Resume/Job Help Please! [Revised]

scheistermeister

Alright, I have some questions. The first one is, obviously, how is my resume? I recently revised it to have my education first and experience second. The second thing is that I have noticed that most places around me are looking for more Microsoft type IT work and not Cisco. It seems all the job offers I get are asking for a MCSE, which I do not have and will probably start going after once I finish my CCNP. Even the recruiters send me jobs like Sr. Windows System Admin jobs although I have not been called for an interview for any of them.

Anyways, here it is. Don't know how the formatting will turn out though... Well now that I have pasted it in, not well... It was made with the Word "Professional" Template, so I'll clean it up a bit. Don't know how to keep the tabs and bullets though.

Ok, the whole plain text thing wasn't working so I put it on Google. Formatting is still a little messy, but works.

OLD
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddc5v5w4_0hg4hp6xt

NEW
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddc5v5w4_19tzd96cx

jryantech

Incoming attacks on your objective.

Take it out and use your "Cover Letter" to say an objective and more about yourself.

I understand your going for a System Admin job but maybe put your efficient with Microsoft Office(HR people obviously love this) but don't put it if you're not

dynamik

Yea. I was looking at my resume the other day (first time in 5+ years), and my objective is like that. I felt like I was begging for a job.

networker050184

I think objectives are useless. A good summary is A LOT better, but this is my opinion and there are always supporters of the objective when these posts come up. Also your education section is more like a hybrid education/experience section. You should combine education and certification into one section and just list your education and certification in a bulleted format such as:

AAS Harvard University in basket weaving

BLAH BLAH BLAH

CCNA - Cisco Certified Network Associate

BLAH BLAH BLAH....


You can leave out all the specifics as its not very important on a resume. If they want to know more they will ask you. Being responsible for upgrading the Cisco lab doesn't really belong in the education section. You could try to work it into your experience section if you want, but I'd leave it off as you have plenty of real world experience so you don't need that. Also I'd put the format as follows:

Summary

Experience

Education/Certification

Your experience is the most important thing to an employer and it should be close to the top. Like I said before this is my opinion and what has worked for me in the past.

As far as there being more MS jobs where you are rather than Cisco jobs, I wouldn't know.

scheistermeister

Thanks for the replies guys. I originally had the experience at the top of my resume but then all I got were a **** ton of calls for programming jobs. I was hoping by having more of the Cisco stuff on there I would show that I didn't want to be a programmer. Also put it at the top since there is a gap between the last time I was at a W2 job since I was in school.

I sorta agree on the objective thing, never did like those.

TechJunky

I am no pro myself, but I was in a position at my last job to interview and hire candidates. I would suggest leaving out a bunch of the tasks you performed at an education facility. Most employers dont want to know how well of an education you had, fact of the matter is that most other candidates that are applying have a college education as well.

What an employer is really looking for is hands on experience outside of school. Have you done any non-profit work? Do you belong to any organizations? Emphasis on your past employment is the best strategy. Most people scim over the certifications/education portion and like to read about your real world experience in your past positions. Leaving information out here could make/break you. If you worked on a big project, list the projects but dont be too detailed. This causes the employer to want to interview you just to see what those past projects consisted of etc.

Less is more. Be straight to the point and fill in as much information as possible on a single page.

If you list 20 certifications but only put down you repaired ink cartridges, well... guess where that resume is going.. I hope that helps.

scheistermeister

Alright, I revised my resume as per your guy's suggestions. What do you think now?

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddc5v5w4_19tzd96cx

networker050184

It looks better. A few thoughts though..

You need to do a grammar check on the summary as it will be the first thing they read and you don't want any errors.

In the experience section you have "Built and supported multiple personal computers for employees of the Bay West paper factory since 2004" which I would leave off as it doesn't seem to be part of your job duties. Also you have things like "Sales" and "Data Entry," I'd either elaborate more or take those off. Your most recent job seems like the type of job you want now so I would shorten the others and elaborate on your Cisco installation and upgrading experience. Don't lie about it but you can make it sound a little better than two simple bullets.


The education section still looks very obscure to me. You have a certifications section and under education you have "Passed Cisco certification test." You also have A+ and successful completion of A+ course. I'd leave the course part off. I'd also leave the individual courses you have taken and just put the degrees and/or certifications.