New Grad Resume Review

qx7bfg · April 2012

Hello all,

I've just graduated from a 3-year IT program at the local college. I've got a bit of industry experience and am currently volunteering in a jr admin level role at a local non-profit. I also have my CCNA and A+. I have been applying to helpdesk and support positions within a ~45 minute drive.

I'm not getting any calls back. I do think my resume needs some tweaking, but I'm not exactly sure how. Perhaps my job search strategy needs a bit of modification as well. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

In exchange, I will try to contribute more to the site.

Thanks!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3133509/FirstnameLastname_Resume_April25.pdf

Iristheangel · April 2012

Right off the bat, I would recommend condensing it to one page. The typical rule of thumb is that for every 10 years of experience, you should add 1 page on your resume. Given that your resume has 2 pages for about 5 years of education/experience, this could be holding you back when the average hiring manager spends less than 15 seconds even glancing at your resume.

I've read many articles and heard it reiterated in these forums that the "objective" on a resume a outdated. Given that you're applying for a job and you should be writing a personalized cover letter means that you want the job. I would suggest just completely removing that.

As far at the "Profile" section, I wouldn't use bullet points to add emphasis there. Instead, I would have gone with a few sentences detailing what technologies you're experienced with. Remember: many times your resume will get discarded before a human being even sees it due to their pre-screening that looks for keywords. Also, ditch PDF format. Most of the time, they pre-screening can't read the PDF for keywords so if the company allows you to, submit it in rtf or doc format. Your profile section could be the perfect place to bring up those technologies (and the keywords) for the technologies you feel comfortable with. The "patient and friendly with clients" part I wouldn't even bother with. They'll get to know your personality during the interview. Your resume is the time to pique interest in your technical ability to do the job.

As far as experience, I would completely remove the outbound customer service job. This doesn't have anything to do with your technical career so it's just filling much needed space on your resume. The personal projects part can be mentioned in your cover letter so I would recommend removing that. Education and certifications can be condensed. I would recommend using different tables for the certifications so it doesn't take up 4 lines with the spacing between them. For college, you should get rid of some of the bullets to tighten the resume up. I would recommend going with where you graduated from, your degree, your major, and your GPA. That's it.

gdeusthewhizkid · April 2012

I agree. Keep resume 1 page. get rid of summer 2011 or anything less than a year. get rid of outbound customer service and put IT certification logos on resume. Get a good objective and let education and certs be highlight of resume. I have buddies in HR they always tell me what they look for in a resume...

qx7bfg · April 2012

Great feedback, thanks.

Iristheangel wrote: »

I've read many articles and heard it reiterated in these forums that the "objective" on a resume a outdated. Given that you're applying for a job and you should be writing a personalized cover letter means that you want the job. I would suggest just completely removing that..

Iristheangel wrote: »

As far at the "Profile" section, I wouldn't use bullet points to add emphasis there. Instead, I would have gone with a few sentences detailing what technologies you're experienced with.

I like it. About half of the resume can be moved to the cover letter. The 'objective' section was meant to be a summary- because I have also read that objectives are outdated and limiting. I will try to combine the summary/profile sections and turn it into a few sentences to see how it sounds.

Iristheangel wrote: »

As far as experience, I would completely remove the outbound customer service job. This doesn't have anything to do with your technical career so it's just filling much needed space on your resume.

I included this to emphasize customer service skills, which are big part of the entry-level helpdesk and support positions I am applying for. You're right though, chances are nobody really cares about some crappy job at a call center.

gdeusthewhizkid wrote: »

get rid of summer 2011 or anything less than a year. get rid of outbound customer service and put IT certification logos on resume. Get a good objective and let education and certs be highlight of resume.

Thanks for the advice, but I disagree with you on many points. All of my related experience is less than a year or a summer job, so that would leave me with nothing under the experience section. I have been in school for the past 3 years after switching careers, so I don't have any long-term related experience. Cert logos are a not my style and generally frowned upon (search for threads on this). Experience is much more valuable than education or certs so I'd like to try to focus on that. I don't want to project the image that I think I know everything because I graduated from a paint-by-numbers community college program and have a few certs that could easily be dumped.

swild · April 2012

make it one page
drop objectives
move certs and education to the top
add a skills section that would have all of the job duties in one centralized location
after that, list your previous employment without duties.
Make job titles and employer names bold/easiest to see.
eliminate white space, but keep it easy to glance through. this one has way too much white space.
try building your resume in Publisher instead of Word, it's much more flexible.

More advanced resume types are tailored for the position you are applying for. Only include applicable skills, certs and jobs. It's more work, but if everything on the resume points towards the job you are applying for, you get moved to the interview stack. With this method, I have got an interview with every place I applied. A couple of times I bombed the interview, but I have had to turn down more offers than have turned me down. Just remember, this once piece of paper is the difference between you getting paid and not. Put time and effort into it.

New Grad Resume Review

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