Resume / Career Assistance

Dan_IT

Hello,

Name's Dan, long time lurker first time poster.
I've been reading on the resume / jobs forums and I believe it's time for a change.

Currently I'm a Help Desk Technician at a small company (no more than 80 workstations).
Acting as a JOAT, I deal with everything from workstations, servers, DNS, and webservers.

I'm working on my CCNA now (self-study) and I believe I should have the cert by the middle of next year.

I'm posting my current resume now for discussion which I know isn't the best at the moment.
I will be working on it over the weekend to spice it up a bit.
Here's the current copy: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4uz9nvR21rWTmQwd0h0QmVlOFk&authuser=0
I will be posting a newly updated version sometime over the weekend.

I want to move on from this current position but I feel like I'm lacking something.

I would greatly appreciate it if anyone can put in some input on my career path / resume.

Best Regards,
Dan

Edit: Link has been fixed.

srabiee

Google Drive is asking for your permission to download the document. Can you upload/attach the document to your thread, or alternatively upload it to Filedropper.com?

Dan_IT

Sorry, the forums here doesn't allow me to attach a .docx file for some reason.
Here's the alternative as requested: http://www.filedropper.com/resume_5

Regards,
Dan

dewey hafta

Thanks for the fix.

Sounds like you have had some pretty good exposure. Where are you looking to move into next, and where do you eventually want to be?

Dan_IT

I'm not too sure where I want to go yet.
I really want to get out of the help desk spot but I've been stuck due to the lack of certification / experience.
Perhaps networking is a good choice since I'm working on ccna

techfiend

I'd get rid of the Objective and change it to a Summary, 'A highly qualified Help Desk Technician who's learned... and looking for new challenges...' I'd drop the references section and keep it to 1 page. I really do like how your skills section is formatted, it's simple but elegant. You can remove (part-time) from the former sales/tech position. I'd be tempted to swap experience and education/awards sections. Ask yourself if the help desk position or degree has prepared you more for the next job, the one you choose should be close to the top.

One addition that might help, is if you are studying for ccna and almost ready to take it put it on your resume after A+ for now and state when you expect to get it. I've had N+ listed on my resume for 2 months with an expected date, I'm ready but saving some money by waiting, and most interviewers have asked about it. A lot of companies want people that are willing to grow and this shows initiation. I've also lost an opportunity, I think, to someone who said they were attending a CCNA class, the interviewers in the group interview really paid attention to it. After you complete the CCNA list it above A+.

srabiee

Your formatting could use some work. I will link you to an example resume with fantastic formatting. I highly recommend you use this format as a template for your own resume.

The objective section should be replaced with a professional summary. Objectives are outdated and redundant. I will link you to some good examples of how to write a competent professional summary.

"Awards" doesn't need a separate section, as it is related to your education. Drop this as a section and incorporate this information into the education section.

The problem with a skills section is that your list of skills doesn't tell me how proficient you are in said skills. For example, you list Exchange 2010. Does this mean you can install and configure Exchange 2010 from scratch? Or is your experience limited to creating user mailboxes? I have no clue. I would much rather see you incorporate these skills into your experience section and show me HOW it is that you are proficient in these skills, what you have done with them, etc. Then you can delete the skills section altogether.

Within the work experience section, each job description should begin with a high-level overview detailing your daily duties and responsibilities, commonly used technologies, etc. Then you can use bullet points to highlight key accomplishments, projects, promotions, etc. Don't rely solely on bullet points in this manner. Again, I will link you to an excellent example of how to properly format and write this section.

Delete the references section, as this is completely unnecessary and redundant. If a potential employer wants references, they will ask for them.

This is an excellent resume guide with example resumes, a huge list of action verbs, sample summaries, etc:

http://www.filedropper.com/resumeguide

This thread contains a fantastic example of a properly formatted and written resume:

http://www.techexams.net/forums/jobs-degrees/91333-resume-time.html

I recommend putting in some work on your own resume and re-upload it in PDF format when you're done so we can provide further feedback.

Dan_IT

Thanks for the input all, here's an updated version (again I can't upload it to this forum for some reason):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4uz9nvR21rWTHRwaXI5MUdFOGM/view?usp=sharing

It's completely different from the previous version. I removed the awards, and skills section.
I added a professional summary as well as summary of each position. I also added that I'm currently pursuing a Cisco certification and I'm focused on a career on networking - Will this part hurt me?

Btw I kept the part-time position since I don't have any other one relevant to add.

Thanks for your input again.

Regards,
Dan

Edit: I forgot to add that I have an interview on Monday for another help desk position (although it's a much larger company - around 400 users).

srabiee

The formatting looks excellent. Very easy to navigate and read through.

I believe "career driven" should be hyphenated (career-driven), but don't quote me on that. You may want to do a quick Google search on that one.

"Career driven IT professional with over five years of experience in desktop support, sever administration, and network infrastructure." I would add the word management to the end of that sentence, otherwise it doesn't read quite right. "Career-driven IT professional with over five years of experience in desktop support, sever administration, and network infrastructure management."

The sentence about pursuing the Cisco cert and a networking career reads like an Objective rather than a professional summary. Ideally you would want to focus on your professional accomplishments and tailor the resume to the type of job position that you are applying for. If it's a networking position, then focus on your accomplishments in the networking realm, especially your work experience. I would recommend getting your CCENT as soon as possible so you can add that to your resume. (then your CCNA R&S, of course)

"Oversaw management, installation, maintenance, and troubleshooting of Enterprise servers." Does this mean you supervised a team of other people who did the work, or did you do the work yourself? If you did the technical work yourself, I recommend using a different action verb.

Everything else looks pretty good. You may want to reduce the number of bullets that you have in your most recent job by other combining like bullets or expanding upon the high-level overview. Ideally you don't want to use more than 7 or 8 bullets.

Dan_IT

Thanks for more advice, I greatly appreciate it!

I've looked up career-driven and yes it does need a hyphen between the two words.

When you say use a different action verb for oversaw, nothing really comes to mind.
There were no team under me so that's out of the question.
Would "Managed installation, maintenance, and troubleshooting of Enterprise severs" work?

I couldn't really limit the number of bullet points because that's where most of my experience comes from. I would be losing valuable key points that might strike out to an employer.

I guess it does makes sense to try to get CCENT first since I have limited exposure to cisco devices.
I want to get into networking but the hard part is getting your foot in the door without experience.

-Dan

srabiee

"Facilitated the installation, maintenance, and troubleshooting of enterprise severs"
"Performed installation, maintenance, and troubleshooting of enterprise server."

Something like that would work.

You should combine some sentences together in order to club bullets in that case. You don't necessarily have to remove any info. But 10+ bullets is definitely excessive and becomes tedious for the reader to read through.

CCENT is a great start and will help to open some doors for you in the networking world. The CCNA will take you even further.

Let us know how the job search goes.