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A guide to writing web development resumes

Writing a clear, informative resume may be the most important task you do in your search for that perfect job. Sure, a resume is meant to convince (not deceive), but how are truly successful resumes written? By the time you finish this article, you should have a solid understanding on what it takes to write that killer document.

Resume organization

The very top of the resume includes essential elements, such as your name, phone number, mailing address and your email address. Begin the meat and potatoes of your resume below these elements.

Often, an objective is found first, which should present the goal you are shooting for when applying for any particular job. An objective might read, "To serve as the primary webmaster for xyz.com web site". Notice that this objective is short, concise and includes a job title (webmaster).

Another option to begin your resume with is a summary section. The summary section is a digest of your main skills and any major accomplishments. You are not formulating a novel, here. Rather, keep your summary to 1 or 2 sentences. Topics that a web developer may detail in the resume summary section include large or complex database applications or work on a popular web site, like espn.com, foxnews.com or ibm.com.

You will find most resumes list education and work experience in order, starting with the most recent. This helps the recruiter find the skills that can probably be most easily transferred to your prospective job. This also creates a story of your life and lends insight into how you have progressed in your endeavors. I like to include my skills and accomplishments before my educational details.

The last portion of your resume should mention your references. Instead of disclosing the names and telephone numbers of your references on your resume, many chose to write "References available upon request" instead. Further, it is always nice to let your references know that they may be receiving a call from your prospective employer in the near future.

General resume writing tips

It is a good idea to research the company enough, specifically previous projects, and get a feel for their target skills. Then, build your resume around those particular skills; by no means lie, but be sure to highlight and focus on the more applicable skills that you can offer. In short, customize your resume for each job opening.

Recruiters often place the heaviest emphasis on your skills; however, do not neglect your accomplishments. For example, if your main skill is PHP, include any former PHP projects you have been involved with. Did you create an interface between PHP and a database server? Have you built email applications using PHP? Organize the specifics of previous projects into brief, but powerful, bullet points. These are the main selling points of your resume.

Do not make the recruiter hunt for the most important aspects of your resume, usually skills and accomplishments. Slap those elements as far up on your resume as possible, generally directly underneath your objective or summary statements.

Be sure to remain grammatically consistent throughout your resume. For example, if you wrote your first accomplishment in the past tense, write all your accomplishments in the past tense.

Never forget to continually update your resume. If you like customizing your resumes, it might be a good idea to save a single resume, large and bloated with all education, experience, skills and accomplishments, and use that as a template to build another, more customized resume to serve as a more appropriate sales pitch to particular job openings. You can selectively copy and paste from your template resume.

To help you write your resume, you may choose to use one of Microsoft Word's template documents; it includes a couple of decent formats for you to choose from. Of course you are not restricted to these. The more creative among us can feel free to create any format they like, so long as it is logically designed and easy to read. Remember, if you can't design a resume, the recruiter will assume you can't design a web site either, so take your time.

Author: Steve
Date written: August, 2003