Here's an example:

Magpie Boots Ltd’s EMEA business had a disparate communications network which was expensive and unreliable. As IT Manager, led major IT transformation programme. Assessed business requirements; assembled team of 25; oversaw design of new network / infrastructure using XZY technologies; selected / managed 3rd party vendors; led through testing and implementation; and introduced 24/7 FTS support capability.

Succeeded in delivering and EMEA-wide infrastructure with robust DR capability and a converged data and telecoms network which saved £1M per annum

IT Professionals Career History

This section is all about adequately explaining what the scope of your responsibilities were across your relevant career history in information technology. Focus on roles that will be of most interest to your future employers.

For each IT role, go through the below components.

• Information on the organisation that you worked for

• The purpose of your IT role or an ‘in a nutshell’ summary of your role

• Description of your team (how many and job titles of direct reports)

• Your KPIs i.e. how is your role measured

• The specifics of your role e.g. daily, weekly, monthly duties & responsibilities

• Additional achievements, projects or client assignments

IT professionals with work experience

If you're applying for a more junior role and have completed work experience in the information technology sector, include this in your CV following the same approach as above.

Earlier Career in Information Technology

In this section put any early career roles that are superseded by more recent career history as well as any roles that are irrelevant to your current career. Anything 8 to 10 years back typically belongs in this section.

See the example below:

• Sep 1990 to Aug 1996: Bovington Ltd: Training Assistant

• Jan 1985 to Sep 1990: Terrington School: Primary School Teacher Notes:

IT Professional Qualification Section

In this section, list all your education and professional qualifications.

For example:

• BA (Hons) Primary Education with Qualified Teacher Status: University of Greenwich.

• 3 A-Levels: Communication Studies (B), Psychology (C), English Literature (D).

• 10 GCSE’s: grades A-C including English, Maths and Science.

Professional Development in Information Technology

Please list any additional courses that you may have attended that are relevant to your chosen career.

Personal Details

This section allows you to add any personal or contact information that you feel is relevant.

• Address: 200 High Street, Liverpool, LS1 2BB

• Email: [email protected]

• Driving Licence: Full UK (clean)

• CRB checked (until Sep 2015)

• Languages: English (mother tongue); Fluent French, Basic Spanish

Recommendations

Recommendations are a really powerful tool for selling yourself as an IT professional. If you have some positive words written about you from a former boss, client, stakeholder or peer, then it may be worth including in the CV. They provide an impartial view of your abilities and work well to push more behavioural traits.

Need help with professional CV writing? We have a world-class team of accredited personal branding specialists who've worked with many junior and senior IT professionals, including IT Directors and Support Analysts. Discover professional IT CV writing with our award-winning team.

In the meantime, you might find these useful:

• 11 most common CV mistakes

• Should I use CV writing services?

• Should a CV be in third person?

• Should you write career objectives in a CV?