Working across a range of professions, from technical roles like software architects, development managers and DevOps engineers, through to less technical roles such as sales and customer success, makes the different conventions between technical and non-technical resumes very clear. 

Each type tends to have very specific characteristics shaped by the profession it represents, and interestingly, each type can genuinely learn something from the other.

Resumes from IT professionals tend to comprehensively list technical qualifications, accreditations, certifications and detailed platforms of expertise, sometimes at the expense of explaining the actual business impact of that technical work. 

Strong resumes from non-technical professionals, on the other hand, tend to clearly describe the function of the role and how it adds value to the wider organisation, but sometimes miss an opportunity to reference expertise on specific tools or systems that would add credibility.

The practical takeaway for technical professionals is to make a deliberate effort to also outline the type of application or project you were personally involved in, and how that specific work contributed to real, measurable value for the company, not just the technical specifications of what you built along the way.

For non-technical professionals, the equivalent takeaway is to include relevant platforms, systems and any technical certifications you hold, even if your role itself is not technical in nature on paper. Doing so educates whoever is reviewing your CV about how sophisticated and technically fluent you genuinely are in performing your role day to day, which adds a layer of credibility that a purely functional description alone simply cannot provide.



Borrowing this one habit from the other side of the technical divide, regardless of which side you personally sit on, can meaningfully strengthen a CV and help it stand out for genuinely the right reasons at the next stage of the process. It is a small addition, but it consistently changes how thoroughly and confidently a reviewer can assess your suitability for a role, which is ultimately the entire purpose of the document in the first place.