Spell Out Acronyms on Your Resume
Kent R.
I see a lot of resumes that are so chock full of acronyms that they are rendered almost unreadable. This is often a problem with individuals in the tech and defense sectors, especially Service Members and military Veterans.
Your resume is not The Imitation Game and shouldn’t require anyone who is not intimately familiar with your specialized field (i.e. many of the people who will be evaluatin your resume) to be a code-breaker.
Generally speaking, spell out the first instance of acronyms as a courtesy to readers. This ensures that all readers will have the tools they need to understand your experience and the impact you’ve made over your career.
Having said all that, there are instances where an acronym is more recognizable alone than it is spelled out. This is especially true with tech skills like programming languages. For example, you don’t need to write out Structured Query Language when the technology is commonly known as SQL.