The Ultimate Guide to Writing an IT Manager Resume

The most challenging part of writing an IT manager resume is the need to strike a balance between:

1. Low-level technical details
2. High-level IT infrastructure of an organization.

Depending on the job you’re applying to, you need to prove managerial as well as technical qualities. Firstly, you should be good at handling IT support and managing IT projects. You should also support engineering departments with IT tools and applications.

This may seem challenging. But, here is what you need to do to create a perfect IT Manager Resume:

• Add the right keywords to make your resume ATS-compatible.
• Write powerful result-based accomplishments from your work experience.
• Showcase your biggest strengths in the summary.
• Mention your IT background. Boost it with certifications if applicable.
• Format your resume correctly.

Read on to learn about these in detail. By following the tips below, you will be on your way to finding your dream job.

How to Make Your IT Manager Resume ATS-Compatible

Your resume needs to be ATS-compatible to stand out among hundreds of applicants.

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are like search engines. They rank resumes according to how well they match a job description or specific phrases. More than 95% of Fortune 500 companies filter resumes using an ATS. Moreover, a growing number of small and mid-sized businesses also use ATS.

One thing that helps with ATS compatibility is using a simple resume format. Avoid any graphics, multiple-column formats, or flashy colors in your IT manager resume. It’s also best to use a Word (.docx) file because it’s almost readable everywhere.

Another way to have your resume rank high in ATS is to add keywords, or key skills, that you find in your target job description

Simply: If you have the skill they mention in the job description, add it in.

In other words, keywords are short phrases that relate to particular job requirements. They play a critical role in getting your resume noticed by employers. Including keywords in your resume will increase your chances of landing an interview. This is because keyword searches are the most common way of finding the right candidates.

Keywords can have different subsets based on your area of expertise. These include:

• Software
• Systems
• Product
• Application Development etc.

IT Manager Resume Keywords:

Below are some common keywords for the IT Manager resume. Feel free to use these in your resume if you have these skills:

Only, listing these keywords in your IT manager resume will not suffice. It’s critical to weave these throughout your professional experience.

This is because some ATS will match how strong your skill is with where they find it in your professional experience. In other words, a skill that is listed under a recent job that you held for four years gets more “weight” than one under a job that you held for two years a long time ago.

Besides showing that you have hard technical skills, depending on how hands-off your role is, recruiters may want to see how you used these skills to lead teams, solve costly problems, liaise with stakeholders, contribute to revenue-generating products, and ideate changes.

How do you do all that? Let’s talk about that next.

How to Create Powerful Accomplishments for Your Resume

The experience section is another critical part of your IT manager resume. List all positions relevant to the IT Management field. You should also mention the positions that have transferable and required skills. IT Managers are responsible for handling many projects and platforms. So, do mention work experiences related to those areas.
Most people write the experience section like a job description.

For instance, here’s what the candidate I was working with had in their resume:

• Responsible for deploying applications on servers.
• Helped define IT infrastructure strategy, architecture, and processes.

Beefing these up with accomplishments help show that you don’t just have these technical skills, but that you can use them masterfully. Here is how I rewrote the bullets above after a detailed chat with this candidate:

Which do you think makes the strongest case for the candidate?

Every other manager can deploy applications and define IT infrastructure. But, only a few would have managed $15M or worked for multimillion-dollar clients.

The “before” example states what the candidate did. But, the latter shows the client’s accomplishments and how valuable a resource they will prove to be.

Questions to Ask Yourself

To identify your accomplishments, ask yourself the following questions:

• How did you ensure on-time and within budget project delivery?
• Did you install any new systems or software?
• How did you mitigate issues in testing?
• How did you improve IT infrastructure?
• What was your unique test strategy to reduce bugs in the production environment?
• How did you build lasting relationships with clients and stakeholders?
• Did you assess or improve team productivity levels?
• How did you ensure secure operations of computer systems?
• Did you develop a network disaster recovery plan or backup procedure?
• How did you ensure the professional development of your team members?
• What was your strategy to cut IT-related costs?

When writing a resume bullet, try to spot the challenges you solved or the results you delivered. Put that towards the beginning of the bullet. Focus on the technical aspect of the achievement towards the end of the bullet.

This effectively captures the reader’s attention. It also makes them want to know the complete story – i.e. bring you in for an interview.

After asking yourself these questions, you may have come up with powerful stories to showcase your strategic problem-solving skills on your resume, like:

• Reduced the customer response time from 1 week to only 2 days by…
• Drove technical quality assurance with a 30% reduction in lead time by…
• Sped up a 3-month delayed project by…
• Mitigated durability and reliability issues for a company-first turbine development project by…

The starts of these bullets is great because they show the recruiters that you have solved challenges for previous employers, and you can do so again when given the opportunity.

If creating accomplishments for your resume is something you struggle with, check out this article, which I wrote to help you polish your resume accomplishments.

How to Create a Powerful IT Manager Resume Summary

Look at it this way: Your resume is a biopic and you need to sell it with a great opening scene. This is because readers pay the most attention when they first start reading a resume, i.e. towards the top. Their attention slowly wanes as they go down the resume.

A powerful hook can slow the reader down and encourage them to pay attention instead of skimming.

Unfortunately, a lot of job seekers use generic summary statements. They don’t really grab the reader as they should. For example, take a look at these:

• Self-motivated and cheerful software professional eager to seek new challenges, develop professionally, and add value to…
• Dynamic professional with 8+ years of experience looking for an opportunity in your prestigious organizations to showcase my ability…

Summaries like this can be applied to almost every candidate and use valuable “real estate” that can otherwise be used to hook the reader in.

Your summary should be concise and make the recruiter say, “Yes, I want to know this person!”

In a few lines, it should let the recruiter know your biggest strengths and the value you bring to the organization.

Essentially, the resume summary should address employer needs. Why exactly are they hiring? Are they trying to save money, achieve a goal, increase project efficiency, mitigate process issues, build relationships, or solve a technical problem?

(The answer to this question can be answered by glancing at the job description you’re interested in.)

The following are examples of powerful summary statements for IT Managers:

Feel free to use these in your own summary statement.

What Continuing Education is the Most Relevant for IT Managers?

Add your degree major and any certifications and/or training you have taken.

For IT Manager resumes, employers prefer candidates with a four-year degree in:

• Computer Information Systems
• Information Technology
• Computer Programming, Management Information Systems
• Other technology-related subjects.

Moreover, companies pay a premium salary to candidates with a master’s degree in IT.

In case you don’t have a degree, consider boosting your education section with programs. Many IT managers undertake these to keep up with the evolving business software requirements.

At the very least, this can add powerful keywords to your resume.

Popular IT Certifications and Associations

According to the 2020 IT Salary report from Robert Half, IT professionals with the following popular certifications can earn 5 to 10 percent more than their peers:

• AWS Certified Solutions Architect
• Certified Data Professional (CDP)
• Certified ScrumMaster
• Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE)
• Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA)
• Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA)
• CompTIA A+
• Global Information Assurance Certification (GIAC)
• Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA)
• Microsoft Technology Associate (MTA)
• Oracle Certified Professional (OCP)
• Project Management Professional (PMP)
• Salesforce Certified Development Lifecycle and Deployment Designer
• Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP)

IT Professional Associations are a key resource for those interested in pursuing professional development or connecting with like-minded IT professionals. Memberships also look great on your resume and LinkedIn profile:

• IEEE Computer Society is the computing professional’s single, unmatched source for technology information, inspiration, and collaboration.
• Network Professional Association (NPA) is the leading organization for network computing professionals.
• Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) is a global association of IT and cybersecurity professionals.
• Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a global community of computing professionals and students with nearly 100,000 members.
• Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) is the voice of the world’s information technology (IT) industry.

IT Manager Resume Sample

Excited to create your own resume? Here’s an IT Manager resume sample with an interesting story:

One of our clients was struggling with getting interviews despite being an IT Manager before. He also had more than sixteen years of industry experience. If we look at his previous resume, we can see the following problems. I have seen many IT Managers make similar mistakes with their resumes:

1. The resume is three pages. It’s pretty long considering the fact that recruiters look at resumes for seven seconds only.
2. The resume starts off with a skill section, which doesn’t show off his strategic skills.
3. The client’s best accomplishments are buried deep in the resume – on the third page – and are unlikely to be read.
4. Bonus: Key information such as the client’s name, contact information, and the location is written in the header. Most ATSs do not have the capability to pick information written inside the header.

Click here to download the annotated version of his previous resume and the resume that I created for him. I talk about the three most common mistakes IT Manager make and how I resolved these issues for “Ben Jones,” fictionalized to protect their privacy.

Professional Summary and Keywords:

As you can see in the snippet below, the resume now starts with a powerful summary. It addresses the employer’s needs: infrastructure maintenance and deployment of ultramodern systems.

The next section states the client’s most impressive accomplishments and key skills.

• Improved performance by 30%…
• Led rollout of a new CRM…
• Improved security by replacing the obsolete firewall…

Accomplishments like these hook the reader a lot better than the older summary.

Experience Section:

In the experience section, “Ben Jones” had written about all the tools and technologies he used. But, there was no mention of how beneficial these initiatives were for the company. This is a common mistake that IT managers make.

Notice how he saved $31K, rolled out new systems, and implemented security policy. All this was missing in the previous version.

I kept repeating this process to give context and highlight his advanced IT skillset.

Technical Skills Section:

Before, the technical skills section was a long list of words. It was difficult to read and hard on the eyes.

Instead of listing all your technical skills in one paragraph, consider breaking them up by subheadings. For example, look at what I did in the “after” version of this resume. The resume I made uses white space, has a consistent format, and is easier on the eyes.

Moreover, we know that your resume will be read by both technical readers and non-experts like HR personnel. Thus, by adding some context and showcasing his strategic skills, I was able to draw both types of readers in without taking away any important information.

As a result, he quickly got his next job!

Want me to take a look at your IT manager resume to see how well your skills are highlighted? Upload it here for a free critique.