Another Resume Review Thread

Omyn

Hello all, been lurking on the forums for months now and finally decided to make my first post. I've recently been doing a lot of training for certifications in hopes to break into the IT field. More specifically, networking. With this, comes the careful modifications of my resume to gear it towards that field. Within the last couple of months I have earned my A+ and Network+. I am currently wrapping up my Security+ and am looking to take the Exam within the next month or so. After that, I am dead set on continuing down the CCNA path.

On to my resume. Posted below is the resume I am currently considering sending out. I have had some formal training on A+, Net+, Security+, and CCNA during my years at my technical High School, which is included in my resume. My knowledge retained from that period is minimal, however. Not that it matters for anything other than CCNA at this point. I already redid all the studying for everything but CCNA. That is up next. Considering those conditions, would it be looked down upon to include those details in the resume?

I was also curious if there is a way to incorporated into your resume your future certification goals and/or things your are currently working to achieve. For example, the fact I am near completion of my Security+ studying.

I appreciate any help or advice. I am looking forward to getting some IT experience under my belt.

Thanks.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B44YHTayIg9TVzJrNGp3Y2JrbFU/edit?pli=1

sheckler

It really should be 1 page. It looks bad when the 2nd page is only partly full, especially with only a few years of experience.

Your current job should be listed first, so switch those around.

Take out the references line, if a company wants them they'll ask.

I'd re-write the technical proficiency list. Just listing every phone manufacturer isn't helpful. Same with things like acrobat, iOS, Android, etc. None of that matters.

Tailor the resume for the type of job you're applying for. Most likely going to be help desk jobs, not many places will give the keys to the network to someone with no experience.

paul78

Hello and welcome to TE. Your resume implies that you are already in IT so that's a good start .

A couple of quick suggestions:

1. It's customary to order your experience chronologically starting with the current employer so you probably needs to switch that.
2. I'm not a big fan of center-justification because it's difficult to skim so you may want to change that in your summary.
3. With your summary - you may want to say something like this - "A technology professional with three years of experience resolving product and customer
   problems. Experienced building and maintaining a flexible, self-managed schedule to efficiently resolve assigned problems. Eager and willing to learn new skills. Exceptionally able to learn and adapt to new technology." - it's a little shorter and I thought it may be better to omit the part about additional education since that's a given in IT.
4. With only 3 years and 2 employers, you may want to try to fit onto one page.
5. With the Hardware and Software section - you may want to omit generic items like "Desktop and Server Platforms", "switches/routers", etc. etc. Also listing Microsoft Office for an IT professional should be avoided.
6. With your experience - instead of saying what you do. Are there any accomplishments that you can list instead? Saying "service 50+ variations of machines and machine configurations" isn't very descriptive and will probably be ignored by more readers.
7. Don't say "spend face time" - if true - perhaps you can say - "Provided daily relationship management and support for 10 accounts." - something like that.
8. I'm not a big fan of saying what you studied in High School - maybe just list the name of the high-school and year graduated. Other folks may have other ideas about that.

Omyn

Thanks both of you for your input. I took some, if not all, of the suggestions given. Let me know what you think now. The only thing that I want to get some more input about first is about my technical high school. I really think it may be beneficial that I include the fact that I received formal training at some point.

I greatly appreciate the time taken to review my resume. Also, thank you for the welcome.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B44YHTayIg9Ta3BIWFEwalV1QTQ

Omyn

Thank you both for the suggestions. I've applied most, if not all of what was suggested. The biggest improvement was cutting it down to one page. Looks a lot more clean. The only thing I would like more feedback about would be including my technical school. I like the fact that I can say I had some sort of formal training. Here is the revised copy.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B44YHTayIg9Ta3BIWFEwalV1QTQ

What do you guys think my chances of getting an entry NOC type position would be?

paul78

It does look cleaner. I don't really have a better suggestion but I found the section on hardware with all the printers to be a tad lackluster. I think you ought to be careful not to focus too much on printers.

With the second job, did you have a title you can use instead-could you legitimately use a more generic term like "Hardware Support Technician" instead.

Unfortunately, I can't really comment on entry-level NOC opportunities as it is not a job area that I am familiar. But NOC's work in lots of different ways and I am sure there is a job out there for you if you are persistent.