The resume, 1 year later.

bermovick

So the thing is - I really suck at this stuff. Call it humility or whatever, I dunno. I find it hard tooting my own horn

Thoughts I had going into this / explanations

The Objective - Keanon strongly insists these be avoided. Not really sure why I added it. It just seems naked without it, but could be removed.

Certifications - the CCENT is still listed, although once the CCNP is complete it will be removed. Its just 'fluff' right now. The Partial CCNP I was told to add to 1) show it's in-progress, and 2) to get more hits

Skills - I tried throwing a lot of keywords in there to get hits, without making it too unwieldy, with (I feel) limited success.

Work History - not much there. I was told to put in my self-employment as a computer tech (started my own business in this podunk town, but it never really caught on) and my military service (lists the now-inactive security clearance, and ??? preferential treatment? who knows...)

the_Grinch

I agree I hate the objective section, but that's not to say you shouldn't have something there. I've found that using that top section to describe yourself actually gets you a lot more hits. Obviously anyone's objective in having a resume is to get a position in their field, no need to state it. Try something like:

Hard working individual who works well under pressure and within a team. Takes initiative...blah blah blah

Also, be prepared to explain the gaps in your employment. Other then that looks pretty good.

Roguetadhg

Be prepared to answer questions for your certifications. There's a lot of resume fluffing out there. If you passed your CCNP switch this month, you shouldn't have any issue answering questions.

Turgon

bermovick wrote: »

So the thing is - I really suck at this stuff. Call it humility or whatever, I dunno. I find it hard tooting my own horn

Thoughts I had going into this / explanations

The Objective - Keanon strongly insists these be avoided. Not really sure why I added it. It just seems naked without it, but could be removed.

Certifications - the CCENT is still listed, although once the CCNP is complete it will be removed. Its just 'fluff' right now. The Partial CCNP I was told to add to 1) show it's in-progress, and 2) to get more hits

Skills - I tried throwing a lot of keywords in there to get hits, without making it too unwieldy, with (I feel) limited success.

Work History - not much there. I was told to put in my self-employment as a computer tech (started my own business in this podunk town, but it never really caught on) and my military service (lists the now-inactive security clearance, and ??? preferential treatment? who knows...)

Stuff like this springs to mind..

Prior technical background with US Air Force (SC cleared), presently working in network operations. Experienced in live troubleshooting, router/switch configuration, Call Manager and Unity. Qualified in Cisco and Juniper and seeking engineering opportunities in a pressurised network solutions environment.

Agents love it. Get it up early doors in your CV.

Everyone

I'd almost be inclined to leave the USAF and Self Employment off of there, something just doesn't sit right with me about it. Only 2 years in the AF, followed by 3 years of unemployment, then 3 years of Self-Employment, then 3 more years of unemployment? Maybe it's just my USAF background, but that just screams "dirt bag" to me, no offense. If I received this resume, I would think "must have been kicked out (dishonorable discharge), and probably lost that security clearance in the process." Even if that isn't that case... since your clearance was obtained in the early 90's, and you didn't do anything that would have required keeping it after you got out for whatever the reason was, at this point it may as well be like you never had one. Getting one again would be just like getting one for the first time with that big of a gap. No real point in listing it at all.

Another reason for leaving it off... most places only look back 7 years. If they do a background check, they aren't going to go back further than that, so you'd be OK leaving it off. Putting it on there just raises too many questions that you might not want to answer.

As far as the rest of it goes... same general advice I end up giving most people, change the Objective to a Summary. Ditch the skills and work those keywords into your experience section. In the experience section, try to show some accomplishments, all you have is a bullet list of responsibilities. I prefer a small paragraph for responsibilities followed by a few bullets sowing accomplishments. This has worked very well for myself and several others on here.

Fix the formatting, use tables instead of a bunch of tabs and spaces to get things aligned nicely. Try to get it down to a single page. Cutting out what I already mentioned should do that.

Turgon

Everyone wrote: »

I'd almost be inclined to leave the USAF and Self Employment off of there, something just doesn't sit right with me about it. Only 2 years in the AF, followed by 3 years of unemployment, then 3 years of Self-Employment, then 3 more years of unemployment? Maybe it's just my USAF background, but that just screams "dirt bag" to me, no offense. If I received this resume, I would think "must have been kicked out (dishonorable discharge), and probably lost that security clearance in the process." Even if that isn't that case... since your clearance was obtained in the early 90's, and you didn't do anything that would have required keeping it after you got out for whatever the reason was, at this point it may as well be like you never had one. Getting one again would be just like getting one for the first time with that big of a gap. No real point in listing it at all.

Another reason for leaving it off... most places only look back 7 years. If they do a background check, they aren't going to go back further than that, so you'd be OK leaving it off. Putting it on there just raises too many questions that you might not want to answer.

As far as the rest of it goes... same general advice I end up giving most people, change the Objective to a Summary. Ditch the skills and work those keywords into your experience section. In the experience section, try to show some accomplishments, all you have is a bullet list of responsibilities. I prefer a small paragraph for responsibilities followed by a few bullets sowing accomplishments. This has worked very well for myself and several others on here.

Fix the formatting, use tables instead of a bunch of tabs and spaces to get things aligned nicely. Try to get it down to a single page. Cutting out what I already mentioned should do that.

Could it not be a plus point listing that the guy served anyway? I don't understand the US market so will defer to your experience on all this, but in the UK some military background can be a plus point, particularly if it was way back as you have the discipline there but none of the 'not adjusted to commercial work' negative connations some people hold.

Everyone

Turgon wrote: »

Could it not be a plus point listing that the guy served anyway? I don't understand the US market so will defer to your experience on all this, but in the UK some military background can be a plus point, particularly if it was way back as you have the discipline there but none of the 'not adjusted to commercial work' negative connations some people hold.

Only a plus point if you receive an honorable discharge. That means you fulfilled your commitment (which is typically a minimum of 4 years, 6 years is also common), and didn't get into any trouble.

If you are dishonorable discharged, which can happen if you either do something bad, or just aren't working out. Think of it kind of like getting fired, but about 1000x worse. Having a dishonorable discharge on your record can make it nearly impossible to get a job (or at least a good one) in the US. Any place that runs a background check and sees this, most likely won't hire you. I've never had a job that did NOT do a background check. My wife has, and the place she worked at that didn't (a call center for processing warranty claims) was staffed by a bunch of drug addicts and had a high turn over rate.

There are also "other than honorable" discharges, which aren't necessarily bad. If you received an injury that prevented you from finishing your commitment, you could receive a medical discharge, which would fall into this category. No one is going to fault you for something like that.

Most places won't just take your word on military service (there are quite a few people out there who will try to fake it). Even if it was more than the 7 years background checks usually go back, if you identify yourself as a having served, they will require you to show your DD214 as proof. The DD214 is an official record of your service that shows what conditions you were released under.

Turgon

Everyone wrote: »

Only a plus point if you receive an honorable discharge. That means you fulfilled your commitment (which is typically a minimum of 4 years, 6 years is also common), and didn't get into any trouble.

If you are dishonorable discharged, which can happen if you either do something bad, or just aren't working out. Think of it kind of like getting fired, but about 1000x worse. Having a dishonorable discharge on your record can make it nearly impossible to get a job (or at least a good one) in the US. Any place that runs a background check and sees this, most likely won't hire you. I've never had a job that did NOT do a background check. My wife has, and the place she worked at that didn't (a call center for processing warranty claims) was staffed by a bunch of drug addicts and had a high turn over rate.

There are also "other than honorable" discharges, which aren't necessarily bad. If you received an injury that prevented you from finishing your commitment, you could receive a medical discharge, which would fall into this category. No one is going to fault you for something like that.

Most places won't just take your word on military service (there are quite a few people out there who will try to fake it). Even if it was more than the 7 years background checks usually go back, if you identify yourself as a having served, they will require you to show your DD214 as proof. The DD214 is an official record of your service that shows what conditions you were released under.

Is this something people should carefully before joining up? Over the years I have noticed thousands of members thinking about the military because of the 'benefits'. Commercial life doesn't always work out but people can usually regroup from a bad gig and move on. The pressures on people in the military are different are not everyone adjusts well to it. Being dishonorably discharged because things didn't work it seems a little harsh to me when one volunteered to serve their country, but I guess it all depends on what happens while you are in.

bermovick

For what it's worth - yes, I got kicked out, but it was honorable (technically, medical)

Turgon

bermovick wrote: »

For what it's worth - yes, I got kicked out, but it was honorable (technically, medical)

Sounds like you were covered then. Thanks for serving.

ptilsen

Take out the objective and either put a summary or nothing.

Take out the last two experience entries. They are taking away value. I appreciate your service, but it does not have a significant impact on my decision to hire you, with only two years in an unrelated position a long time ago. If it does, you probably don't want to work for me.

Take out all of the extra words in Skills. Knowledge of, familiar with, etc. are things I don't need to read to get the point. Don't list useless skills, either. OpenOffice Calc and Writer? Make sure you do list all important relevant skills -- if you're competent in any scripting or programming languages, server operating systems, or other common vendors' hardware or software, don't be afraid to list it.

List education, even if you have all you have is a GED or high school diploma. If you don't have a GED or high school diploma, get one.

Don't have multiple sentences per bullet point, if possible.

Get it all into one page, even if you have to cut stuff. You have what amounts to one year of professional IT experience, so this shouldn't be too difficult.

Use a popular SAN-serif font on your body text, such as Calibri or Arial. Nimbus Roman No9 is an odd choice, for sure -- not that font makes any difference at all, so long as its recognizable English.

I would also advise you to stay with your current job until 2013 unless it is awful. Anything less than two years at a job is a minus on a resume, and the 6 to 18 month range is especially bad for permanent positions.

Apply some of these changes, finish your CCNP, and a year from now you'll have no problem getting a great job. Your experience is good, and having CCENT, CCNA, JNCIA, and 2/3 of CCNP is actually impressive for having just a year of professional experience.

boredgamelad

This is my first post on the forums so I hope I'm not stepping out of line by jumping in and offering a critique. I have been looking at some other resumes on here to get an idea of what to do with mine (I'm not looking for work but you never know) and thought you could benefit from a few written examples on how to clean yours up a bit.

First, I have to agree with everyone else; there's a lot of fluff/unnecessary words. An example:

>> Configure company and customer routers and switches for static routes, SNMP,
access-lists, and AAA among other things.

Comes across cleaner like this:

>> Configured routers and switches for static routes, SNMP, access-lists, and AAA.

It's concise, uses active voice, and, perhaps most importantly, uses proper grammar. Regarding "among other things": phrases like this get skipped over and if you use too many your resume becomes a mess. Either specify what those other things are or don't mention them. The person reading your resume isn't going to take time to guess what other things you've configured.

Second, the one page requirement for resumes is not a hard and fast rule anymore but considering what little (relevant) experience you have to list, you should really try to get it down to a single page.

One way to do that is not to waste two lines listing each previous employer. This is equally effective and takes up less space:



February 2011 - Present
Network Operations, Appia Communications, St Louis, MO


(Obviously, you wouldn't use borders on your table but I can't get them to not show up on here. The gist is that you should left align the left cell and right align the right, and the table should span the width of the page)

Again, it's concise and lists all the same information without wasting an extra line. The easier your resume is to read, the better chance you have of someone actually reading the whole thing.

Another way to cut down on size is to condense your header. One popular resume builder out there suggested using a bold interpunct (alt-code 250) in place of line breaks. I did this with my own resume and I think it looks pretty good without wasting space or becoming too cluttered. Bump your name up a few font size points to stand out (but don't go nuts). There's no reason to put "Phone:" and "E-mail:" because everyone knows the format for phone numbers and e-mail addresses.

John Smith
123 Fake Street · Chicago, IL 55555
555-123-6789 · name@gmail.com

6 lines becomes 3, and it looks nice. Your overall font size could be decreased by a point or two and that would also tighten everything up. Just a few tips I've picked up while trying to flesh out my own somewhat thin resume (I'm not looking for work but I figure I could be any day, so I might as well keep it updated). You're on the right track; getting this stuff on paper is half the battle. The other half is cleaning it up and then re-writing (and re-writing) to get it to a place where what you've written is golden. Good luck!

Turgon

ptilsen wrote: »

Take out the objective and either put a summary or nothing.

Take out the last two experience entries. They are taking away value. I appreciate your service, but it does not have a significant impact on my decision to hire you, with only two years in an unrelated position a long time ago. If it does, you probably don't want to work for me.

Take out all of the extra words in Skills. Knowledge of, familiar with, etc. are things I don't need to read to get the point. Don't list useless skills, either. OpenOffice Calc and Writer? Make sure you do list all important relevant skills -- if you're competent in any scripting or programming languages, server operating systems, or other common vendors' hardware or software, don't be afraid to list it.

List education, even if you have all you have is a GED or high school diploma. If you don't have a GED or high school diploma, get one.

Don't have multiple sentences per bullet point, if possible.

Get it all into one page, even if you have to cut stuff. You have what amounts to one year of professional IT experience, so this shouldn't be too difficult.

Use a popular SAN-serif font on your body text, such as Calibri or Arial. Nimbus Roman No9 is an odd choice, for sure -- not that font makes any difference at all, so long as its recognizable English.

I would also advise you to stay with your current job until 2013 unless it is awful. Anything less than two years at a job is a minus on a resume, and the 6 to 18 month range is especially bad for permanent positions.

Apply some of these changes, finish your CCNP, and a year from now you'll have no problem getting a great job. Your experience is good, and having CCENT, CCNA, JNCIA, and 2/3 of CCNP is actually impressive for having just a year of professional experience.

Some great advice. I agree on the two years at your present job. Stick it out and get two years in and finish your CCNP.

bermovick

Alright; I'll take the advice of those with more experience. It's just frustrating cause I don't feel I'm doing anything to get real experience at the job (hence my ability to get the CCNA Security and CCNP in the year. Another year and I'd easily have the 1000 hours for the CCIE lab haha)

Turgon

bermovick wrote: »

Alright; I'll take the advice of those with more experience. It's just frustrating cause I don't feel I'm doing anything to get real experience at the job (hence my ability to get the CCNA Security and CCNP in the year. Another year and I'd easily have the 1000 hours for the CCIE lab haha)

You would be surprised what opportunities to do more challenging things may come your way if you do another year there. Just keep asking for more. Two years on the CV at that place pays your dues nicely and from the sounds of things gives you plenty of time to study so use it wisely. I have the opposite problem at work, Im overwhelmed with timeconsuming, challenging work to do lots of meetings and deadlines so my study envelope is out of hours. Think about what you are learning in your studies in the context of how your networks hang together, then make some suggestions for improvement to your boss.