I'd like to add one of my pet peeves.

I get lots of resumes, that have a skills section. In this section, the list all the languages they know and how many yrs...

Then they have a experience section that is extremely brief.

I hate this! It gives me no idea of what skills were actually used in each job. So then I have no reference.

For example: someone lists 8 years of SSIS.

Then in there experience they may only have 4 yrs of what I would consider ETL'y stuff. Where are the other 4 yrs??

My preference is to not have a skills section at all, then have an expanded section on experience - that gives a better indication of what they used.

I guess it boils down to - I really don't care what you claim your skills are, if you cannot demonstrate it in your experience.

Also I see a lot of attempts to blow smoke in the skills section. So if you list it plan on me testing you on it in the interview. If you can't, I assume the rest of your resume is made up - and we're done.

And if I have to re-read you resume over and over trying to piece together you skills and experience, we're done.