Career Change - Resume Critique

Good day everyone,

Several years ago I worked as a PC tech and supervisor at a retail store and then left to pursue a career in law enforcement. For the past year now, I have been looking into changing my career and pursuing a career in IT. At the moment I am studying for my CCENT and hope to take it by February.

I am also seeking possibly a NOC Tech or Help Desk position in the meantime to get my foot in the door again. I would appreciate it if you could help me out with any tips, tricks and anything else I should include or remove on my resume. Thanks!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qo4xoqk4etgkc7z/benjiewb.pdf?dl=0

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Comments

benjiewb

I also forgot to mention I am possibly looking into a career in the cyber security field. Being I am already in law enforcement I have been contemplating pursuing the FBI Cyber Team after experience is gained doing the leg work in the field first.

SoCalGuy858

Welcome to TE!

While I'm not in the LE field, I am also interested in federal-related cyber activities. One item I will mention is that at the federal level, particularly in relation to LE, they seem to be quite the sticklers for minimum education requirements. All cyber positions with the FBI (from Special Agent to IT Forensic Examiner) require at least a Bachelor's degree, with particular interest in one of their desired fields.

If you haven't seen this already, take a look at their website for more information: FBI - Cyber Team

Good luck, and welcome - again - to TE!

benjiewb

The education requirements are a pain, but I am currently working towards a degree and hopefully by the time I finish my bachelors degree, I would have some experience to strengthen my resume.

benjiewb

I hate bumping threads but if anyone can provide some input I would appreciate it. Thanks.

srabiee

The formatting and overall appearance of the resume could be improved. I recommend that you use a better resume template (one that is already pre-formatted). Then all you have to do is plug in your information. I will link you to a good example.

The professional summary could also use some attention. Beginning each sentence with "... years of experience" is cumbersome and fatiguing to read through. I recommend using varied language and sentence structure. Again, I will link you to some good examples of well written professional summaries.

I recommend moving the education section above the technical certifications section. These should be listed in tandem.

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. You will need to expand on your past work experience a bit to make this work. More on this later.

I like that you began each bullet in the work experience section with an action verb. Some of the action verbs were used too often though, such as "completed," "responded," and "provided." Try to use more varied vocabulary. The thesaurus is a great tool. I will also link you to a guide listing many possible action verbs that you can use.

I highly recommend that you expand on your professional technical experience as much as possible. Ideally you want to list technical experience and expertise in all previous job positions, especially experience related to your intended IT career path. Even if you're trying to land an entry-level helpdesk position, the more past IT experience you can show, the better your chances of getting hired on. You mentioned being interested in a security role. Do you have any past security experience that you can add and expand on to show experience and competency in this field? I bet if you sat an brainstormed for a bit, you could come up with at least a few things. Again, experience is key, this is where you want your resume to shine.

After you obtain your associates degree, are you planning on pursuing a bachelors degree? I highly recommend you do so, as it will open up many doors for you, especially when lacking many years of IT experience in your chosen field.

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.

benjiewb

Thanks for the advice. I will make the changes and upload an update soon. I am interested in security after I gain some experience. At the moment, I am not too sure on how my current law enforcement experience can relate to information security. I will take your advice and research/brainstorm and see what I can come up with.

benjiewb

Changes made. Please let me know what you think.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rs6um76uc2d9qkd/benjiewb2.pdf?dl=0

srabiee

It's looking a lot better. The format of the professional experience section looks great. Lots of good info on there.

Here are a few things I noticed that you may want to consider:

1) The last sentence in your professional summary is very long. You may benefit from breaking this up into two sentences.

2) I noticed you omitted your Apple certification. Any reason why? Your resume is already at 1.5 pages in length, so I recommend that think about adding that back on there. You certainly have enough room to do so.

3) Within the experience section, avoid using first-person pronouns such as "I," "my," or "me." For example, "Awarded Deputy of the Month twice for my life saving and community oriented policing efforts" should read "Awarded Deputy of the Month twice for life saving and community oriented policing efforts." I noticed several sentences like this.

4) "Developed weekly or monthly reports that summarize activity in the community, provide meaningful analysis, and show progress against goals." The "weekly or monthly" part sounds a little strange. Might sound better to say "Devised frequent reports that summarize activity in the community, provide meaningful analysis, and show progress against goals."

5) "Provided feedback on and assist in the implementation of strategies to keep the community vibrant and active with new programs, promotions, etc." "Assist" should be past-tense --> "assisted"

6) Within the bullets of the "Online Community Moderator" job, you used the action verb "Provided" twice. I recommend changing one of these to a different action verb to vary your language.

7) "Provided exception face-to-face and over the phone technical and customer support." Exception should be changed to "exceptional."

There may be other errors or issues here and there but these are the ones that I immediately noticed after a single read through. I recommend going over your resume with a fine-toothed comb as you make these changes and see if you can spot any other issues. I will read through it again after you upload your next revision.

lawlaw

benjiewb wrote: »

Good day everyone,

Several years ago I worked as a PC tech and supervisor at a retail store and then left to pursue a career in law enforcement. For the past year now, I have been looking into changing my career and pursuing a career in IT. At the moment I am studying for my CCENT and hope to take it by February.

I am also seeking possibly a NOC Tech or Help Desk position in the meantime to get my foot in the door again. I would appreciate it if you could help me out with any tips, tricks and anything else I should include or remove on my resume. Thanks!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qo4xoqk4etgkc7z/benjiewb.pdf?dl=0

Hi
Your CV looks like much better as srabiee told you, the analyse and piece of advice are really complete, I'm not sure I can do better. All I can do is provide you with a classic CV template for a career change and let you discover about some specificities about it.
Hope it helps.