Resume: please give me your feedback

chaoticjacket

Im just breaking into the it industry , studying for an MCITP please let me know what you think of my resume and cover letter.

doesnt let me upload pdfs so i put them on here
Resume: please give me your feedback - SlickDeals.net Forums

phantasm

Ok. Don't take offense to this but, scrap it all and start over.

The cover leter. Remove the images and pictures. You're not applying for a sales spot or as a C level officer, remove them. Secondly, cover letters are 3 paragraphs in length. MAX. Paragraph 1 should mention the position you are applying for, 2 should highlight your qualifications and the 3rd should be the closing paragraph where you provide contact info.

On the resume, tables are fine but it all needs to be aligned correctly. Bullets are best to list different skillsets. Also, keep it black and white. If you would like, send me your email address and I will send you a few examples of what I have.

earweed

Cover letter looks good but I don't know if your picture and the logos for your certs are necessary. Since most IT resumes are scanned in and then read I'd probably simplify your resume, take out the borders and have it more simplified. Most good IT resumes seem to be very starightforward, left justify.
Just my opinion and I'm not the best judge of IT resumes. You may try posting this in the resume do's and don't's thread (read the thread, a lot of IT hiring manager knowledge there) and Keenon is a very good judge of resumes.

MeanDrunkR2D2

I remember your picture in your Cover Letter like you had in your old resume that you posted here not that long ago. Again, drop all images in anything that you are sending out to a potential employer.

Keep your Cover letter short, sweet, and to the point.. If you make them read through more than 3 short paragraphs they're going to put your resume into the trash. Heck, with the pictures they'll likely not read anything and just trash it. Also, don't use a generic Cover Letter for jobs you are applying to. Customize them for the job you are applying to, or at least if you make a "generic" one have it so that it's a basic template for a certain type of position (Say Helpdesk, or System Admin) and modify it to use the term that the employer uses as well as addressing their company name directly in the body of the text.

Now, to the one that really matters. Your resume.

Get rid of that formatting, it's hideous and I know that you are trying to make it stand out. Let your skills and experience do the attention grabbing. Right now it look like you are trying to hide a weak resume with fancy colors and boxes. Make it look professional. First off, your address doesn't need it's own box and for that box to be labeled. Have your name, address, phone and email in a neat headline at the top. Don't use anything fancy at all for that, you don't need that.

I wouldn't consider half of your skills as a "Skill", there is a variety of OS's and software that you have used in your skill section. That's more of a "Technical Knowledge" Also, are these technologies something that you only did in college or something you did in your jobs? Or something you did at home or for friends?

Moving on. On the Education part.. Drop off the High School part. They don't need to know that and frankly they don't care about that being on the resume. Drop the MCITP course you are taking. That's going to be a certification, not a degree. Also, what MCITP cert are you going for? There are many of them out there. The only time I would list something on a resume that is "in progress" is if you are working towards a bachelors or associates degree. And now the more important part of that section. What kind of degree is the "Computer Services Technician"? Is it a Associates Degree? Or a course you took at your local community college that isn't really a degree? If you are wondering why you may have had some issues in finding a job in the past year it could very easily be because you don't actually have higher level education. Certifications are nice, but trust me that it's the truth that an associates degree and even more a bachelors degree are well worth it. Work on that along with your certifications to make you more well rounded and someone that will be hard to say no to if you want a good IT job. The lack of Education will truly hurt you in the long run and keep you from advancing too far in your career.

Onto the Work experience section. No need to underline anything in there. It makes it look like you are doing too much to highlight the name of the company. Also, keep your duties listed in there concise and to the point. I'd even consider that you would put them in bullet format (My personal choice although I know people sometimes don't like them) and separate out the different duties you did in those jobs. Also, if you are going to use an Acronym like "Hippa" please get it right, it's HIPAA and know what it stands for. It looks to me as though your experience in your resume doesn't tie into your Cover Letter as well. From what I see you have "Maybe" a total of a year and a half experience in a 4 year time frame.. How will you explain those gaps in your employment during an interview should you get one? And it appears that many of those positions weren't necessarily "technical" in nature. One looks like at best a customer service position that requires no technical knowledge. And the others appear to be entry level type positions that you were not working for too long at all. The checkmarks, need to go.

Onto the certifications. Ok... It's good, but I would simplify it. People who are looking for certifications should know what it entails. Just list the vendor and the certification name, such as Comptia A+. They don't need a description of what that certification covers. I'd also move your certifications next to your education, preferably above you education as it's stronger than the education section. Also, don't list any certifications that you do not currently possess, that will only tick off the interviewer if they find out that one of their keywords was triggered by someone who does not have that certification.

Language section, not necessary in your Resume, however I would mention that you are fluent in English and Spanish in your Cover letter as that will be something that you may have over other candidates. But, looking at your Resume, you should leave it in there to help make it stronger.

Now to the "Profile". Change the name to either Objective, or something of that nature. Also, completely re-write it. It's garbage plain and simple. You are saying nothing in there at all and are just trying to take up space. Put in something saying what you are looking for in a job, and what your goal in your career is, etc.

Ok, now that I have my "resume critique" hat off, I'll apologize if I came off as crass or rude. I didn't mean to be like that, but am trying to help you out so that your resume will look as good as possible and help you land the job you want.

One other mention. Since you don't have your email address listed on here (For good reason) I can't give you any feedback on that. I would just advise to make sure that it's something professional like your first and last name and maybe a few numbers at the end. You don't want your future employer to know that your email name is sasquatchwanker69@gmail.com

Hopefully I was of help and you can truly fine tune your resume and get what you are looking for! Good luck!

laptop

Cover Letter feedback (from a recent grad. this is just my opinion. don't get mad at me):

-Remove picture and cert logos
-Use appropriate fonts for your name (enlarge it)
-Put only 1 phone number for them to contact you. Not day and night. Buy a cellphone .
-Cover letter is supposed to have the company's address
-Sir or Madam is not common these days. I often use: Dear Recruiter or Dear Hiring Manager
-3 paragraphs is enough (recruiters will not spend more than 30 seconds reading it)
-First paragraph, please state the position you are applying for and where you found the posting. Otherwise, it makes it seem like you are using the blasting out approach to send resumes to employers. When I read it, it seems like a generic cover letter. Always tailor to job posting.
-Please dont get mad at me for saying this. You can be more concise with some of the sentences.

I graduated from some IT management program (took tons of business/IT courses). When I read the cover letter, you seem to be on the tech side. Try to use shorter sentences. There are a lot of unncessary wording that you can eliminate.

Good luck