Another Destroy My Resume Thread

jmreicha

Hoping you guys can give me some feedback on my resume. Thanks in advance.

anonresume.doc

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Essendon

Condense the Summary section, 4 sentences is too much IMO. Just a couple usually suffice. Keep most of it for the cover letter, that's what a cover letter is for. You may want to get rid of the skills section, also unnecessary. Otherwise, a decent resume maybe not aesthetically pleasing. but still good in my books.

Hypntick

Essendon wrote: »

Condense the Summary section, 4 sentences is too much IMO. Just a couple usually suffice. Keep most of it for the cover letter, that's what a cover letter is for. You may want to get rid of the skills section, also unnecessary. Otherwise, a decent resume maybe not aesthetically pleasing. but still good in my books.

As far as the skills section, I usually tend to leave one on mine. Specifically because I tend to apply on websites etc. so I want to hit those keywords that are in the job listing that I can fulfill. Other than that, I would list my education at the bottom, that's just me.

Essendon

Hypntick wrote: »

As far as the skills section, I usually tend to leave one on mine. Specifically because I tend to apply on websites etc. so I want to hit those keywords that are in the job listing that I can fulfill.

I'll have to agree to the keyword idea. Once you have decent experience though, there are enough keywords already which help you meet the HR keyword threshold and the Skills section becomes a waste of real estate.

jmreicha

Essendon wrote: »

Condense the Summary section, 4 sentences is too much IMO. Just a couple usually suffice. Keep most of it for the cover letter, that's what a cover letter is for. You may want to get rid of the skills section, also unnecessary. Otherwise, a decent resume maybe not aesthetically pleasing. but still good in my books.

I was sort of wondering about the summary. Some people say 2-3 sentences suffice but there are also others who are saying "sell yourself as much as you can in the summary". I think I will cut it down a bit.

What about the aesthetics can be improved? The way it is presented or the sections are put in the wrong place? I'm up for suggestions if it seems kludgey or isn't eye grabbing.

Essendon

I think it looks a tad boring and dull. I am not saying you start using hot pinks or garden greens in your fonts, but maybe change the font. I have Trebuchet MS font for my resume, looks better than most other fonts, you may want to give that a go. The headings of each section seem a little too big maybe, try putting them in the centre. Get rid the lines that separate sections, I believe the lines have an effect on the fluidity of a resume. This is another "just me" thing, but I have Profile instead of Summary, just sounds better to me that's all. Just an idea but you may want to have the resume start like:

Joe Blow
Address and Phone number in next line
Email address in the next.

You'll be surprised how some of these minor mods have quite an impact on how a resume looks. You want a resume to stand out from the pile, again by not using fancy fonts/borders/colours/logos, but by making some of the above subtle changes. HTH!

darkerz

When I post my updated resume later today after my second interview, you can see what a hiring manager likes. After getting mine redone and revamped like mad from here, 3 of the interviewers commented how refreshing my resume looked, flowed and felt. When I read yours over... I remember I told another person this but if my attention span won't look it over, HR's certainly won't.

You have amazing experience but... it's a wall of text. No key words, technologies listed... Its sort of rambling with a lot of filler words and generic terms anyone would use. I remember I condensed 2 2-3 sentence bullets to a single line, I was commented on how they loved how easy it was to determine what I actually did.

The font is a little big. Margins are too thin. I don't like the way the resume is formatted, the lines bug me.

I'm starting to see a pattern; if an ADHD techie can't comprehend your resume in 10 seconds, then it needs to be redone.

ltgenspecific

darkerz wrote: »

I'm starting to see a pattern; if an ADHD techie can't comprehend your resume in 10 seconds, then it needs to be redone.

Fast learner.

The font choice is iffy and leaves me pushing through instead of skimming or reading.
You've got a great skillset from relevant work experience for someone right out of college. Put Education at the bottom, it's a tick-box for HR.
Leave the description of skills somewhere on there. You want to fill as many tick-boxes as possible. Plus you've got a lot that could really stand out. (Skills 1st, Work exp. 2nd, Education 3rd)
Consider (just consider, not a mandatory thing) either leaving out your last paid job or the volunteer work if you can condense the resume to one page by manipulating the font. You've got enough to go on.
Time for a new intro (I saw other suggestions about Summary vs. other titles, but most of what you have there is cover letter material.)

Looks good other than that, but make sure to find a way to change the font/format issue. You've got to highlight the decent amount of definable, name-brand skills more.

Good luck.

ATL-TECH

some certs would help

and am sot sure about the two pages

jmreicha

You guys are awesome! Thanks for the feedback and suggestions so far.

This post got me thinking about fonts and the change of format (I have decided to remove the separation lines). So I've been doing quite a bit of reading up on font style for resume's and most people seem to favor Ariel or Helvetica, at the very least some sort of sans-serif because they claim it is the easiest to read.

Could somebody give me some insight or their opinion about what types of fonts are easiest to read or which usually look best? Again thanks a ton for the help and feedback.

mikedisd2

Essendon wrote: »

I have Trebuchet MS font for my resume, looks better than most other fonts, you may want to give that a go.

What size?

Just a few small points:

Consistency with dates. In the experience section you have June 2010 - current and for the next job it's just 2007 - 2010. Use the month.

List the cool stuff in your job duties. For the first job listed, you have answering phones first. Building the custom ticketing system is much more impressive.

Networking equipment installation, what gear? Stick it in there and shorten those bullet points.

Try not to cut sections across to the next page, especially with one line hanging (University, Location 2008-2009).

Essendon

mikedisd2 wrote: »

What size?

10 throughout except for my name and contact details which are in size 11. I have the certs, job title, name of company and time spent in bold.

jmreicha

I'm still on the fence about the font issue but here is the updated version.

anonresume.doc

jtoast

1) I am one of those who feels the summary is a waste of space. Thats cover letter material.

2) I like to see an "accomplishments" section under each employer. Don't just tell me what your job was, tell me something that proves you did your job better than all the other people I'm interviewing.

Entries such as "achieved 99% uptime for critical systems" would be good for that section. Remember that whoever is reading your resume has most likely already looked at many others before he or she got to yours and you need to stand out.

3) Your technical skills section doesn't tell me anything. For example, you list several programming languages but there's nothing in the rest of your resume that tells me whether you have any actual experience using them. Can you write from scratch or are you just experienced enough to modify other peoples code?.

Instead of "various web development and programming projects," use an accomplishment section to tell me how you built a badass website from scratch using xxx technologies that now receives xxx number of hits per day or somesuch.