Resume Critique

SteveFer

Hi,

I'm looking for a critique of my resume if you have a chance. Just to explain I left my job about a year ago and have been concentrating on certs. I have taken out the specific info with work and football teams names etc, also the country I am in. Some of the formatting/ indents needs to be tidied which I'll do once the words have been finished.I will also condense it to 2 pages, maybe with some advice on what to get rid of.

Thanks in advance

srabiee

I agree that the formatting needs some work. The overall appearance and flow of the resume isn't very appealing IMO. I recommend that you use a nice resume template that is already pre-formatted. Then all you have to do is plug in your information. I will link you to some good information.

The professional summary should be written in single paragraph format. Your formatting appears to consist of multiple paragraphs. Also, you begin two consecutive sentences with the word "proven." I would recommend varying your language. The thesaurus helps immensely with this.

Under Education, "Hons degree received in 2009" is redundant and unnecessary. You should delete this line. The Subjects section should be deleted, as it doesn't serve much of a purpose. Listing the degree concentration is sufficient enough. Furthermore, the Results section should be removed. It's confusing and serves no purpose.

Under Certifications, remove "November 2013 - December 2014." If you want to list completion dates, list them for each individual cert. I recommend leaving the dates off. The important thing is that you hold the cert, and that the cert isn't expired. Expired certs should be removed or designated as "Expired." Otherwise, just list the certs.

Regarding the certs, I'm uncertain about some of these. "Microsoft Server 2012" isn't a certification. What cert do you have exactly? MCSA? If so, you need to list "Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA): Server 2012." Listing "Microsoft Server 2012" is sloppy and incorrect. Same goes with "Windows 7 70-680." That isn't a certification. It should be listed as "Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS): Windows 7, Configuration." Your Microsoft transcript will show you exactly what certifications you hold and the exact names of the certs.

There is no space between A+ (or Network+).

Regarding the Skills section, I highly recommend against mentioning football on your resume. It's unprofessional and unnecessary. This section isn't going to benefit you much if at all, especially in its current form. I recommend deleting this section entirely. Honors and achievements during your time as a student should be listed in the education section with your degree. Otherwise, I would refrain from adding recreational activities to your professional resume. Work experience is much more important.

Within the job experience section, each job description should begin with a high-level overview of your daily duties and responsibilities, and then use bullets to highlight special achievements, projects, promotions, etc. Don't rely solely on bullets like this. I will link you to a resume that's a great example on how to format and write this properly. I would recommend expanding on your experience as much as possible.

With the recommended deletions and proper resume formatting, you may be able to get this resume down to a single page.

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 (ptilsen's resume):

Resume time

Let us know how your resume turns out.

SteveFer

Thanks you very much srabiee,

To be honest I knew it didn't look great, a better question would have been asking if anyone had resume templates , tips etc to build it from scratch, which I'll do now.

Thanks again for your help.