Testing the waters... Need Resume Critique

Although I'm NOT unhappy with my current job, I do feel stuck. So I decided to polish up the resume and "test the waters" so to speak. I'm currently studying for my CCNA (hopefully I can take the 1st half in mid July). I'm looking for a position that is similar to what I do now, but with more responsibilities, closer to home, a slight pay bump, and --more importantly-- NOT in a manufacturing plant environment (I'm a severe asthmatic).

So here is my resume, critique the hell outta of it please!

IT Technician TechExams.doc

Find more posts tagged with

Free for TechExams community: Cybersecurity salary guide

Compare cert salaries and plan your next career move

Button

Comments

olaHalo

Resume looks good to me.

sparten

good resume

sieff

Your resume looks good, its very concise. It looks like you're just starting your career, no really long stretch. However, you have consistent work experience. The B.A. Telecom degree is pretty impressive... You got a *typo in the Summary. *sp "professional".

Are there any larger companies in the area that can provide you a longer run? It's just that I never hear any good things out of the state of Michigan. When I first started in IT I was always willing to relocate for the right position and company.

traceyke

Me and my GF REALLY want to relocate to Seattle, but I need to gain more experience and "move up a level" here in Michigan so that I don't have to settle on entry level gigs in Seattle.

sieff

Good luck on the search... I once took a gig that was pretty risky, a start-up company. A year in to it I got fired or the language was "we can't afford to pay you anymore" ??? I was unemployed for almost a year and was willing to take any job ... and thus the start of my "Anywhere, USA" job search. When things took the worst turn I got the best job of my life. You never know how things will end up.

RogueJD

A lot of it comes from personal preference, but I have a few suggestions.

I just completed two separate resume writing courses (one for civilian employment, one for federal employment). Some of the things I've learned that apply to your resume:

Initial observations:
- LOSE THAT FONT! Times New Roman, Tahoma, Arial (One more, I think it's Courier New?). That's IT! 12 Point for the body, 14 points for Section names. 16-18 Point for the Name in the Header.
- (Preferences) Too many flashy bullet points. If using that style, only do so in skills and certs. Change up the other bullet points

Summary:
- Looks good

Education:
- (Personal Preference) Move it down below work experience
- Transition from CAPS BOLD, to Sentence Case Bold, to Sentence Case, To Italics. Focus on your degree, not your school.
- Make your right alignments (dates) line up with other right alignments

EDUCATION:

Baccalaureate of Information Technology
Bob's School of Technology - Fakeville, US 2013
Concentration: Hookers and Blow

- Use fewer lines to break up the section

Skills and Certs:
- (Preference) Too many. No more than 6. Some skills are not skills. Mac OSX? What about it? Printer troubleshooting? Lose the fluffer stuff. It's too obvious. Stick with your first six. Any 13 year old can do the others.
- Make rows / columns uniform. If four, use two columns of two. If six, two columns of three

Professional Experience:
- Without a doubt, remove the undescored text. Transition from CAPS BOLD, to Sentence Case Bold, to Sentence Case, To Italics. Also, mix up the format, hilighting job title, not employer.
- Do you have any more work experience? Go 10 years back. It doesn't matter if you were a greenskeeper for a golf course, you can use keywords to relate transferrable skills. Use 15-1151.00 - Computer User Support Specialists for a list of applicable keywords, tasks, etc for a Desktop Support Specialist (Great site, btw - useful for nearly any job)
- (Preference) Lose the month in your to / from dates. Works best if you've been working at a position longer than 2 years or if you have 10 years of work experience.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

IT Service Specialist
SMR Automotive Systems USA – Marysville, MI

//Edit: Forum doesn't allow for decent formatting. Dates didn't show up right-aligned in examples; Indenting didn't show up

traceyke

Thanks a million Rogue! I never thought that font type & placement could also play a HUGE role in resumes. I was always more concerned about the layout and the information. I'll edit my resume once I get home from work.

DCD

Pretty good but I would change the summary and I would say I supported 2008 servers for 300 users in active directory environment using GPO, troubleshooting network printer issue, Support for VPN users, migrated 75 users from Win XP to Win 7. You just need a short statement about all the different support you done with the number of users.