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Need help with resume from fellow IT guys

L

lzaffuto

Junior Member
Hi guys, I'm new to the forums but I've been a frequent visiter to Anandtech for years. I've been searching for a tech job for about 6 months now with no success, and since there are tons of job postings in the newspaper almost every Sunday I'm wondering if it's my resume that is the problem. I've got 3 years of professional experience as a PC tech, and a recent A+ certification(that I got without even studying for simply because a job I applied for required it). I'm thinking about getting an MCSE. I've been applying to anything remotely tech related, from basic pc tech jobs (I'm the kind of person that would rather make minimum wage tinkering with PCs than make $10 an hour at a retail job) all the way up to network admin but still very few calls. I'm at the point where I'm running out of money and I'm looking at having to go to Wal-mart or flip burgers for a job. Could you guys take a look at my resume and see if there is anything wrong/missing that I could change to have a better shot at getting to an interview? At least if I get to the interview I can blame a job loss on myself, but I'm not even getting called. Hopefully maybe this can help others as well...

Here's what I have currently...

Professional Highlights

--LSU Office of Computing Services-- Jan 2001 ? Feb 2004

Lead Technical Coordinator
-Supervised a team of 3 lead technicians, 12-15 regular technicians
-Coordinated efforts of technicians across campus
-Researched and developed new methods and techniques
-Supervised field deployment of new technology

Advanced Field Technician
-Helped to support and maintain 1000+ Windows 2000/XP workstations
-Service and support of workstation hardware, software, and networking

Multimedia Classroom Support Helpdesk
-Worked on centralized helpdesk for support of classroom computers across campus

--LA Dept of Public Safety Datacenter-- Apr 2004 ? Jun 2004

IT Equipment Operator 2
-Experience working in a secured facility environment
-Unisys and IBM mainframe console operations
-Use and maintenance of Xerox professional printers


Skills

-Extremely advanced knowledge of Windows 98/NT/2000/XP
-Workstation rollout, hardware and software troubleshooting and repair skills
-LAN networking, ghosting, and image development
-Employee and user training
-User service and support including helpdesk experience
-Quick and intuitive learning of new technology

Education

Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 2000-2004
Baton Rouge Magnet High School, Baton Rouge, LA 1996-2000

Certifications
-A+ Certified 2004


I also have a rather glowing letter of recommendation attached to my resume from my former boss (maybe I should remove it?):

To whom it may concern,

This letter is to certify in good faith that Mr. Zaffuto worked with the Office of Computing Services at Louisiana State University under the Technology Support Center Division for a period of three years. Mr. Zaffuto enhanced public access computing and multimedia classrooms by implementing, maintaining, and supporting hardware, software, and printing systems for use by the LSU student community. Mr. Zaffuto worked to coordinate the building of public access labs, general access classrooms, multimedia classrooms, and their associated continuous maintainence. In addition, Mr. Zaffuto has also been responsible for the management of 12-15 student technicians, supervising over 1,000+ PCs throughout the campus. His work in the labs included but was not limited to troubleshooting and resolving failures in WLAN, LAN, and workstation and server hardware. He has gained much experience in Windows 2000, XP, NT, and 2000 advanced server environments.

Respectfully,

Bruce Messick
Public Access Labs and Classrooms User Services Analyst
Office of Computing Services
Louisiana State University
Click to expand...


Any suggestions for additions, subtractions, and other changes are greatly appreciated. 🙂
 
take out "extremely" when describing your knowledge of Windows platforms. It makes it more professional sounding.
 
Done. I thought about going into detail about said skills (EX: registry editing, etc) but that would put my resume over a page long and I've heard that's a huge no-no. 🙂
 
Resume is one page, letter of recommendation is the second. A few job postings required the letter so I just started sending it to everyone. That might be a mistake, but I'm not sure.
 
You've got more years of experience then I do and my resume is about 2 1/2 pages long....without the pages of recommendations

I think you might need to put more details on there...specific to the job description you are applying for.

edit: for the 3 years that you worked in that place...i'd suggest you put more details on what you did.

ps, this is also strictly my opinion
 
I know it's kind of a pain, but read through the job descriptions you're posting for and look for skills that they seem interested in. Once you have those try and describe your skills in terms of the keywords taken from the job description. Customizing each resume can help when recruiters do an automated search through resumes for their particular set of keywords.

Other than that, think of your resume as a 5 second ad. You want the most important/compelling reasons to interview you at the top and easy to read. Format is especially important on hardcopy. If by e-mail, you should avoid anything fancy as it is likely to just go into a database and formatting characters and pictures will just cause problems.
 
Ok, I'll try some reformatting and put more detail into the job descriptions. I was thinking that people would be looking for something short and concise and they would call me if they got interested and wanted specific details, but maybe not. I'll see what I can come up with.
 
You've listed the insitution you attended, but don't say what University qualification you achieved. List it, even if it isn't IT related. Even degrees in unrelated fields are worth mentioning.

Get rid of the "extremely" as some else mentioned.

Get rid of that letter of recommendation. You don't even need to include references (referees?) in the resume. Just say "references available on request". Employees will only begin contacting references once you have got past the first interview stage.

You should probably get into the habit of customizing your resume for each job application. The point is to assess what is required for a given job, and make sure your relevant experiences for that particular job are presented in a convincing way in the resume.

LOOK - what you REALLY need to do is go to the library, or Borders, and pick up some books on how to write powerful resumes, especially books with information tailored to the IT industry. Research about what employees look for in a resume, what catches their eye. You obviously have the experience, but your resume isn't highlighting that experience, or presenting that experience in a convincing way. Your message just isn't getting through to the people reading your resume. There are fairly standard ways of formatting a resume -- you can do a chronological resume, or a skills-based resume. You need to be clear about what details are worth including and what is irrelevant. I was reading a great book on applying for jobs in the IT industry a few months ago, it was written by a recruitment expert in the IT field, and it had hints and tips for applying for just about every type of job in the IT industry. (Forgotten the name of book). Get hold of that book or a book like it. It contained a goldmine of really useful information on formatting resumes, what type of information to include, what type of information to leave out, etc.

My 2 cents.
 
The letter looks like you wrote it and the boss signed it.

The wording and style are just too similar - maybe I am just smoking crack but thats the feeling i got.
 
Another vote for more details. I read your resume, and I'm still not sure what you know specifically. Be more specific with the hardware & software you know. Its just to generic right now, which is probably why its not wowing anyone.
 
Originally posted by: lzaffuto

I've been searching for a tech job for about 6 months now with no success, and since there are tons of job postings in the newspaper almost every Sunday I'm wondering if it's my resume that is the problem.

I've been applying to anything remotely tech related, from basic pc tech jobs (I'm the kind of person that would rather make minimum wage tinkering with PCs than make $10 an hour at a retail job) all the way up to network admin but still very few calls.

I'm at the point where I'm running out of money and I'm looking at having to go to Wal-mart or flip burgers for a job.

Could you guys take a look at my resume and see if there is anything wrong/missing that I could change to have a better shot at getting to an interview? At least if I get to the interview I can blame a job loss on myself, but I'm not even getting called. Hopefully maybe this can help others as well...
Click to expand...

Welcome to the Forums and good luck. I'm just an hour & half east of you. While I too see all those jobs in the paper and in fact actually landed two of said jobs, problem is that here in Louisiana they are only looking to pay $10 hr for highly skilled labor. If your resume shows that you should command more money than that they will skip over you. It's been reported that Chicago is the hot spot for IT jobs now.
 
At the moment I'd accept $6.50 an hour, and I'd be damn happy with $7.50-8.00 an hour, although obviously it wouldn't be a long term solution. $10 an hour I could definitely survive on with the low cost of living down here(it's what I'm used to being paid). Maybe I should concentrate more on the basic PC technician skills for those positions and leave out the other stuff so I don't look like I'm overqualified and would ask for too much.
 
Where's your cover letter? You do have a cover letter don't you? You're just cold-calling people or mailing just your resume? Most places will toss your resume if it doesn't have a cover letter. Take the advice of an earlier poster and go to Barnes and Nobles or Borders and get two books, one on how to write technical resume's and one on how to write cover letters.
 
You list your education as Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 2000-2004 but don't mention what degree you have. (e.g a BS in CompSci)
 
--LSU Office of Computing Services-- Jan 2001 ? Feb 2004

Lead Technical Coordinator
-Supervised a team of 3 lead technicians, 12-15 regular technicians
-Coordinated efforts of technicians across campus
-Researched and developed new methods and techniques
-Supervised field deployment of new technology

Advanced Field Technician
-Helped to support and maintain 1000+ Windows 2000/XP workstations
-Service and support of workstation hardware, software, and networking

Multimedia Classroom Support Helpdesk
-Worked on centralized helpdesk for support of classroom computers across campus
Click to expand...

I don't have any clue what you did as "Lead Technical Coordinator". It's very vague. It talks about technicians and technology but I have no idea what that means. Get rid of "Helped to support" on advanced field technician and just make it "Supported and maintaned". Also instead of 1000+ I would use over 1000, but that may be personal preference.

(I just read the letter and lead tech makes more sense, but looking at the resume i would have no clue)

Skills

-Extremely advanced knowledge of Windows 98/NT/2000/XP
-Workstation rollout, hardware and software troubleshooting and repair skills
-LAN networking, ghosting, and image development
-Employee and user training
-User service and support including helpdesk experience
-Quick and intuitive learning of new technology
Click to expand...

Maybe I'm wrong, but the second point seems like 2-3 points. Also workstation rollout could mean a lot of things. Are you referring to software deployment?

What is the difference between ghosting and image development?

Why isn't unisys and IBM mainframe listed if you really did work on them?

I don't understand the relevance of the "centralized" help desk. How is that different than a normal help desk? If it's not, I would just say "Supported classroom computers across campus".
 
Originally posted by: KB
You list your education as Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 2000-2004 but don't mention what degree you have. (e.g a BS in CompSci)
Click to expand...

Haven't graduated yet. My scholarship ran out and now I'm waiting to turn 24 so I don't have to declare my parent's income to recieve financial aid. When I continue, I'll probably be going to Tulane instead.



 
Originally posted by: lzaffuto
Originally posted by: KB
You list your education as Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 2000-2004 but don't mention what degree you have. (e.g a BS in CompSci)
Click to expand...

Haven't graduated yet. My scholarship ran out and now I'm waiting to turn 24 so I don't have to declare my parent's income to recieve financial aid. When I continue, I'll probably be going to Tulane instead.
Click to expand...

In that case, why not describe yourself as currently studying part-time? (technically, you are still studying -- you're just on a bit of a break, right?). Make it look like your studies are still current, if asked, say you are on a break from study. Give name of degree. It just looks a bit suspicious or weird when you give the name of the institution, and no degree. Anyone reading that is immediately going to assume you dropped out and didn't complete the degree. The aim is to sort of 'smooth over' the rough patches in your work and education history -- nothing dishonest, but do sort of try to present information in a more flattering light. 🙂
 
I don't have any clue what you did as "Lead Technical Coordinator". It's very vague. It talks about technicians and technology but I have no idea what that means. Get rid of "Helped to support" on advanced field technician and just make it "Supported and maintaned". Also instead of 1000+ I would use over 1000, but that may be personal preference.

(I just read the letter and lead tech makes more sense, but looking at the resume i would have no clue)
Click to expand...

Yeah, you're right. I'm just using their official terminology for my position, but I should probably change it into English. 🙂

Rollouts meaning workstation deployment. As in, setting up 100s of pcs in a lab, ghosting them, and configuring them. I'm surprised you've never heard the term before, most people I've talked to do(plus a few jobs I applied for specifically mentioned it). I'll change it since if it confused one person it has probably confused many more.

I specified centralized for the help desk because my job in the labs was NOT centralized. It involved walking across a gigantic campus to find and fix problems in multiple buildings. Rather nomadic actually. The multimedia job I had WAS centralized, since every classroom had a phone that automatically dialed directly to where I was sitting for when a problem occured. But you're right, most help desks are centralized, so I'll change it.
 
Originally posted by: aidanjm
In that case, why not describe your-self as currently doing part-time study? (technically, you are still studyingf -- you're just on a bit of a break).
Click to expand...

Good idea. Especially since I recently took the A+ exam and I'm starting preliminary work on getting an MCSE.
 
Originally posted by: AmigaMan
go to Barnes and Nobles or Borders and get two books, one on how to write technical resume's and one on how to write cover letters.
Click to expand...

I agree with this. Approach learning how to write a resume like you'd approach learning about any other topic. Seek out information in books, etc. There are probably good web-sites with information on creating effective resumes. I suppose you could also ring up the employees, and actually ask them why they passed over your resume. Sometimes they might blow you off, but other times you might find someone willing to explain what they look for, and what they don't like.
 
The only feedback I have recieved prior to this was from a local school that does CompTIA and Microsoft certifications. I had applied for a position as an assistant network admin, and I got two interviews with them. He told me he started out with 36 people, narrowed it down to 12 for the first round of interviews, narrowed it down to me and three others for the second round. He told me the 3 other people had qualifications that made them worth about $60k a year, and this was a $30k a year job. The only reason they were still considering me was because they were scared that as soon as those other people found a job that would pay them what they were worth they would be out of there in a flash. I knew I didn't have it when he started telling me to not be offended or feel inadequate if they didn't select me because they wouldn't have called me for the second interview if I weren't qualified to do the job... it was just a matter of the other people being more qualified. Ah well...
 
Originally posted by: lzaffuto
I don't have any clue what you did as "Lead Technical Coordinator". It's very vague. It talks about technicians and technology but I have no idea what that means. Get rid of "Helped to support" on advanced field technician and just make it "Supported and maintaned". Also instead of 1000+ I would use over 1000, but that may be personal preference.

(I just read the letter and lead tech makes more sense, but looking at the resume i would have no clue)
Click to expand...

Yeah, you're right. I'm just using their official terminology for my position, but I should probably change it into English. 🙂

Rollouts meaning workstation deployment. As in, setting up 100s of pcs in a lab, ghosting them, and configuring them. I'm surprised you've never heard the term before, most people I've talked to do(plus a few jobs I applied for specifically mentioned it). I'll change it since if it confused one person it has probably confused many more.

I specified centralized for the help desk because my job in the labs was NOT centralized. It involved walking across a gigantic campus to find and fix problems in multiple buildings. Rather nomadic actually. The multimedia job I had WAS centralized, since every classroom had a phone that automatically dialed directly to where I was sitting for when a problem occured. But you're right, most help desks are centralized, so I'll change it.
Click to expand...

I have heard of workstation rollouts but people use it in different ways. Sometimes they mean new OS rollouts, sometimes they mean installing a new image, sometimes they mean setting up new machines, sometimes they just mean centralized software deployment via tools like SMS or (hopefully) something more sophisticated.

By definition, a help desk is somewhat centralized. Excluding companies that have multiple help desks. That's what I was getting at. There is no need to contrast your jobs like that. It seems to me that it is more important to stress that you travelled around campus for the other jobs than it is to stress that you did not travel around for the help desk job.
 
Originally posted by: torpid
I have heard of workstation rollouts but people use it in different ways. Sometimes they mean new OS rollouts, sometimes they mean installing a new image, sometimes they mean setting up new machines, sometimes they just mean centralized software deployment via tools like SMS or (hopefully) something more sophisticated.
Click to expand...

My job included doing all of the above. I definitely should have gone into more specifics.
 
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