IT Resume Thread

mcburks said:
I'm in the process of updating my resume. Here is my old one. I would love to have any input you might have.

Thanks!

MCBURKS' Resume
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Well my first few thoughts would be that you can totally fit that resume on a single page. Also, you need to be more specific with your experience. "more than 9 years" means what? 9.5 years? 15 years?... Try and minimize phrases like "strong experience in..." as it's just subjective. Beyond that, I'd say you could definitely benefit from a "combination resume" format where you highlight your skills rather than your work history and job descriptions. Read through this thread and you'll find good examples of it. Let us know if you're hitting any stumbling blocks and I'm sure we'll help you out!

Good luck!
 
Someone have a look at mine and let me know what I can change. My main problem with doing my resume is that I have been at the same company my whole career basically. I have a massive breadth of experience and skillset that I just cant fathom how to put down on paper. I feel like what i have below doesnt truly represent how much work I have done. I was on the Help Desk at this company for 2 years prior and dont know if I should include that as work experience? Or just account for all 10 years ive been at this company as a System Administrator. Thanks.




Dave Williams 7228 Mxxx Hxxx Drive, Nashville, TN 3xxx
[email protected] • 205.xxx.xxx


Systems Administrator / Network Administrator


Summary


A versatile Information Technology professional with 10 years of experience. Very strong practical troubleshooting, managing, and people skills. Presently supporting a wide range of server side and client side application technologies in the fast paced retail industry.


Experience


Big Retailer, Nashville, TN 2003 to Present
Systems Administrator

Manage the implementation and administration of software and networks at multiple corporate offices, as well as 220+ retail store locations.

• Managing the implementation of all Point-Of-Sale technology rollouts to all new retail locations.

• Maintain and update all aspects of a 1000+ user Microsoft Active Directory and Microsoft Exchange infrastructure.
• Implement and manage Microsoft Hyper-V virtual infrastructure, which has significantly lowered our hardware footprint and reduced power costs.

• Ensure the high availability of all corporate network and server functionality.
• Top Tier support for high level end-user issues.
• Develop continuing documentation for Policies and Procedures regarding to PCI and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.
• Implementing and Maintaining SAN infrastructure with NetApp and Dell Storage Appliances.





Skills


• Hardware: Dell Poweredge range of systems, NetApp, IBM eServer xSeries, Zultys Phone Systems


• Operating Systems: Windows 95/98/XP/2000/2003/2008, Linux, OpenBSD, Cisco IOS


• Software: Microsoft Office 97/2000/XP/2003/2007/2010, Backup Exec, Microsoft Exchange 2003/2007, Hyper-V, NAGIOS, Microsoft Terminal Services/RDP, Microsoft IIS, Active Directory, VPN, DNS, DHCP, TCP/IP, Wireless technology, Linux command-line
 
4saken said:
Someone have a look at mine and let me know what I can change...
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You're actually off to a great start! Here are my thoughts:

First, transform your resume into a "combination" resume. There you can highlight all your extensive skills without having to do it by telling your life story! You can check out my resume for some ideas about the format of the combination resume. Mind you, I'm not too happy with my summary statement or much of the wording but the layout, format, and concept are what's important for you to grasp. See how each major skill set is put in a category and then fleshed out in a short paragraph. Each skill must have a "qualifier" like years of experience, milestones, accomplishments, etc. Just saying "strong skill in..." is useless to an employer. The nice thing about the skills list is that you can change the order of each skill set depending on the job your applying for (also changing the summary statement). After that, you list a brief employment history of just one line per job (as shown on my sample). This will definitely show off your laundry list of IT skills much better than a "chronological" format.

As I said, I'm not too happy with my current resume but I'm also not looking for work too much with that resume. So with that said, I'd like to mention a few bits of wording that may need to be worked on...

I'm getting sick of seeing subjective statements in resumes like "strong people skills" as there's not much of a qualifier to prove this concept. Maybe "proven people skills" or "successfully demonstrated people skills through..." may work better for you. Just because you THINK you have strong people skills doesn't necessarily mean that you actually DO! So that's why I'm leaning against the "strong" word without a qualifier.

When re-writing your resume, remember this simple fact: an employer is looking to match their skills requirements with your skills list. The faster and easier they can do that, the better your chances of landing an interview. So presenting your skills in an orderly fashion with clear levels of experience is key. If I need a network administrator that can manage an Exchange server and is comfortable around MySQL databases, don't make me read your life story just to find that out. With a clear skills list (that's sorted by category) the reader can quickly jump to the skills they're looking for and find out if you're a match.

Good luck and make sure to share your progress here!
 
Thanks for the feedback. Just being at one company your whole career and never having to do a resume has been overwhelming for me. But this thread and lots of your posts definitely have helped. Ill repost up one as i clean it up.
 
Here's mine; I have a few specific questions, but any advice on it would be greatly appreciated.

http://docs.google.com/View?id=dcggmnz_8fbk6f5dd

1. Are my skills too bloated and difficult to read/understand?
2. Is the format I've used for my university degree sufficient, or does it imply too strongly that I already have the degree?
3. I attended a university between 2007 and 2010, but I've been told to only include the degree granting institution; do I put that I was in the same university from 2005 to present? Or should I list the other university as a secondary institution underneath my primary one?
4. Is it OK that I listed my university as me obtaining a B.A. and said that I was attending to present, or do I need to word it differently so that it doesn't appear that I have a degree?
5. Have I ordered my education and training in an easy to read format?
6. Is there something I can do to integrate Extracurricular and Professional Organizations into my resume better?
7. Should I list my certifications or just include copies of the certificates with my resume?

Edit: Is there anything I can do to pad my resume to make myself more valuable to companies?

Note: There's a couple of organizations I list as being a part of starting in Fall 2010; I attended their meetings last year, but I'll become an official member starting this fall.
 
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Myorthos said:
1. Are my skills too bloated and difficult to read/understand?
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I don't think bloated is the right word. I would say it's poorly formatted. It's difficult to read as a paragraph which is the way it's written. Consider using bullet points. You can spread it out and remove some of the duplicate information such as your certs being listed essentially twice.

2. Is the format I've used for my university degree sufficient, or does it imply too strongly that I already have the degree?
3. I attended a university between 2007 and 2010, but I've been told to only include the degree granting institution; do I put that I was in the same university from 2005 to present? Or should I list the other university as a secondary institution underneath my primary one?
4. Is it OK that I listed my university as me obtaining a B.A. and said that I was attending to present, or do I need to word it differently so that it doesn't appear that I have a degree?
5. Have I ordered my education and training in an easy to read format?
Click to expand...
I'll let someone with more higher education experience answer these.

6. Is there something I can do to integrate Extracurricular and Professional Organizations into my resume better?
Click to expand...
Change "Work Experience" to "Experience". Then list whatever you want. List the hobbies stuff at the end because employers are more interested in recent professional work experience.


7. Should I list my certifications or just include copies of the certificates with my resume?
Click to expand...
List the certs.

Edit: Is there anything I can do to pad my resume to make myself more valuable to companies?
Click to expand...
Yes, you missed probably the single most important part of your resume; what did you accomplish in your previous jobs? You list "Information Systems Security Specialist". Whats that? Could mean anything. Consider the following:

- Worked as a Client Support Administrator providing tier 2 technical support for over 3,000 troops.
- Served as the subject matter expert for all areas of information security.
- Responsible for the review of system logs and IDS events averaging over 35,000 events per day.
- Oversaw all aspects of the telecommunications network as the chief Telephone Control Officer.
- Acted as records custodian for entire squadron. Responsible for ensuring accurate and up to date information on over 3,000 troops. Migrated from legacy Microsoft Access Database to MS-SQL database to improve system performance issues.
- Provided backup support for the Web Administrator. Assisted with the migration from Gopher to HTML 4.0.

Now which tells a potential employer more about what you've done and why you'd make a kick ass IT engineer? I just made that stuff up so change it up to reflect whatever you've done. You've got interesting skills listed. Unix scripting, Windows scripting; but what have you done when you wrote scripts? Explain specific problems you've solved. Provide metrics if possible. Anything like, "saved the company x by doing y" is gold. Or, "reduced x process by y hours writing a shell script which automated the process".

Note: There's a couple of organizations I list as being a part of starting in Fall 2010; I attended their meetings last year, but I'll become an official member starting this fall.
Click to expand...
If you'd feel comfortable explaining why you consider yourself a member then no problem. Otherwise, leave it out.
 
Madnes5 said:
stuff
Click to expand...

Thanks for the help.

I've taken the advice you've given into account and added some things to it as well as working on the format some.

http://docs.google.com/View?id=dcggmnz_8fbk6f5dd

I wish I could say I had more things like what you mentioned (did this to save this much money), but working for the US Government makes that somewhat difficult since everyone's got a hand in everything else. Some of the stuff I worked on is listed under accomplishments and achievements though.

Here's my old functional resume; it hasn't really been updated much since last year except that I added a couple of things, and I ended up combining a lot of the skills I listed on the functional to get rid of some of the extraneous stuff and skills that I had listed twice.

http://docs.google.com/View?id=dcggmnz_9f58xbnhc

I have an even longer chronological resume (around 8 pages), but both the functional and the chronological are specifically geared towards getting government jobs, hence the length, restating of almost everything, and the use of military duty titles (like ISSO). With the hybrid style resume, I'm attempting to make something more focused on the private sector since I'm hoping to get a job while finishing school. I don't really have any experience (as you can see) in the public sector though.
 
Myorthos said:
I've taken the advice you've given into account and added some things to it as well as working on the format some.
Click to expand...

Overall, good updates. It looks better. There is still some things I'd fix on your resume though. I'm limited with my screwing-around-on-the-internet time today though so I'll throw out some bullet points and if you like, make the changes. Hopefully Jon Roberts will chime in as he gives better advice than I and does it with more tact.

-- You're limiting yourself with your wording. Look at it as being optimistic instead of pessimistic. "Basic knowledge of" becomes "Fundamental knowledge of". "Limited programming abilities" becomes "Entry level". Words like "basic" and "limited" have negative connotations and tend to bring up negative thoughts to the resume reader. They make them think, "this is why he can't do this" rather than "this is why he CAN do this".

-- Don't take this as an insult but your resume reads like 99% of other entry level computer engineers. The majority of people who get into IT start with help desk. When they move on from that position, they have a resume that looks like yours. The problem is, you need to stand out because everyone applying for jobs has the same essential resume as you. De-emphasize things like "Experience with Windows and Office". Everyone expects you to have that. You still need to list it but it doesn't need to be the majority of your skills section. You listed Remedy, perfect! You need to emphasize things like that. To a company that uses Remedy, they see that and they say, "well that is one less thing we'll need to train him on". You mention project management, thats huge. Describe a project you lead. Describe any project management tools you have experience with. You mention good oral skills. Talk about a time when you gave successful presentation. Your secure awareness bullet point, great statement. Write down statements about things you were proud of accomplishing or that show the unique skills that you have that separate you from the rest.

-- You still need to dive deeper into some of your skills. What have you programmed? What have you scripted? What have you done with Linux? I know you have skills that aren't listed on your resume. You're on Hardforum. That tells me that you're interested in computers and technology as a hobby too. So get that across in your resume. When I read a resume I can instantly tell whether someone likes technology or whether they just happened to get into IT because they thought it paid well. The fact that you list a wide range of technologies kind of shows me your interested. But emphasize that more. It's a fine line but you can definitely talk about stuff you've done outside of work if you frame it in a professional manner. Things like "Built home network to gain experience with Snort" are interesting things to list. As an interviewer, I read that and think, "wow, he's so interested in security that he took his free time at home to play around and learn". People that do that make good IT engineers and I'll hire someone like that with potential all day long.

Good luck.
 
This may have been one of the most valuable threads I've ever stumbled across. I've never really given my resume much thought. I'll usually just add the recent experience to the bottom of it.

Just so happens that I submitted a resume for a new position I'm interested in. After glancing though most of this thread I see that I have made several common mistakes on mine.

I wonder what the reviewer would think if I sent an updated resume explaining that I wanted to be sure that he/she received the most up to date and relevant information possible.
 
Well just remember that MOST resumes are written badly. As someone who has to grind through them frequently, you just get used to mulling through the bad stuff hoping to find something you're looking for inside. A well-written resume is like a breath of fresh air to me!
 
Great thread guys. I am currently in desperate need of a new job right now. I've been sending out my resume over the past 6 months. Using this exact one, with a few tweaks here and there, I've landed 3 interviews, but no jobs yet.

Can you guys look this over and let me know what I should change/keep/add/delete?

Thanks so much for all you guy's help.

Resume page 1
Resume page 2
Resume page 3

Oh, and BTW, all my salary requests have been in the neighborhood of $56K to 65K annually. Am I asking for too much? The latest batch of resumes I sent out, I lowered that to $53K.
 
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Blindsided by a layoff yesterday. Trying to get a new resume ironed out. Here's what I've got so far:

Name
contact info

NETWORK TECHNICIAN

Broadly experienced Information Technology professional with 13 years in IT. Experience includes building, troubleshooting, and repairing workstations, servers, and networks across all modern Microsoft operating systems and the automation and batch execution of functions through the use of VBScript and batch files. Use and support of a variety of productivity and specialized applications. Strong background in end user support and training.

SKILLS
• Operating systems: Windows 95, 98, NT 4.0, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 2008, 7.
• Applications: Microsoft Office 2000, XP, 2003, 2007 (Word, PowerPoint, Access, Outlook), Symantec Ghost, various industry-specific applications for education and manufacturing.
• VBScript and batch file scripting, HyperText Application programming using VBScript.
• Basic knowledge of HTML.
• Network installation and troubleshooting.
• End user support and training by phone and in person.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

School District, TX 9/2005 - 7/2010
Technology Specialist
• Automate deployment of network resources through the use of batch files and VBScript.
• Assist the network administrator by scripting Active Directory and SQL functions.
• Create HyperText Applications allowing remote batch execution and automating complex tasks.
• Develop automated installation procedures for a wide range of applications.
• Coordinated the flow of student information between databases and campuses.
• Train staff and make recommendations in the use of new technology.
• Installation and troubleshooting of workstations, projectors, and other IT equiment.
• Installation of physical network equipment and cabling.

Manufacturer, TX 12/2003 to 9/2005
Network Administrator
• Supported administrative office and production/warehouse systems.
• Redesigned and replaced hub-based network infrastructure.
• Added 802.11b network across production and warehouse floors.
• Deployed new servers and consolidated server functionality to reduce number of servers.
• Deployed new ERP package and custom modules.
• Maintenance and troubleshooting of EDI communications.
• Toshiba PBX operation and support.

Company, TX 12/2001 to 7/2003
Server Technician
• Built and repaired high-end Intel-based servers for the prepress industry.
• Troubleshooting Windows NT 4.0, 2000 Server, and Server 2003 on-site and by phone.
• Assisted in the design and assembly of virtualized Storage Area Network solutions.

Call center, TX 3/2001 to 12/2001
Customer Interaction Agent
• Provided technical support for HP notebook users.
• Supported other agents as a mentor.
• Wrote documentation for common problems and fixes when existing material lacked information.

Computer Shop, TX 1998 to 1/2001
Lead Technician
• Installation, troubleshooting, and repair of PCs, servers, and small business networks.
• Managed a team of 3-5 repair technicians in-office and on-site.
• Met with and prepared bids for prospective customers.
• Day-to-day small business operations.
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I'm horrible at writing summaries. I could really use some pointers there, and on the skills list. I just never know what to put.

Are there too many jobs listed in experience?

Also, should I add professional references at the end of this? I have some very good ones, but I don't know how they look on a resume.
 
Wow, i finally got my IT gig(support specialist at a technology/dual platform school)!! Its been almost two years since i graduated with my degree in IT administration, mind you i have my BS in mathematics. I am seriously going to make the best of this opportunity. I was offered the position and was training/shadowing the whole summer, but it wasnt official until today when the principal actually signed me over from a teacher to that position.
 
I've been reading resumes for the past month for sysadmin position at work. Here's what pisses me off about resumes:
  • Walls of text
  • Mission/career goal statement (I honestly DO NOT care; are you going to work hard and help the team?)
  • Spelling errors
  • Not summarising what the candidate did at a past role
  • Ambiguous timings for jobs: If you got moved to a different department it needs a separate section; treat it as a new job)
  • Resumes coming in as .doc files. Plain text or PDF (Never HTML, just don't). Don't make me open iWork to see your poorly translated resume

edit:
Here's my basic format:


Name
email
address
tel: <number>​

Overview
Systems Administration
  • Operating Systems: <list OS I have experience with>
  • Databases: DB list
  • Server software: Apache HTTP Server, Bind, Postfix, iproute2, httperf, amanda, this kind of thing

Software Development
  • Languages
  • Scripting
  • Source control
  • Issue trackers

Work Experience
<Title>, <Company>, <Company Location>
<Start date> - <End Date or Present>
  • Specific achievements with details of what *I* did on the project
  • For example:
  • Forensic analysis of compromised/hacked Linux servers
  • Or maybe: Mapped out network and power usage with OmniGraffle, a first for <Company>


Education
  • List education
  • Most recent first
  • Don't include High School if you've graduated from college/university


 
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doh said:
I've been reading resumes for the past month for sysadmin position at work. Here's what pisses me off about resumes:
  • Walls of text
  • Mission/career goal statement (I honestly DO NOT care; are you going to work hard and help the team?)
  • Spelling errors
  • Not summarising what the candidate did at a past role
  • Ambiguous timings for jobs: If you got moved to a different department it needs a separate section; treat it as a new job)
  • Resumes coming in as .doc files. Plain text or PDF (Never HTML, just don't). Don't make me open iWork to see your poorly translated resume
Click to expand...

1. Agreed. I fixed that on my latest resume, which you can find below.
2. Agreed.
3. Agreed.
4. Agreed.
5. Agreed.
6. I'm finding that .doc files are almost REQUIRED. Everyone is asking to have it nowadays, for whatever reason, and an increasing amount don't want PDFs.
 
Any feedback would be appreciated. I feel like im not listing enough but i dont feel i should put software i know how to install, configure and troubleshoot but no idea how to actually use the program (ie quickbooks/peachtree)

https://docs.google.com/document/ed...rRG9QIoeZjY6onuShAnhMY&hl=en&authkey=CMC4ipML

Another thing ive noticed is, when looking for jobs online i can't find anything that isnt programming of some sort, db admins, or unix stuff. Everything seems so specialized and no ones hiring general admins.
 
I'm applying for a position as a Senior Enterprise Architect at a successful financial company. Note that the "PROFESSIONAL SKILLS" section is a table with two bulleted section on the left and two bulleted sections on the right. Originally the "PROFESSIONAL SKILLS" section was above "PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE" but I moved it down because I think they may care less about that stuff for an architect position. Here's what I've got:


NAME/Address/Contact Info

QUALIFICATIONS FOR SENIOR ENTERPRISE ARCHITECT

Seasoned, self-motivated IT Professional utilizing over 11 years of experience with complex Information Systems. With exemplary skills in Enterprise Architecture, Team Leadership, Systems Engineering and Administration, and Customer Support, am comfortable leading multiple groups of highly skilled individuals, dispersed geographically, through a variety of challenging scenarios. Keen understanding of how business needs are met by technology strategies. Excellent written and oral communication skills include providing executive presentations for high profile IT projects, creating functional models and detailed physical designs, and writing developer guides and user guides for new and existing systems. Secret security clearance with the United States Department of Defense.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Systems Engineer, Security Analyst, and Maintenance and Operations Lead
(Large State Department) (July 2008 &#8211; Present)

As a Security Analyst representing the Design Review Team, provided senior level input for enterprise architecture across all state agencies. Evaluated RFPs, system designs, and risk assessments, then provided recommendations to ensure compliance with state security standards and follow industry best practices for system design, resulting in technology strategy alignment with business strategy.

Identified a design alternative resulting in an estimated cost savings of $240,000 by demonstrating with a proof-of-concept that the WSG service could leverage SAW&#8217;s authentication and user management capabilities with LDAP instead of IBM&#8217;s DataPower TAM client. The solution included replacing the out of the box AAA component with custom XSLT scripts, LDAPS integration with Tivoli Directory Server, and an XML access-control format that maps user groups to resources.

Envisioned and brought to fruition the Web Services Gateway (WSG) service with the purpose of facilitating the sharing of sensitive data with consumers securely over the Internet utilizing XML web services and Service Oriented Architecture. This entailed evaluating the business requirements of the state&#8217;s Justice Information Network Data Exchange (JINDEX), and scoping the WSG service to deliver the expected results, such as compliance with the FBI&#8217;s CJIS Security Policy, as well as planning and executing the WSG&#8217;s implementation.

Described the WSG service by documenting a functional model that visually and textually represents the intended use of the service and all of the integration points. This made it easy to reuse components of the WSG&#8217;s design for several subsequent projects that had similar business needs and requirements, such as the Department of Social and Health Service&#8217;s ACD service, and the Department of Commerce&#8217;s CDAS service.

Lead a team of Developers and System Administrators in operating and maintaining a group of Internet gateway services that, through in house developed delegated administration, enable other state agencies to self-manage the facilitation of sharing of sensitive data to consumers on the Internet via web applications. Some high traffic examples are DOR&#8217;s quarterly tax filing, DOL&#8217;s online tab renewal, and LNI&#8217;s worker&#8217;s comp claims.

Technology Analyst
Large Bank (May 2003 &#8211; July 2008)

Representative for the Incident Management department on projects teams, and as such was responsible for making preparations for the Incident Management department to be ready to support new security and infrastructure systems. Example systems are Checkpoint Pointsec laptop encryption, Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition including SESA, BMC Marimba software distribution and system configuration, and general desktop infrastructure such as group policy configurations and the Active Directory distributed file system.

As a senior support representative I managed enterprise technology incidents across a wide variety of technologies, business units, and support groups. This included leading a team of highly skilled individuals who were located both in my immediate work area, and overseas. As such a leader I ensured timely, effective, long lasting solutions to all problems, especially the ones that nobody else wanted. This was a highly technical and a highly managerial type of position demanding a variety of skills such as incident reporting, writing troubleshooting guides for new technologies, performing event correlation for security incidents, and conducting training.

Set up virus outbreak alert system that notifies appropriate personnel of potential outbreaks based on automated analysis of user reported data, utilizing Crystal Reports and a C# .Net service.

Customer Engineer
Large well known IT company (September 2001 &#8211; May 2003)

As team lead, planned, executed, and supported the conversion of over 2,000 enterprise desktop computers, laptops, and printers, from Token Ring to Ethernet.

Significantly reduced the amount of time and resources required to ship pre-imaged hard drives onsite by scripting post-installation routines and optimizing the onsite switches and routers to support key layer 2 protocols.

PROFESSIONAL SKILLS

Systems Engineering and Administration
&#8226; IBM DataPower SOA Appliances as web service intermediaries (XML/SOAP/WSDL/UDDI), Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)
&#8226; IBM Tivoli Access Manager (policy server/WebSEAL reverse proxy/junctions, custom application)
&#8226; Microsoft Forefront TMG Enterprise, WSUS
&#8226; Active Directory (Programmatic Interaction, Group Policy/Users/Groups/File Shares)
&#8226; BMC Marimba software distribution and configuration management
&#8226; BMC Remedy integration with .Net API
&#8226; Cisco IOS, TCP/IP, Routing, Firewalls, VLAN configuration, NetFlow, and DNS.
&#8226; Redhat Enterprise and Suse Linux, IBM AIX (on P series)
&#8226; Windows Server 2008/2003, Windows 7/XP

Programming
&#8226; Visual Studio, Eclipse
&#8226; .Net Framework, WCF, Web Services
&#8226; C#, C++, C
&#8226; Visual Basic, VBSCRIPT
&#8226; PHP server side scripting
&#8226; Unix Shell and Windows Batch scripting
&#8226; XSLT, XPath, and concepts of XML Serialization

Information Security
&#8226; Risk analysis and mitigation with appropriate security controls
&#8226; Policy compliance and auditing (ISB Standards and Policies, US DOJ-FBI CJIS Security Policy)
&#8226; PKI, Federation, SAML, WS-Security, Biometrics
&#8226; XML Schema Validation, SQL Injection Filtering, Encryption and Digital Signature, Rate Limiting
&#8226; FIPS 140-2 Hardware Security Modules
&#8226; Checkpoint Pointsec whole disc encryption and recovery, Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition (including SESA reporting), Cisco Security Agent

Management
&#8226; Proficient with change management, problem management, and root cause analysis
&#8226; Recognized as an ambitious outgoing team leader both as a technology professional as well as a military professional.
&#8226; Comprehensive abilities to build a strong technical team through screening and interviewing candidates, and developing training curriculum for new employees.
&#8226; Experience as a project manager, planning, executing, and closing several high profile projects.
&#8226; ITIL Foundation V3 Certified.

EDUCATION
Associate of Applied Science, Computer Network Systems Technology
Vocational College, City/Year
 
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The only comment that I have is that you use to many commas. Other than that, beautiful resume. I hope others in here use it as a model. It does an excellent job of conveying what your jobs have been about, where you succeeded, and what technologies you're familiar with.

Damn. There I go with the commas myself :)
 
Thanks for the input. Haven't had any calls lately so I'm still working to improve it. I'll take out some commas.
 
I'm trying to apply for Help Desk/IT Support Technician jobs, but have had no luck with regards to getting any call backs for interviews.

I have gone through a good chunk of this thread for ideas and have been continually updating my resume as a result.

Any positive feedback would be appreciated. I know I should include more details of the work I currently do and have done.

Objective
IT Support Technician

Highlights of Qualifications

• Solid 11 years work history in sales and customer service at XYZ
• Assisted manager with maintaining inventory stock levels at retail level
• Strong interpersonal communication skills with co-workers
• Demonstrable conflict resolution skills with customers
• Adaptable to a variety of work environments and job duties
• Proficient in organizational, time management, and problem solving skills
• Results-oriented with a high level of motivation, commitment and perseverance on individual or team projects
• 11 years experience in troubleshooting computer and related hardware/software issues

Computer Skills

Operating Systems: Windows 98/NT/XP/Vista/7, Red Hat Linux 9, CentOS 5.x, Mac OS 10.x
Software: MS Office 97/2003/2007, Internet Explorer, Firefox
Network: TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, HTTP, Routers, Firewalls, Wireless Access Points
Utilities: Norton Internet Security, Trend Micro Internet Security, Kaspersky Internet Security

Employment History

Computer Technician / Specialist/ XYZ Technical Specialist September 1999 – Present


Computer Technician 2001 - Present

• Awarded the ACE award from XYZ for restoring a critical photo lab computer without taking a break
• Diagnose and correct computer hardware and software problems
• Maintain up-to-date documentation of repair history in OnTrack database
• Instruct customers on computer hardware and software usage
• Remove malicious software from customer's desktop and notebook computers
• Escalate warranty repairs through appropriate vendor channels
• Manage time between sales floor and tech room repairs


XYZ Technical Specialist 2004 - 2007

• Assembled computer systems for XYZ brand
• Employed as a service coordinator providing parts ordering and technical phone support for XYZ stores and Service Level Agreement clients

Computer Specialist September 1999 - Present

• Assist customer's in finding proper solutions for their needs
• Process customer transactions efficiently and accurately
• Maintain a general knowledge of the department’s common products and services
• Take ownership of customer complaints/issues, initiating action, or resolving problems
• Open, close, and clean the department

Education/Certifications

Applied Computer Information Systems Certificate (Expected) June 2008 – 2011

Linux Network Administrator Technician Certificate September 2007 – July 2010

CompTIA Network+ Certificate July 2008
• Industry certification for vendor neutral network hardware and software products

CompTIA A+ Certificate September 2002
• Industry certification for resolving non-vendor specific computer hardware and software problems

Computer Systems Technician Certificate September 1998 – July 1999
Electronics Technician Common Core

• Learned about the basic electronic components, such as resistors, capacitors, inductors, diodes, and transformers, used to create today's hi-tech devices
• Traced electronic problems down to component level using digital multi-meter, signal generator, and oscilloscope
• Created an electronic control system using a Motorola 68000 processor attached to a PC alerting the user about the current temperature status
• Wrote the firmware for the Motorola controller board and the IBM PC assembly program which took the Motorola data and displayed it on screen
 
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Can I get some input on mine.

https://docs.google.com/fileview?id...WYtZDg1Ni00MDM4LTg5NGUtMjI1Yjc2NDhkODU3&hl=en

I have had this layout for awhile now, it is exactly how my school told me to do it. I just updated it with a lot more info in the skills section and added my recent internship. I try to keep it one page so I took out all the information about McDonalds and the grocery store, pretty silly anyways lol.

I also had an objective section that i replaced with the Summary. Does the summary read good? My objective was to "Obtain an entry level Information Technology job such as Network Engineer or Network Administrator where I can gain valuable knowledge and experience in my field". I thought that was good but everyone here says to ditch the objective and use a Summary.

What do you think? does it look good? I have had people tell me it looks ok and is straight forward but after reading through this thread and the closer I get to looking for a real job and entering the workforce I am starting to become nervous and self conscious about my resume.

Any input would be appreciated.
 
AMD_Gamer said:
try again
Click to expand...

Works.


Here's my feedback:

I skipped right over summary since it doesn't matter. You're submitting your resume for a specific job and by virtue of you tailoring your resume for that job requirement I already know what you're claiming in your summary.

Put your work experience in descending order: Most recent FIRST, no exceptions. Dont list stuff older than 10 years cos I'll read it on your LinkedIn profile (you're on LinkedIn, right?) and I don't have all day to read your long resume since I probably have to read more to fill the position since I'm already overworked and need help (hence the job req).

Break out your skillset into more discrete parts:
* Operating Systems
* Networking technologies
* Programming/script languages (if any)

List specific technologies: What did you use at your internship to do "data security and access control administration"

List specific projects that you had a high level of involvement with: "Was project lead on a major migration from <technology 1> to <technology 2>" or "Played a major role in the upgrade of all network gear from NetGear consumer-grade gear to Cisco gear."

At one page your resume comes off very lean - don't be afraid to pad it out to two pages, especially if you have a lot of accomplishments at a specific job posting. The military one could be hard with secrecy issues but it already demonstrates that you're a team player and can follow instruction.
 
doh said:
Works.


Here's my feedback:

I skipped right over summary since it doesn't matter. You're submitting your resume for a specific job and by virtue of you tailoring your resume for that job requirement I already know what you're claiming in your summary.

Put your work experience in descending order: Most recent FIRST, no exceptions. Dont list stuff older than 10 years cos I'll read it on your LinkedIn profile (you're on LinkedIn, right?) and I don't have all day to read your long resume since I probably have to read more to fill the position since I'm already overworked and need help (hence the job req).

Break out your skillset into more discrete parts:
* Operating Systems
* Networking technologies
* Programming/script languages (if any)

List specific technologies: What did you use at your internship to do "data security and access control administration"

List specific projects that you had a high level of involvement with: "Was project lead on a major migration from <technology 1> to <technology 2>" or "Played a major role in the upgrade of all network gear from NetGear consumer-grade gear to Cisco gear."

At one page your resume comes off very lean - don't be afraid to pad it out to two pages, especially if you have a lot of accomplishments at a specific job posting. The military one could be hard with secrecy issues but it already demonstrates that you're a team player and can follow instruction.
Click to expand...

thanks for the info, so 2 page resumes are ok?
 
AMD_Gamer said:
thanks for the info, so 2 page resumes are ok?
Click to expand...

Yep.

Two pages for IT is the sweet spot I've found. As a resume reader I have to wonder why the candidate can't promote themselves in two pages. One page seems too lean and three or more seems too long. That said, a good stand-out resume is a joy to read at three pages, if (and only if) the content is specific to the job on offer because it offers more details about the candidate. Often longer resumes come with unsuitable candidates.

Start with two til you get more experience and need to expand to more pages.
 
doh said:
Yep.

Two pages for IT is the sweet spot I've found. As a resume reader I have to wonder why the candidate can't promote themselves in two pages. One page seems too lean and three or more seems too long. That said, a good stand-out resume is a joy to read at three pages, if (and only if) the content is specific to the job on offer because it offers more details about the candidate. Often longer resumes come with unsuitable candidates.

Start with two til you get more experience and need to expand to more pages.
Click to expand...

Ok I will make a 2 page one and see how it looks.

Everything will stay the same except for the Skills and Qualifications section at the top. I will separate that into different sections making it easier to read. I will then increase the text size of everything to make a perfect 2 page fit, the text is already 8.5 so increase it by a few sizes should be fine..

Does that sound good?

Would seperating the sections like this look good?

Operating Systems
Networking technologies
Software
Information/Network Security
Virtualization
 
One thing I started doing is breaking my employment history into two groups of information:
Responsibilities
Key Accomplishments

I list the responsibilities under the name/title of the job without its own title. Then after all the responsibilities I list the key accomplishments.
 
Ok guys, I have read the first few pages of this thread and can definitely say that in conjunction with my own research it has been a huge help. I will continue reading and tweaking as necessary, but here is what I have so far.

I welcome absolutely any and all criticism and advice and thank you all in advance for the assistance:

https://docs.google.com/document/ed...sq5eYzoCpoWpVX3Jlb4sL0&hl=en&authkey=CMX-sr8M

note - keep in mind this is a very rough draft and is still a work in progress. Final formatting will be much cleaner and any advice regarding heading titles, re-organization and such will greatly be appreciated.

EDIT: Fixed link
 
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oC|-TiTaN said:
Ok guys, I have read the first few pages of this thread and can definitely say that in conjunction with my own research it has been a huge help. I will continue reading and tweaking as necessary, but here is what I have so far.

I welcome absolutely any and all criticism and advice and thank you all in advance for the assistance:

https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1ozx8SSgWOAaRgTfwc1y3_sq5eYzoCpoWpVX3Jlb4sL0&hl=en#

note - keep in mind this is a very rough draft and is still a work in progress. Final formatting will be much cleaner and any advice regarding heading titles, re-organization and such will greatly be appreciated.
Click to expand...

dont have access
 
Good start. I can definitely see some influence from previous resume samples on this thread (now around 6 years old... wow!!). I have to admit that some of the way I used to write resumes are getting old to me. I'm not sure I have any solutions at this point but I'll tell you that I'm not really happy with a lot of my old resume parts. I still think that there's too much "fluff" in the resume. Saying things in your summary like "drawing from a wide range of strong practical, problem-solving and administrative skills" just sounds like unnecessary stuff that I have to read through to get to the meat. Just give me the main course and let me know if it's the food I really want! I don't know if any of this helps but that's what I've been thinking about lately...

As far as the bulk of your resume beyond the summary (which still beats having an "objective" statement every day of the week) here are my thoughts:

You've had two jobs and a come with a Bs degree. This means that when you type that out in a traditional resume format it looks weak so you try and bulk it out by building up the detailed description of each job you've held and by adding special bits of extra information to your degree. But this means that the reader has to sift through it all just to find out if you can manage an Active Directory or not. Better to just get straight to the point and lay out all your skills on the table instead of telling them your "employment life history". This means that your skills section (now called your "key qualifications") needs to be worked on the most. Don't just use a single bullet list of skills. That's not very helpful. Instead, sort out your skills into key categories and then detail each of those categories with MEASURABLE levels of experience or skill. This means that you can't just say "strong troubleshooting skill" and get away with it. You either add a number of years experience or some other form of measurement to qualify your skill. The word "strong" is too subjective and tells most readers that you have NO real experience. The beauty of this format is that you can include years of experience that wouldn't show up in a traditional resume because only "paid employment" experience would have a place. But just by listing your skills with a qualifier you can include non-paid experience --just because you weren't getting paid for it doesn't mean it isn't a legitimate skill!!

Next trim down your employment history section to just one or two lines per job. With a good detailed skills list you only need to include your company name, job title, location, and duration of employment --same applies to your education.

Just remember that you MUST put your best qualities first. This means that each job your applying for gets a different resume depending on the skills they are looking for. In my case, I do both PC desktop support and CAD drafting. Depending on the job I'm applying for, determines what my summary statement says, which skill section is listed first, etc... I think I have 5 different resumes ready to go at any one time and I usually will read through the job description and tweak the resume a little to make sure my best abilities for that job are listed first. In short, get to the point as fast as possible without all the flowery language that usually clogs up most resumes and your chances will improve!

Good luck and keep us all posted and informed of your progress!!
 
Can one of you resume experts please help me out with checking over my resume I posted back in August?

Thanks.
 
ZingtoBing13 said:
Can one of you resume experts please help me out with checking over my resume I posted back in August?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Sure thing. First read this entire thread. I'm sorry there isn't another way but from what I can tell, your resume has classic issues that have been addressed many times over in this thread over the years. Hell, you could probably just go back about 2 or 3 pages and get most of it but the best thing you could do is plow through the entire thing to get the most benefit.

Good luck and please share how you're doing here so others can benefit!
 
Thanks Jon.

I have changed some things on my resume since I last posted. I have gone from an objective statement to a summary statement. Will post an updated version soon.
 
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