Job Searching/Resume not sure

brandon2

Hello,

I been studying for the CompTIA A+ 901/902 as of recently before the new college semester started, i have been looking and job searching on Indeed.com and i have written my resume yet i have received barely any responses nor for a interview. My question is having a CompTIA A+ certification enough to find a job? I am also looking at Call Center, Help Desk and Technical Support when looking for a job ad, second i am very close to finishing my Associate Degree is that enough and when i should start looking for a job or is the A+ enough to start finding work while i am close to completing the Associate degree. Thirdly do would i need to rewrite my resume when job searching or i am lacking experience to find an entry level job?

Thank you

N7Valiant

An A+ alone is very tough to get your foot in the door with. I just this week found a job with an MSP and I have an A+/Net+/Sec+ and an Associate's with 120 hours (over 2 months) of intern experience working in an in-house IT department at my college. The experience is the real gold that people want to know the most about and will ask questions on.

You may want to look into applying as an intern somewhere or as a volunteer for a non-profit organization such as a charity or church to get that experience. Colleges are also more accommodating than most other places, so try asking at the college you're attending.

Also work on a good cover letter. It wouldn't be expected for you to try to tailor it(or your resume) to each position since you have no experience to speak of yet. I can just tell you that I could shoot off 10-15 applications without a single response, then comes a carefully typed out cover letter and I can easily send off 5 applications a week and fit 2 interviews in every week.

Try reaching out to local staffing agencies, and also one easy think to overlook is direct company website (which is where I found my new job). If all that didn't work out for me, the next step would have been to walk down to every computer shop in my area to hand in my resume in person.

brandon2

I do have work experience from other jobs just not anything office or technical related, wouldn’t some skills be transferable from those jobs? Reason I am looking is because I need to be looking for another job.. i have been told it’s better to find a job when you have one? Is that true?

Does anyone here look at resumes I am wondering I have to rewrite mine cause I heard keyswords are looked at in the resume when applying.

majorpayne

I think you could get a helpdesk job/callcenter as long as you know the stuff you studied in A+. But its about ratio, if i applied to 100 jobs, i expect a 10% return rate for interviews/callbacks since there is competition. But normally it could involve little more knowledge that people who had experienced could do. My suggestion is to study more advance topics while looking for a job like Microsoft servers/active directory etc if you want to become a higher level tech guy.
This is how my route to jobs went: Started part time Internship -> Started Part-Time Help Desk -> Full Time help desk -> Jr System Engineer, This is over 5 year period. every bit of experience will help beat the competition .

mzx380

This is a sound strategy but like others on this thread have mentioned, you'll need more skills to land that coveted first job. Keep upskilling when possible and work your butt off when you land that job. Once you've been in IT for a while, subsequent jobs will see your non-technical skills developed in other positions as an asset.

Good luck

brandon2

I have written my resume myself the issue I have is it getting noticed and I am at the point where I need to be finding better jobs soon. Does the template format matter? And any recommendations on writing my cover letter I feel like ifs simple but when writing resume and cover letter too many different ways

brandon2

mzx380 wrote: »

This is a sound strategy but like others on this thread have mentioned, you'll need more skills to land that coveted first job. Keep upskilling when possible and work your butt off when you land that job. Once you've been in IT for a while, subsequent jobs will see your non-technical skills developed in other positions as an asset.

Good luck

Have but still feel like I am not doing enough submitting resume, is resume the problem? What skills should I be adding?

mzx380

Overwhelming prospective employers with skills you acquire never hurt. A+ is good for help desk roles but you should tailor your approach with what your end goal is (Ex- ou want to be a Network Admin, study for CCNA after A+ to augment your network skills.)