Critique my resume

[AreaCode707]

Originally posted by: 3chordcharlie

Originally posted by: mugs
1. Change your name to Nash Bridges
2. Objectives are old hat. It's just a space filler. That information really belongs in your cover letter if anything. "Focuses in" should be "focuses on" I think.

Did you leave your GPA off because it was bad? A recent college grad will usually have their GPA on their resume. If one didn't, I'd assume it's bad.

Really? I can't think of any point at which I even knew my GPA... I guess if I want a new job before I'm 30 I'll have to find out what it was...

Yeah, if you don't show it and your college experience is your strongest selling point, you want the GPA on there or a reasonable guess is that you had a bad one. After a few jobs, your experience counts far more than any education and the GPA doesn't matter.

 

[Feldenak]

I would just like to take this opportunity to thank everyone that has helped me in my recent resume revamp. I would list out those who provided invaluable help but I don't want to volunteer those people to everyone else. 🙂

 

[halik]

preface: I work for a prominent investment bank

Your Professional Skills section is pure B.S., Activities are hardly relevant. Instead of coming up with fluffy spacefillers, write what you did at the winery and resort - inventory audits, book keeping etc. Make sure you use active verbs - designed, saved, balanced, bbudgeted, modelled, etc.

Also no GPA means bad GPA.

 

[Pacemaker]

Before first "real" job = trying to fill one page
After first "real" job = trying to fit all that on one page

 

[JS80]

Originally posted by: Delita

Originally posted by: mugs
1. Change your name to Nash Bridges
2. Objectives are old hat. It's just a space filler. That information really belongs in your cover letter if anything. "Focuses in" should be "focuses on" I think.

Did you leave your GPA off because it was bad? A recent college grad will usually have their GPA on their resume. If one didn't, I'd assume it's bad.

Nah my gpa after this last semester will be around 3.5 (currently 3.3).

No offense but that resume will go directly to delete at all Hedge Funds and Investment Management firms. Relevant experience is required. Most people at such firms start in investment banking then transition to hedge fund and investment management.

I would recommend you target entry level positions. You need to specify what you actually did at those jobs. Delete "Professional Strengths." What level of C++? VBA?

 

[Tarrant64]

I got my first step in the door at a Grad. Admissions building at my (old) University. I had a crappy resume then, but was a freshmen in highschool, it was a start. After a few months found a more interesting job(more of what I wanted to do), and started there.

Built my resume from there on up. Worked as a management intern at Qwest working with databases(SQL, Access, etc). That was 3-4 months. That really looked good on my resume.

By Jr. year I left all that GPA information off. I wasn't doing to good in college though. However I had really good job experience listed. My goals/objectives were clearly listed, as well as any other courses I may have taken related to work. Anything that put the word in that "I am your man."

On my last interview for my current job, I wasn't asked about my GPA. They did ask where I was going to school, and I had mentioned that I was leaving the University to study more indepth and hands-on work at a Community College of things I wanted to do.

They asked me about previous work experience.

Got the job, couldn't be happier.


When I finished my 2nd qtr of comm. college, my boss asks me how my classes are going. I replied I have a 4.0. He said good, but he only cares what I learn and do on the job. Which is fine and all, and he respects that I want to work for some kind of degree(he often says he doesn't care what my education level is, however I would rather have other companies look at it seeing I at least got an Assc. in school).


Note: I was part of a minority program, INROADS, for a couple years. We had training a couple times every year on interviewing and resume's. Constantly revising them. They had a min. GPA requirement to be in the program, and recommended all of us use that as an advantage. I was discouraged when my major was CS, and I only had a 3.2 GPA, and the job I was applying at cut off at 3.5(and assuming it got higher as they narrowed down the applicants).

I dropped the program and put more hard work into it. Doing just fine now. I saw "fail" if I concentrated on a high GPA score instead of a career.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: HotChic
Nobody I know reads cover letters, and most applicant tracking systems don't have any place for you to put them. Why write a half page of BS when you can put two sentences on your resume and it looks nice and standard?

Why put it on your resume at all?

Originally posted by: 3chordcharlie

Really? I can't think of any point at which I even knew my GPA... I guess if I want a new job before I'm 30 I'll have to find out what it was...

My college gave me my GPA along with my grades after every semester. I wouldn't put it there after your first "real job," but when you don't have any real work experience your college education is your main selling point.

 

[AreaCode707]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: HotChic
Nobody I know reads cover letters, and most applicant tracking systems don't have any place for you to put them. Why write a half page of BS when you can put two sentences on your resume and it looks nice and standard?

Why put it on your resume at all?

I think you can make it relevant. Your resume might show IT and finance experience 50-50 but if you really want to be in finance and can't stand the thought of working another five minutes in IT, that's what the objective is for. It just helps the reader know what you want to do. You can also use it to give an idea of what you bring to the job (usually the more intangible qualities), a quick skill summary, convey enthusiasm, and/or describe the environment you are looking for.

 

[toolboxolio]

Sas software is a plus, that is all I know for you, OP.

 

[maziwanka]

its so weird the conflicting advice you get from ppl regarding their resumes.

the general thing is to get rid of the personal strengths section and to get into FAR more detail about the positions you've had in the past (you say NOTHING about what you did while you were working).

I think you might want to change your "Activities" section to an "Additional Information" section and, without bullets, list some of the activities you engage in outside of work/school (your interests). Previous places that I've interviewed at said that the interests section was the main thing to distinguish yourself from other candidates (as it was clear from your resume that you were qualified to do the job; the interests section lets them know if you would be a good fit for the company).

And, as far as cover letters go, I would submit one if asked for one. For law jobs, they always ask for one.

 

[LegendKiller]

Originally posted by: HotChic

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: HotChic
Nobody I know reads cover letters, and most applicant tracking systems don't have any place for you to put them. Why write a half page of BS when you can put two sentences on your resume and it looks nice and standard?

Why put it on your resume at all?

I think you can make it relevant. Your resume might show IT and finance experience 50-50 but if you really want to be in finance and can't stand the thought of working another five minutes in IT, that's what the objective is for. It just helps the reader know what you want to do. You can also use it to give an idea of what you bring to the job (usually the more intangible qualities), a quick skill summary, convey enthusiasm, and/or describe the environment you are looking for.

Your resume is your resume, it lists what you have done, not what you want to do. The cover letter shows that.


I personally worked in IT as helpdesk/unix sysadmin for 3 years in undergrad with a pysch/history BS. I went straight into grad school, intending to do IT, but found out I loved Finance. The summer after my 1st year I got an internship with Seagate as a Finance/IT intern looking at their financial IT systems, verifying results, and recommending changes.

Half way through my 2nd year I got hired by the president of my school to do graduate research for him. I got hired because I knew excel like the back of my hand and knew how to manipulate and extract data, but I also liked finance and knew how to write. So another student and I did research on companies, interviews, and wrote a research paper about corporate values/governance and financial performance.

My first "major" job was doing securitization (structured finance) work for a smaller company owned by a large conglomerate. I was hired because I knew databases and I knew finance. The company needed me to figure out how to best extract data from a mainframe and put it into usable formats utilizing financial modeling and structuring techniques. I was damn good at it too and I saved the company millions.

My 2nd job departed from that and was more legal and less data and finance, I hated it and left within a year.

I received my CFA charter last year.

Now I work in securitization at an investment bank, structuring, legal, data, everything that I love and cherish.

Finance is not just about adding or subtracting. It's not just about modern portfolio theory or investing stocks. It's about understanding risk and return using your judgement on how to gauge risk while demanding a return. Where I am, I need to gauge risk by looking at performance of loan/lease pools, determining how they perform in the long-run, and guaging the risk of losing money. Ultimately that leads us to charge risk premiums on our financing.

This requires knowledge of how to model cash flows in excel, how to slice and dice data in Excel or Access, and what data you need from what type of database source. Finally, it requires logical thinking of statistics.

I love my job because I don't sit around adding and subtracting numbers, I get to look at thinks from a macro perspective on industry risk down to a micro perspective on how companies collect money from the people that owe them, and how that relates to how I am going to lend money to that company.

Find your niche and hit it hard. Whether that's Finance with an IT slant, go for it because that blend of people are in high demand on Wall Street.