Resume Critique & Advice: Final Draft

srabiee

I posted my resume earlier this year and got advice from some of the forum members, including Essendon. I finally got around to implementing some final changes, including adding a high-level overview to each job description (above the bullet points), reformatting the certs to make them easier to read, and tweaking the summary a bit. I'm pretty happy with how this looks now.

If you guys would be so kind as to take a look at my new resume and let me know what you think, I'd greatly appreciate it. Any amount of criticism large or small will help me to polish this thing off. Thanks!

EDIT: Made some minor tweaks based on forum feedback and uploaded corrected version.

anoeljr

It looks great if you ask me. I really like the format, makes it easy to read. You have bullets for the major accomplishments which is good as well. And great experience by the way. I hope to be in your shoes someday lol.

Essendon

Cant find a fault! Some may say you should move your certs above your experience, but that's upto you (and you have good experience which should stand out more than the certs). And thanks for the mention!

Codyy

I know very little about how a resume is supposed to look, but that's definitely one of the best I've seen, I can't imagine it being difficult for you to find work at the drop of a dime. Very impressive stuff on there man.

MSP-IT

The line spacing between your certification organization and certification titles are inconsistent.

zidian

You have an extra space before the + in Storage + and Project +.

It's a nit-picky improvement.

srabiee

Thanks guys. Good catch on the extra spacing and the line spacing stuff. I made those corrections and I think it's fixed now.

lsud00d

srabiee I arrived here via your linking to magician300's thread...I would recommend summarizing your certs since many supersede the others. For example, list just your MCSE Server 2012, then I would go with MCITP:EA Server 2008 (vs. MCSA Server 200, etc.

IMO there's no reason to list all of them in the same way someone wouldn't list CCENT & CCNA, because CCNA > CCENT. HR is only looking for MCSE/MCSA/MCITP and once it gets past HR the technical folk should know what the acronyms indicate.

srabiee

Thanks for the advice. I thought about clubbing/removing some of those MCTS certs. Once I get a few more MCSE certs under my belt and the list starts getting really long, I am going to start cutting some of those MCTS certs out. Microsoft did away with them anyway for the new 8.1/2012R2 stuff, so pretty soon they won't be all that relevant anyway. For now though they keep the 2nd page of my resume from being half white space, which I find aesthetically pleasing. I absolutely do not want a 3 page resume, however.

Essendon

Great output mate! Your resume thread's now the new de facto standard on TE!

lsud00d

Is this the resume you use to apply to other positions (with the full cert list)? Or do you modify it and scope the certs appropriately?

srabiee

Thanks Essendon. I'm no resume expert by any means, but I try my best to help others out with theirs, just as people on these forums helped me with mine.

lsud00d, yes I do include the full cert list as I mentioned before (for now anyway). This is my "reference" resume in its completed form before making any customizations or modifications to match a specific job description. I would more than likely modify the title at the top of the resume and the professional summary, but everything else stays static. As I get more job experience I will start clubbing/removing certs to save space and to tidy up, but for now this works ok for me. I have avoided using a skills section ("wall 'o text") and would instead modify the professional summary to include necessary skills and technologies that the job might require, if I indeed have those skills. I may eventually have to add some sort of technical proficiencies section, but I didn't want to do it right now until I get some more experience under my belt. I think there's a lot of good info in the experience section regarding technical proficiencies.