Critique Resume + Salary Expectations

shawn488

Everyone,

I've posted here before but I have just completed my resume. I am looking for advice on what other certifications I could obtain to strengthen my resume. I also would like opinions of those working in the field on the civilian side to estimate what I can expect as far as salary terms. I will be relocating to the Dallas-Fort Worth area. I plan to be job seeking in 6 months if everything goes correctly. General resume critiques are also appreciated.

networker050184

What kind of position are you shooting for and in what industry? That will help narrow down certifications and salary expectations.

shawn488

I have been looking at many types of Project Management jobs or general IT management jobs. I would also be open to doing a technical job such as Network or Sys admin.

10Linefigure

Your font is small, perhaps a bit bigger and a more common font? I just got out of the Army and didn't put any decorations on my resume, a NATO medal <<example doesn't mean you bring more value to their company. "Pressure" next to project management? Other then that I would really try to condense it some. But you have so much to work with, it wont be hard to find impressive bullets and achievements and put them together. Good luck.

srabiee

I'm no expert at critiquing military resumes, but I will try my best to give you some advice. I'll go over formatting issues first. If you need help with content, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

While you do have a good bit of experience listed on your resume, I still highly recommend you edit this down to two pages. Three pages is excessive and tedious to read through.

Within the Profile section, it appears that your very first sentence has an extra space preceding the text "Information Technology professional..." You may want to check this to be sure.

Regarding the Key Skills section, instead of listing a bunch of software, technologies, and protocols, I would rather see 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.

There is too much white space between your Key Skills section and the Experience section. There is also too much white space at the top of the 2nd page. You definitely want to take another look at your formatting and make sure everything is consistent and precise.

Remove the "References available upon request" section. This is implied and unnecessary. If the hiring manager wants references, they will ask for them.

"CompTIA Security Plus" should be changed to CompTIA Security+. Same goes for Network+. If you are enrolled in the CompTIA continuing education program, you can write this as "CompTIA Security+ | ce"

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

This document details 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

cshkuru

I would remove the awards and decorations and note the J7 qualifier down with the cisco certifications. remove the key skills section. the skills listed are all so generic that the are meaningless. remove the profile and put that into a cover letter. remove the references avaialble upon request. I wouldn't try and condense anything else. honestly with that active top secret clearance the people who are going to be recruiting you are going to want to see all that stuff. 14 Fatal Resume Mistakes - Salary.com

shawn488

Thanks everyone for the resume critiques. As far as salary, any ideas on what I should be asking? I've gotten anywhere from 75-125k. I make around 72k now so obviously I would want a pay increase. I was thinking I should set my range around 90-100k, thoughts? Thanks guys!

srabiee

What area do you live in?

Try researching salary expectations on Salary.com, PayScale.com, and Glassdoor.com. But take those results with a grain of salt, as they are not always completely accurate. But at the very least they should give you a ballpark idea.

Nervous Interviewer

I would move the sections around a bit for the most popular ones should be at the top. Profile should be moved to the cover letter. Key Skills should be at the end of the resume or taken out altogether or in the cover letter. Certs should be at the very top. Next should be the Education part. What about software or hardware? This is what every single HR individual will do in your resume. Search for keywords. Like OS, switches, software, etc, etc. This section can be combined together.

Next will be followed by Experience. You have a lot of work history and each job has very detailed information. That is awesome. However, break it up some. I am a big fan of adding a single color to create flow into the resume. For yourself, I would add a single dark color to the name of each position and only that. For example, "White House Call Center Supervisor" should be colorized. If you do not use color, at least add a line after each position. It's hard to tell where one job position starts and another ends.

Awards should be moved over to the cover letter as well. Other than that, it looks really good and you have a very promising career ahead of you. Good luck, man!

shawn488

Nervous, thanks for all the information! I will be using all of it. I never thought of including software and hardware information in the resume but I will add it in. I have been thinking about getting a professional resume writer to write my resume.

10Linefigure

Don't bother having someone else write your resume for you. You know what was important and where to put it. If they put emphasis on something you don't remember as well, then during an interview it may blindside you. Try and get it down to around two pages of good information that you are really comfortable with and post it again.

srabiee

Check out the three links that I posted above ^^^

You shouldn't need professional resume assistance after reading through those and reviewing ptilsen's resume (which is considered the golden standard for IT resumes by a lot of forum members)

It's up to you though. Some of those resume writing services charge upwards of $300 ~ $400, and it may still not be to your liking.