Retiring Military looking for help Resume Posted

Bjmach

Hi all,I will be retiring in the next year or so and have begun my resume. Feeling a little lost, for the last 20 years I have had a job without having to worry about creating a resume. The time has come to enter the workforce and I'm not sure if I am on the right track. Looking for someone willing to take a look and assist me in making it stronger and giving some criticism on how to improve. Please let me know if you are willing to help. Thanks for your time. V/rRobert

networker050184

Just post it on up here and people can give you feedback.

Bjmach

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hms9nkpyzpx20zn/Resume%20Rough%20Draft.docx

Ok its really long and I know that but not sure what to do next. Thanks for the help everyone.

kriscamaro68

Here is my take on it as it stands.


I would put either a summary or objective section at the top and write a brief paragraph about what you are looking for in your career in I.T.
Have a skills section that is brief letting people know the tech you are proficient in.
Have a section for education and list dates attended or graduation date.
You should have a section for certifications by itself and list ones that you currently have.
Take off the studying for certs at the bottom of the list. (bring that up in the interview not on a resume')
Have an experience section and list the jobs you have held under that and a brief summary of what you did highlighting projects and cost savings.
List your most current job at the top of the experience section with the oldest at the end. They will want to see more recent tech you have worked with not old stuff.
I would put the title of the position you held first then the date you worked doing that and then the location.

If you have word 2007 or newer you can go and download resume' templates that will basically get you the format for everything I mentioned above.

That is my input anyway. I am sure there are others better at this than I that will chime in.

Bjmach

kriscamaro68 wrote: »

Here is my take on it as it stands.


I would put either a summary or objective section at the top and write a brief paragraph about what you are looking for in your career in I.T.
Have a skills section that is brief letting people know the tech you are proficient in.
Have a section for education and list dates attended or graduation date.
You should have a section for certifications by itself and list ones that you currently have.
Take off the studying for certs at the bottom of the list. (bring that up in the interview not on a resume')
Have an experience section and list the jobs you have held under that and a brief summary of what you did highlighting projects and cost savings.
List your most current job at the top of the experience section with the oldest at the end. They will want to see more recent tech you have worked with not old stuff.
I would put the title of the position you held first then the date you worked doing that and then the location.

If you have word 2007 or newer you can go and download resume' templates that will basically get you the format for everything I mentioned above.

That is my input anyway. I am sure there are others better at this than I that will chime in.

Thanks for the input Kris. This helps alot, feeling lost and not sure what my worth is out there. I know I can compete just not sure how to translate it. Still have alot of time before retirement date, actually way ahead of the game at this point but figure getting this down now will help me later. I value all input, every little bit helps.

Psyco32

Where are you looking to live/work ? Do you have a clearance? Majority of the DC area requires clearances and the higher the better. I agree with Kris to section out or summarize information. Trim it down to 2 to 4 pages. What are you looking to get into? Help Desk in short term? Long term goals?? You have a great base of experience to build on. Take relevant points (Quantifiable results) and filter out the stuff that is non-relevant, I.E What's the most recent stuff you have worked versus outdated technologies.

Bjmach

Psyco32 wrote: »

Where are you looking to live/work ? Do you have a clearance? Majority of the DC area requires clearances and the higher the better. I agree with Kris to section out or summarize information. Trim it down to 2 to 4 pages. What are you looking to get into? Help Desk in short term? Long term goals?? You have a great base of experience to build on. Take relevant points (Quantifiable results) and filter out the stuff that is non-relevant, I.E What's the most recent stuff you have worked versus outdated technologies.

Thanks for responding Psyco32. I currently am stationed in Kansas City, MO area. My wife retired from the Air Force last year so we are used to moving around and pretty much open to anywhere the job leads me. I do have a Active Top Secret/SCI clearance. The question where am I looking to get into is one of the questions I'm still asking myself, I started out Administrative and have alot of experience as an Executive Assistant but at my 10 year mark transferred to Helpdesk technician and also have alot of experience with that and Project Management. I'm still trying to research where that leads me best suited....Help desk Manager? Without my PMP i'm probably not as marketable as a Project manager and don't think I will have time to finish and pass that before I retire (1.5 - 2 yrs). Information Technology analyst? Just still trying to learn what the job titles mean as far as responsibilities and where I fit in. Thanks for the help much appreciated.

kriscamaro68

I forgot about the clearance. You will definitely want to put that on the resume where it will stand out. If you use the clearance to your advantage you could land jobs in the DC/Virginia area. Also take a look at government contract work as well.

At this point you still have some time to decide what you want to do but not much. Over this next 6 months I would decide what you want out of your career and hit it full speed ahead. If you find something you are passionate about then take that and run with it. Do some charity work/volunteer work for local companies and non-profits. Setup their networks/servers/workstations/virtual environments for them and get all the experience you can.

Align your certs that you study for and take to what your passion is and what you want to do when you retire from service. If you know that you want to be a systems admin then look into the MCSA/MCSE or redhat certs. If you want to hit the network track start looking into Cisco/Juniper certs. If you niche isn't on the tech side look at the Project+/PMP certs.

There are lots of possibilities right now. For me Virtualization is what I want to look at very soon. What VMware/Hyper-V is able to do is amazing and I want to be in on it.