Need resume advice

Well since I now have my A+ and CCNA certifications, I am ready to begin a serious job search.

The strengths I have:
* Have experice in IT field.
* Have certs.
* Have strong references.
* Have Bachelor's degree.
* Have strong education background, including a high GPA from my additional studies.

The challenges I have before me:
* I am transitioning from programming to PC/Network support
-- Reasons:
* Not much demand for COBOL programmers
* Only have minimal VB and SQL experience (part-time at that)
* PC/Network jobs seem to have a brighter future than programming
* Employment gaps - substantial periods of time where I was unemployed or working outside of IT.
* The experiences I do have in IT don't have much to do with network/PC support.

Would appreciate it if some could look at my resume and make some suggestions.

Also a question. How much should I concentrate on the "aesthetic appearance" of the resume? I have heard that many companies now store the resumes they receive electronically, then do a keyword search when they have an opening.

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Again thanks for any comments.

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Comments

LukeQuake

Employment gaps - substantial periods of time where I was unemployed or working outside of IT.

I wouldn't say that in an interview.. try something like "I needed a career break to focus on certifications"

But otherwise, I would say you have a solid C.V. (resume)

Olajuwon

Dude, if I were you I would remove my personal information from the resume before posting it. Well I don't know if it is your real info, but it seems to be.

Your resume layout is a little bit off, you need to reorganize it. I don't see an objective, I would put put the logos at the bottom of the page, list your skills, put your education and work experience before your certifications since you only have a few entry level certs. You seem to have good technical experience.

BryanM67

Olajuwon wrote:

Dude, if I were you I would remove my personal information from the resume before posting it. Well I don't know if it is your real info, but it seems to be.

Your resume layout is a little bit off, you need to reorganize it. I don't see an objective, I would put put the logos at the bottom of the page, list your skills, put your education and work experience before your certifications since you only have a few entry level certs. You seem to have good technical experience.

Thanks for the advice. I will create an objective and redo the layout.

You seem to have good technical experience.

Thats another question I have. Does this experience help me even though most of it is programming related and has little to do with PC and Network experience? Was sort of thinking that since I was changing careers in IT, that I was sort of starting over but I knew I needed an experience section.

Olajuwon

BryanM67 wrote:

Thats another question I have. Does this experience help me even though most of it is programming related and has little to do with PC and Network experience? Was sort of thinking that since I was changing careers in IT, that I was sort of starting over but I knew I needed an experience section.

Any technical experience is good experience. A lot of network support jobs require a Comp Science degree although it's programming. Your systems engineer position from 90-97 is what stands out. It shows your ability to hold a job and it also involved PC/LAN support.

jpeezy55

One of my instructors (who was also an HR man for his company at one point) suggested that I remove the dates of where I worked or went to school/training. The reasons being, is it didn't matter to them and if you were not at a job for very long, it may rasie red flags to them about why you were there for such a short time and reflect negatively on you. If they care, they will ask you how long you held a certain position, but most times they don't care and you don't want to give them anything they could hold against you.

Just a passing thought...

Badger95

The resume needs scope and impact. When you write a resume write your bullet statements in a cause and effect manner. State the skill, what was the problem, how did you fix it, and what was the impact. You want to show things like how many did you manage, how did your application save time or money. Reduced such and such by 15%, saved $1million in lost revenue because my application saved 30 man hours a day. I am just making this up as an example.

So lets take a look at some of your statements.
- Developed new preventative maintenance application utilizing Microsoft Visual Basic.Net.
This doesn’t tell me much in what your skill is or even more important what it was you really did. Is the impact of your accomplishment the same if you create this for one person or 50? What was the business problem you solved? How much time and money do you estimate your process saved? How many people and resources did you application impact?

As a possible example:
Developed innovative preventative maintenance application for school mail servers with Microsoft VB.Net. Reduced maintenance downtime by 30% ensuring reliable service for 97 Faculty and Staff.

That’s just off the top of my head, you model it to your situation.

Created reports utilizing Crystal Reports which enabled user to track preventative maintenance.

OK but how much did it impact operations. Who or how many users, and how did that make the system better, faster, reduce efforts by the user. Each of your bullets need to show impact, scope and cause and effect.

To illustrate one more, Right now, I work in a LAN admin. What does that say about my skill? You will probably say, not much. If I say I work in a LAN Office as system administrator that impacts 50 users. Ok that says something to the employer they now have something to compare me with. If I say I work in a LAN office with five personnel administrating 1500 users in a 24/7 operation. The shear number of users now tells the employer that I am more likely to see a larger Varity of issues and thus rack up experience quickly. Sorry to be so long winded, but some thoughts to chew on. I do hope this helps.

Badger95

BryanM67

Badger95 wrote:

The resume needs scope and impact. When you write a resume write your bullet statements in a cause and effect manner. State the skill, what was the problem, how did you fix it, and what was the impact. You want to show things like how many did you manage, how did your application save time or money. Reduced such and such by 15%, saved $1million in lost revenue because my application saved 30 man hours a day. I am just making this up as an example.

So lets take a look at some of your statements.
- Developed new preventative maintenance application utilizing Microsoft Visual Basic.Net.
This doesn’t tell me much in what your skill is or even more important what it was you really did. Is the impact of your accomplishment the same if you create this for one person or 50? What was the business problem you solved? How much time and money do you estimate your process saved? How many people and resources did you application impact?

As a possible example:
Developed innovative preventative maintenance application for school mail servers with Microsoft VB.Net. Reduced maintenance downtime by 30% ensuring reliable service for 97 Faculty and Staff.

That’s just off the top of my head, you model it to your situation.

Created reports utilizing Crystal Reports which enabled user to track preventative maintenance.

OK but how much did it impact operations. Who or how many users, and how did that make the system better, faster, reduce efforts by the user. Each of your bullets need to show impact, scope and cause and effect.

To illustrate one more, Right now, I work in a LAN admin. What does that say about my skill? You will probably say, not much. If I say I work in a LAN Office as system administrator that impacts 50 users. Ok that says something to the employer they now have something to compare me with. If I say I work in a LAN office with five personnel administrating 1500 users in a 24/7 operation. The shear number of users now tells the employer that I am more likely to see a larger Varity of issues and thus rack up experience quickly. Sorry to be so long winded, but some thoughts to chew on. I do hope this helps.

Badger95

Well..thats the tricky part.

Lots of times the customer gave me (or my group if it was a team project) a written specification document to indicate what they want, and thats exactly what they were given.

The accounting team never told us how much money they were expecting to save or how much revenue they were gaining, or even how much productivity they gained from it. If it was a new system I was not given the information on how long it took for a user to do his job in the old system. Perhaps my then managers had a bit of more info on it but the guys in the trenches didn't.

Should I come up with a best guess? Whatever I put down could not be verified.

Badger95

Well..thats the tricky part.

Lots of times the customer gave me (or my group if it was a team project) a written specification document to indicate what they want, and thats exactly what they were given.

The accounting team never told us how much money they were expecting to save or how much revenue they were gaining, or even how much productivity they gained from it. If it was a new system I was not given the information on how long it took for a user to do his job in the old system. Perhaps my then managers had a bit of more info on it but the guys in the trenches didn't.

Should I come up with a best guess? Whatever I put down could not be verified.

Ya in those situations when you don’t get the feedback you need it makes it hard. But you can put a different perspective on it, your comments above give some clues.

You work with a team you could say how big a team (team work is highly valued), You had a part to work on so, you could talk to how you completed your part on time, or ahead of time consistently. And you had to work to customer specification so that means you had have the skills to follow instructions, ability to meet demands under time constraints. You may know if the entire project met its goal, try to fit your part in to the success of that goal. And you say it was a new system. What do you know about that and work that in. Working something new never done before, cutting edge. Perhaps expected gains? If it was recent, I would go back and ask them for feed back.

You would know, the quality of your code by your supervisor feedback. rewrites and how many times you had to fix work, that sort of thing. You may be able to estimate how many projects you worked, that would be a good one. "Led team on...." "Directly contributed to ....... time sensitive project to completion, meeting all customer specifications. No rewrites"

Has your supervisor given you additional responsibilities or consulted you on anything. "key or lead advisor... programmer..."
Were you picked to do a certain job. "Hand picked by supervisor to perform ....."

I would feel comfortable stating a few approximations or best guesses for the oldest stuff. just keep it as real as you can. Do you have any performance feedbacks from any jobs. good source there. Any outstanding comments from bosses or co-workers and customers. you could put parts of their quotes in. For example I have used statements from a high level supervisor who stated I had the best program of all the program managers he has seen.

Try to put the perspective on what you do know. I will be honest, when I write, my statements I rewrite them several dozen times. Trying to find a perspective that makes me look good.
Another thing,
Use action words and avoid passive sentences. Passive sentences are the ones when people try to sound official and it sounds unnatural.

Isn’t it funny how its easier for us to do our job, write complicated code, or program management documents than it is to write about our value.

Badger95

Actually I would feel comfortable using some approximations on some of the new stuff too, for some things. again just try to keep as real as you can. You are trying to show breadth of experience.