Resume advice that I hope helps...

After I followed Cainman2K3's advice in this post Reddit can we compile a list of tips for creating a Resume / CV and Cover Letter? : AskReddit I started to get many calls for entry level IT positions and other positions I qualified for in other fields. Only three out of eleven interviews were for IT, not including 2nd interviews, but the point is that I got interviews after I changed my resume. After all the interviews with different companies I think I have finally learned to relax during interviews. I don't have IT experience, only self taught material and I have the CCNA certification. Today I officially accepted my first entry-level position in IT. The company seems great.

I just want to tell people with no experience to not give up. I had many, many days that I thought I should give up and go into another field. I also wanted to share the resume advice I found since I know how hard it is to write resume. I've spent countless hours on this site looking at posts about resumes and interviews. Hopefully this job works out for me!

Here is another post of Cainman2K3's that might help IAMA Director of a Los Angeles-based Career Center. Need job hunting advice? AMA. : IAmA

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Comments

yamaj615

Congrats on getting your 1st IT job! I know how hard it can be to get your foot in the door. 2 months ago marked my 5th year in the field. Working my way up from a PC Technician to a Senior System Engineer. I am almost 27 years old now and it has been a rocky ride. I held many roles in IT including Network Support to Application and Website Development. I survived and now my career is becoming very prosperous.

Many years ago, when I first began my BS degree in IT (almost 10 years now, wow) there were many who had dreams of pursuing IT careers. And I watched many dreams fade due to lack of determination and persistence. This is a field where only the strong survive. It is a constant fight to always gain knowledge and keep skills sharp and current with evolving technology.

Throughout my career I bombed interviews (actually only my 1st ever IT interview) and made many mistakes (including recently blowing up a PC lol). Only to learn how to master the interview process, minimize mistakes by planning properly before acting on a problem, please angry clients and users, understand the importance of networking with other professionals, work under pressure, multitask, lose the dreaded "know it all" attitude, etc.

So good luck to you in your career! Learn as much as you can from anybody you can learn it from. Continue to self study, stay current on trends in the industry (informationweek dot com, networkworld dot com, etc) and you will go far in your career.

Note** By staying current with trends it helped make a little money in the stock market too. You'll learn what products or services are hot before they become mainstream.

schmalz2

yamaj615 wrote: »

So good luck to you in your career! Learn as much as you can from anybody you can learn it from. Continue to self study, stay current on trends in the industry (informationweek dot com, networkworld dot com, etc) and you will go far in your career.

Note** By staying current with trends it helped make a little money in the stock market too. You'll learn what products or services are hot before they become mainstream.

Thank you! I have a Finance degree and wanted to get into trading but that went down hill quickly after graduating... maybe I should bring some of the desire back!

With blowing up a PC, I melted part of my first laptop because it over heated to the point of melting the charger and other parts, does that count?

yamaj615

If you have extra money to play with I say "why not" to the stock market. I rather take my chances there then blow it all in a few hours in Vegas.

Wow melting your laptop! I must say that is pretty crafty work lol. I would definitely say that counts

RouteThisWay

Really good advice in that link. I disagree with a couple things, such as "SELECTED PROFESSIONAL CAPABILITIES" instead of putting something generic like "Technical Skills" or something. But for the most part, solid advice.

Any other thoughts?

schmalz2

I agree that people shouldn't use "SELECTED PROFESSIONAL CAPABILITIES".

Jasiono

Thanks for the link, I appreciate it, and what wonderful news it brought you. Congrats!

Im the same way but whenever I apply to jobs here at the current company I work for it's my interviews that get me killed. It's time I look elsewhere as well. Other companies don't even look at my resume.

Anonymouse

Thanks for posting this! I read it at work and couldn't wait to get home and do a resume make over. So far I've been at it for two hours now. We shall see how this turns out. I went and used the tips provided within that article and did a search on this section of the forum for resumes and now this doesn't even look like the same resume anymore.

johnnyX

Schmalz,Thank you so much for posting this. I am currently in that boat you were previously in. I am a self taught individual as well, acquiring the A+, Net+, MCTS:Windows 7, and the CCNA certifications. Out of all them, I enjoy (in fact love) the CCNA world the most.
However, I can't seem to get any job calls at all. Well I did get one about a CCNA job but I never got a call back. So I am thinking of working on my resume as well. Seeing as how you got no previous IT experience, did you post your past employments in your resume, though they probably had nothing to do with IT? I am really confused on this. And if I could get help on making my resume stand out, I would really appreciate it.

curtis_ross

I was one of the lucky ones who found an entry level tech support role with a strong company back in 1999 with absolutely NO experience with computers. Seriously, I didn't even know what a hard drive looked like.

Never underestimate the power of a good interview, being comfortable and being able to talk confidently will get you far. Nothing can replace curiousity and a desire to learn, even more so with technology.

I really enjoy doing the tech support role, so I haven't ventured too far beyond that in the professional world (act of choice, not ability). Not many folks can handle it for as long as I have, but it has been good to me. As of now I only have a couple certifications, A+ and MCP. Looks like I should be starting WGU in the beginning of November to add to this. Hopefully in the end I will have approx. 15 years experience, several certs and a degree.

Congrats on finding the job that motivates you and breaking into the IT work force.

schmalz2

In a cover letter I mentioned a lot about a home lab and using GNS. You should look into GNS if you haven't. I stuck to my customer service positions on my resume. I have a lot of in person customer service experience. I do have a job in a call center right now for tech support which is just password resets and some other stuff but it is a start. I'm studying for more cisco certs which I am hoping will get me out of a call center position. I had an interview for a NOC before I got my current job and it was the only interview where they asked technical questions and I felt like I nailed it. They told me most people can't answer the question they asked. Just entry level questions. I was thrilled about that but didn't get the job. I think it was because of lack of call center experience. I'm horrible with wording so writing resumes and cover letters takes me a long time. I'm not sure how much mine will help but I can post it later when I get home. I did receive a lot of calls for interviews when I fixed my resume by following the advised in the first post. The interviews weren't all for IT jobs. I also had my resume set up differently for different jobs. I can post my resume if you would like when I get home tonight.