Resume Critique / Help Request

instant000

As I stated here previously: http://www.techexams.net/forums/jobs-degrees/73411-going-posting-my-resume-soon-review.html Well, here it is. Please assist. Thanks. (Deleted a lot of the comments here, they messed up the formatting.)


Version 1:
2012_01_16_TechExams_Sanitized_Resume.doc

Version 2:

2012_01_17_TechExams_Sanitized_Resume_version2.doc

Version 3:
2012_01_19_TechExams_Sanitized_Resume_version3_1205.doc

Everyone

Tons of wasted space.

Dates of employment, name of employer, title, and location, should not take up more than 2 lines for each position. Industry is not needed. You don't need to start off what you did at each position with "Summary:" either.

You've used 3 pages, and yet it looks like you've done very little in 11 years. I've seen single page resumes that demonstrate more experience and accomplishments for people who have fewer years of experience than you.

You don't need your name and contact info at the top of every page, it is only needed at the top of the 1st page. It's taking up more than enough room there already with the way you have it formatted.

instant000

Everyone wrote: »

Tons of wasted space.

Dates of employment, name of employer, title, and location, should not take up more than 2 lines for each position. Industry is not needed. You don't need to start off what you did at each position with "Summary:" either.

You've used 3 pages, and yet it looks like you've done very little in 11 years. I've seen single page resumes that demonstrate more experience and accomplishments for people who have fewer years of experience than you.

You don't need your name and contact info at the top of every page, it is only needed at the top of the 1st page. It's taking up more than enough room there already with the way you have it formatted.

Thanks for the tips, I'll make it smaller and re-post.

Re-posted updated, version 2

Everyone

Slightly better...

Learn to use word. You should use tables for positioning instead of tons of spaces/tabs. Remove the table borders once you have everything aligned nicely.

I would use a sans-serif font (fonts like Arial, Calibri, Verdana, are sans-sarif) for your headings and titles. You can leave the serif font (Times New Roman is a serif font) for your paragraphs. I wouldn't use more than 2 fonts though. I know you have a single font right now, but that simple change will save a bit of space. You can bring each position summary up a line (directly under title/company/date/location) line, and only leave the empty space after it (between each unique position).

There's a huge chunk of unused space at the bottom of the 1st page.

You still haven't corrected the issue of it looking like you haven't done much.

IMHO you should be able to sprinkle everything you have listed in your hardware/software platform sections into your experience section, and get rid of those 2.

Like I tell pretty much everyone else, you need to show some accomplishments to stand out.

instant000

OK, following points noted:
1. Use M$ Word over LibreOffice - get rid of tabs and spaces, use tables instead
2. Different style font for headings vs. paragraphs
3. Make formatting changes to save white space
4. Use bullets or something to accent doing more than what a drone would do.
6. Eliminate hardware/software sections and/or incorporate into the jobs

Will revise and repost later.

Everyone

instant000 wrote: »

1. Use M$ Word over LibreOffice - get rid of tabs and spaces, use tables instead

Well that's not what I meant... I'm sure LibreOffice is fine, main point was use tables instead of tons of spaces/tabs to align things.

Essendon

instant000, mate I expected a much better resume from you. Everyone posted his a while back, here's his.. His was a pretty good one. Like he's been saying, you need to put a lot more meat on the bones. It's very skinny and doesnt really tell me what exactly you've been doing. For someone who's got lots of experience, I'm sure you could put in a couple of sentences in each bullet point. Use Trebuchet MS or Garamond fonts, enhances the readability. You dont need a skills section, your experience section alone should get you the HR hits you need. And accomplishments must stand out.

instant000

Everyone wrote: »

Well that's not what I meant... I'm sure LibreOffice is fine, main point was use tables instead of tons of spaces/tabs to align things.

Yeah, I got that point, I wasn't familiar with the table functionality in LibreOffice, but was with it in Microsoft Office. It's somewhat similar, and after toying with it, it looks a little better now, I think.

instant000

Essendon wrote: »

instant000, mate I expected a much better resume from you.

Yeah, so did I

Everyone posted his a while back, here's his.. His was a pretty good one.

I just tried to read it, and got a bad link. I'll go back and see if I can read the post to find it.

Like he's been saying, you need to put a lot more meat on the bones. It's very skinny and doesnt really tell me what exactly you've been doing. For someone who's got lots of experience, I'm sure you could put in a couple of sentences in each bullet point. Use Trebuchet MS or Garamond fonts, enhances the readability. You dont need a skills section, your experience section alone should get you the HR hits you need. And accomplishments must stand out.

I tried revising it, maybe it's a little better than it was at first? I just posted revision 3.

Also, going to look for Everyone's, and see what's in there, might give me some ideas.

Hrm, Everyone's problem was apparently "too much" my problem seems to be the reverse "not enough". Looking for the "happy medium"

Everyone

I think I took the server down that I had posted it on before. Here: Resume 2011 - Messaging - Example.doc

instant000

Everyone wrote: »

I think I took the server down that I had posted it on before. Here: Resume 2011 - Messaging - Example.doc

Nice.

I like how you broke out those individual military jobs, I was always wondering about that one, but feared that if I broke them out individually, then it would make my resume too long.

How is the one pager?

onesaint

instant000 wrote: »

Nice. I like how you broke out those individual military jobs, I was always wondering about that one, but feared that if I broke them out individually, then it would make my resume too long. How is the one pager?

It seems thin to me. I've heard/read often to ditch the summary, so that's good. I might roll the certs up to the top of the page to lead into the work experience and make the document flow better. In Everyone's example he lists out a brief description of day to day work with bullet points stating accomplishments. This delivers a well rounded view of his duties and shows pointed results/skills attained within the position. You might try this with your positions as well. Although, I don't think I would break out those individual military jobs in that case, unless you need to supplement a second page.

Have a look through this thread, it's one of the recent resume critiques that I thought was really good. http://www.techexams.net/forums/jobs-degrees/72715-have-resume-thread.html

I played with your resume to give an idea of my sentiment on flow and format.2012_01_19_TechExams_Sanitized_Resume_version3_1205a.doc

Everyone

instant000 wrote: »

Nice.

I like how you broke out those individual military jobs, I was always wondering about that one, but feared that if I broke them out individually, then it would make my resume too long.

How is the one pager?

I broke it out because I had different titles/responsibilities/experiences at different assignments. Same career field, but IT is pretty broad. I think it demonstrates my experience a whole lot better than trying to lump it into just a single little "USAF - Communications Computer Systems Operations Craftsman" section.

Something is off about the spacing on the right side of the page with your latest revision. Makes it look like the margin is much bigger than it actually us. I think maybe the tables aren't sized and aligned properly.

"Bachelor's" should "Bachelors".

I still think you're selling yourself short and not demonstrating your experience very well. 5 jobs in 11 years and it doesn't look like you did much of anything at any of them.

instant000

First of all, apologies in getting back to this thread, but was just kind of busy with work and other things

Everyone wrote: »

I broke it out because I had different titles/responsibilities/experiences at different assignments. Same career field, but IT is pretty broad. I think it demonstrates my experience a whole lot better than trying to lump it into just a single little "USAF - Communications Computer Systems Operations Craftsman" section.

Good point. I had four different jobs while I was in, all with different units/systems/scopes, but if I broke those out, then i for sure would be on two pages, and I was trying to put it on one page (it's a psychological thing, I guess).

Something is off about the spacing on the right side of the page with your latest revision. Makes it look like the margin is much bigger than it actually us. I think maybe the tables aren't sized and aligned properly.

Entirely possible. I'll have to continue to revise it.

"Bachelor's" should "Bachelors".

Will look over that.

I still think you're selling yourself short and not demonstrating your experience very well. 5 jobs in 11 years and it doesn't look like you did much of anything at any of them.

Good point.

In other news, I've managed to secure a gig -- based upon word-of-mouth, not my sub-par resume, LOL. I still want to get this resume thing revised, though, do not want to let it hit the back burner, then have it be that much harder to revise down the road.

Everyone

instant000 wrote: »

In other news, I've managed to secure a gig

Congrats!