Last Second Opportunity - rip my resume to shreds!

Freeguy

Hey all,If you've followed my sporadic posting history, you know that I currently work in a technical pre-sales support role for an IT distributor. It's been great, and I've had a lot of chances to expand my knowledge base - I've jumped into activities ranging from graphic design to database administration.

But, unfortunately, there is a side effect to being the one "tech guy" in an entirely sales based department...There is zero room for salary growth, because you are the one guy who doesn't have a true dollar sign over your head.

So with the wife wanting kids, I need to move up and on. I have a great (unique) opportunity to manage a new digital print division that is opening up nearby, a position that requires soft customer-facing skills, experience in creating large-scale print networks, and a networking background. Problem is, they're already interviewing and my resume has been gathering dust... so time is short.

So have at it! Please let me know what needs to be changed or removed entirely! I've been looking at this so long I'm sure I'm starting to just skip over any errors, and I'm sure I am not the best resume writer. Thanks in advance!

demonfurbie

first off the font seams small to me

boredgamelad

I had five minutes to look over your resume. This isn't comprehensive and I didn't go line by line so sorry if this is disjointed or comes across sounding mean (it's not intended to). And don't take everything I say as gospel, lord knows my own resume needs work. But this is stuff that just jumped out at me as I read over it in another window. It's very train of thought so some of it might not make sense. Hope it helps, though.

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Change Summary of Qualifications to just Summary (personal preference)

Change relevant job history to Professional Experience

Get more specific with numbers and technologies if you can. You say you worked on value-add projects but what kind of value did you add? Anything you've done that you can measure with numbers (Managed small office network of X workstations, Y servers, etc.) or mention by name (XYZ Vendor Product), you should try to do so (if relevant).

"Hosted technical training courses on our more complex products and software packages across the US."? Why not tell us how many people you trained and on what products (if they're industry-known). "Hosted training courses on X, Y, and Z technologies for employees nationwide"

In general I feel you need to shorten up your bullet points a little bit. Remove superfluous wordage:

"Planned, organized, and conducted all installation services for WYNIT, with installations that ranged from single digital printer solutions to enterprise level installations."

becomes

"Organized, conducted installation services for WYNIT, from single digital printer to enterprise-level solutions." On second thought, is installing a single digital printer something noteworthy? I'm not trying to be facetious, I just don't know if it's something worth bragging about--yes, bragging, this is a resume but you're also showing off your skills. Maybe this is some kind of big graphics printer I'm unaware of; if it is, tell me what kind. If I'm the hiring guy at a print company and you say you've got experience installing printers but it turns out you mean Canon Bubblejets I'm probably not going to be that impressed.

I keep driving this home but you really need to be less vague. You worked with a small group at Tekgraf. How small? I'm more interested in what kind of projects you worked on than I am in the fact that you worked on projects. Just about everybody works on projects. You built training curricula for new products. What new products?

"Assisted and represented multiple companies such as Epson, Hewlett-Packard and ElevenTen Color by acting directly as their technical sales assistant at international graphic communications trade shows."

Sorry, but bleh. You use about twice as many words here as you need to.

"Acted as technical sales assistant at international trade shows for Epson, Hewlett-Packard, ElevenTen Color." (this isn't perfect but I am writing this in a hurry)

Resumes are often written in their own sort of language, much like newspaper headlines. Notice how you rarely see the word "and" in headlines. Complete sentences can be eschewed in favor of taking shortcuts. It's ok for the grammar to not be perfect essay grammar, as long as the sentence reads well. Notice how dropping your "and"s and "a"s as well as stuff like "such as" makes sentences like the one above punchier. Your bullet points should be more like newspaper headlines.

You increased revenues exponentially? Wow! If that's true, definitely put down hard numbers. If it wasn't actually exponential, don't embellish. :P

Freeguy

Thanks guys!

Those were some great suggestions... I do tend to be a bit verbose when I type, and I knew something was "off" on the ol' resume... definitely pointed me in the right direction!

It's submitted, so now we shall play the waiting game...