Time to take the plunge..

ChrisRice

So it's come to the time in my course where I need to find somewhere to go and do a work placement for 21 weeks, the only problem with this is that it's unlikely that my training provider is going to find me anything.. Therefore I need to look for somewhere myself.. (Bit of background here; 39 week training program, 18 weeks learning and gaining certs, 21 weeks with an employer and then either they keep us on or we find another job.. Yes it's like a cert farm, but I know my stuff I'm not just learning it to pass exams. The work experience is what I wanted the most from it because I know experience is like gold dust in IT.)

This means sending off my CV and cover letter myself. However, I'm not completely convinced that what I'm sending out is any good.. So I figured I'd come to you guys, because there's no-one better to scrutinise a CV than the people in the industry I've taken out the personal stuff, so go ahead and tear it apart!

nycid

I personally would take off all the pending stuff. My old manager would throw out anything that stated pending... you could be qualified for the job but pending/in progress etc caused for you to get filed in draw 10 (Trash)

Essendon

That resume could easily be condensed into one page. No one needs to know whether you had an A or a B or whatever in Maths/Chemistry/Basket Weaving etc. Just go Level 3 Diploma for IT Professionals - Expected Completion Date - blah.

Like the other poster said, take away all that Pending stuff. Anyone could write anything as Pending. I could go - Commercial Pilot License - Pending or Astronaut - Pending. Not trying to be funny or high and mighty, but this kind of resume layout ends up in the dumpster.

You need to tell the person viewing the resume what they NEED to know to offer you an interview. Elaborate as much as you can on your IT job, not on your other job (take away the washing dishes bit too, might turn off some hiring people, especially female ones). I dont know need to know your hobbies either. Condense the profile thing too.

The aim of a resume is to highlight to the hiring person what you have done that's relevant to the job they have on offer. Sure you got to fill up white space, but use it to really sell yourself for the position on offer. Also so you know, a HR person will receive say 250 resumes for a single position. No one has the time or patience to go through them all, so they put all the resumes through a keyword filter. The keyword filter searches for particular terms, such as servers, Microsoft, Active Directory and the number of times it's mentioned. If a resume reaches a threshold it's placed in Pile A aka the call-this-person-up pile. The bigger pile is Pile B or the trash-this-stuff pile. Which one do you want to end up in?

Not trying to be hateful/condescending or anything, just presenting before you how things are out there. Hope this helps!

dontstop

Essedon is correct, typically your High school information will be only a byline in your resume.

Like this from my CV:

Education & Other Information

ST. JOSEPH'S CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL * Albion Park, NSW
Student - 2000 - 2006 (HSC & School Certificate)

You can bring a copy of your marks or the original in a folder (ensure you tell them you need it back if orig) if they query you on the performance on your schooling.

I would include more detail in your hobbies and interests section, use bullet points instead of paragraphs as people don't like reading slabs of text. Add anything you can think that is relevant to the job you wish to get like this:

Active member of techexams.net Certification forums, in order to increase my experience and qualifications
I read [insert computer magazines, journals here] on a monthly basis to keep ahead of technology trends
Setup [insert stuff you have done to your home network, computers i.e AD, DNS, WSUS, FTP, WWW] in order to make the environment more usable

In your first paragraph i would also expand the information more like instead of "working with Microsoft Systems" to "experience with Windows 95, 98, XP, Vista, 7..." kind of thing & also drop the first person. Instead of "I am a hardworking" replace with "A Hardworking individual" etc.

It takes a while to get the hang of building a good CV, but this is a good start.

Edit: Also use this as a template for your heading

Harry. M Leetzor

1337 Leet Street
Pwnzor Lane, NSW 2500
Phone: 45-133337 * Email: pwnz@leet.me

[INSERT most recent qualification here] – Current as of: Date

ChrisRice

Okay thanks guys, I'll take all of that onboard and make a new mock up tonight when I'm home.

The reason it's like it is, is because that's the layout my employment consultant gave me and she said to do it like that I'd much rather listen to you guys though.