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Resume thread
vCole
Member Posts: 1,573 ■■■■■■■□□□
I've noticed a lot of folks lately have been posting their resumes for review. I suggest consolidating them into one thread, as well as using this post to add some tips for resumes.
Here are some:
Feel free to add your resume to this thread, as well as post some other tips!
Here are some:
- K.I.S.S: Keep it simple stupid! A potential employer doesn't want to have to read your life story to find out if you've worked with AD, Linux, Cisco, etc.
- Keep it clean: Don't clutter it up with a bunch of logos. I've heard from plenty of employers: Do not use logos. *Use at your own risk if you don't believe me*
- Stop using .doc files. Weird, right? Not *everyone* has MS Office. Using the PDF Office plug-in to save your resume to PDF will make it easier to read, since you will not have to worry about formatting issues.
- Colors and fonts: Use colors sparingly and don't use flashy colors. (Really, your employer doesn't want to be blinded by your neon green/yellow font.) Fonts: Make sure they all match. Having half your resume in Times Roman and the other half in Arial doesn't look good, at all.
- Spell Check: I see a lot of people on the forum complaining of not getting job interviews. Have you checked your spelling/grammar in your cover letter and resume?
Feel free to add your resume to this thread, as well as post some other tips!
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earweed
Member Posts: 5,192 ■■■■■■■■■□
Put your strongest point first. If your skills far outweigh your certs and/or education put them before the certs/education.
Be consistent in your formatting.
Don't use fancy borders.No longer work in IT. Play around with stuff sometimes still and fix stuff for friends and relatives. -
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Essendon
Member Posts: 4,546 ■■■■■■■■■■
Do NOT exaggerate too much or you WILL get burnt, either during the interview itself or at the job. -
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veritas_libertas
Member Posts: 5,746 ■■■■■■■■■■
FadeToBright wrote: »Stop using .doc files. Weird, right? Not *everyone* has MS Office. Using the PDF Office plug-in to save your resume to PDF will make it easier to read, since you will not have to worry about formatting issues.
I find this interesting, what if not everyone has Adobe Reader/Writer? I guess my thought is that this could go both ways. I'm not trying to argue, but I wonder what the percentages are on MS vs. Adobe with the employers/headhunters. -
OptionsvCole
Member Posts: 1,573 ■■■■■■■□□□
veritas_libertas wrote: »I find this interesting, what if not everyone has Adobe Reader/Writer? I guess my thought is that this could go both ways. I'm not trying to argue, but I wonder what the percentages are on MS vs. Adobe with the employers/headhunters.
Cheaper to get Adobe Reader over Office (see what I'm saying? Free = good)
Also, it gives your resume a clean look when opened. I recently sent my resume to a recruiter and she said it looks fantastic, and wishes more people would take the time to put it in PDF format. -
Optionsearweed
Member Posts: 5,192 ■■■■■■■■■□
I find that intersting and you make a good point. It only takes a few seconds to convert it and it does look really good in pdf.FadeToBright wrote: »Cheaper to get Adobe Reader over Office (see what I'm saying? Free = good)
Also, it gives your resume a clean look when opened. I recently sent my resume to a recruiter and she said it looks fantastic, and wishes more people would take the time to put it in PDF format.No longer work in IT. Play around with stuff sometimes still and fix stuff for friends and relatives. -
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Lemonade727
Member Posts: 177
Thanks for the heads up about submitting it in PDF. When I get home from work I'll convert my resume over and have it at the ready
Completed: EWB2, LAE1, WFV1, BAC1, BBC1, SSC1, SST1, BOV1, WSV1, GAC1, HHT1, QLT1, ORC1, LET1, MGC1, TPV1, INC1, WDV1, INT1, LAT1, LUT1, IWC1, IWT1, KET1, KFT1, TWA1, CPW1
Required: Finished! I'm a graduate now!
Classes Transferred: AKV1, TTV1, TNV1, TSV1, ABV1, CLC1 -
Optionsveritas_libertas
Member Posts: 5,746 ■■■■■■■■■■
Lemonade727 wrote: »Thanks for the heads up about submitting it in PDF. When I get home from work I'll convert my resume over and have it at the ready
Don't forget to save the original
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Optionsveritas_libertas
Member Posts: 5,746 ■■■■■■■■■■
Does anyone think it would be a bad idea to send two versions, one in .doc and one in .pdf?
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SubnettingGoddess
Member Posts: 108
Do NOT exaggerate too much or you WILL get burnt, either during the interview itself or at the job.
So true...I had to interview people for my last job who LOOKED like their technical knowledge vastly exceeded mine...till I started asking technical questions. What is sad is that they may actually have had some really impressive skills...but don't put dns on your resume if you don't know what port it uses.OK, I confess, I do have one certification. I am an ACIA - Arcsight Certified Integrator/Administrator. But it's awarded for attending the class. Woot. And while it's a fine skill to have, my interests lay elsewhere. -
OptionsSubnettingGoddess
Member Posts: 108
veritas_libertas wrote: »Does anyone think it would be a bad idea to send two versions, one in .doc and one in .pdf?
I have a question here too...I've sent mine as a protected PDF...does this cheese recruiters off? I hate for them to monkey around with my resume and add things to it that don't belong there before sending it off to the prospective employer.OK, I confess, I do have one certification. I am an ACIA - Arcsight Certified Integrator/Administrator. But it's awarded for attending the class. Woot. And while it's a fine skill to have, my interests lay elsewhere. -
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Bl8ckr0uter
Inactive Imported Users Posts: 5,031 ■■■■■■■■□□
I've had some recruiters demand that my resume be in "word" format*. I usually send rich text or pdfs
*This one woman got pissed at me when I asked her which version of word she was using and she said "The latest". So I sent my resume to her in docx format. Well I got an email 20 minutes later stating that my resume was "broken" and I needed to resend it in word format. So I told her that she needed to install the docx compatibility pack for word 2003, sent her the link to the exe and told her how to install it. I also sent my resume to her in doc and rtf. When I spoke to her later she said that the link was too hard to follow and she just opened my other copies and it "worked"
These are the people who in a lot of ways, control our destiny, these are the gatekeepers 
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Optionsveritas_libertas
Member Posts: 5,746 ■■■■■■■■■■
I've had some recruiters demand that my resume be in "word" format*. I usually send rich text or pdfs
*This one woman got pissed at me when I asked her which version of word she was using and she said "The latest". So I sent my resume to her in docx format. Well I got an email 20 minutes later stating that my resume was "broken" and I needed to resend it in word format. So I told her that she needed to install the docx compatibility pack for word 2003, sent her the link to the exe and told her how to install it. I also sent my resume to her in doc and rtf. When I spoke to her later she said that the link was too hard to follow and she just opened my other copies and it "worked" These are the people who in a lot of ways, control our destiny, these are the gatekeepers
That is exactly what I am trying to avoid. I understand that PDFs allow the document to look exactly like I am intending, but there are always the folks out there who prefer Word documents. That is why I am wondering if it's OK to send both formats. -
OptionsBl8ckr0uter
Inactive Imported Users Posts: 5,031 ■■■■■■■■□□
veritas_libertas wrote: »That is exactly what I am trying to avoid. I understand that PDFs allow the document to look exactly like I am intending, but there are always the folks out there who prefer Word documents. That is why I am wondering if it's OK to send both formats.
Just send rtf or pdf. If they can't open those, tell them to call their helpdesk. -
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kahn
Member Posts: 66 ■■□□□□□□□□
FadeToBright wrote: »- Stop using .doc files. Weird, right? Not *everyone* has MS Office. Using the PDF Office plug-in to save your resume to PDF will make it easier to read, since you will not have to worry about formatting issues.
My brother just told me about a week ago that PDF format is being the standard of resume in most of the cases, so I convert it to PDF.
could it be possible that we have some eye catching resumes over here?? if someone like to volunteer and upload it somewhere
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I really need a good sample to follow because I don't think my resume is an eye catcher anymore, getting near to 'interview calls' no more
cheers - Stop using .doc files. Weird, right? Not *everyone* has MS Office. Using the PDF Office plug-in to save your resume to PDF will make it easier to read, since you will not have to worry about formatting issues.
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networker050184
Mod Posts: 11,962 Mod
I use a pdf version when I can but about 90% of the places I've ever applied to ask specifically for a Word doc.An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made. -
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Xcluziv
Member Posts: 513 ■■■■□□□□□□
networker050184 wrote: »I use a pdf version when I can but about 90% of the places I've ever applied to ask specifically for a Word doc.
Generally, PDF versions look alot cleaner, but I know alot of places I applied may even ask for text only. It kills me sometimes. -
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thenjduke
Member Posts: 894 ■■■■□□□□□□
Text is what I hate. I hate when they want you to copy and paste the resume and apply via their website and have to sign up.CCNA, MCP, MCSA, MCSE, MCDST, MCITP Enterprise Administrator, Working towards Networking BS. CCNP is Next. -
OptionsvCole
Member Posts: 1,573 ■■■■■■■□□□
Text is what I hate. I hate when they want you to copy and paste the resume and apply via their website and have to sign up.
Glad I'm not the only one! -
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BradleyHU
Member Posts: 918 ■■■■□□□□□□
I've had some recruiters demand that my resume be in "word" format*. I usually send rich text or pdfs
*This one woman got pissed at me when I asked her which version of word she was using and she said "The latest". So I sent my resume to her in docx format. Well I got an email 20 minutes later stating that my resume was "broken" and I needed to resend it in word format. So I told her that she needed to install the docx compatibility pack for word 2003, sent her the link to the exe and told her how to install it. I also sent my resume to her in doc and rtf. When I spoke to her later she said that the link was too hard to follow and she just opened my other copies and it "worked" These are the people who in a lot of ways, control our destiny, these are the gatekeepers
loooolz @ it being too hard to install Office 2007 compatibility pack. Its easy, click on the link, hit download, click on run, have the check box selected and hit ok.....thats it....nothing else to it.Link Me
Graduate of the REAL HU & #1 HBCU...HAMPTON UNIVERSITY!!! #shoutout to c/o 2004
WIP: 70-410(TBD) | ITIL v3 Foundation(TBD) -
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ssampier
Member Posts: 224
Great thread. Any thoughts about columns in resumes?
A TechRepublic article says not to use them, but I have used both column and non-column. All my interviews thus far have been from my column resumes.
Obviously I want more interviews.
As for the compatibility pack, give me a break. Sometimes I wonder what Dante would write about recruiters and HR people....Text is what I hate. I hate when they want you to copy and paste the resume and apply via their website and have to sign up.
The worst part of this is usually they say "No phone calls." It's like your personal information disappeared into no-mans land.Future Plans:
JNCIA Firewall
CCNA:Security
CCNP
More security exams and then the world. -
Optionsearweed
Member Posts: 5,192 ■■■■■■■■■□
Great one Dynamik...I liked that he misspelled pulitzer!No longer work in IT. Play around with stuff sometimes still and fix stuff for friends and relatives.
