I need some Good Advice

Hello. Well here is my story. In 2010 I started working as an entry level Help Desk technician for a respectable company here on the East Coast. 700 showrooms 9 warehouse scattered throughout the country. In 2011 I was laid off due to department downsizing. Got divorced in that year. Also, gained full custody of our son. Got evicted from my apartment because I couldn't afford the rent anymore and had to move back in with my mother. All of this in the span of one month. Since June of 2011 I was on unemployment. Everyday for the past year and 5 months. I've attended numerous Job Fairs. Sending out 10 resume's a day, still nothing. I am about to take my Certifications test for Net + and Sec +. In the near future I would like to earn the new CCNA Data Center Certification. My goal is to eventually work on a Data Farm. However Unemployment is about to be cutoff nation wide. For NY it's on Dec 9. I am running out of time. With in the last 2 days I've must have sent out 80 applications within the field of Help Desk Technician/Analyst. Still not a single person has gotten back to me. I have been working with computers since the age of 16. I got my first job at Comp USA at 18 and moved up the Ladder to eventually become the Operations Manger at the Flagship Store at 21. I've been told that my resume stretches to long. About 3 pages to precise and to narrow it down. So that's what I did. Still Nothing. I still don't know how I'm going to pay for my Certification Tests on top of Private School for my son. I'm literally at a juncture here. Below I uploaded my revised resume. Any advice and critique would be greatly appreciated. I had to block out my name and address for obvious reasons. Thanks again for your time.

Revised.pdf

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Comments

Cisc0kidd

Take a job to pay the bills and keep up the search. You are too close to your UE cut off to count on getting an IT job.

Cisc0kidd

PS Cut the resume down to 1 page.

cyberguypr

If you have sent 80+ resumes and got zero hits that is a clear indication that something is seriously wrong. Here are a few tips for you:
- This should be a 1 page resume. Not enough meat for 2
- Objective: worded like a professional summary (which is the right thing). Need to relabel it as such and refine it. Tell a story
- References: get rid of it
- My biggest pet peeve: anyone can plan, install, configure and troubleshoot. It's all about differentiating yourself from thousand of other candidates out there. You must show how your contributions made a difference that resulted in something tangible such as improved processes, cost savings, etc.
- For work experience I've always liked a paragraph describing duties followed by a few bullet points highlighting important accomplishments (see previous point)
- You really don't have anything you can list for the gap since 6/11? Not even side work?

Oracle712

Thanks Cisc0kidd for your response. I've also tried call center and Operation openings. Despite what is being widely reported. The job market is still horrible. I just came back from my local Job Center. The Place is just as pack as it was when I first started going there over a year ago. Also how do I trim down resume without negating my experiences ?

Oracle712

Nothing that merits being put on a resume. A few off the books jobs. Upgrades and trouble shoot home PC's and tablets. Mostly just neighbors and friends of my family. I wanted to keep my skills my sharp. I would like to shorten my resume. Before it was 4 pages long. I put down EVERY job I ever had. Like i said I've been working and held many positions since I was 18. As a help Desk Technician for Sleepy's there was not much inside my bailiwick that I could do besides basic troubleshoot, install, escalate trouble tickets and assign to the proper technician. Even though I ask for more assignments. There really wasn't much to give out. On the weekends, I was the Defacto Lead. Phone conferences with with Vendors. Monitored the Network. Keeping Key staff members appraised throughout the day and Every 4 hours sent out store outage reports.

Cisc0kidd

When I say pay the "pay the bills" job, I mean literally ANYTHING. Warehouse, retail, call center, fast food, anything! I was a single dad with no support from ex and worked at a call center to pay the bills. It wasn't fun but my daughter was my number one.

dmoore44

Have you considered widening your job market search? There are a bunch of IT jobs elsewhere in the country - the West Coast, Texas, the DC area... Those are the ones I know of off hand that have a continual need for IT personnel...

I know it's not preferable to have to uproot and move - especially if you have a kid in school, but I've always been of the opinion that you've got to do whatever it takes to provide for your family - even if that means moving somewhere new and starting fresh.

Oracle712

Actually I never really considered relocating but that it is something to consider. I thought California was one of the worst places to look for work in IT. From what I've been reading. I'll look into that as well. Thanks for the information.

lantech

For your job as a help desk technician I would put the specific technologies that you worked with. Ok, so you worked with PC and Mac OS but which ones? What manufacturer of printers and equipment did you work with? Also put some of those other things you did on the weekend down. After all you did get paid to monitor the network didn't you? And what did you use to monitor it with?

I'd widen the margins and keep your descriptions going across the page. Check your bullets, looks like you may have missed a couple in there. Either that or you need to rethink the wording in your job descriptions. For example, you have

Perform preventative maintenance to ensure data integrity, system security, and reliability.
Responsible for the communication, troubleshooting, and technical requirements of the departments and clients the technician is assigned to.

To me it should look like that because it looks like to different parts of the job. But the way you have it, the red portion of it doesn't have a bullet beside it and it looks like it's just one of your duties instead of two separate duties. I think there might be a couple of places on the resume that seem like that.

Do you have a degree, training or any certs? If you do then put that down as well.

Oracle712

Yes, I see what your getting at. I'll go ahead and revise that. As for Training. I am about to wrap up my training in Comptia A+ , Comptia N + and Comptia Security + from a technical school in Queens. I will be done in two weeks. After that I wanted to take the Tests for all three. Also the school is test center so the vouchers was added along with the tuition. Despite everything i'm still cramming away. I realize no one will look at my resume unless I'm certified. At this point. But still any feed you give is GREATLY appreciated.

Ivanjam

@Oracle712 - I see you are in NYC too. Go to this website and check out the "Information Technology/Technical" section - sign up and apply for the "IT Support Assistant" positions listed:

CUNY Jobs

Nemowolf

Oracle712 wrote: »

Actually I never really considered relocating but that it is something to consider. I thought California was one of the worst places to look for work in IT. From what I've been reading. I'll look into that as well. Thanks for the information.

California is saturated with "qualified" IT workers so i empathize. Its a nightmare for HR people so they rely heavily on prescreening software. When it asks for minimum and recommended, if you dont meet or exceed the recommended... your probably not in the running. My boss was fairly candid with our team that our current contract was one of over 50 resumes presented that met his qualifications and only one of a handful that got a call from him. I have been lucky that the jobs i have managed have not asked for a college degree beyond an associates but thats because they are stingy on pay and want top notch employees that work for less. With industry certs and a bachelors, i know i could command a much higher salary elsewhere.

To offer something that many recruiters required me to update on my resume was to remove my original objective that started my resume and list all the of technologies that i had worked with so they had a quick summary to provide clients as a potential skillset. After i had updated this, i have received a number of calls for positions but many of them fall short of what i am looking for.

I also have my resume on Dice, careerbuilder, monster, and i think somewhere else. Make sure that your actively updating and you put your resume out there for potential recruiters or employers to find you. Work on a solid template for a cover letter and always send a thank you letter to anyone that contacts you a couple of days later. You never know when that common courtesy becomes the tippy point in you getting a position over someone else.

Cheers!

Oracle712

Thanks for the heads up brother. Just sent in my Revised Resume. Crossing fingers.

lantech

Put the training down as well.