Please critique my resume

Shockwave29361

A little about myself; I spent the last 3 years in Japan working at a contracting firm that supports the Marine Corps. stationed in the Pacific region. I was the technical lead for Symantec contracts, services, and support primarily for Altiris and the Client Management Suite. When I wasn't doing that I was also the Pearson VUE and Prometric test administrator for our site. I don't have any technical certifications since it would conflict with my test administrator certifications. The upside to that is I got to sit in any of the certification classes our office hosted and could get access to any of the training resources.

We moved to WA back in July and I've been looking for work but it's a slow process. I'm working on my Sec+ at the moment and will go for CCNA after. In my resume, I have both of my titles listed as separate work experiences and I'm sure that's incorrect. Should I just combine both? The Symantec side was more technical and the testing side was more customer service (until the Prometric lab goes rogue and blows up). My career goals are to get into IT security leaning more towards systems/servers. Something about networking puts me to sleep. Thanks!

ChickenNuggetz

I dont really like the big colored bar on the side, seems almost distracting instead of eye-catching. Drop the "available for weekend/evening shifts." I'd add personal contact info (address, email, telephone, etc). It sounds like you got great experience at your last job, however I dont know what you did. There's a few ways you can go about doing this; for me, I gave a small synopsis of my day-to-day job duties in a small paragraph. Underneath that, in bullet form, I listed my accomplishments and/or what I had personally done to help that organization be successful.

Deanna2012

I don't mind the big colored bar on the side of the page, but the content within the bar is difficult to read. Perhaps if you did a bulletted list or at least lined up the content under each of the headings in the colored bar, it may be easier to follow. Also, you should try to fill the rest of the colored bar with some kind of content. Or, if you do get rid of the colored bar all together, then I would recommend adding a 2-columned section towards the top of your resume with one column titled "Systems Admin Skills" and the other column titled "Networking & Protocols" and then using bullet points to list the content.

As the comment above mentioned, I would also take out the "available for weekend and evening shifts". Also, you should put your contact information at the top of the page - maybe right below your name? It wouldn't hurt to add months to your work experience either.

I hope this helps!

emerald_octane

I think you have alot of experience that you could extrapolate on. The giant name at the top, the colored bar on the side, and the massive white space all over the place means that I wouldn't spend that much time looking at the resume. I work with a recruiter and I know what type of things get on her nerves.

Some of the stuff is slightly confusing if you're going from DoD work to civilian sector. For instance, what on gods earth is Operation Tomodachi? It sounds like an expensive SEALs led mission to get the president some authentic green tea mochi from downtown tokyo on a sunday afternoon.

I'd get rid of it completely and replace it with something like: Configured and Administered Altiris Deployment Server 6.9 that was used to aid in the recovery of the IT infrastructure after the 2011 Miyagi Earthquake, which enabled continuous operation of critical IT services for cusomter facing business processes. (Bold is emphasis; impact on the business)

See stuff like this is hardcore. Managers love BCP/DR stuff like this because A) it makes them look good when the IT hits the fan and because it's something that THEIR bosses are thinking about as well. You brought something to the table that potentially saved the business (well, we like to think so atleast). Emphasis this; don't expect the hiring ppl to do it for you.

Shockwave29361

Thanks for the responses. As much as I thought the side bar made the resume look spiffy, if it's keeping my income at $0 then I won't lose sleep over it disappearing. I'll take all this into consideration and see what I can come up with.

Shockwave29361

Completely rewrote the resume. I'm kind of concerned that it's almost too much of a wall of text.

resume_first_draft.doc

networker050184

I'd get rid of the summary of skills section. These always just seem like a waste of space. Do you really think you need to list TCP/IP, LAN/WANs? If you have a technology you want to highlight put it in your experience section and tell me how you did it. Anyone can list a bunch of words. I'd instead put a summary where you tell a bit about your background and proficiencies.

I like the rest of the resume now much more than before though.

ChickenNuggetz

Shockwave29361 wrote: »

Completely rewrote the resume. I'm kind of concerned that it's almost too much of a wall of text.

resume_first_draft.doc

I think that's a huge improvement. Obviously, you'll need to play around with formatting and font sizes to really make best use of your space. For example, your address, phone and email do not each need their own seperate lines. There are more efficient ways of giving that data that can still look legible and aesthetically pleasing. Also, you may/may not want to consider putting back in your personal statement/summary. I always felt that gave prospective employers a "snapshot" of who you are and what you're looking for; but again, that's entirely up to you.

As for formatting, I'd consider using text grids or columns or something for your "summary of skills" section. With a nice layout, you could probably present the same information in the same amount of space, but it'll be much more legible and less "wall of text." Other than format, the actual content sounds pretty good!