Home lab on resume

nikalis

I want to have my home lab experience on my resume because its extensive and goes way beyond what the ccent certification that i have entails and my IT jobs have been nothing but hardware replacement/ install decommon/ troubleshoot hardware. no configurations.
Anyone have some ideas or examples on how to include it?

Right now I'm stuck at just having alot of acronyms and do not think it looks proffessional and also looks as if i may have made it up even though i do have the skills

Thank ya

beads

Include the lab but have a wordsmith make the lab more proactive than retroactively living in the past. Always working on the latest and greatest techniques in my home lab consisting of... (your stuff here). As long as you tie it in and its relevant to the position it should be acceptable for your first position. After that it becomes a bit of color that can be added verbally if it comes up in conversation.

You could also tie the lab in to your entry level certifications CCNA, Microsoft, etc. Just as a conversation starter not a "I have my own ISP in the basement conversation". Believe me - been there - done that conversation.

-b/eads

srabiee

This is a very good question and one that I have seen pop up from time to time.

I would personally recommend using the home lab to learn and gain hands-on experience, and then use that experience to obtain whatever certification you happen to be studying for. A certification is something tangible that you can add to your resume.

Without a corresponding cert, I would probably recommend not including lab study on the resume itself, but would instead discuss that fact during the interview process. For example, "While I don't have SCOM experience in an enterprise setting, I do have over 40 hours of hands-on experience with SCOM in my home lab...etc."