What to include on your resume to get an IT job

We recently analyzed our resume database to pick out the keywords recruiters most often searched for. That exercise gave us a peek at hiring trends and needs across the country, and it got us thinking: do the most viewed resumes on Workopolis have anything else in common? Do certain skills, titles, and educational backgrounds appear more often than others?
To narrow the search, we looked at the most viewed resumes with a career focus in information technology (IT), isolating skills, degree types, majors, and job titles listed on each resume.
What we found was that the most viewed IT-related resumes included a mention of these skills:
- Customer relations
- Database administration
- Microsoft windows
- SQL
- Microsoft access
- Programming
- Networking
- Java
- HTML
- Microsoft office
IT recruiters seem to be interested in candidates with experience in a variety of coding languages, platforms, and software. To explore this further, we looked at the top five job titles on the most viewed IT-related resumes, and found that software and web development appeared frequently:
- Software developer
- Software engineer
- QA analyst
- Web developer
- Consultant
The takeaway, therefore, is to not only seek out opportunities for experience and learning, but also to include those experiences in your resume.
And speaking of learning, if you have yet to break into the IT industry, and are trying to decide what to study (or going back to school), these were the most common degrees listed on popular IT-related resumes:
- Bachelor of science
- Diploma
- Bachelor of engineering
- Master of science
- Computer science
Judging from its second place spot, a diploma may be enough to get you noticed when looking for an IT job. Clearly, though, the emphasis is on university degrees, specifically, these five, which were the top fields of study on our most viewed IT-related resumes:
- Computer science
- Mechanical engineering
- Electrical engineering
- Computer engineering
- Information technology
Got what it takes for a career in IT? Check out IT jobs on Workopolis.