Resume critique, trying to land my first IT job

phdillard

I'm trying to land my first IT gig, preferrably in the Colorado area and just a need a critique on my resume if you guys could be so kind. Thanks.

phdillard

nothing? so its either really awesome or so horrible you don't know where to start...

Robertf969

Get rid of the objective, use a professional summary instead. The certs you are studying for should go into your professional summary. Move the Education section right under the professional summary, then the certification section right under the education section.
Since this will be your first IT job I would concentrate on trying to make it a knowledge based resume and less on work experience. I am not a networking guy, but I know the basics. Do you have a home lab? Can you find a way to explain what you have learned while labing in such a way that tells a story of you being able to solve problems? This might help with your knowledge based bullets. In your work experience sections I would recommend you try to highlight only things that are relevant to the types of jobs you will be applying to (I assume Helpdesk, and desktop support). Really try to emphasize customer satisfaction and your knowledge on desktop systems.

The thank you note is interesting, I’ve never seen it. I would highly recommend getting rid of it though, save it for your cover letter if you choose to use one.

I’m sure Srabiee will show up sooner or later with all his tips, or you can try searching some of the other Resume Critique threads, he provides a lot of good insight.

Moongoon762

Echoing what Robertf969 said, I would try to take your work history summaries and pick out the important parts that would pertain to the job you're applying for.

"I was later promoted to the back office position. That position included many of the duties of the previous position, though handled via fax and email rather than phone. Additional responsibilities of this position included creating and approving correspondence templates to be used in correspondence with the customers and clients, as well as engaging in more direct interaction with the client when resolving customer issues or relaying information between industry/government bodies and the clients." - from a third party perspective, I have no idea what this means.

I think overall, it just needs to be shortened, hit on those "soft skills" that you acquired from previous employment.

Some grammar errors here and there (which would probably be alleviated upon shortening)

I think I read somewhere that you should try to avoid using "I" in your resume as well

NetworkNewb

You're currently studying for 3 certifications at once? remove that or pick one. Just looks silly to put your studying for 3 at once.

That whole "Any employment before these above jobs" section needs to be removed. You should have either have the separate positions listed or do not include them at all. No HR person is going read a paragraph that starts like that.

Under the Skills sections:
- you have "Troubleshooting and repair of hardware and software issues" then after it "PC and PC component installation/replacement/repair/upgrade". Is pretty much the same thing...
- remove "Critical thinking" just looks like your trying to fill up space by putting that in
- remove or change "Customer service and other soft skills", what does "and other soft skills" even mean?

Remove the "Thank you for your consideration and taking the time to review my resume. Paul Dillard" at the bottom...

srabiee

Some of this may have already been mentioned by previous posters, so forgive me if I'm repeating what they've already stated.

With your limited work experience, there's no reason why this resume shouldn't be a single page in length. Once you get some more experience under your belt, you can extend it to two pages, but for now stick to one page. This will require you to club and/or remove some sections. Some of these sections can easily be deleted. More on this later.

The Objective section should be replaced with a competent professional summary. Objective sections are redundant and serve little purpose. I will link you to a document regarding how to write a professional summary. Google is also a good resource on this.

I would recommend moving the Certifications section underneath the Education section.

Regarding the certs, don't list anything that you are studying for. That doesn't need to be on a resume. You can mention it in the interview instead. The resume should only include the certs/exams that you have already taken and passed.

Regarding the Skills section, instead of listing a bunch of software, technologies, and protocols, and I would rather you expand upon this information and explain HOW you are proficient in these skills, especially in a business/enterprise environment. Ideally I would recommend that you incorporate this info into your professional experience, and then drop the Skills section altogether. This will also help to reduce the overall length of this resume.

Within the professional 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.

Avoid writing in the first person and using personal pronouns: "I" "me" "my" etc..

The 2nd page of your resume sort of reads like a cover letter. This isn't suited for a resume. Refer to ptilsen's resume on how to format and write the professional experience section properly.

Lose the part at the end with the thank you and your name. Again, reads like a cover letter.

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
Someone recently uploaded this document regarding the "STAR Method" of writing resume content. You may want to take a look at it and see if it helps you.

http://www.filedropper.com/starmethod

I'm sure I can come up with plenty of additional suggestions, but I don't want to overwhelm you. I recommend you work on this thoroughly and then upload a new revision (preferably in PDF format) for further analysis.