Posting resume for review

ElGato127

Making a career change into IT. I think my resume is mostly there, but a little feedback would be helpful. Do I just post it as an attachment to a message, or how does it work?

Thanks

danny069

Attachment is better (for you) so we can see the formatting. For us, we just gotta delete a whole bunch of resumes from our downloads folder.

ElGato127

How much redaction do you recommend? Not sure if anybody would recognize my current/former employers.

danny069

For security purposes, I would not list names of current or previous employers, your first or last name, email address, telephone number, home address (it is not necessary for resume review) you can edit these by putting an example of it, ie: elgato127@techexams.net for an email, Company 1, Company 2, etc.

ElGato127

Thanks, I have heavily redacted the resume. Here goes.

Redacted Resume.doc

danny069

From what I see, you never want to put 'entry level' on a resume. You have skills as mentioned in the summary section. Entry level to me is someone that just walked in the door for the first time, not having any experience in the field in which they are applying, that being said, nobody should sell themselves short. Let your resume speak for itself and the person reviewing it use their discretion of what level you are on. Forgive me when I say I don't like the word 'substitute teacher' sure it is what it is, but to me, that position doesn't receive the credit it deserves. You are a trained teacher, period. If you wish to use substitute list to describe what your job was/is like, that's fine because it will speak for itself. I would not add certifications I am currently studying for, just list the ones you have. I would highlight your education from most recent down, for example: pHD first, masters degree second, etc. You want to refrain from saying assembled '3' computers from parts, I'd remove that specific number. Also remove windows and linux driver installation which should not be under hardware, it is redundant to have since you have linux and windows listed under software. And since you have proficiency in medical software, I would elaborate and highlight that as well.

Verities

You want relevant information to be viewed first so put your certifications up first, then your education (you can probably remove your bachelors degree to save some space). Also try to condense your resume into a one pager by removing irrelevant information. Please understand I'm not trying to minimize what you've done as a teacher and in your previous positions, but HR and/or IT managers don't want to read a lot of black text on white background.

Keep it short and sweet by using talking points for each position that are maybe a few sentences long. On a side note, have you thought about becoming an IT instructor? It would kind of be fitting for your since you already have some credentials in that area and would only need a few more certifications to become an instructor of specific technologies.

ElGato127

Thanks to everyone who looked at my resume. After making the recommended changes I am now tantalizingly close to a one-pager. If anyone would like to have a look at the new and improved version for comments, great. Otherwise, thanks.

danny069

Yes let's see it.

ElGato127

danny069 wrote: »

Yes let's see it.

Sure thing.

Redacted Resume.doc

danny069

Much better than before, in the summary you can put A+ Certified technician, to combine the 2 aspects. I would leave out adjectives to describe yourself, such as hard worker, etc. It is great that you are all of that but it shouldn't be on a resume, other than that it is much better than the previous.

Verities

Its looking better.

ElGato127

Just finished the summary statement. Also, any ideas for trimming it down to one page?

Phileeeeeeep651

Maybe it's just me but I've never been a big fan of the two column approach. I feel like it leaves a lot of white space in areas. I was able to play with the margins a bit and changed the font size down to a 11 and got it all on one page. I would start there or maybe change some of the experience from bullets to more of a paragraph style, that might help it fit a bit better if you went with a one column style.

Verities

ElGato127 wrote: »

Just finished the summary statement. Also, any ideas for trimming it down to one page?

I'm not a huge fan of the "proficiencies" sections being on resumes. People tend to list too many things like TCP/IP, yada yada yada (not the case in your resume). If you do plan on keeping them here are my suggestions...

Under Software proficiencies: put "windows xp/ 7" on same line, remove "(primarily RedHat and Ubuntu derivatives)".

Under Education: remove "Outstanding Graduate Student, Ogden College of Science" and "Outstanding Graduate Student, Department of Biology".

For the experience section, you need to include the IT work you've been involved with. You briefly talk about it in your "Hardware Proficiencies" section, but I don't see it in your experience section. Try to put that information into the positions that you've held.

Also I know you have those teaching licenses but unless you plan on teaching/instructing IT I don't think they're relevant.

ElGato127

Great ideas. Verities, the reason I have no IT jobs listed under experience is because this resume is to help me land my first IT job. What might you suggest in this case? Thanks

Verities

ElGato127 wrote: »

Great ideas. Verities, the reason I have no IT jobs listed under experience is because this resume is to help me land my first IT job. What might you suggest in this case? Thanks

I understand that you are trying to land your first IT job. What I'm getting at is you have this listed at the top of your resume:

"

• On teaching assignments, identify IT issues and troubleshoot for students, teachers and network admins"

Put this information under the experience section under the job that you held when you did this work.

example:

Sept 2013 - present
Utilize traditional direct instruction with focus on visual emphasis to deliver class curricula and provide guidance for student assignments.

• Created and implemented science curricula for long-term substitute teaching assignments.
• On teaching assignments, identify IT issues and troubleshoot for students, teachers and network admins
  
• Performance recognized with placement on preferred substitute lists at several schools and direct requests by teachers for my services.
• Developed novel teaching strategies for chemistry and biology.

I suggest sprucing it up a little bit, maybe write out specifically what you did and if you can fit it into other positions add something like that in as a bullet point.

ElGato127

Thanks, Verities.

I took your idea and ran with it. Also considering a keyword section for the benefit of HR screening software (ridiculous but probably necessary).

ElGato127

I decided not to go with the keyword section. I also applied to and was accepted as a technician with protonic.com. I just landed an IT helpdesk position at a local hospital. Thanks for all the help.