Am I missing something with resumes?

DigitalZeroOne

I've seen a lot of recent posts where people are asking for resume reviews. A large amount of them have education/certifications/skills at the bottom of the resume. Where is this format coming from? My opinion is that it's completely wrong, and out of the many resumes that I've seen over the years, I can't remember anyone formatting a resume that way.

I'm just curious...ok...(Wow, just tried something). I just did something and I cannot believe it. I search for "Sample Resumes" and I see a lot of resumes with the education and skills at the bottom. What in the world is going on? Maybe I'm stuck in my ways, but that doesn't seem to make any sense.

Priston

Just so we are clear you disagree with work experience being at the top?

bpenn

Seems to me that everyone is formatting their resume with Summary, Experience, then skills, education, and certs. Experience is what most employers want to see and I think people format their resumes prioritizing experience over skills, edu, and certs. At least, thats how I was told it should be done.

DigitalZeroOne

Priston wrote: »

Just so we are clear you disagree with work experience being at the top?

Correct, experience should be under skills/certifications and then education. Of course, I could see education being right above skills/certification, but work experience seems odd if it's the first thing. I'm willing to change, but I don't know, it just seems odd.

nster

DigitalZeroOne wrote: »

Correct, experience should be under skills/certifications and then education. Of course, I could see education being right above skills/certification, but work experience seems odd if it's the first thing. I'm willing to change, but I don't know, it just seems odd.

In IT, especially in the Security, Network / Systems Administration, Network Engineering and similar fields, they don't care about education, and if they do, it's a big company who have to check the "has a bachelor's degree". Experience is key in IT. Skills are often also demonstrated through your work experience and achievements

srabiee

The answer is: it depends.

If you are lacking in significant professional experience, especially in the field that you are applying for, but you happen to have a BS degree and certs, then they would be better served at the top of the resume.

However, with years of applicable professional experience, you may be better served to concentrate on this information by listing it first.

Ultimately, IMO, experience is king.

Of course, a resume should grow and mature with the individual. A format that works early on in a career may not work so well after accruing 15+ years of experience.

BradleyHU

why would experience being first on the resume NOT make sense? Hiring mngrs, and HR are looking at a ton of resumes daily. And if you have a bunch of certs, skills, & education, before you get to your long list of experience, they're probably not gonna give your resume a good look...

DigitalZeroOne

BradleyHU wrote: »

why would experience being first on the resume NOT make sense? Hiring mngrs, and HR are looking at a ton of resumes daily. And if you have a bunch of certs, skills, & education, before you get to your long list of experience, they're probably not gonna give your resume a good look...

This may come down to tradition. I've been in IT for, wow, it's been over 20 years now. I've seen plenty of resumes, and as far as I can remember, and for the sake of argument, I'll lump education and certification into one category, because all you needed back then was an MCSE and people rolled out the red carpet. Well, skills and education were at the top, and if formatted correctly, that didn't take up too much space.

Recently, I saw easily 30-40 resumes for some IT projects that I was helping a relative with (she had to skim them over, but she had questions about certain terms) and they all had skills and education at the top, and then work history (newest job first, then older jobs). These were people with many years of experience under their belt. Maybe this is the new way, but it seems odd to me.

Chitownjedi

BradleyHU wrote: »

why would experience being first on the resume NOT make sense? Hiring mngrs, and HR are looking at a ton of resumes daily. And if you have a bunch of certs, skills, & education, before you get to your long list of experience, they're probably not gonna give your resume a good look...

will have to disagree here...
There are a lot of articles that (show) where recruiters and hiring managers eyes first go to when they view a resume... (take with a grain of salt)

The most activity seems to be in the top 3rd, and then in subsequent Experience section...
I place my Certifications right below my Qualifications at the very top.... Obviously I have never had any issues since I've been doing this, and have been told numerous times that it "read's very well"

Also, back when my certifications were at the bottom, I had a couple of interviews where it became obvious they never even got that far down to see them, and didn't even know I had them..

As long as it is formatted well, is easily read, and organized, I believe having certifications and skills towards the top is personal preference.. I have Qualifications, Certifications, Skills, and then Experience listed... My first job barely appears on my first page... again, YMMV...

olaHalo

Highlight your resume based off your strengths.
If you had some amazing job that blows your certs and experience away then put that at the top followed by the others.
If all things are pretty much even the Id follow the standard Education, Certs, then Experience.

Mike-Mike

I have Summary then certs, then education, then experience.

Thanks to WGU and self study, I have about 22 certifications. In my experience, that really stands out, and has gotten comments from just about any interview I've ever had

Ismaeljrp

I suppose it'll depend on your level of experience.

Low experience - skills and certs higher up.
Mid level experience - skills and certs bottom
High experience - perhaps it doesn't really matter, at this point the positions are so important your resume won't just get looked at for 20 seconds.

networker050184

When I read a resume I look at the summary then experience. Then I'll look at certifications. Never even glance at education really. Couldn't tell you if the last five guys I have interviewed had even a single college credit.

So how should you format your resume? I agree with Ismealjrp. Highlight what you have going for you. If you lack the experience highlight your education. If you have experience that should definitely be what you are trying to get across first. That can be with your summary followed by certs then experience or summary followed by experience.

The last thing I want to see when looking at a resume is a bunch of "skills" and certifications right off the bat though. Especially skills like "IPv4" or "IGRP" and things along those lines. Seriously people put a little effort into your resumes. It can go a long way to getting you a call back. Once you get the interview though the resume is pretty much nothing.

srabiee

networker050184 wrote: »

The last thing I want to see when looking at a resume is a bunch of "skills" and certifications right off the bat though. Especially skills like "IPv4" or "IGRP" and things along those lines. Seriously people put a little effort into your resumes.

^ This. I don't know why so many people rely on a "Skills" section, which is borderline useless, IMO. Listing a bunch of acronyms and protocols tells me virtually nothing about your real-world experience and capabilities. That's why it's so important to have a comprehensive work experience section that covers all the bases.

Priston

Acronyms and protocols are helpful for the HR and IT recruiters that don't know the first thing about IT.

ITHokie

networker050184 wrote: »

The last thing I want to see when looking at a resume is a bunch of "skills" and certifications right off the bat though. Especially skills like "IPv4" or "IGRP" and things along those lines. Seriously people put a little effort into your resumes. It can go a long way to getting you a call back. Once you get the interview though the resume is pretty much nothing.

If you don't have any gatekeepers in front of you, I would probably agree. But that isn't reality for most companies. Most companies screen resumes at the Human Resources level. Many HR folks that I have talked to say they spend 20-45 seconds looking at a resume, which means that if you don't have certs on the first page, they may not even be seen. So you're depending on someone who doesn't really understand IT to parse your experience in 20 - 45 seconds and decide it maps to the job description.

Getting HR to notice a resume has to take priority over how hiring managers like to read them. Why? because if it doesn't make it through the HR filter, a hiring manager is never going to see it.

networker050184

Maybe I've just been really lucky, but every company I've worked for that I have been involved in the hiring process has technical people, or at least a hiring manager doing the resume screening not some HR person that has no idea what they are looking at. How do they expect to get the right candidates with that approach?

I also avoid IT departments for companies so maybe that's where the disconnect is.

beads

My resume has the laundry list of packages/skills, presentations/awards and education on the top with the last 5 years or three positions below. Its still 3 full pages and I have tons of experience.

And of course you're probably not really seeing "your resume" at all if your going through a headhunter that is presenting in their format. They often look much different than what you submitted. Best to go over "your resume" before accepting any interview with an altered resume.

- b/eads