Resume Critique

dustinmurphy

All -

I feel I have a pretty strong resume, but have had some issues in the past converting it into an interview. I thought I'd see what the critics here thought...

As a side note... I've been on Long-term disability since November 2011... so, there will be a fairly large gap...

Thanks in advance.

N2IT

The format is solid, except for some smaller errors. You have a red period after occurrence. You have some bullets with periods and others without. You need to decided on that and stick with that decision.
Some of your bullets are in past and some are in present tense. Most seem to be okay. I would assume all would be in past tense since you have an end date on your last job.
I like how you have your headings set
Some of the terminology in your summary I could do with out. Bleeding-edge technology sounds weird. I would put at least one sentence in your summary explaining how you added value to the company. Through project or a process and make sure it's measurable.

You started to do that in the last bullet of your IT manager job, but (Received above average review), just doesn't do much for me. I would word that a bit differently. It sounds like you are selling yourself short there.

Overall I like it.

dustinmurphy

N2IT wrote: »

The format is solid, except for some smaller errors. You have a red period after occurrence. You have some bullets with periods and others without. You need to decided on that and stick with that decision.
Some of your bullets are in past and some are in present tense. Most seem to be okay. I would assume all would be in past tense since you have an end date on your last job.
I like how you have your headings set
Some of the terminology in your summary I could do with out. Bleeding-edge technology sounds weird. I would put at least one sentence in your summary explaining how you added value to the company. Through project or a process and make sure it's measurable.

You started to do that in the last bullet of your IT manager job, but (Received above average review), just doesn't do much for me. I would word that a bit differently. It sounds like you are selling yourself short there.

Overall I like it.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll make the changes you suggested as they sound like good ideas (consistency is good)... and I'll come up with some better words for it...

Anyone else? I'm open to criticism... I just want to have a good resume.

ptilsen

Change "Computer Skills" to "Technical Skills.

Get some more accomplishments in there, or format your existing bullets to stress what you accomplished. You've got a few, but not many. On a great resume, many, even most of the bullets are about how your job performance brought value to the organization, rather than what your responsibilities were.

"• Lead project to reduce recurring costs and improve system stability and performance by moving current outsourced production systems to in-house servers" is a good example of this, but it could be worded even better. Ideally, start the sentence with the what and finish with the how, rather than the other way around. For example:
• Reduced operational expenditures and improved critical systems' availability through effective leadership and implementation of server consolidation project.
Same basic content, but you get the reader right there with "saved money". It's okay to still list job responsibilities in each section, but I want to see a bit more of how you helped the business. It would also be nice to see some more word variety. No more than one "lead", "responsible for", or "received" starting a bullet point per job. And as N2 said, keep it consist. Since you are currently unemployed, I would list all bullet points in the past tense. The past tense of troubleshoot is troubleshot. Keep bullet points to one sentence, period or not.

If you want more than one, start each section with a non-bullet description of the job, then do bullet points highlighting successes and remarkable aspects of your job. All-bullets is fine if you keep them concise. If you really want to explain what the job was, that brief summary followed by bullets is fine. Bullet paragraphs are not fine.

Your education is formatted completely wrong. Look up some samples. I would list degrees in reverse order of receipt (most recent at the top), then list certifications in reverse order of value. Don't list dates on certifications.

Finally, fill out the second page. It's okay to do this with formatting (line breaks, font changes, etc.). Things are pretty tight on your experience descriptions right now, so this should be doable. Try Arial or Calibri, probably 11. Increase the section heading size a bit (probably 14 point) and you'll be all set without adding content (you have plenty of content; it's just too scrunched together). Alternatively, be more selective with your content and cut it down to one page. I think you have enough to get it to two with formatting alone, but at the end of the day less than five years of experience can almost always fit into one page.

Despite all my findings, this is pretty good for an IT resume. Clean up the formatting and get that consistency in there and you'll be all set.

dustinmurphy

Thanks. I'll work on all these points.

The slim formatting is due to me trying to keep it to 1 page. I have under 5 years of experience, so I wanted to list everything I could that shows that although it's less than 5 years of experience, I've been exposed to a LOT of technologies and have lead various projects successfully.

I'm not a fan of the repeated words, and have attempted to fix them, but I have a hard time changing it up. I really want to point out that in most cases I was the leader of the projects, and not JUST a follower.... I have architected many different projects, and I also feel that's an important point to show.... that I don't just follow others designs... I have engineered the solutions myself and implemented them. That's not to say I'm not a "team player" because I've also been an assistant in many cases...

Anyways... thanks for the critique. I'll make those changes in the next week or so... and re-post to see if the new one needs improvement.