Need some help ->

sharptech

OK as you guys know by now I have been applying to jobs etc.. well right now I have landed one in person interview and one on call interview. For some reason I am not really even getting called back and I am not sure why. I do follow ups etc..

Here is my resume - looks a little different then in the word doc conversion, but you will get the point.

Anything I should change let me know.

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfnhr32m_9gt323hcq

Thanks

empc4000xl

That is very hard to read. I know you want to put in as much information as possible, but you have to make it easy for HR to digest. Put in a objective statement. List your Certs and Degree. Then list the skills that you have that are relevant to the job you are applying for. Then put in your work experience. When HR looks at a resume most times they only look at the job half and they are looking for key works in the job posting, certs and degree. If you have all of that, then they will go down and look at the other stuff.

undomiel

I'm definitely really tired this morning, I read that as one in prison interview. I thought that a little odd.

Put your certifications with your education, that generally makes it easier to find them. Replace the tools list with more of a skills list. HR will think think that you feel all artistic because you use "putty" at work. They'll be wondering why photoshop skills aren't listed. Unless it is a pretty high profile tool i.e. Windows Server 2003, RedHat, Linux, etc it shouldn't be on your list. Instead put down what you are skilled at using tools for. Antivirus solutions, spam filtering, DNS, DHCP, clustering, and so forth.

Then we have your experience section. It's good that you have some job highlights. Try and quantify as much of it as you can. Like for instance this, "Managed phone system upgrade, to include comparing and selecting vendors; increased productivity through effective new system." Did you come in under budget? Did you come in ahead of your timeline? How much did you increase productivity? What did you save the company? Money speaks volumes so always try to work in what you have saved a company. Just try to add some more punch. You may also wish to include when you attained your degree and where at.

Are you sending a cover letter? Try and create targeted cover letters for the companies you are applying for. Come up with a general template and then customize that for each specific job you are applying for. Don't forget to send a thank you letter after the interviews! Good luck and keep at it.

sharptech

undomiel wrote:

I'm definitely really tired this morning, I read that as one in prison interview. I thought that a little odd.

Put your certifications with your education, that generally makes it easier to find them. Replace the tools list with more of a skills list. HR will think think that you feel all artistic because you use "putty" at work. They'll be wondering why photoshop skills aren't listed. Unless it is a pretty high profile tool i.e. Windows Server 2003, RedHat, Linux, etc it shouldn't be on your list. Instead put down what you are skilled at using tools for. Antivirus solutions, spam filtering, DNS, DHCP, clustering, and so forth.

Then we have your experience section. It's good that you have some job highlights. Try and quantify as much of it as you can. Like for instance this, "Managed phone system upgrade, to include comparing and selecting vendors; increased productivity through effective new system." Did you come in under budget? Did you come in ahead of your timeline? How much did you increase productivity? What did you save the company? Money speaks volumes so always try to work in what you have saved a company. Just try to add some more punch. You may also wish to include when you attained your degree and where at.

Are you sending a cover letter? Try and create targeted cover letters for the companies you are applying for. Come up with a general template and then customize that for each specific job you are applying for. Don't forget to send a thank you letter after the interviews! Good luck and keep at it.

Thanks - OK I will revise and make these changes.

I have where I went to school - just edited it out here - and yes I do send cover letters for each job and I do a follow up.

I will make changes and re-post.

sharptech

Here is the updated resume - let me know what you think and thanks for the tips!

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfnhr32m_10hfwzk4ps

sharptech

bump - just wanted to see if this was OK or any more changes need to be made - going to shoot a few more out soon - hopefully will get better results ;p

Thanks again guys.

networker050184

I would redo the firs section. It reads like you took it from a job description rather then emphasizing things you have actually done. I'd take the statement in italics and expand on that for your summary. Also, I wouldn't have a Highlights of Experience and Technical Proficiencies section. You could easily combine them into one.

sharptech

networker050184 wrote:

I would redo the firs section. It reads like you took it from a job description rather then emphasizing things you have actually done. I'd take the statement in italics and expand on that for your summary. Also, I wouldn't have a Highlights of Experience and Technical Proficiencies section. You could easily combine them into one.

OK thanks - for the highlights of expertise/technical part- just name it one thing and make one box and list everything in the two?

sharptech

OK I took advice and re-worked the resume. I kept the highlights and the technical part and just did things differently. I put systems, hardware, and software and now its more clean.

I re-worked the entire summary section. Part of it was from one of the ones on a previous post so I will re-work it more to my own flavor.

I also changed the experience part for the first job listed and expanded on the key contributions as advised as well.

Certification is now w/ experience.

Let me know what you think -

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfnhr32m_11f2sxfbdx

sharptech

Another question -

I applied to a job that is a Network/Desktop support position. The job requires Administer Exchange and Server 2003, and then all the PC's etc.

Now I do not have experience with Server or Exchange in a corporate environment, just my own labs. I have a lot of experience in PC support both in the education and corporate environment.

I apply to jobs where I do not always meet all the requirements such as this one, but when they start asking me about Server 2003, and Exchange what are some good answers I can give out instead of I have no experience, but looking to gain some. What do you guys say in these positions?

I have a call set up for Wednesday about this opportunity.

Thanks

undomiel

Well you have experience from own labs you say. So instead of saying you have no experience start talking about what you have been doing in your labs and what you can do for them. Especially lay out any plans you have that could improve their systems and/or methodologies. That will really impress them.

The current job I got I walked in last year October without ever having laid eyes on Server 2003 before. Not even touched it in a lab at home. I was still able to convince them that I could learn and handle their systems extremely swiftly and further more laid out some ideas for them about how I could improve their desktop set up. It looks like it impressed them enough to hire me. So don't take the no experience thing sitting down. Spin it to the best of your abilities.

sharptech

undomiel wrote:

Well you have experience from own labs you say. So instead of saying you have no experience start talking about what you have been doing in your labs and what you can do for them. Especially lay out any plans you have that could improve their systems and/or methodologies. That will really impress them.

The current job I got I walked in last year October without ever having laid eyes on Server 2003 before. Not even touched it in a lab at home. I was still able to convince them that I could learn and handle their systems extremely swiftly and further more laid out some ideas for them about how I could improve their desktop set up. It looks like it impressed them enough to hire me. So don't take the no experience thing sitting down. Spin it to the best of your abilities.

OK sounds good. Thanks for the tips.

Kaminsky

Also remember that job ads will be written for the best case scenario of the perfect candidate so don't worry that you don't meet all the required skills posted. You certainly need the main pre-requisites for the role but if you are good enough to get selected, they will fill the minor gaps once you start.

sharptech

Kaminsky wrote:

Also remember that job ads will be written for the best case scenario of the perfect candidate so don't worry that you don't meet all the required skills posted. You certainly need the main pre-requisites for the role but if you are good enough to get selected, they will fill the minor gaps once you start.

Yeah I meet everything else other than the server 2003/exchange part of the description. They need a good PC/Infrastructure support guy which I am doing and have done in the past. It just seems when I do interviews everything is going well until that point of the interview when they ask about server 2003 then it goes downhill.

I need to prove to them that I can come in to an environment and adept quickly and willing to learn. I have a phone interview tomorrow so I am hoping I can at least get an in-person interview as this job seems really good.

Kaminsky

Will they be paying you to manage their exchange server ? (which is pretty important if true) or are they just expecting you to set up the email clients ?

It may be the way you "go downhill" when they ask you about this at interview.

Resumes/CVs are to get you to the interview and then to give them something to talk about at interview. The interview itself has two main goals. Firstly to check you can do what you say you can do. Secondly, and I think most importantly, to see if you will fit in to that company/team.

It is no more complicated than that. Honestly. Think about what you would be thinking if you were the person trying to get a job filled.

If you have a weak poiint (exchange) and are overly nervous about it, the interviewer will pick up on it and if you are too nervous they will start to think "well what else are they hiding?" Be open about it! Say you have dealt with clients mostly with great success and would thoroughly enjoy getting to know the server side of the application in more detail......

That way you have been honest which they can only respect you for and get them already thinking about training you up in exchange server to meet that final hurdle.. For them, it's just a one week course they send you away on .... if everything else is upto scratch.

Kam.

sharptech

Kaminsky -

I am not sure of the the job details yet, just the description. I have a call with the Director tomorrow and she will be explaining it more and to see if I/we would be interested in setting up an interview.

I am usually very good w/ interviews and when the Server 2003/exchange parts come up I am always upfront and say that I would love to learn and that I can adapt to new environments easily.

I guess we will see what tomorrow brings- I will keep you guys updated. Thanks for the help.

sharptech

Just got through with the phone interview and I would say it went well. Probably one of the better ones I have had.

When we got to the dreaded Windows Server 2003 talk I handled it well and as advised here. I told the Director I was extremely interested in learning Server and Exchange and that I adept well to new environemnts etc.. The Director thought that was great and saw room for growth for me.

This is a consulting company that helps companies do high end migrations and help fix servers etc. Right now they have a position open where I would help users with issues and do in house infrastructure stuff and they would train me on Windows Server and Exchange to later deploy me out to client sites.

This sounds like a great opportunity and the Director is doing phone interviews today and will contact tomorrow to let me know if I get to come down for an in-person.

undomiel

That's great! Don't forget to send a thank you e-mail!

sharptech

undomiel wrote:

That's great! Don't forget to send a thank you e-mail!

Should I wait 24 hours or should I send one out sometime today? - I thought the default was a day- but would be interested to see what you guys do. Thanks!

undomiel

I like to send mine out so that when they check their e-mail the next day it will be there for them first thing in the morning.

Don't forget to account for timezones though. I forgot about that and sent out a thank you yesterday only to realise afterwords that the guy had already been to work for a few hours even though it was 6 am for me. Oops!

sharptech

undomiel wrote:

I like to send mine out so that when they check their e-mail the next day it will be there for them first thing in the morning.

Don't forget to account for timezones though. I forgot about that and sent out a thank you yesterday only to realise afterwords that the guy had already been to work for a few hours even though it was 6 am for me. Oops!

Ha that's a good point :P - we are in the same timezone though.

I will shoot her one first thing tomorrow morning (early.) - maybe that will get me in for the interview :P

sharptech

A follow up question-

What do you say in your thank you note? Is it long or short since it was just a phone interview.

I was thinking of something like this:

Dear Ms. blah

I really appreciate you taking the time out of your busy day to discuss the PC Support position with me. I look forward to hearing back from you about an interview.

Thank you,

my name

To short?

undomiel

Not too short, too blah. They'll look at it and go, "that's nice, who was that? Oh well." Delete.

Include a few details of things you discussed in the interview. Any suggestions you have to make. Any really good questions that came up that would get them thinking how you could do the work they have really well.

This will make them remember you. Then they'll remember to get you scheduled for an in person interview. Don't forget to do your research!

sharptech

undomiel wrote:

Not too short, too blah. They'll look at it and go, "that's nice, who was that? Oh well." Delete.

Include a few details of things you discussed in the interview. Any suggestions you have to make. Any really good questions that came up that would get them thinking how you could do the work they have really well.

This will make them remember you. Then they'll remember to get you scheduled for an in person interview. Don't forget to do your research!

OK let me do a re-work

sharptech

OK here is my re-work:

Dear Ms. blah

Thank you for taking the time to discuss the PC Support position at company name. I appreciate your time and consideration in interviewing me for this position. (since this was a phone interview should I change it?)

After speaking with you I think I would make a great candidate for this position as my previous work in infrastructure management could help your company. At the same time I see a lot of room for learning opportunities as we discussed and I am very excited about that.

I am very interested in this position and look forward to hearing back from you. Feel free to contact me at any time if any further information is needed.

Thank you,

blah

kripsak

Do you have any notable things you learned about the company during the interview or answers that were not provided by some questions the interviewer asked? Use that instead of stating you are the best candidate. It shows that you were listening in the interview, and your thank you note will not sound as cliche as other notes.

sharptech

Dear Ms. blah

Thank you for taking the time to discuss the PC Support position at company name. I appreciate your time and consideration in interviewing me for this position.

I am impressed by the number of consulting solutions company provides and think your methodology of achieving them is effective.

I am very interested in this position and look forward to hearing back from you. Feel free to contact me at any time if any further information is needed.

Thank you,

blah

---

Does that sound good? Did not really learn to much other than what I know - they do network solutions for company's in the area and help design network solutions and then support them.

kripsak

Looks very good Mr. Blah

sharptech

kripsak wrote:

Looks very good Mr. Blah

Great- thank you for your help.

Mr blah lol.

sharptech

Update:

Phone interview was Wednesday, Director said she would call me back Thursday and now we are at the end of business on Friday and no call

I guess I did not nail an interview, which really sucks because I liked the company and the job would of been a great fit.

Should I contact the Director after a week past the interview just to follow up?

LarryDaMan

sharptech wrote:

Update:

Phone interview was Wednesday, Director said she would call me back Thursday and now we are at the end of business on Friday and no call

I guess I did not nail an interview, which really sucks because I liked the company and the job would of been a great fit.

Should I contact the Director after a week past the interview just to follow up?

You could call her, but if she specifically said she'd call you on Thursday and didn't, it doesn't look good. Not sure if I'd want to work for a liar anyway, her pants are on fire... or maybe she forgot. Call.