Re-entering IT field

jmanrta

Hello All,

I have decided to re-enter the IT field after being out for a year. After my last two IT jobs, I was very discouraged and decided to try a new career which would be nursing and I found that I didn't like it all. I kind of miss IT (pun intended). So I was wondering if you could take a look at my resume to see if it's kosher. As you can see my last gig was over a year ago. I plan to regain experience by either doing contract work or volunteering (volunteering is how I busted into the field initially) I am also working on some certs, I started working on Windows Server 2012: Installing and Configuring (70-410), as most of my experience has been hands on desktop/deskside support and want to move more into the server end of things. I am using Robert Half Technology's skillport website as they have all kinds of certification courses for free! Has anyone used any of these to pass their exams? With all that mind, I was just wondering if you could guys could look over my resume, and give me some advice about re-entering the profession. Thanks in advance.

Resume_Critique.doc

paul78

Good luck on your job search.

A couple of things that you may want to consider on your resume:

1) You may want to consider compressing your resume to one-page. I think that 2 page resumes are fine but given that you have been out of IT, it may be easier to read.

2) Are you currently employed? I realize it isn't IT related but you may want to add your current employment otherwise the reader may assume you are an unemployed IT worker.

3) I'm not a big fan of the soft-skills section of your resume - I would suggest that you remove it.

4) You may want to add a short summary section at the top - something to the effect that you are looking to re-enter IT. Others on the forum may disagree but I think it could help set the tone on the gap in IT employment.

5) The various job responsibilities read very repetitively, You may want to correct that. For example - you used the bullet "Deployed new computers" 4 times,

6) Some of the bullets felt like space-fillers - for example "Kept track of inventory" - you may just want to remove that.

7) Avoid down-playing accomplishments - for example "Completed light programming projects.." Use positive accomplishment statements instead - like "Completed XYZ programming project which resulted in ABC (insert business goal here - I.e. cost savings, better sales, etc. etc.).

Your resume reads like a list of tasks that you may have been assigned. But if you can quantify them in business value terms, it may read better. For example - "Created and maintained documentation". Something like "Responsible for departmental documentation of XYZ used for ABC."

Hopefully that makes sense.