No luck since 2009

Well, I think my resume has came along way. I have attachments as you can see how it has evolved over the past few days. From start to final you can this thing has evolved THANKS guys!!

Updated ** 8/10/2012 I've actually been receiving calls now. It's unbelievable how much a resume means. Thanks again techexams.net forums!

Resume 1.jpg

Changes to Resume.jpg

Resume 2.jpg

resume revamped.jpg

Resume 8_10.jpg

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lunchbox67

Camargoville wrote: »

Your a ton of help.... Here to get some actually help not be flamed or trolled by you.

I don't think A+ is a waste of time, I think its well worth it's place in the IT world. A-lot of jobs I search for require it also.

Best help you can get would be to not try and get by with bare minimum in anything you do.
It is a very bad habit and a hard one to break.

HLRS

I never seen a resume like that, fit everything in 1 page, and write more about your duties. it seems half empty.
You have a bullet point and a very short sentence, write more till you cant write on the one line.
at least 5 bullet points for each job with a long sentence

Camargoville

HLRS wrote: »

I never seen a resume like that, fit everything in 1 page, and write more about your duties. it seems half empty.
You have a bullet point and a very short sentence, write more till you cant write on the one line.
at least 5 bullet points for each job with a long sentence

Honestly, I use to have a version of my resume that I squeezed all on one page, my college career services told me to do it like it is now. I thought it looked to cludrerd myself.

m3zilla

IMO, your resume is..erm...terrible. Here we go....

Why do you have Car Audio, Respirator Certified listed in the skills section?
Networking, routers, bridges and switches? Isn't that a bit redundant?
Why are your CompTIA certs listed under Skills, then again under Certifications?
Why is Certifications in size 28 font?
Why does your 2nd page look like something you typed up in notepad?
Why are you linking to your online resume? In case they don't like the hard copy?
Do you really know half the things you put on there? I mean really know it...not just familiar with it from playing around at home. For instance, can you setup/configure an ipsec vpn tunnel? Can you troubleshoot/configure routing protocols? Do you know how DNS work?

Customer Service Rep, Odd Jobs Experience

umm...what? You're responsible for food production, stocking, making keys.......and BB technical support? Obviously you bunched up your responsibilities at three different companies, but why? Also, "Travel" is not a skill/responsibility I would list.

Camargoville

m3zilla wrote: »

IMO, your resume is..erm...terrible. Here we go....

Why do you have Car Audio, Respirator Certified listed in the skills section?
Networking, routers, bridges and switches? Isn't that a bit redundant?
Why are your CompTIA certs listed under Skills, then again under Certifications?
Why is Certifications in size 28 font?
Why does your 2nd page look like something you typed up in notepad?
Why are you linking to your online resume? In case they don't like the hard copy?
Do you really know half the things you put on there? I mean really know it...not just familiar with it from playing around at home. For instance, can you setup/configure an ipsec vpn tunnel? Can you troubleshoot/configure routing protocols? Do you know how DNS work?

I did work with a-lot of it in college courses/labs. Now that I look at it. It does look a bit redundant thanks for pointing it out.

umm...what? You're responsible for food production, stocking, making keys.......and BB technical support? Obviously you bunched up your responsibilities at three different companies, but why?

I'm thinking I should just drop that whole section off of my resume.

https://rapidshare.com/files/1034659756/Resume%20Work.docx

What do you guys think of this one, I took a-lot more of the junk off and put it as 1 single page.

Image of it.
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/6509/resumework.jpg

lunchbox67 wrote: »

Best help you can get would be to not try and get by with bare minimum in anything you do.
It is a very bad habit and a hard one to break.

Well that was whenever I was 18-20 years old and just out of highschool and thought I knew it all. I'm 25 now and grew up a lot since then.

I was expecting some more input today, I guess I will check it out later before I head to work, hope someone finds the time to help me out.

Legacy User

Why don't you elaborate more on your projects and field work in the laptop tech part. Seems like you summed it up and if your resume is lacking you have to find ways to beef it up. Take out heavy lifting and 8-10 hours on feet. Try to explain your duties at your current job and make it sound as technical as possible like you have to be a genius to be able to do your job.

You really don't need to list verification codes on your resume.

Camargoville

dmarcisco wrote: »

Why don't you elaborate more on your projects and field work in the laptop tech part. Seems like you summed it up and if your resume is lacking you have to find ways to beef it up. Take out heavy lifting and 8-10 hours on feet. Try to explain your duties at your current job and make it sound as technical as possible like you have to be a genius to be able to do your job.

My current job isn't techy at all though. It's just plain labor work. I guess reading and understanding some blueprints but thats about it.
At Adecco engineering and Tech. I had the first job was Laptop repair, for Toshiba Laptops only. Would fix almost 10 laptops at a day reformatting, replacing screens, bases, wireless cards, ETC.. Pretty much anything to do with a laptop. Then I asked for a closer position it was with carefusion, and we would run preventive maintenance on hospital iv pumps.

But I will get to work on that asap. Thanks Dmarcisco

Akaricloud

The objective isn't really an objective at all, I don't get what "Entry Level in Computer Specialist Positions." means when written under objective. Is your objective to obtain one of these positions, manage them, or what...? Also it's not certered with the objective title at all.

The skills section is way too vague. For example, what is it supposed to mean when you list "email" as a skill? That you can write an email, support Outlook clients or manage an exchange cluster environment? The same can be said with almost every "skill" that you've listed.

While your education looks ok, the section formatting needs to be changed. It's all crampt into like 1/3rd of the page width and is hard to read. It's not obvious at a glance where your degree and certifications begin since the subtitle in in the same font(bold, underlined) as most other lines in this section. Also there's no need to put your verification codes in. If they want to check, they will ask.

Your work experience section doesn't match the formatting of education and doesn't seem aimed toward the positions you're applying for.

People looking to hire for entry level IT jobs could care less that you can MIG weld or paint. That's not to say that you can't list anything under this job but you need to realize your target audience. You can always list things like "Responsible for operating $xxx,000 worth of equipment", "Worked orders with strict deadlines", "Followed safety protocols in place for heavy lifting", ect. Anything that speaks towards your responsibilities and character that HR can in some way relate to their own business. You can bet they want someone responsible that adheres to strict deadlines and follows protocols.

As for your laptop repair tech job, this is going to be the one that gets counted as experience and ultimately lands you a position. You need to really go into more detail here and show your true responsiblities.

Overall the capitilization annoys the hell out of me and would make me immediately trash this. Why do some sections have every word capitalized? Example: "Preventive Maintenance on Hospital IV Pumps and Computers".

Formatting wise, none of the section titles match eachother.

Legacy User

Camargoville wrote: »

Would fix almost 10 laptops at a day reformatting, replacing screens, bases, wireless cards, ETC.. Pretty much anything to do with a laptop. Thanks Dmarcisco

You can make almost each duty into its own line and dress it up a bit ex:

Backed up all necessary data and reformatted drives for fresh installs

Diagnosed screen issues which led to replacement

I'm sure you get my drift at this point.

NetworkVeteran

dmarcisco wrote: »

Try to explain your duties at your current job and make it sound as technical as possible like you have to be a genius to be able to do your job.

Yes, think about and sell anything you've done in either job that might relate to your desired job. Don't exaggerate! You've done a good job removing exaggerations in your print resume. You still have lines that aren't selling you as an entry-level computer technician. Ask yourself, "If I were hiring an entry-level computer technician, this line would matter, because?" If you don't have a good answer, and it's not considered a necessary part of a resume, remove it. The lines that remain you need to beef-up so they're doing as your work history supports to sell you.

Inexplicably, you're linking your print resume to your online resume. Your online resume is much weaker by virtue of the exaggerations and redundancies pointed out earlier. I would nix the link. Your print resume should be worthy of standing on its own, anyway.

One more question. Imagine you were hiring someone. Would this--

Skills And Qualifications

— Teamwork

— Data Entry (75 WPM)

— VMware and Virtual PC

— Networking (Some Cisco Routers)

— Data Retrieval

— Word Processing

— Server

— Customer Service

— VPN

— Motivated

— Tech Support

— Printer Repair

— Computer/Laptop Repair

— Norton Ghost

— Cabling

— Security

— Switches

—
Backups

— Proficient Microsoft Office Suite

— Electronic Schematics

— DOS

— Linux

— MAC OS

— Wireless Networking

— Email

— Subnetting

— All Windows Operating Systems

Have much meaning? How about that picture? I know my eye basically goes from NAME to OBJECTIVE to EDUCATION to WORK EXPERIENCE and I am done.

What does a skill/qualification of "Email" even mean?! And don't explain it to me! You're not going to be there to explain it when someone reads your resume. And that applies to almost all the terms. I'll leave the word-by-word analysis to you!

This will be my last critique. Best of luck to you. Hire someone to professionally write your resume if you need to, to make it presentable--the cost is a small token in the bucket.

Legacy User

Akaricloud wrote: »

You can always list things like "Responsible for operating $xxx,000 worth of equipment", "Worked orders with strict deadlines", "Followed safety protocols in place for heavy lifting", ect. Anything that speaks towards your responsibilities and character that HR can in some way relate to their own business. You can bet they want someone responsible that adheres to strict deadlines and follows protocols.

".

akari hit exactly what I was trying to explain.

I'll try to say it without trying to be mean his resume is an eye sore.

@netvet

lol Thats exactly what I did skipped over the skills/qualifications part and went to education and work experience.

cyberguypr

As usual, great advice here.

OP, you must STOP trying to update the resume. It is obvious that what you have there does not work. It's like trying to fix a car without having the necessary mechanical knowledge. You need to take a fresh look at this. Do your homework. Go through the other "help me with my resume" threads here so you can see the transformation some have gone through. There are many success stories that you can learn from.

kgb

Definitely get rid of that image top left. Adds nothing and it's not a good image regardless. You aren't applying for graphic design positions, so leave the graphics off.

It's already been mentioned, but consolidate your skills or elaborate on them if they are indeed in depth skills. Like the email one is the perfect example that people have already touched upon.

Also sounds like you need to suck it up and move to where the jobs are. It can be a hard pill to swallow. I thought I wanted to be a feature-film animator, but I realized that would never happen if I lived somewhere that had no feature-film studios.

Camargoville

Akaricloud wrote: »

The objective isn't really an objective at all, I don't get what "Entry Level in Computer Specialist Positions." means when written under objective. Is your objective to obtain one of these positions, manage them, or what...? Also it's not certered with the objective title at all.

Honestly I'm having a bit of trouble getting my words out for it. I'm looking for a help desk position or a pc technician.

dmarcisco wrote: »

You can make almost each duty into its own line and dress it up a bit ex: Backed up all necessary data and reformatted drives for fresh installs Diagnosed screen issues which led to replacement I'm sure you get my drift at this point.

Sure do, I've completely re doing my employment part, should be a bit sharper and clearer.

NetworkVeteran wrote: »

Yes, think about and sell anything you've done in either job that might relate to your desired job. Don't exaggerate! You've done a good job removing exaggerations in your print resume. You still have lines that aren't selling you as an entry-level computer technician. Ask yourself, "If I were hiring an entry-level computer technician, this line would matter, because?" If you don't have a good answer, and it's not considered a necessary part of a resume, remove it. The lines that remain you need to beef-up so they're doing as your work history supports to sell you. Inexplicably, you're linking your print resume to your online resume. Your online resume is much weaker by virtue of the exaggerations and redundancies pointed out earlier. I would nix the link. Your print resume should be worthy of standing on its own, anyway. One more question. Imagine you were hiring someone. Would this-- Have much meaning? How about that picture? I know my eye basically goes from NAME to OBJECTIVE to EDUCATION to WORK EXPERIENCE and I am done. What does a skill/qualification of "Email" even mean?! And don't explain it to me! You're not going to be there to explain it when someone reads your resume. And that applies to almost all the terms. I'll leave the word-by-word analysis to you! This will be my last critique. Best of luck to you. Hire someone to professionally write your resume if you need to, to make it presentable--the cost is a small token in the bucket.

I think I understand what your saying, maybe I should drop it all together? lol the email part was maybe trying to setup an email server... honestly I don't know what I was thinking just trying to put something on my resume. I've thought about getting someone to write it for me.. but then again I think I'm just having trouble how to word stuff on my resume without looking like a retard. Thanks for your input.

dmarcisco wrote: »

I'll try to say it without trying to be mean his resume is an eye sore. @netvet lol Thats exactly what I did skipped over the skills/qualifications part and went to education and work experience.

It's not being mean, I really wanted a hardcore critiqu! Would I have came to the pack of wolves if I didn't want it torn to shreds? haha. Would it be best to just drop the whole part. In a lot of other resumes I've viewed I don't even see a skills and qualifications list. I guess my certs kind of sum them all up anyways?

cyberguypr wrote: »

As usual, great advice here. OP, you must STOP trying to update the resume. It is obvious that what you have there does not work. It's like trying to fix a car without having the necessary mechanical knowledge. You need to take a fresh look at this. Do your homework. Go through the other "help me with my resume" threads here so you can see the transformation some have gone through. There are many success stories that you can learn from.

I've been checking them out. I can see some problems with mine from just comparsion.

kgb wrote: »

Definitely get rid of that image top left. Adds nothing and it's not a good image regardless. You aren't applying for graphic design positions, so leave the graphics off. It's already been mentioned, but consolidate your skills or elaborate on them if they are indeed in depth skills. Like the email one is the perfect example that people have already touched upon. Also sounds like you need to suck it up and move to where the jobs are. It can be a hard pill to swallow. I thought I wanted to be a feature-film animator, but I realized that would never happen if I lived somewhere that had no feature-film studios.

Removed graphics I just thought It would stick out a bit more, but then again as you said I'm not a graphics designer. Also me and my wife both are willing to move, and would like to do so before the baby arrives.

Another Question/Where I'm stuck at now

I'm starting to think what I need help with now, is a good objective heading. I'm wanting an entry level Computer help desk, pc technician or entry level networking job. Also a guess the big question is really do I even really need a skills section? I'm starting to think my education and certifications kind of sum me up anyways. I'm working on getting my words out for my job description I'll post my resume afterwards then. Thanks guys in advanced for all your input on my resume.

resume revamped.jpg

techdudehere

Wouldn't KY be the antithesis of a technology hotbed? At the very least, I would think you'd need to consider whatever large cities exist in the state. You may want to consider including NC/VA in your job search. What are your goals? Do you want to do a specific type of work?

Camargoville

techdudehere wrote: »

Wouldn't KY be the antithesis of a technology hotbed? At the very least, I would think you'd need to consider whatever large cities exist in the state. You may want to consider including NC/VA in your job search. What are your goals? Do you want to do a specific type of work?

lol, not every part of kentucky is backwoods and hills *cough* (like the part im at right now SMH). There are more jobs out in the western part of the state, which I'm willing to move to. Also I wouldn't mind moving another state over, or to far away. I wouldn't want a miserable drive to visit family.

Legacy User

Your new resume is much better but you need to reword your laptop duties. I can tell your severe inexperience from just reading it. If you want to be treated like a professional you have to sound like one.

I personally would use bullet points under theexperience part. The paragraphs makes me just want to skim over it. You need to make the objectives part more specific. figure out what positions you are looking to attract pc tech, help desk, or whatever.

Camargoville

dmarcisco wrote: »

Your new resume is much better but you need to reword your laptop duties. I can tell your severe inexperience from just reading it. If you want to be treated like a professional you have to sound like one.

Glad to hear you say it's getting better. Been putting alot of time into it. I'll work on some more stuff in the morning. I'm trying to find good wording for my objective. I can either work Pc tech help desk network eningeering. Also have my EET degree, looking to put something to show I would do that too. Hmmm I've got some more ideas to my experience it's hard to remember every little thing I done been a while lol. Thanks for your help though it's got me this far, from just comparison from my older resumes this one has came along way.

Shoo This resume is giving me a headache, I just know its what is holding me back. I've done so many changes to it now, It's literally not even the same thing one I began with haha, which from everyone's feedback is a great thing.
This is what I got so far. I tried to keep it pretty detailed and didn't exaggerate at all. Tried to make everything sound as technical as I could. I can agree that this is about 100x better than what I did have. Thanks to everyone that has put an effort and advice into making what it is today, it clearly came along way from what it was. I give you guys props and thanks in advance.

I still have one problem and thats getting a good objective cause I'm pretty much open to an entry level job in my field, maybe what I have will work though.

resume final.jpg

Legacy User

You dont have to underline your certifications or list the testing center.

astrogeek

Just looking at the different resume versions I can definitely say the updated one looks by far better than the original. I'm not a resume expert, but I think the newest one should get some bites. My only minor critique is maybe put AA or AS in front of both degree names, (AS in Computer Engineering Technology, AS in Electrical Engineering Technology), and graduation dates for each.

A lot does depend on the jobs in your area though, and relocating might not be possible, or easy, for an entry level position since you probably won't be able to afford your own place. I'd still look for some internships to do on your days off. I've worked 3rd shift hours before, (as a former truck driver 3rd shift is all I know lol), so I know how your days off are precious catch up days for rest, but if you can fit in an internship that would really help.

I don't completely advise anybody quit their day to day job for an internship, however, just from personal experience I know how easy a dead end job with long hours can engulf your time and keep you from doing what you really want to do. I would look for some entry level jobs and try to make that move to get your foot in the door, but if you still aren't getting call backs you might want to consider finding a more flexible job that would allow you to do an internship. Again, I say this with caution because your job history already isn't very stable, but I was about your age when I started driving trucks. At the time I was thinking it would be temporary just so I could move out of my moms house, but now I'm 30 starting in my IT career...time I now view as being a complete waste!

With that said you have a lot more than I did when I landed my first IT job, I still don't have a college degree and at the time I didn't have any certs, I was just taking a CCNA Academy class and had been out of work for almost a year and a half. The only reason I believe I got the job I have now is because I signed up for an internship at my local community college. It was only 2 days a week for about 2 months, but the CIO that got me the internship was very excited to see my enthusiasm to get into IT so that helped me a ton. With your updated resume I'd imagine you should be able to get something entry level, but again much depends on what is available in your area.

Good luck!

Akaricloud

Definitely looking a lot better and getting close to usable. Here are a few more suggestions:

Remove your objective. They're really not necessary and since you can't come up with anything good it's probably best just left off. I think if you look around you'll see that most of us have ditched ours as well.

Remove "dual degree" and list Associates of Applied Science twice. Also put completion dates on these. This will work to highlight both degrees and give the appearance that you have more education.

Remove your testing center(What is 2012-2015??) and change this to include completion dates(EX: 04/2012)

Work some more on your work experience section. Items such as "teamwork" seem out of place. Something more like "worked on a team to ensure timely results" sounds much better.

"Done preventative maintenance" sounds wrong. Think about the implied I. "I done ..." just doesn't work.

Under operating systems why is Server 2003 listed in the middle of client OSes? -Also if you plan to leave this on there expect to be questioned about what you've done with it and if you've worked with 2008.

Take out the "some" in "Some Customer Service experience", Nobody wants to see somebody doubting themself in a skills section. Also don't capitalize the C and S in this unless it was your title.

Punctuation is still inconsistant. Why are there periods on some sections and not on others? -Either way works but pick one and stick to it.

Camargoville

Akaricloud wrote:

Definitely looking a lot better and getting close to usable. Here are a few more suggestions:

....

I'm Going to scrap it then, didn't know that most scrap them. I'm glad you pointed the periods out I didn't even realize it lol. I've used VMware/virtualpc in college and ran a server with windows 2003. Never really used 2008 though. Some great final touch ups. Thanks

astrogeek wrote:

Just looking at the different resume versions I can definitely say the updated one looks by far better than the original. I'm not a resume expert, but I think the newest one should get some bites. .....Good luck!

Well I don't make that much money, and I'm willing to relocate. As of now this has been a huge success, I'm very pleased and thankful to everyone that's help out on my resume, I've started getting calls every since this went live on careerbuilder and dice. Who knew that a resume meant much. This is fantastic. I really think I'll be Lexington in a month now. I appreciate all the feed back! I'll let everyone know if I obtain a job and keeP this thread alive for the time being with my touch ups I do.

One more question. If where to volunteer for experience/intership where could i put that on my resume? In experiance or what.

Legacy User

I'd put it on top of the experience portion since it will be most recent.

Camargoville

Updated

Resume 8_10.jpg

Legacy User

Try these 2 bullet points to replace the 2 under the laptop section.

Produced and provided clients with technical documentation on all work performed.

Interfaced with clients on providing options for any repairs post warranty.

astrogeek

Camargoville wrote: »

One more question. If where to volunteer for experience/intership where could i put that on my resume? In experiance or what.

I treat volunteer experience no different than work experience, so I'd place it in the proper timeline in your work experience.

Legacy User

Any updates?

Have you put your resume out there yet?

Anyone contacted you yet?

Camargoville

dmarcisco wrote: »

Any updates?

Have you put your resume out there yet?

Anyone contacted you yet?

I had a few calls, but nothing special still struggling it seems. I order me a CCENT book and going to get how 2 pass. Maybe ill get more exposure. But here is a more updated copy. I actually put in some volunteer work so maybe itll look better to employers I hope . Just updated it today. Appreciate you still keeping up with me.

Resume 8_16.jpg

Legacy User

I'm not sure if its just me but the font for ICC Global hosting tech seems huge compared to everything else. What kind of jobs have you been applying to?

Camargoville

lol opps it was in Tahoma font for some reason than times roman. Entry level junior help desk pc tech... you name it i've applied. I got one call, was a phone interview. I guess they didn't want to do a phone conference it was next.