Finally ready to create a resume!

elderkai

Hey, guys. It's getting close to graduation which means I'm going to need a resume. I've never made a resume aside from just a template that was in an office program for a class; I don't really know what I'm doing. I know it's gonna be pretty short, though by the time I start using it I will have 220+ hours at this ISP internship doing managed service stuff with a little enterprise system stuff and I have a CCNA(studying for the NP RS).

I've read a lot of threads where people are critiquing other's resumes, but I don't really know where to start to create one. What medium should I use? Do I use any kind of starting template for the page format or just completely do that from scratch? If scratch, how do I know it's how it should be?

I'd highly appreciate any help I can get. Thanks in advanced.

DigitalZeroOne

My first resume was based off of a template in Microsoft office. I used that general template for years, then I reviewed a technical resume in some big resume book (physical), and I migrated my resume to mimic that one. I would suggest searching for IT resumes online, once you see a format you like, just replace their information with yours, move some of the formatting around, and now you have a resume.

My general suggestions:

Don't put High School as part of the Education section
Use the correct tense for past and present
Use the correct capitalization for Certs and companies, i.e., VMWare should be VMware, Comptia should be CompTIA
I don't like the use of an objective, but others may disagree. To me, they all look the same. "I want to utilize my skills and blah blah, to help the company"

Good luck.

paul78

It can be stressful to start a job search, so I hope you look at this first opportunity as something exciting and fun. Because you will probably need to do it a few times in your career

These links could be a decent place to start -
Resume Samples articles, Resumes & Letters resources | Monster
Resume Mistakes: Four Things That Can Send Your Resume into the Trash | Monster
13 Ways Your Resume Can Say 'I'm Unprofessional'

The last link about what not to do is a good read.

Good luck.

elderkai

Thanks fellas. If I don't have any degree, do I even include an Education section?

paul78

Do you have any college experience? If you are under 21, you could list your high-school. I agree with DigitalZeroOne about not listing high-school but if you are still early in your career, that could be ok. It really depends.

elderkai

Well, I have like 15 credit hours and I'm taking dual-credited college classes for highschool credits. Without a degree though, I don't think that'd be worth putting down.


EDIT: Or rather, WILL have 15 credit hours at the end of this semester.

paul78

It's been a while so does 15 credits equal 1 or 2 years of college. If so, I would suggest that you put it down - but I advise that you have a good story as to your plan for college if you intend to get a degree. I never did complete my own degree, there were a lot less options back then and so I would recommend that if you can do it, try to complete your degree.

elderkai

I'm not going for a degree. I'm just in the program to get out of my public school. I'll probably do WGU next year, though. And 15 credit hours is like one semester. =P

paul78

hmmm... I suppose if that's the case, you may not want to list it. Your internship should help a lot though. You may want to start to line up some recommendations from your current employer. And you never know, maybe they will bring you on fulltime.

elderkai

I have a feeling that there's a good chance I could be hired on full-time. I'd really prefer that because the company is really comfortable, but I'd like a resume for obvious reason and necessity. I'll start working on one tomorrow and then come back and post it.

Polynomial

elderkai wrote: »

I'm not going for a degree. I'm just in the program to get out of my public school. I'll probably do WGU next year, though. And 15 credit hours is like one semester. =P

I'd be a little skeptical replacing a physical school with WGU right out of high school.

elderkai

Next year is probably in the next few or when/if I find that I need to do it. =P

Polynomial

elderkai wrote: »

Next year is probably in the next few or when/if I find that I need to do it. =P

You need a Bachelors. Trust me. Do what you need to do.