The usual thing I say to technical candidates looking for an IT job in Ireland is be as specific as possible.
To be generic you might as well be writing a job specification, not a CV. The CV is the first point of contact with every client and to sell yourself as a technologist is the key objective.
Keep your CV specific and focus on listing the technical stack. One thing clients always pick up on is what exact technology stack candidates have used in previous jobs and projects so be as precise as you can.
What to include & how to format a good technical CV
Personal profile
Introducing yourself to the client by telling them who you are and what you do sounds simple, but it’s crucial. A good personal profile shows you know what you’re talking about and what your objective is for your next role. This is also a great place to explain why you’d like to move to Ireland.
Technical skillset list
Always list the technologies you have been exposed to throughout your career. An example list of overall technology stack is as follows:
Agile development environment; MVC Design pattern; J2EE framework (XML, XSP, XSLT, AJAX/JavaScript, jsp, JavaBean, JavaMail, JDBC, RMI, Ant builder); Spring based Apache Cocoon; Oracle 10g admin & development (PL/SQL, triggers, procedures); C++; HTML/CSS; Apache tomcat; Eclipse environment; SourceSafe/Perforce; Linux experience in deployments/management; Putty; Crystal Reports; complete product life cycle exposure; design investigation, documentation and reporting. One mistake I see constantly is candidates who put a “ratings system” on their technical skills, where they rate themselves out of 10. I wouldn't encourage this as it's better to leave the client to ascertain your skills in an interview.
Work experience
List previous positions on your CV and include bullet points explaining your exact role within the project, what you accomplished and general “success stories” of your time. When you are working in a technical role you need to give the client a real feel for what you did and what technologies you used for each project, this will give a better sense of what your most recent technology stack was and how proficient your skills are. It really is imperative that you list the technology stack for each project and previous employment. For example: Lead developer on vital internal MIS system. Responsibilities included maintenance, new feature investigation & development. Application based on same framework as previously mentioned glossary. System also interacts with duplicate system in United States. Technologies utilised in this project are as follows: Agile development environment; MVC Design pattern; J2EE framework (XML, XSP, XSLT, AJAX/JavaScript, jsp, JavaBean, JavaMail, JDBC, RMI, Ant builder); Spring based Apache Cocoon; Oracle 10g admin & development (PL/SQL, triggers, procedures); C++; HTML/CSS; Apache tomcat”
Education and courses
List your education and be specific about your thesis - the objective, the process and the goal, and the technology stack in the thesis. Your thesis can give a client an insight into your early interactions with computer science and get a sense of your natural creativity outside of the working world. Like the points above, include a technical stack to show what you used to complete the project and how you used each particular language, framework etc. You should also list any supplementary courses you’ve completed such as: Coursera courses or Udemy courses. To conclude, a technical CV must be extremely specific about technologies. The key objective of a CV is to not have any ambiguities, a client should never have more questions than answers after reading a CV. The more specific you are on a Technical CV the more you display knowledge and proficiency in your discipline.
Interested in working in the Technology sector in Ireland?
