resume critique por favor

[perry]

I was talking to a staffing agency this morning about my resume that I emailed last week. The guy quickly scanned it and told me that I need to do a better job selling myself. He reccomended placing some sort of "technolgies" category on the resume to make it easier for people to see what I know how to use. He says he'll look at a resume like mine, not see exactly what he's looking for, and simply move on to the next because he doesn't wanna spend 25 minutes talking to me trying to figure out what I can do. So, I tried to switch things around a little bit.

Anyone care to take a gander and gimme some more pointers? Resume. It's for an entry to intermediate <sp> level networking / help desk / sys admin job. Doesn't really matter to me, just a place that puts money in my pocket each week.

 

[cyclistca]

Looks ok. I would put the tech section after your objectives. I would also rename it &quot;Technical Skills&quot;. You might also put it in point form. Here what mine looks like.

Programming Languages: SQL, Actuate, Viador, Oracle, Powerhouse
Software: Source Safe, BaaN, Word, Excel, Power Point
Hardware: PC, IBM AIX, HP 3000, HP 9000
Operating Environments: Windows 95/98/2000, Unix, MPE

 

[DannyLove]

<< pimpdaddy@whitehouse.gov >>

lol, nice email, are you prez clinton

 

[Tauren]

IMAO-
<<Able to quickly learn new technologies, work nights &amp; weekends with some travel.>>

This doesn't belong under 'Objective' and you state two unrelated points in one sentence. I would:

1. Put something like: &quot;I am open to and have the ability to quickly adapt to new technologies.&quot;[edit]and put it underneath where you state your tech skills[edit]
2. Leave this: &quot;work nights &amp; weekends with some travel.&quot; out completely. If they are interested in your skills they will ask.
3. What cyclistca said.

 

[Tauren]

Another one may be to re-work the verbage a little to leave certain things open to interpretation.

Example: &quot;Development of a web page for a small startup company, general Internet work to improve company's presence. &quot;
Could be re-worked to say: &quot;Developed and maintained a website for a small start-up company, with the focus on improving their presence on the global market.&quot;


(I thought these up fast so, if they suck, well they are just examples.)

 

[cipher00]

Some Ideas:

Skip &quot;objectives&quot; altogether. The idea is to get across what you can do.

One Page. Only. Try formatting if necessary; have the dates right-justified by the activities, or use a smaller font/pitch. ONE PAGE, ok?

What have you done for the last 3 months?

Anything on the education side? (Deans list, etc.?) Try something; not putting GPA on or anything at all leaves the impression you slid through school.

Get the Administer 300+ ... up in the activities.

Cyclistca is right, too.

 

[Descartes]

cyclistca: You do know that SQL, and Oracle (not sure about the other things you listed) are not programming languages, don't you?

Just wondering, as listening them in that manner may cause someone to overlook your resume because it suggests you're unclear as to what they are.

 

[cyclistca]

You do know that SQL, and Oracle ... are not programming languages, don't you?

There not:Q?

Yes I know that

SQL - Structure Query Language
Oracle - Relational Data Base

Well I was debating which category to put them under. Since most high tech companies scan resumes for key word I could have call them &quot;Favourite Ice Cream Flavours&quot; for all that it matters. Where would you have put them?

 

[cyclistca]

Ok how this then

Languages: PL/SQL(Oracle), T-SQL (MS), Actuate, Viador, Powerhouse
Software: Source Safe, BaaN, Word, Excel, Power Point
Hardware: PC, IBM, HP 3000, HP 9000
Operating Environments: Windows 95/98/2000, Unix, MPE

 

[perry]

<< Looks ok. I would put the tech section after your objectives. I would also rename it &quot;Technical Skills&quot;. You might also put it in point form. Here what mine looks like. >>



Hmmm. I changed the format around, it does look at little better.



<< This doesn't belong under 'Objective' and you state two unrelated points in one sentence. >>



I took that tip off of monster.com. If it's so funny, drop them a line and let em know. They say adding something like that can help someone without as much experience. I reworded those things to make em sound not so awkward.



<< What have you done for the last 3 months? >>



Decided not to go back to school. Looked for a job, got roped into the Linux class in a train-to-hire sort of thing. Company went under, looking for a job again. I do plan to go back to school, probably not till fall, and not again in EE.



<< Get the Administer 300+ ... up in the activities >>



Huh? It's at the top of the activities. It's not as 'pretty' at only one page. Oh well. It gets the point across.

My understading of the objective is that it's an important part of the resume. From talking to recruiters, career planning folk, chats on monster.com, etc., it's important to put a brief description of what you wanna do and why you're a good candidate up there in the objective. Maybe I was misinformed?

What's a good way of stating that I can build a computer with my eyes closed, and troubleshoot with one arm behind my back?

 

[Angrymarshmello]

There are a lot of resume writing software programs available...I wrote one up similar to yours and a guy at work who is trying to help me land a job w/ Verizon laughed at it. Not enough info really is all he said...a lot of these pre-made layouts for MS Word won't get you a job with McDonalds, much less a good job.

 

[rudder]

you need to make use of some bold words. HR people only devote a very short time to do a preliminary scan on a resume. You need some words to stick out. for instance under your work experience, put your work titles in bold.

 

[perry]

<< There are a lot of resume writing software programs available...I wrote one up similar to yours and a guy at work who is trying to help me land a job w/ Verizon laughed at it. Not enough info really is all he said...a lot of these pre-made layouts for MS Word won't get you a job with McDonalds, much less a good job. >>



This ain't no template. Something I cooked up myself. Maybe it looks like a template, I dunno, I haven't looked at those in 3 - 4 years.

It's tough to fit a ton of info on one page while still making the font size readable and giving a clean layout.