MCITP, bs, hard time finding a job?

i know the market is down and all but - i have been searching for a job for the last 2 weeks, i completed my mcitp about a month ago, i have a bs in comp sci. i didn't/don't expect to find a job this fast but it seems as though any job i look at; they require 3+ years of experience. so i apply to those jobs anyways, and when someone calls me about the job, they get upset because i don't have that experience. i have tried for low end jobs as well, like help desk jobs that require mcst's and stuff...

i just want to know if this is normal?

Find more posts tagged with

Save $250 on 2025 certification boot camps from Infosec!

Book now with code EOY2025

Button

Comments

Iristheangel

I'm just going to copy what I said earlier in another thread:

IT is one of the fields that is fairly easy to break into and has one of the lowest unemployment rates out there. If you're having difficulty finding a job, it could one or several of the following:
1) Location
2) Education level
3) Spelling and grammar - Never underestimate the power of a well-written resume/cover letter... or the power a poorly written one has to ruin you.
4) Certification level
5) Technical competency - Yes, this is different than certification
6) Presentation - What are you wearing to the job interviews or job fairs? Is it REALLY the best thing you could be wearing?
7) Soft skills

Hygiene - Not only are you showering, are you putting too much aftershave on? Are you smothering the interviewer with your reeking deodorant? Does your hair look combed? Seems superficial but it's important
9) Resume - Does it make sense? Does it look sharp? Are you keeping it to one page? Are you exaggerating your abilities?
10) Cover letter - Is it clear, concise and convey your desire for the job or does it sound like a robot wrote it?
11) Interview skills - Do you sell yourself well? Are you a nervous mess? Are you saying "ummm" a lot?

I would recommend evaluating all of the above and have your peers evaluate you as well.

pumbaa_g

LOL

for a moment I thought that I read the same post twice, techexams deja-vu

.... request Mods to make this a sticky.

Akaricloud

What experience do you have and what jobs are you applying for? Unless you have some experience you're still only really qualified for entry level roles.

Also, which MCITP?

Most of the time if you are having problems finding a job it's something that you're doing wrong or can improve upon like Iris mentioned.

sratakhin

So, you are an MCITP and don't yet have 3 years of experience? What did you expect? There are many people who have several years of experience, yet they are not MCITPs yet...

RouteMyPacket

What is an MCITP?

**googles**

Ok, so which one are you? Desktop?

Tackle

Less than 3 years of experience and MCITP could be understandable. IF you have 0 experience and are MCITP...well I think you might be better off not leaving that on your resume.

Essendon

I concur with the others, remove the MCITP from your resume. 0 experience and MCITP dont really go together (atleast in the employer's mind). I'd put in an MCTS or two on your resume and keep applying. Try ISP's/MSP's in your area, employers like those are looking for people every now and again. Perhaps you should have your resume critiqued on here as well. Good luck and you''ll land something soon enough.

demonfurbie

if you took windows 7 (70-680) as part of your MCITP i would get one of the other windows 7 certs (70-685) and get a desktop MCITP and shoot for that kinda work first

snokerpoker

Depending on the position and or company, it is pretty normal to not get offers with no experience. I'd try to do an internship or volunteer your time to get SOMEthing on your resume. It took me almost two years of doing crappy hardware break/fix work to get a "real" IT job doing tech support.

kalel

well i am clean, and dress well. i don't really get nervous much. i have the enterprise desktop administrator (680-686). here is my resume sans identifiable info. its not that i dont have exp, my exp is kind of scattered, and yes i am looking into entry level jobs, i know its only been a couple of weeks, but i feel as if something is amiss.

thanks.

BSIT MCITP EDA.docx

Iristheangel

Here are my recommendations:
1) Delete the entire objective section
2) Don't claim to be a computer science major in your cover letter if you have one. You're a information technology major. Nothing wrong with that but you don't want to be claiming to have one degree when you really have another.
3) I feel as though the technical skills can and should be reduced/cleaned up. It's taking up WAY too much real estate your resume.
4) Use a smaller font. Something like 11 or 12, not 16 for your body. It looks WAY too enlarged.

That's all I got for now. I'm at work and dealing with a deadline!

kalel

Iristheangel wrote: »

Here are my recommendations:
1) Delete the entire objective section
2) Don't claim to be a computer science major in your cover letter if you have one. You're a information technology major. Nothing wrong with that but you don't want to be claiming to have one degree when you really have another.
3) I feel as though the technical skills can and should be reduced/cleaned up. It's taking up WAY too much real estate your resume.
4) Use a smaller font. Something like 11 or 12, not 16 for your body. It looks WAY too enlarged.

That's all I got for now. I'm at work and dealing with a deadline!

1. ok
2. i thought they were the same? thats what the university told me?
3. ok
4. i am not using 16? its 12? ill double check.

thanks.

Akaricloud

There are a lot of things on this that would make me throw this out.

1. The huge font. I think it's the 1.5 font spacing that makes it look huge.

2. The poorly written objective.
3. Skills section that obviously doesn't fit your experience. Don't list things that you've touched unless you're an expert in them.
4. "Programming assignments/regular assignments that were assigned to be created by a team; were
in fact completed by me." Huge flag. Can't work as a team?
5. No idea what your most recent job role was. When half of what you list is lifting boxes that tells me nothing.
6. Overall grammar definitely needs work.

Iristheangel

Nope. Whoever told you that didn't have a clue. Information technology and computer science majors are different. Both are great but there are some employers that will get ticked off with you if you claim to have graduated as a computer science major when, in fact you did not.

+1 to Akaricloud's many suggestions

NOC-Ninja

From the looks of it, you should at least find a desktop support or help desk job.

kalel

Akaricloud wrote: »

There are a lot of things on this that would make me throw this out.

1. The huge font. I think it's the 1.5 font spacing that makes it look huge.

2. The poorly written objective.
3. Skills section that obviously doesn't fit your experience. Don't list things that you've touched unless you're an expert in them.
4. "Programming assignments/regular assignments that were assigned to be created by a team; were
in fact completed by me." Huge flag. Can't work as a team?
5. No idea what your most recent job role was. When half of what you list is lifting boxes that tells me nothing.
6. Overall grammar definitely needs work.

1. i didn't have 1.5? i had 1.15? i think its the font. i am using times new roman, have a suggestion about which font to use?

2. i have removed it, and yes it was.

3. ...ok ill trim it down, but those are part of the mcitp, i had to know them in order to pass, so i dont understand the issue with putting them down. i think you are referring to my "familiar with" sections eh? yea ill remove those.

4. no i am great working in teams, i love teams. its just that at the uop from class to class, my team mates would not do their work, or they would plagiarize, so i usually had to complete the work on my own. hmm i had not thought of it that way before, i will see if i can change it; or substitute it with something else.

5. its just a side job, i should expand on it...but it really has no relevance to my field, i would leave it off but then there is a huge gap in my experience section?

6.

thanks.

maybe it looks big to you guys because of the zoom? on my pc i view documents at 120% (i have a big monitor). maybe the settings transfer over?

kalel

NOC-Ninja wrote: »

From the looks of it, you should at least find a desktop support or help desk job.

yeah i have been looking at those as well. perhaps after i make these changes, i should have better luck.

boredgamelad

kalel wrote: »

5. its just a side job, i should expand on it...but it really has no relevance to my field, i would leave it off but then there is a huge gap in my experience section?

What do you actually do? Maybe someone here can help you come up with some ways to make it sound relevant.

kalel

boredgamelad wrote: »

What do you actually do? Maybe someone here can help you come up with some ways to make it sound relevant.

well i was kind of like their tech guy. if they had a question or problem with technology, they would give me a call and i would help them out. since i am also built, they sometimes ask me to help move heavy box's or equipment. its a small business, they only have like 5 pc's and 2 printers.

here is my revised cve.

http://www.mediafire.com/?0d1c9og7ihno18q

Whiteout

kalel wrote: »

2. i thought they were the same? thats what the university told me?

thanks.

I don't mean to be rude or negative, but this could be the reason your having trouble finding a job. It seems very odd to me that somebody with a BS in IT and a MCITP doesn't know the difference between Computer Science and Information Technology.

This kind of goes back to what Iris said:

"5) Technical competency - Yes, this is different than certification"

lantech

There is a huge difference between a certification and experience. There are a lot of people with certifications that can barely operate a computer much less do the kind of work their certifications say they can. And employers have learned this. I knew an MCSE that didn't even know how to configure his own email account much less someone elses. Not saying this is you but it's what you're going to have to fight to get a job.

And two weeks or even a month isn't all that long to be looking for a job. Have you thought about looking for contract positions?

kalel

Whiteout wrote: »

I don't mean to be rude or negative, but this could be the reason your having trouble finding a job. It seems very odd to me that somebody with a BS in IT and a MCITP doesn't know the difference between Computer Science and Information Technology.

This kind of goes back to what Iris said:

"5) Technical competency - Yes, this is different than certification"

3 different schools (community college and two universities) told me they were pretty much the same, so i never thought much of it, a friend of mine was told the same thing. i am sorry but your statement has no merit on my "Technical competency." i never had comp sci in my resume, it was always bsit.

kalel

lantech wrote: »

There is a huge difference between a certification and experience. There are a lot of people with certifications that can barely operate a computer much less do the kind of work their certifications say they can. And employers have learned this. I knew an MCSE that didn't even know how to configure his own email account much less someone elses. Not saying this is you but it's what you're going to have to fight to get a job.

And two weeks or even a month isn't all that long to be looking for a job. Have you thought about looking for contract positions?

....thats...wow really? then how did they pass their exams or degree's, yet i had to bust my ass!? well....i always love a good fight

. oh yeah, its totally not a long time, i never expected to get a position this fast either. i just thought my cve was a bit off, so i wanted some advice. yeah i am looking at all types of work.

thanks.

eansdad

Experience is spotty, 5yrs as a best buy/staples tech to 6 months unemployed to a share point admin(?) to unemployed 7 months to a desktop tech. Need a lot more detail as to what you did. Also you don't need to explain what you did for your degree at UofP. I also don't see much from you're work exp the skills that you state you have.

kalel

eansdad wrote: »

Experience is spotty, 5yrs as a best buy/staples tech to 6 months unemployed to a share point admin(?) to unemployed 7 months to a desktop tech. Need a lot more detail as to what you did. Also you don't need to explain what you did for your degree at UofP. I also don't see much from you're work exp the skills that you state you have.

i left staples to concentrate on school full time (i doubled up on my courses). after i left the SharePoint job, i putzed around for a couple of months trying to figure out if i wanted to stay in software dev, i then decided to do some traveling across Canada (they really do have nice country up there). lol i guess my travels were like a spirit walk of sorts. the skills i list are what i have learned over the years and from my certification.

Akaricloud

kalel wrote: »

1. i didn't have 1.5? i had 1.15? i think its the font. i am using times new roman, have a suggestion about which font to use?

Your font character spacing is set to expanded by .5pt. This makes it look much, much larger than it actually is and very hard to read.

This is from your latest copy BTW, I'm sure the first was set the same though.

kalel

Akaricloud wrote: »

Your font character spacing is set to expanded by .5pt. This makes it look much, much larger than it actually is and very hard to read.

This is from your latest copy BTW, I'm sure the first was set the same though.

lol it looks a whole lot smaller now, thanks.

http://www.mediafire.com/?nt047jss1a22rci

Iristheangel

Maybe it's just me but I'm not digging the format with the frames and boxed titles. I feel that it wastes a lot of real estate on the resume and causes it to go on forever. I would reduce technical skills a LOT. There are ways to make this more condensed such as not spelling out the whole acronyms since most IT managers who take a look at it are going to know what App-V or GPO is. Cut it down a lot. Technical skills highlight key skills you have but shouldn't dominate your resume by taking up the first half of the page. Especially with your experience level.

Here's how I would phrase things on your resume and some of the capitalization corrected:

Technical Skills (Ditch the Software & Technologies subtitle. Redundant)

OS and Virtualization Products: Installation, configuration, and troubleshooting of Windows XP/Vista/7, Windows Server 2003/2008 R2, Hyper-V R2, MED-V, App-V, VHD images, and VPC

Management and Deployment Technologies: WDS, MDT, Windows PE, MAP, GPO, High/Lite/Zero Touch installations

(Ditch Diagnostic skills unless you have specific technologies you are listing. Saying you can troubleshoot laptops and desktops is redundant since you're probably referring to Windows desktops and laptops so it's covered in the OS section)

Under education, I would include the degree earned and major in the same heading with the educational institution you attended. You probably need a different format but it looks neater. I would probably ditch the part about team projects and replace with more concrete info such as your GPA, honors earned, etc.

Sharepoint Software Consultant - Is that a contract gig? If so, let it be known in the header or else you look like a job hopper. If it wasn't a contract, internship, or consulting gig, I would say delete it off your resume and move on.

You bullet points for each employer can be more condensed and should focus more on the technology than the practices of the company. Examples of things that can be deleted: "This was not a standard practice for Staples," "I took time outside of work," ALL your Best Buy bullet points (Can be condensed to one. Very redundant), etc. Your bullet points for Technology Consultant is more in line with what I would use for bullet points except you need to work on tense. If you're still working there, why are some of the bullpoints in past tense? Why are some in present tense? Why is "Repair" capitalized? As they used to say in Dragnet, "Just the facts, Ma'am." Be direct. "Offered remote assistance?" No, you PROVIDE remote assistance or you don't. I can offer to rebuild my entire enterprises network but until I actually do it, I can't put down that I offered to do it on my resume.

For entry-level, simple is better. You're still entry level after working in retail up until 2 years ago. Nothing wrong with that but you shouldn't be desperately trying to add technologies, skills, etc in hopes that this will get you a job since nothing else is working. Your resume needs serious work but the good new is that you'll see results once you make some simple adjustments

eansdad

I agree with Iris ...

The sharepoint job looks nice but it was 3 months. If I'm looking at it then a 7 month space between jobs to a desktop position I'm thinking fired and couldn’t handle it. If it was a 3 month contract then state it so HR doesn't have to jump to a conclusion.

The skills section needs to be cleaned up and should include other buzz type skills you have. Don't assume that since you have an MCITP for desktop that the HR person knows you can work in command line or possible powershell. What about networking skills? Ever have to make a cable? What about the skills you have ... WDS did you build the server and create images or did you just pxe boot a box and pick an image? You don't have any supporting points in exp to show what level of skill you have.

For education - List the school, degree and graduation date. For certs after 70-680 and 70-686 list what they are, get those buzz words on the resume.

Exp - Should have more details. Listing "Diagnose and Repair technology related problems" doesn't tell me what you did. Where you replacing mice or configuring a Cisco ASA? "Recommended technology for use in the office" - So? Did they buy it? Did it help? reduce costs? "Offered remote assistance to resolve computing errors" Honestly I offer it also doesn't mean they use it. Maybe change offered to gave or used. Point is the current job should have the most bullets. It is the job you are showcasing as to why you should get this new job. I did this and this and can do this so I want to move up.

Also remove the outline; it makes it look like you can't use word. Keep things consistent, if you are going to put a period at the end of a bullet point do it for all of them.