Demoted yesterday, but believe jumping ship is only way up.

Hey Guys,
Had some setbacks happen at work that resulted in a demotion to HelpDesk and the HelpDesk guy taking my spot as the field support for an MSP. I was told yesterday that this would be a quick transition and I started today on the HelpDesk. Something smells fishy due to this decision and change happening so quick. No warning whatsoever. I think it may have been one of our customers (or my HelpDesk co-worker, who kept saying he wanted to be out on the field over and over again) that mentioned something to my boss(es). However, if they received a problem about me, I would imagine that they would have come to me and let me know that I needed to step it up. But nothing of the sort was said. It seems that from what I've heard, this sort of thing has happened numerous times in the past to other people, who just ended up leaving the company. I feel that I'm the next one.

So, aside from that, I've decided to not deal with a company like this and move on to greener pastures. Mind you, there is no growth for me where I got moved into. They already have a guy for networks, for phones, cabling, and now field work. This position is an entry level HelpDesk, and with over 5 years of IT experience, I believe I have skills beyond an entry level position.

I wanted to attach my resume and see how it looks to you guys and see what improvements I can make. Please don't tread lightly and be brutal if you have to.

Thanks

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Comments

dehgrah

I prefer the bullet point method for my resume, but yours don't look too bad; At this point in your career you should go for your MCSA/E or complete your CCNA because you don't want to be stuck in Helpdesk/Desktop Position your whole career I assume. I've been in IT for a little over 4 years now and I'm currently in a System Admin/Desktop Support role, but in the meantime I would suggest finding a Desktop Support role at a small company where you will have more responsibilities with good pay/perks.

Krones

I quickly scanned it but noticed several misspellings. I would also change the resume to to the standard bullet format. If you search these forums you will find a lot of great examples.

I think you should be more specific in what systems and software that you worked with and also highlight any milestones or projects that you worked on as well.
Example:

"Acted as an escalated level of support in relation to banking software"

Provided upper-tier support for X specific software

instant000

You should order your resume according to the strengths that are going to get you a job. I'm not positive that you should lead with the education, unless you have seen job positions requesting it.

What is the first associate degree in? General Studies?

I prefer the format of putting some "blurb" to your name, such as John Doe, Cisco Certified Networking Professional [something similar to what you'd use as a Linked In headline]. Or, whatever you consider yourself. John Doe, Help Desk Ninja, or whatever you choose.

People looking at resumes like to get an idea of what you want to do in a quick glance, so that they don't have to wonder "what does this mean?"

I would also consider reformatting, in an effort to get it down to one page, or reformatting to expand it to two pages.

If your job titles don't really say what you did, you can use parenthesis to translate it into something more user friendly.

For example:
Information Assurance Engineer (IT Auditor)
Information Assurance Engineer (Network Security Engineer)
Information Assurance Engineer (Information Security Manager)

In your case:
Network Communications Technician (Network Administrator)
Network Communications Technician (Field Support Engineer)
Network Communications Technician (Network Consultant)
Network Communications Technician (On-Site Network Support Technician)

I don't know. The first three roles seem like more of help desk. The last role seems like someone who is more of a consultant/on-site support.

You may want to work at something in parenthesis, so that you can see the step up. Also, based on what you have posted so far, you like doing the on-site work to doing helpdesk, so if you spell that out in some way, that would be wonderful.

Heck, even state it in your summary that you like working on-site, meeting customers face-to-face, etc. Customer-facing IT people can do better than those who remain in the "back office." Also, if things change, you have people out there who know you, that you could work with in the future. (Just avoid violating non-compete agreements.)

LarryDaMan

Decent resume, I too like bullets as opposed to paragraphs. Maybe considering adding a summary to the top which will allow you be more succinct with the rest in order cut it down to one page. I am not a big fan of two page resumes, when the second page only contains a few sentences. Also, the skills section in the margin is cool but with the gray it did not stand out to me, I didn't even notice it the first time. Lastly, instead of simply pointing out job duties, it is usually more powerful to list accomplishments/successful projects in which you employed those skills if you can.

Qord

There are a few grammatical errors, missing spaces, misspellings, etc. I'd be sure to tidy that up, especially if you plan on distributing this in a Word format. Those squiggly lines are a dead giveaway.

You have 3 associates degrees? I'm not a fan of how that looks, I think it takes up too much room, but I don't have any good advice on how to fix it. If you could squeeze that down, and do a little trimming in other places, you could get this down to one solid page which would look nicer.

I'd put the Sec+ above Net+...possibly even above CCENT.

Mishra

My problem is that I have no idea what you do. After reading what you do at your first job, I'm left with nothing really. I think you do "it support" which translates to nothing for me. I think you resolve "issues" which I'm again left with nothing. And you configure mobile devices and run diagnostics... I'm definitely not sold on wanting to setup a phone screen for any position I can think of.

Provides IT support to numerous businesses through an MSP. (What is IT support?...)

Resolving issues dealing from workstation and server hardware, workstation and server software, email, and LAN. (What issues? I have no idea what your skill set is because you just say "issues"... Issues could be making AD user accounts all day every day)

Will also provide help on configuring mobile devies such as smart phones and tablets. Runs diagnostics on workstations and servers to validate functionality, such as memory and HDD. (This is a little more descriptive but is very generic stuff... Wouldn't be a good bullet depending on the position you are applying for.)

Routerronin

ThePrimetimer wrote: »

Hey Guys,
Had some setbacks happen at work that resulted in a demotion to HelpDesk and the HelpDesk guy taking my spot as the field support for an MSP. I was told yesterday that this would be a quick transition and I started today on the HelpDesk. Something smells fishy due to this decision and change happening so quick. No warning whatsoever. I think it may have been one of our customers (or my HelpDesk co-worker, who kept saying he wanted to be out on the field over and over again) that mentioned something to my boss(es). However, if they received a problem about me, I would imagine that they would have come to me and let me know that I needed to step it up. But nothing of the sort was said. It seems that from what I've heard, this sort of thing has happened numerous times in the past to other people, who just ended up leaving the company. I feel that I'm the next one.

So, aside from that, I've decided to not deal with a company like this and move on to greener pastures. Mind you, there is no growth for me where I got moved into. They already have a guy for networks, for phones, cabling, and now field work. This position is an entry level HelpDesk, and with over 5 years of IT experience, I believe I have skills beyond an entry level position.

I wanted to attach my resume and see how it looks to you guys and see what improvements I can make. Please don't tread lightly and be brutal if you have to.

Thanks

Alot of American companies are becoming more cannibalistic like that. Now I work for a German company and would never go back. My loyalty is my honor.

NetworkingStudent

Just real quick
Since you already graduated, your education section should go on the bottom and not on the top.
Drop the art degree and keep the IT degree on the resume.
Drop the blue headline
Skills should go in the body of the resume not on the side
Grammar
I really think you could discuss projects and how you helped companies save money in your resume.

Action verbs for your resume
http://www.utexas.edu/cola/orgs/lacs/_files/pdf/Resume-Cover%20Letter/resume_actionverbsANDbullets10_27.pdf

Focus resume on your results, not daily tasks
Focus resume on your results, not daily tasks | The Work Buzz

good luck

ThePrimetimer

Sorry guys, I had to take this down as I just realized it had all my personal info on it. What a dumb move. I will upload it again once the important stuff is taking out. I posted this thread last night really late and tired.

Great Advice though.

ThePrimetimer

Okay guys, I've made some changes and have taken out all the personal stuff.

Have at her again and let me know if there is any improvement or if I'm still missing some things.

I have to thank all of you that posted as everything was greatly appreciated and pointed out things I missed. Thanks a lot guys!

Mishra

I still see typos immediately from Word when opening it up. Are you running a spell check? Is the app your using suggesting anything?

ThePrimetimer

Mishra wrote: »

I still see typos immediately from Word when opening it up. Are you running a spell check? Is the app your using suggesting anything?

Issue was that I had to run a repair on my office suite. Word wasn't spell checking anything, even though it kept telling me everything was fine. I opened it up on another machine an noticed all the issues right away. I have ran the spell check and all appears well. Aside from the spelling errors, how does everything else look.

Thanks again for the criticism. Definitely helpful.

VAHokie56

did you ask for a review or any reason why you got moved to help desk or did you just go quietly into the night? if so what was the feedback

ThePrimetimer

I'm supposed to have my review this week, but when I was told last week of the change, he mentioned that it was "cross training". I just don't feel that's the real reason since they made this change overnight. I didn't ask for a reason as the decision was already made and there wasn't anything I could do.

At any rate, we'll see what happens at the review and I'll definitely be asking some questions.