For any applicant to software jobs, network jobs and any other IT jobs, it is important to understand what employers would be looking for and what can provide the competitive edge over other candidates and increase your chances of landing the position.
The first key thing you need to is to identify the skills that you possess and maybe list them somewhere. There is a catch here though because information technology is one of the widest and fastest evolving industries in the world today. There are new technologies, different programming languages, a large array of database management applications, numerous enterprises, and home-use operating types all coming in multiple versions where functionality can be worlds apart. If you are responding to software jobs or network jobs advert for instance, the institution may have already provided the set of skills that they expect job applicants to possess.
This predefined set of skills should provide you with some guidance on what to list and what to leave out. If you possess experience that has given working competence in a certain technology, then this is what you would use to filter out skills that may not be relevant for that job. You may have all the necessary skills to fill many IT jobs that you apply for but often times, the difference between you getting the job and not can boil down to your ability to present your skill set in a way that makes sense for the employer. A very long resume that lists skills that you will never need to use on that particular job can cloud what would have otherwise been impressive credentials.
When it comes to IT jobs, something else you need to be careful about is exaggeration. As mentioned above, specialist and niche areas in IT are in the thousands. There are many ways in which technology is applied today all depending on industry and purpose that for it is being deployed. Therefore, it could be that in the course of your techie life, you may have dabbled with a little programming in say Java but really do not have a working capability when it comes to the language. In this case, it would be prudent for you to keep it away from your resume. Nothing would be more embarrassing and damaging to your reputation (it is a small world!) than to list proficiency in something on your resume only to fail when presented with a simple task along the same line. Of course, no one can be an absolute expert in any class of software jobs, network jobs or any other IT jobs. What is important however is a working knowledge.
When it comes to resume writing, it is important that you articulate what you are able to do and projects that evidence your skills and ability in that area of IT. More than many other fields, IT jobs normally require hands on skill above pure theoretical capability. If it comes to programming in a particular language, you may be required to demonstrate your capability beyond what appears on your resume. This is important whether you are applying for software jobs, network jobs or hardware jobs.
