By J.M. Auron ACRW. Expert IT Resume Writer—Providing Professional IT Resume Writing Services for More than 15 Years.
First published December 2011 / updated December 2025
Technical Competencies: Strategies for Individual Contributors
Technical Competencies are an absolutely critical element in a solid, interview winning IT or Engineering resume. But—as with all elements of a strong resume—it's important to have a clear, definite strategy in the approach you choose to highlight these technical strengths.
Yes, it's critical to ensure that you demonstrate that you have the technical depth for the roles you're seeking. But it's equally important to present technical skills in a way that doesn't overwhelm the non-technical HR and business stakeholders who may be reading your IT resume.
In this article, I'd like to talk about approaches for individual contributors to highlight technical competencies; I'll discuss strategies for IT leadership and executive resumes in a future post.
4 Strategies to Demonstrate Technical Competencies in your IT Resume
Here are 4 approaches to demonstrate your technical competencies and position yourself for new opportunities as an individual contributor. These approaches are relevant for software developers, network engineers, cloud engineers, DevOps engineers, or architects—and of course other disciplines as well.
1) Highlight Your Technical Competencies Front and Center
This is a popular approach, and it works for some IT resumes, but when I provide professional IT resume writing services, I use this in very specific situations.
This works well for early career IT professionals, as well as for IT professionals seeking a role requiring very clear, non-negotiable tools.
This approach is relatively easy—a list of your technical competencies right after the professional summary on your IT resume.
A couple of cautions, though. Be sure to format the section clearly by using subheadings like Languages, Tools, and Platforms for example.
Also, be careful to keep the list a manageable length—don't distract from hard accomplishments in your most recent positions—and keep the formatting clear and readable.
2) Highlight Your Technical Competencies Bottom of Page Two
This is the approach I use most frequently. Using the same type of tightly formatted, well-organized list, but at the bottom of page two, following education. This has all the information that's needed—if the hiring authority really needs a given tool, it's there, and the keywords are there. However, putting technical competencies at the bottom of the resume is a better use of space—ensuring that your recent accomplishments will be clearly shown top of page one.
3) Incorporate Your Technical Competencies within Your Accomplishments<
This can be a strong approach for a wide range of tech pros.
If technology plays a critical role in your accomplishments—or if you used an innovative approach to solve a specific business or technical issue, you might want to consider including the technology directly in the accomplishment bullet.
For example, "Leveraged Jenkins to deliver an innovative solution that grew revenue by 20%," includes a technical competency and the business value of the achievement. That's the sort of strong combination that makes a real impact and stays with the reader—something you're striving to achieve in your IT resume.
4) Include the Technical Tools You've Used as a Separate Bullet Point:
Another option is to include the tools used as a bullet point after job descriptions. This approach is particularly effective if you've used variations on core technologies in different jobs, and can demonstrate both technical depth and breadth.
But do avoid repetition. If you've used the same technologies consistently, they're better placed at the beginning or end of the resume.
As a final thought, these strategies aren't mutually exclusive. You can certainly take a "mix and match" approach to highlight your key strengths. But, as always, remember that the core of a resume is accomplishments. Be certain that everything you write shows not only your skills - but also what you can deliver.
In my next blog, I'll address best practices for including technology in a senior or executive technology resume, and approaches to address legacy technologies.
If you'd like to discuss how I work, or see if we might be a good fit, do get in touch.