As I thought about what I wanted to write for my first LITA post, I really wasn’t sure until inspiration struck as I procrastinated by scrolling down my Facebook feed. I had been tagged in a status written by a library student who felt unsure of how she was displaying her tech skills on her CV. She asked for opinions. Was it even relevant to put a tech section on her CV if she wasn’t applying for a digital library job? If she already mentioned tech skills in a cover letter, did they need to be put on a CV, too?
The thread got a lot of different responses, some aligning with my thoughts on the subject and others that befuddled me. Why, for instance, was someone suggesting that you should only list tech skills you got in the classroom and not those you picked up on the job? Why did people seem to think that if you were writing a cover letter you should list your tech skills there and not on a CV?
Today, I thought I would share a few brief thoughts on how I list tech skills on my professional documents and how that connects to how I talk about them in a cover letter. Keep in mind that I am an academic librarian with a job in digital libraries, so the usefulness of my perspective beyond this specific area may be limited. And just to clarify, I recognize that everyone has different opinions on content, formatting, and length of professional documents. Just check out one of the myriad library resources for job hunters. It’s a good thing to have varying perspectives, actually, and I welcome all the opinions out there, whether they agree or disagree with my take on the subject.
What I Do
Why would I write a paragraph about it when I can just show you? This is how the tech section of my resume and CV looks now (very similar to when I applied for jobs in late 2013/early 2014).
- Coding – HTML5, CSS
- Digital Collection/Content Management – Drupal, Omeka
- Digitization Software – Epson Scan, Silverfast
- Document Design – Adobe Creative Suite 5, Microsoft Office 2010 suite
- Markup Languages & Standards – EAD, MODS, RDF, TEI, XML
- Operating Systems – Mac OS X, Windows, UNIX
- Social Media – Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, podcasting, wikis
- Repository Software – DSpace, Fedora
- Other – ArcGIS, Neatline
This section is listed under the header “Technology” and does not include bullet points (used in this post for formatting reasons). Check out my entire CV to see how this section fits in with the rest of my content.
Conveying my tech skills in this way provides a quick way for a potential employer to understand the different software I know. It doesn’t provide a lot of usable information since there’s no indication of my skill level or familiarity with these tools. I consider this section of my CV a catch-all for my tech knowledge, but it’s up to my cover letter to educate the reader about my depth of understanding on specific tools relevant to the job description. I don’t include any tools here that I wouldn’t be able to easily answer, “So tell me how you have used ___ in the past?”
I have tinkered around with this section more times than I can count over the past few years. Even now, writing this blog post, I’m looking at it and thinking, “Is that really relevant to me anymore?” I haven’t looked at other people’s CVs in a long time, and though those might be good to reference in this post, let’s be real: it’s a gloomy Friday afternoon as I type this and I just can’t bring myself to do a quick search.
My laziness aside, I’m particularly interested in how different types of info professionals, from archivists to public, academic, and special librarians, convey their tech skills in professional documents. So many jobs in libraries involve working with technology. I would think you’d be hard-pressed to find a new job that doesn’t involve tech in some way. So is there a way to standardize how we convey this type of information, or are our jobs so diverse that there’s really no way to do so?
I’m curious: How do you highlight your technology skills on professional documents like a resume or CV? Tell me in the comments!
Ruby Warren
That’s how I list my tech skills on my CV, for the most part. And I’ve seen many techy non-librarian people do the same.
Brittney Farley
Brianna,
Listing your tech skills by category, in bold text, is a great idea. If the future employer is able to scan your resume/CV for relevant skills, you’re more likely to be considered.
Britt
scott w. h. young
In some ways, showing can be better than telling. What do you think about including links or references to completed (side)projects that demonstrate skills, interests, and vision with technology?
Brianna Marshall
Interesting thought, Scott. While I was on the job hunt my website functioned as a portfolio where I listed projects but I never linked to them from my CV. One of my challenges was always showing the breadth of what I know without making that section too cluttered. It might work to have a link saying something like, “To see examples of projects using these technologies, go here” – then you send folks to an area devoted to your tech projects. I agree that there are more creative ways of showing skills when professional documents live online – I never even delved into that myself. I’d love to see some examples of others who have gotten more creative!
Alex
In the past, I’ve divided mine into categories of design, video, and audio, but I guess it all depends on the job you’re applying for. I’m a non librarian working a tech job in a public library.
I’ve also seen in a few places that HTML & CSS are technically markup and not coding. Anyone else run into that?
Brianna Marshall
Alex, good question on whether HTML and CSS are technically markup and not coding – I’ve considered and reconsidered this many times. I’d love to hear other people’s feedback about this! (Also, apologies that this theme apparently doesn’t have threaded comments.)
Michael Rodriguez
I do include a skills section in my resume/CV, mostly for technology. For space reasons and because I’m weird, I grouped HTML, CSS, and Spanish under “Languages” on the resume I submitted for my current eLearning appointment.
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