resume look over

orionit

looking to break into a L1 help desk role. I do have "some" experience, but nothing in an office environment.

Thoughts on resume? Anything i should add, leave off, join together?

The qualifications part I would like to take out, but from what I read, it's needed? It just seems like subjective perspectives IMO

Edit: Could not add as an attachment..said invalid file for both .doc & .pdf

I uploaded it to google docs https://drive.google.com/file/d/0By3bEyqwmgxGTUVYUGFJT2xldTg/

Reibe

I would:

• Add a 1" margin on all sides.
• Make the bullets have the same indent length.
• Drop the summary, it is awkward. You say 5+ years but you've been in the field since Jan. 2004? Why not say 10? The second sentence in the summary is also very strange. Is your expertise troubleshooting the entire list, or just hardware, software and network problem and perform system upgrades and configurations? Given the content, I would just drop the Summary section and move the Qualifications section to the top.
• In Qualifications, add "Over 10 years of Computer Installation and Repair" - make it the top bullet.
• Since you have 4 previous jobs, I don't think you need a skills section. I would make sure that for each line under skills that you want to include, have it included somewhere in one of the jobs (ex. You have Microsoft AD down, but it is not mentioned in any job) and drop the Skills section altogether.
• Drop the education section. With the experience you have, it just shows me a lack of college credits. If you have any significant courses or college credits, then great, we can add that. Otherwise, I do not think it needs included for a high school diploma or GED.
• Still in the employment history, add ending punctuation to each statement. If all of the bullets were single statement, you could probably pull off no punctuation, but you have multiple sentences for a bullet, so add punctuation.
• In the employment history, make sure everything is past tense. Change "Perform" to "Performed", "Support" to "Supported", and so on.
• For your job details, you don't need to repeat basic job functions for every job. For example, if you've "troubleshot hardware, software, etc" in a previous job, don't reword it to say it again later. Keep the space available for the good, new, and interesting stuff.
• Move the certifications section to the end, after employment history, also I have not clue what a DCSE is, perhaps revise to "DCSE (D____ C____ S____ E______).

So in the end, you have

• Header
• Qualifications
• Experience
• Certifications

orionit

excellent info
Thank you!
Some questions, though.

Add a 1" margin on all sides.
Make the bullets have the same indent length.
Drop the summary, it is awkward. You say 5+ years but you've been in the field since Jan. 2004? Why not say 10? The second sentence in the summary is also very strange. Is your expertise troubleshooting the entire list, or just hardware, software and network problem and perform system upgrades and configurations? Given the content, I would just drop the Summary section and move the Qualifications section to the top.

Sorry for the confusion
I have experience troubleshooting level 1 network issues, software(office, windows, adobe creative suite), and hardware(desktops, laptops, routers, switches)

In Qualifications, add "Over 10 years of Computer Installation and Repair" - make it the top bullet.
Since you have 4 previous jobs, I don't think you need a skills section. I would make sure that for each line under skills that you want to include, have it included somewhere in one of the jobs (ex. You have Microsoft AD down, but it is not mentioned in any job) and drop the Skills section altogether.

Here's the problem
I never used AD in an office setting
I set up a server 2008 box at home and played around it
Read a couple tutorials on AD, learned how to add users, remove users, modify settings, etc.
Should I somehow word that into the qualifications since I can't add it any job?

Drop the education section. With the experience you have, it just shows me a lack of college credits. If you have any significant courses or college credits, then great, we can add that. Otherwise, I do not think it needs included for a high school diploma or GED.

Good thing you mentioned this!
A couple friends have told me having that on the resume is hurting me more than helping

Still in the employment history, add ending punctuation to each statement. If all of the bullets were single statement, you could probably pull off no punctuation, but you have multiple sentences for a bullet, so add punctuation.

Would it be wiser to get rid of the sentences and go the single bullet route? Or would that just make the resume seem longer?

In the employment history, make sure everything is past tense. Change "Perform" to "Performed", "Support" to "Supported", and so on.

Do this for my present employment? I'm still there, so present tense would be best, no?

For your job details, you don't need to repeat basic job functions for every job. For example, if you've "troubleshot hardware, software, etc" in a previous job, don't reword it to say it again later. Keep the space available for the good, new, and interesting stuff.

Makes sense

Move the certifications section to the end, after employment history, also I have not clue what a DCSE is, perhaps revise to "DCSE (D____ C____ S____ E______).

Perfect!


Btw, it stands for dell certified systems expert

Reibe

orionit wrote: »

Here's the problem
I never used AD in an office setting
I set up a server 2008 box at home and played around it
Read a couple tutorials on AD, learned how to add users, remove users, modify settings, etc.
Should I somehow word that into the qualifications since I can't add it any job?

Anything you put on your resume you should be prepared to defend to an interviewer. If your AD experience is limited to self study, you may consider leaving it off and waiting for Active Directory to come up in an interview. If you find a job opening requesting AD experience, you might include in the cover letter that you've done some self study on it - this will help show you as a self-starter with a desire to learn.

Which brings up another point. I highly recommend putting together a cover letter targeted for the job you are applying for.

orionit wrote: »

Good thing you mentioned this!
A couple friends have told me having that on the resume is hurting me more than helping

Definitely. If you don't have any higher education to put down, that's fine; but listing your just your secondary education like you had it just makes it stand out horribly. I would only considering doing this if you just finished school and were not yet in the field.

orionit wrote: »

Would it be wiser to get rid of the sentences and go the single bullet route? Or would that just make the resume seem longer?

Since the bullets are meant to be complete statements and ideas, I would add punctuation.

orionit wrote: »

Do this for my present employment? I'm still there, so present tense would be best, no?

Use past tense for all employers, even current. Would you prefer a possible interviewer to see you as one of his/her employees or as someone else's?

srabiee

For the Dell cert I recommend you list it in its full form. Like this:

Dell Certified Systems Expert (DCSE)

Minor change but it looks better and doesn't leave anyone guessing as to what the acronym stands for.


Also, if you're in the CompTIA Continuing Education program, you may want to list CompTIA certs like this:

A+ | ce
Network+ | ce

edzyyy

I like the layout

Great info from Reibe too