How does one show they've gathered a lot of book and lab knowledge on a resume?

Nyblizzard

If the knowledge hasn't really been applied at their jobs yet and there are no certifications to speak of?

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Comments

networker050184

You don't in my opinion. Not really what a resume is for.

ande0255

I think cert's are more for the resume to help get your foot in the door for an interview, and labbing / studying is knowledge you bring to the interview to seal the deal. Me talking about my home lab during the interview for my current job landed me a pretty sweet network role with data / voice / security, and I had almost no previous experience.

jvrlopez

Some people use the "studying towards X, expected completion XX/XXXX" which I don't like. If you don't have the credential of a one test achievement, it's pretty hard to show for it.

I'd say college is a little different because you have credits to show towards your progress.

Akaricloud

I'm going to have to agree with the "You don't" opinion. If you have no real experience and no accomplishments then it's not going to be taken seriously no matter how you put it out there.

JasminLandry

I agree with the others, I wouldn't put anything about books that I read on my resume. You wouldn't be taken seriously if you did it.

stryder144

As has been mentioned several times, the best way to show you've done your bit to learn is to talk about it well. Also, many have suggested the blogging approach to capture what you've learned, how you've learned it, etc. Link to it in your resume and on LinkedIn. That way, when a person is looking over your resume they "may" do a quick review of your blog. That might give them an understanding of what you know and that might make them decide to look at you closer.

Additionally, link to Amazon reviews that you've submitted about the books you've read. Make the reviews fair, without hyperbole, and please follow grammatical convention! Then, place a "book report" on your blog.

bigdogz

One of the best ways to transfer your knowledge is obtaining certifications. Just adding it on the resume is not good because most future bosses may not know how you transfer the knowledge to an enterprise environment.

LionelTeo

You can try to list them under skill set. Primary Skill for things you apply everyday, while Secondary Skill set for stuff you know but would require some guidance before you can fully ultlise it. Keep it general and don't detailed it too much.

Primary Skill: Arcsight, SOC Operations, Analysis
Secondary Skill: C, GDB, Penetration Testing, Assembly, Bash, Unix Hardening

pwjohnston

The only reason I've gotten as many certs as I have was to put them on the resume to get the interview. Otherwise I wouldn't have bothered with most of them.

fredrikjj

Write articles/blog posts and have links to the ones that you are the most proud of somewhere on your resume. If they're interested in you they'll go read them.

Chitownjedi

You can also create videos demonstrating configurations or How-To's.. for that blog, so that you can visually show you know how to do it, plus it may help others, and teaching is one of the most obvious ways of showing you understand something. Well, teaching something correctly lol.

yzT

+1 for blog, that's what I do :P

I started with my own blog, but then I thought "What's my goal? Have my own blog or be best known?" so I dropped it out and now I write for other blogs with more public, sign in at the end with my LinkedIn profile URL. The number of views at my profile is amazing when I post something xD And always there is someone interesting (ceo, recruiter, hiring manager...) who adds me as contact, so who knows... maybe a post I wrote turns out to be a job opportunity.

ccnxjr

I'll just re-iterate what's been said already.
If your self study can be demonstrated by acquiring a cert, go for it.
Otherwise, blog about it, don't plagiarize, add your opinion and weigh on applicability in a scenario not described in the book.
Or cover a use case which would require some modification in order to the authors prescribed system to work.

Back link your blog to a Linked-In profile or resume.
Or contribute to online documentation projects, such as The Linux Documentation Project or whatever.

However, it's not something you put in your resume.
Blogging and documentation projects would more likely fit in the cover letter, especially if the job posting indicates that blogs/community contributions would give such candidates an edge.

egrizzly

you have to explicitly state that "you can demonstrate ability to...", then list all the labs. Chances are, if there are 2+ people that see the resume one has been through certification and would "get it". key thing is to show unmistakably that you can perform the relevant tasks.