Another Resume Critique, I tried to make mine visually interesting so have at it!

joehalford01

Hey guys,

Like I said in the title, I wanted to make a visually interesting resume. Give me your critiques. Not only did the addition of a sidebar make it look different, it got me down from 3.5 pages to two. So it helped with size as well. Thanks!

olaHalo

im not sure why. but i have trouble reading through that resume. everything on the left column seemed to blend togther.
i just scanned through it (as im sure a potential employer would) and couldnt break it down into sections

looks very cool though! but id stick to the tried and true basic formats unless i was doing some sort of graphic design job

jdballinger

This is a resume, right? It reads like a Facebook profile with the side column in place. I was almost okay with it until I got to the second page, and saw that you included a "Currently Reading" list, and also listed yourself as "All around good guy". I would rethink those areas, as it really drags the professionalism down a notch or three.

Your work experience looks strong, but I have to question whether you are stretching too far with your "Familiar with" section. How familiar are you? Can you administer an AIX system, or just use one? Can you configure an Exchange server from scratch or do you just know how to modify user mailbox sizes? It leaves a lot of room for question. Having those things listed may get you a phone call from a recruiter, but it may be short lived once they find out your familiarity extends to having used it once about six months ago in passing.

Visually it's pretty pleasing, but I'm not sure how a hiring manager would look at it.

log32

I really think you should drop the "Currently reading" thing, I'll be straightforward and a little harsh by saying that no one cares what are you doing. they only care if you are educated/certified/experienced.
you could mention what you are currently learning in a job interview. but not on your C.V

joehalford01

I appreciate the feedback guys. The last side column pieces were more or less tongue in cheek, I can pull those. Regarding familiar with, I wanted a way to say I'm not highly skilled in these systems, but I'm not afraid of them either. I can navigate them and do basic troubleshooting, but I'm far from an expert.
For example on an AIX system, I know how the filesystems work, how to determine how its configured, how to view and kill run away processes, how to create and remove users, I would definitely be wishing for a senior contact over my shoulder if the s really hit the fan though. Kind of the same way with exchange, I know my way around it and doing basic configuration, but not much else yet.

joehalford01

The familiar stuff is also only stuff I'm actually interested in learning more of. I also know a little about web design and C# programming from WGU, but I don't want to go that direction, so I left all of that off the resume.

xenodamus

I'm going to side with the minority and say I like it. As a hiring manager, I'm interested in what kind of person you are in addition to what skills you bring. Your resume really gave me an overall picture of you as a person. I have to admit, my next action after reviewing a resume I like is searching linkedin, facebook, myspace, and google for a candidate's name. If your skills/experience look good, I want to know more about you before wasting anyone's time with a face-to-face.

Just my .02

gvtheogiof

Cam on nhhung chia se thu vi nay
Chuc ngay cuoi tuan vui ve va hanh phuc nhe
Best regards

joehalford01

Thanks, glad to hear the other side. I have a feeling my style with it will turn some managers off immediately, but might pull others in that otherwise would have moved on. I'm in a position career wise where I can be selective, and I wouldn't mind filtering out hiring managers with no sense of humor or interest in their peoples lives.

Morty3

joehalford01 wrote: »

Thanks, glad to hear the other side. I have a feeling my style with it will turn some managers off immediately, but might pull others in that otherwise would have moved on. I'm in a position career wise where I can be selective, and I wouldn't mind filtering out hiring managers with no sense of humor or interest in their peoples lives.

In that case I'll say its a great resume.

jibbajabba

Never seems a resume like that - might be a good or bad thing. Only issue "I" would have is the fact that you have to scroll up and down to read everything (or jump between left and right column. Unless you are able to have a full page on the screen - you might end up scrolling back and forth - which can be off-putting.

zrockstar

I am another guy with a visually interesting resume and I just got a sweet letter of intent to hire from one of the big boys (I'll post details after my formal offer comes through), so I wouldn't worry about a resume that stands out from the pack. However, I would recommend a few changes. First, indent your summary paragraph to 1/2 inch, or half of what it currently is, it looks off. Also, I would indent your bullet points, it makes your whole resume look like a wall of text. Also, you might want to try a sans serif font, it might make it easier to read. That is personal preference, but I would try something like Franklin Gothic just for the hell of it. I wouldn't be afraid of the Et Cetera section, while my resume doesn't have one, my friend who works at Apple said they aren't a bad idea because the really want to see how you will fit with the company and the team, but I would definitely call it something different, and would definitely take "my" out if it as in the home brew part. Other than that, I think it's cool. Just out of curiosity, did you try using your cert logos on the sidebar? I have seen a few people here recommend not doing it, but you have enough certs that it could look really nice if done right.

coreyb80

It's different, but I actually like this resume. Personally, I would definitely remove the To Do, Currently Reading, and ET Cetera sections.