Please Critique Resume

Vontech615 · October 2014

I need a resume critique.
I've worked for a smallish company doing IT support for about 4.5 years and it's time to move on.I've recently completed the ICND2 to receive a CCNA certification so I wanted to get my cert, and experience on there.

My experience is really pretty broad but I wouldn't consider myself an expert at anything yet. Except for Windows OS, I've had several years of experience supporting windows users. However, I tend to pick things up quick and have found networking to come pretty easily out of all the things I've done. That's really what I'd like to do so I've tried to put emphasis on that.

I wasn't sure how to list my Skills Summary. I'd like to be honest about this section but wasn't sure how to word/format it? I obviously have more experience and skill at some things over others. For example, I've done ALOT of CISCO labbing in GNS3 and with real equipment but I haven't actually worked with this equipment in a paid scenario. Should I list it?

Also, I really do understand the fundamentals of things like OSPF, and EIGRP and how to configure it but haven't actually tackled this yet in my job.Anywho, enough about me, actually it's all about me. Thanks so much for your constructive criticism.

Vontech615 · October 2014

Sorry the formatting got messed up in the original... try this one.

Vontech615 · October 2014

I posted this to another site and got some valuable feedback. Overall the consensus was that it was a good first draft but that I needed to reword the Summary a bit to include things like fast learner, passionate about Networking. Others disagreed on the Summary Skills section and whether it should be included or not. Argument A was that because I had a CCNA I didn't need to list things like routing protocols in my Skills Summary since I haven't done that on the job. Argument B was that maybe I should list a few things I learned while working on the CCNA just to circumvent clueless HR people or keyword searchs.

This has been viewed 160 times on here. Does anyone have input? Thanks.

210mike · October 2014

Hi Vontech615,

Here's my feedback... I tend to write as I think so this may be a bit all over the place, but as someone involved in the hiring process for IT people at my job, here's my feedback

- Resume formatting is off. You've been in the industry for a while now, after your summary I'm expecting to see work experience. After someone has been working in the field for a while I don't care about your education, certifications, or really much about anything other than what you've been doing professionally. I had to get to page 2 of your resume to look at your actual work history. Not an immediate disqualification, but I'm a little irritated at this point. I prefer resumes to be formatted in the following order: Summary, Experience, Certifications, Education, Skills Summary

-Summary statement is vague and full of generic statements. This is a pet peeve of mine.. No one is going to put "Lazy employee that wants a boring un-challenging job where I can just cash a paycheck and play Facebook games all day" on a resume. A resume is basically a 30 second advertisement to convince me that I need to interview you for the job. I like to customize each Summary statement for each job I apply for. If the company is looking for an underwater basket weaver with 5 years of experience weaving Easter baskets, I make sure my summary statement clearly reflects that I have the required 5 years of experience weaving Easter baskets under water.

- The Experience section: Don't tell me what you did. Anyone can list a bunch of tasks. I'm not interested in tasks. Tell me what you accomplished! What was the end result of your work?

For example: Planned and implemented Egnyte hybridcloud
file server for corporate and site employees.

Yawn. Boring. Big Deal. What did you setting up the Egnyte server ACCOMPLISH?? What was the result of the project? How did you make things better?

Designed and implemented Egnyte hybrid-cloud file server to improve access and availability of corporate data, improving employee efficiency, while maintaining IT security and access controls.

That statement tells me what you did.. AND what you accomplished. It also opens up interesting interview questions. I might ask how the availability increased... you could then say, the remote workers were using a lot of iPads and now they had easier access to the data they needed through the Engyte iPad app and could respond to customer inquiries faster or something.

General resume advice:

Resumes are living things and should constantly be evolving and being tweaked to the position you're applying for. I never submit the same resume twice. I would put a very comprehensive resume chocked full of keywords online if you want people to find you, but a resume you send in should be tailored each time to the job opening. Your skills summary is a great place to put tons of keywords for recruiters to find you. I've worked with recruiters before, they literally just search for candidates by keyword and location. If they're trying to fill a CCNA spot they will seriously just go to a resume search engine and type in CCNA OSPF <location>. If you don't have those keywords, you don't show up in the search.

Keep this in mind: No one has ever gotten a job from just a resume. Your resume serves 1 purpose. To get you an interview. On average your resume has 30 seconds to get someone to say "I have to talk to this guy". Once you get the interview your resume has done it's job.

networker050184 · October 2014

I agree with 210mike. In the experience tell me what you have done, preferably with quantifiable numbers, not an HR type list of duties. Move it above Education.

I agree with the advice to ditch the Skills Summary as well. It seems like just filler for a person with your amount of experience. Move the Experience section up and work in anything you want to highlight there. You really don't need to highlight the printer models you have worked with. I assume you are going for admin type positions at this point and not basic printer support.

cyberguypr · October 2014

I concur. Good advice here. As a hiring manager I want to see what have you done that brought value to the company. Laundry list of technologies/products screams amateur. Focus on those tangible achievements that will differentiate you from the thousands of tech heads out there. Extra point if you can show how you saved money, resources, time. etc.

BTW, please fix CompTIA's capitalization. I would immediately discard your resume for this oversight.

Vontech615 · October 2014

Great tips every one thank you!

I think the reason I formatted it that way to begin with is because I'm trying to showcase my Networking ability first. Since I don't have a pure networking role now and have only some experience with this, I thought it best to it that way. I see your point though with having the experience after Summary, then certs, etc.

Thanks I will definitely fix the capitalization in CompTIA.

I will reword it a bit to include the value these projects added to the company.

srabiee · October 2014

I agree with what has been said.

I would lose the "Courses Completed" section. You already have your certs and your degree. This information is irrelevant IMO and takes up valuable space.

I have never been a fan of the "wall of skills" section on resumes. If you have competency in those technologies, show me how in your work experience. If you learned them through self study at home, either tailor the resume to fit a specific job posting, or save it for the interview.

The Experience section seems a little too reliant on bullet points. Try giving a high-level overview of your daily duties and responsibilities using complete sentences, and save the bullet points for special achievements such as projects, etc.

Is "Adding and removing users in Active Directory" really a "Corporate Server Project?" Sounds pretty lame to me.

If you were to lose the courses completed and skills section, you might be able to get this resume down to one page.

ptilsen's resume is often considered the golden standard for resumes on these forums. I would recommend you take a look at it and incorporate some of his ideas into your own resume. http://www.techexams.net/forums/jobs-degrees/76544-resume-time.html

Vontech615 · October 2014

I'm not shooting for a 1 page resume but I get where your going with that.

Thanks for your input.

210mike · October 2014

Whoah. ptilsen's resume is a thing of beauty... it's damn good. brought a tear to my eye it's so beautiful.

Please Critique Resume

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