Unemployed for 8 months please help with my resume.

danny996

Hi I moved to South West Florida about 8 months ago to be closer to family. I left a pretty good job back in NYC and am starting to regret it. Ive been super depressed recently and feel like I should move back to NYC. I have applied for jobs like crazy but cannot land anything. I feel like my resume might not be to great. Any help is very appreciated.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/z87sif5204mab0s/resume2015.docx?dl=0

paul78

Hello Danny - welcome to TE. A couple of things about your resume that struck out at me.

1. I am guessing that you are actually not an Office Manager. I assume you are seeking an IT position. I strongly suggest you remove the Office Manager nomenclature from your resume.
2. Remove the High School - you have more than 13 years of experience. No one will care about the high school you attended.
3. I suggest a summary may be more IT centric. Remove reference to driving record and administrative tasks such as invoicing. Remove reference to Microsoft Office unless you want to highlight that you can do desktop support.
4. Be specific about what you performed at the X-Ray Duplication company - for example - what exactly was the business function that you performed from an IT perspective.
5. For Computer Repair/Service - remove the RMA part. Can you be specific about the support that you provided.
6. For the Sales Associate position - can you list any achievements such as always meeting your quota?

Looking at your resume - I would guess that it's your resume that is an issue. Also - can you provide a little more info about the type of jobs and companies that you are applying to?

danny996

Hey Paul.

I am trying to apply for any computer technician / it support jobs that are coming up. I am a+ certified and am studying for my network+ test. That's how I found this site. Thanks for the suggestions I will try and tweak it and hopefully get some bites lol

gespenstern

I double what Paul said.

thomas_

I would quantify all of your bullet points. How many people did you suervise? What was the specific harware and software that you supported? How did each bullet point contribute to the overall business goals? How many systems did you install, maintain, troubleshoot? If it was a ticketing system how many tickets did you work on? Whay percentage of tickets that you worked on did you succsessfully close?

The more specific you make your bullet points the better.

srabiee

I highly recommend that you refer to the Resume Resources thread here:

http://www.techexams.net/forums/jobs-degrees/113891-resume-writing-resources.html

I think you need to focus on highlighting and expanding upon your technical accomplishments, especially in your previous position in which you were employed for over 10 years. Begin this section with a high level overview detailing your daily/weekly duties and responsibilities, and then use bullets to highlight your special accomplishments, projects, promotions, etc. Refer to ptilsen's resume as an excellent example of how to properly write and format an IT resume.

I agree that the "Office Manager" aspect needs to be downplayed or eliminated. You need to tailor this resume to the job or job title/role that you intend on obtaining. For example, if you want to land a systems engineering role, then the entire resume needs to be geared toward systems engineering knowledge, experience, and past accomplishments. Same for IT management, or whatever else you are looking to do.

danny996

Hey thanks for the info guys. I made a few changes. The thing is I worked in a very small office. 10 employees. Thanks for taking a look.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8qrrxfxftq07iou/resume2015part3.docx?dl=0

paul78

It's a little better. Being in a small office isn't too bad. It sounds like it was a medical office and that you have a HIPPA so that could play in your favor. Are you getting any interviews at all?

A couple of things about this version:

• I thought I remembered seeing that you had a technical degree of some sort. If so - you could leave that on - otherwise just change the last section to Certifications.
• You mentioned studying for the Network+ - any idea when you will be taking the test? That would be good to be able to add once you pass. If you can do it - you may want to take a Microsoft cert as well.

Be very careful about choice of words and how you describe your work:

• "Proficient with Office..." For desktop IT support, you will need to be more than proficient. Perhaps remove that and add a section of technologies that you are familiar with instead.
• "Outstanding technical skill..." - Again - maybe remove that and add a section that states what actual technologies that you know.
• Under the summary - since you have experience with handling confidential medical data - add something like "Experienced IT support professional versed in support of healthcare systems including the handling of confidential patient information."
• "Installed and updated" - don't say that - if you were working in a small office, I presume you had latitude in IT processes. Something like this - if accurate - would be better. "Managed IT desktop infrastructure including developing preventative processes necessary to maintain high uptime.... " And then give examples - especially if you can say why it's important.
• "Identify and repair" - something like "Responsible for timely analysis and correction of XYZ..." may be better.
• "Inspected and repair non-working..." - Avoid inspected - chose a word like Analyse and provided troubleshooting services....

Hope that makes sense....

danny996

Hey thanks for all the help guys. Ive made a few more changes. What do you guys think?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/chv0wl9qjepcvp9/2015part4.docx?dl=0

paul78

I like the format a bit better. I do think it needs a little more work. Do you have any Windows Server experience? You only listed Microsoft desktop OS's. Try floating this resume for a week or so and see if you get any interviews. It's going to be a continual improvement process.