What you might not realize is that employers are comparing IT Director candidates based on their ability to show impact at a company level - including leadership of cost savings and business transformation initiatives backed by technology.
You'll also need to demonstrate these skills for a later move up the ladder to VP of IT or CIO positions. Therefore, it makes sense to take stock of your fitness as an IT leader, and incorporate these key elements into your IT Director resume:
1 - Metrics-Driven Results.
Most IT Directors are charged with managing projects at an enterprise scale, creating new infrastructures that set the business up for growth, or resolving support issues that threaten the continuity of operations.
If these situations apply to your career, consider the scope and impact of these initiatives on the business as pivotal data for your IT Director resume.
You can also use these questions to help quantify your career achievements:
> What was the original business case and ROI for the project? Did it meet these goals?
> During implementation, what type of cost savings were achieved?
> How did your decisions affect the outcome of the project or initiative? For example, were you able to avert problems with vendors or consultants?
> What type of increases in Help Desk responsiveness and resolutions have you led?
Pulling in these figures will add credibility to your resume, and demonstrate the value of your leadership from a business angle - showing that you've far exceeded the perspective of a technician.
2 - Cost Containment.
As IT leaders rise up the corporate ladder, they're expected to drive technology improvement, but not just for technology's sake. This means an increased focus on cost control (which is also a critical duty for most CIOs).
To derive cost savings from your projects for an IT Director resume, you may need to revisit user satisfaction and productivity numbers from previously deployed initiatives.
Some areas to examine for cost savings include:
> Changes in IT budgets from a switch to different vendors
> Advances in automation that allowed departments to reduce headcount
> Cost avoidance from challenging IT or vendor strategy
Don't forget to include the naturally occurring outcome of server or data center consolidations, where applicable, in your cost control metrics. These are all attention-grabbing figures that help justify a larger salary increase and your merits as a strong IT Director.
3 - Strategic Planning.
One of the hallmarks to a technology leadership role, the development of long-term IT roadmaps should take center stage on your IT Director resume. Requiring you to align business needs with cutting-edge or emerging technologies, roadmap creation will help place you among top contenders for a choice IT Director job.
In addition, you can include the strategy for major initiatives, such as a shift in telecom direction, data warehousing function, or cloud development, as an example of your strategic IT perspective on the resume. You may have also set projections for supporting trouble ticket volume scaled to the size of the user base.
Most candidates for a Director, Vice President of IT, or CIO role will also have collaborated closely with executives to define the company's future needs according to acquisitions, growth forecasts, or industry changes.
This involvement requires that you not only have access to confidential company projections, but also demonstrates your ability to grasp business needs and scale platforms accordingly.
In summary, your IT Director resume will quickly stand out among competitors if you take the time to review the scale, meaning, and impact of your work with the business.
Employers actively seek IT leaders capable of formulating strategies in alignment with business direction, and who can monitor emerging technologies for suitability in their industry.
Promote these skills on your IT Director resume, and you'll gain an edge over competing candidates for a senior-level IT role.
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Executive resume writer Laura Smith-Proulx is an award-winning resume authority and former recruiter with a 98% success rate opening doors to top jobs at companies including Google, Citibank, Apple, and Cisco. The Executive Director of An Expert Resume (http://www.anexpertresume.com), she has been featured in more than 200 careers industry articles, bestsellers, and media outlets.
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