Updated my Resume
-
I haven't redone my resume in the over a decade, so I figured I should probably go ahead redo it. The one I had was the one I had done when I first left college. I tried doing something a little more involved than just a default template. So here a copy of it. If you have time, just read over it and give me any feedback you guys have to offer, and please tear it apart. Some information has been edited to protect the innocent. Thanks in Advance!
-
Definitely not my favorite resume. So much text with so little information.
Remove the table formatting. It's a big waste of apce
The second page can just be thrown out. Not that having more then one page on resume is a bad thing, but your second page doesn't say anything of value. It's just has buzz words about you troubleshooting and references spelled out.
On the first page, remove the hobbies. Who gives a damn what your hobbies are? You can talk about that in interview. Expand on your actual work experience and associate skills with each position. I'd also eliminate the training section because I see that is mostly irrelevant space.
My main point is use the space and experience you have to sell yourself and really give your potential employee a good picture of what your know.
-
What job are you pursuing? Knowing this will help giving you a relevant critique.
-
@EddieJennings said in Updated my Resume:
What job are you pursuing? Knowing this will help giving you a relevant critique.
As of right now, officially nothing. This is more of a I have never really needed a good professional resume, but I know I should probably have one in my back pocket that is up to date. Work has been a little rocky for a while, so I wanted to have a resume ready if I need it. Also, I suck at trying to sell myself, so I'm here for critique and advice.
-
@s-hackleman said in Updated my Resume:
@EddieJennings said in Updated my Resume:
What job are you pursuing? Knowing this will help giving you a relevant critique.
As of right now, officially nothing. This is more of a I have never really needed a good professional resume, but I know I should probably have one in my back pocket that is up to date. Work has been a little rocky for a while, so I wanted to have a resume ready if I need it. Also, I suck at trying to sell myself, so I'm here for critique and advice.
There still needs to be some kind of focus. For example, the resume I have now (which I tweak as needed) is geared toward systems administration jobs. If I wanted to go back to public school teaching, I'd have to create a different base resume. What kind of job do you want to pursue?
-
@EddieJennings said in Updated my Resume:
@s-hackleman said in Updated my Resume:
@EddieJennings said in Updated my Resume:
What job are you pursuing? Knowing this will help giving you a relevant critique.
As of right now, officially nothing. This is more of a I have never really needed a good professional resume, but I know I should probably have one in my back pocket that is up to date. Work has been a little rocky for a while, so I wanted to have a resume ready if I need it. Also, I suck at trying to sell myself, so I'm here for critique and advice.
There still needs to be some kind of focus. For example, the resume I have now (which I tweak as needed) is geared toward systems administration jobs. If I wanted to go back to public school teaching, I'd have to create a different base resume. What kind of job do you want to pursue?
That is where I am going to have to spend some time thinking and go back to the drawing board. I have always been a generalist and jack of all trades, which is why I'm an integrator now. I don't have certifications as there has never been a point in my career to date where I needed it. I guess I am going to have to pick a path.
-
Ok Here is Attempt 2.
-
@s-hackleman said in Updated my Resume:
Ok Here is Attempt 2.
That's about 100 times more professional looking.
I'd remove Zebra Printers / ZPL from LANGUAGES and put it under Software Experience instead. It's not really a language IMHO, more like printer codes. And no one is looking for a ZPL programmer.
And that is how I think you should approach your resume. You might think it's a document about you and what you know, but it's not. It's a sales presentation for a potential employer so he can figure out if you are worth even talking to. So when you list stuff, put your most impressive and marketable skills on top.
-
@Pete-S said in Updated my Resume:
I'd remove Zebra Printers / ZPL from LANGUAGES and put it under Software Experience instead.
I don't know mate, printer programming is serious businesses.
-
@Obsolesce said in Updated my Resume:
@Pete-S said in Updated my Resume:
I'd remove Zebra Printers / ZPL from LANGUAGES and put it under Software Experience instead.
I don't know mate, printer programming is serious businesses.
Yes, but almost no one is programming printers.
If we compare to typical office printers, ZPL for label printers is like PCL for laser printers. As a developer you might know a little about PCL but it's usually handled by the printer driver and you don't have to care.
When dealing with label printers you might have to send some codes for applicators, print speed or something like that but that is usually it. The rest is handled by the application/printer driver.
ZPL looks like this:
^XA ^LH30,30 ^FO20,10 ^ADN,90,50 ^FDMangolasssi^FS ^XZWhich is basically start/end commands for the label with some coordinates and a text in between.
To put this printer command language in the same category as Javascript, C# etc, is to take it too far.
-
I agree it looks 100x better, but I would still make some changes.
Sell yourself!
Create a section right on top of the resume where you have a few bullet points that talk about your strengths. This is not an area to get super technical. It is area to sell your experience. Here is an example ( I am making numbers and stuff up for example)- 10+ years in IT. 7+ years of system administration and 5+ years programming (Just listing out the years like this is huge for potential employers because it makes it really quick and easy to see your experience)
- Planned Active Directory architecture and migrations in enterprise environments. Experience managing and administrating AD, group policy, DNS, DHCP, and other Microsoft technologies such as Exchange, O365, and Azure. (Doesnt that look way better then listing those under skills? I am talking about those things right up front as I want to show AD as my skill)
- 10+ years experience in DoD, government, and school districts (if you have worked in industries such finance, DoD, etc list them out as they are positives)
Education
Just list Bachelor's Degree. No reason to list the first school before you transferred. That may be relevant to HR paperwork, but not a resume.
Skills
Like noted above I like to highlight my main skills above. I also like to repeat them throughout my resume
Employers like when they can look at a particular job and see your skills related to that job. It helps them calculate that this guy has 3 years experience with azure and it actually gives you an advantage. Listing them out separate from the job is confusing and leaves them to ask how much experience do you have with this?So if you did AD for 7 years and 3 jobs. You list AD under each of those jobs. It also makes your resume more searchable.
-
The reason you do all this crap is because you already want to direct your interviewer before the interview. Use the interview to show your actual knowledge not talk about how you did this here for 3 years and have done this somewhere else for 5 years. If the employer cares about that particular skill they will bring it up in the interview then you can elaborate on it. Instead of making the employer ask you how much experience you have with each skill.
-
I really appreciate all of the feed back. I know that printer programing is serious business, we used to have a guy around here who had been doing it for years :winking_face: That being said it was a factor that helped me cross over from retail to manufacturing as both do a ton of work with label printing. I can however just bring it up in an interview if relevant, and not seem like I am trying to fill a sheet a paper. I will take your advice and rework it again in the next day or so. THANK YOU again for your time!
-
@Pete-S said in Updated my Resume:
@Obsolesce said in Updated my Resume:
@Pete-S said in Updated my Resume:
I'd remove Zebra Printers / ZPL from LANGUAGES and put it under Software Experience instead.
I don't know mate, printer programming is serious businesses.
Yes, but almost no one is programming printers.
If we compare to typical office printers, ZPL for label printers is like PCL for laser printers. As a developer you might know a little about PCL but it's usually handled by the printer driver and you don't have to care.
When dealing with label printers you might have to send some codes for applicators, print speed or something like that but that is usually it. The rest is handled by the application/printer driver.
ZPL looks like this:
^XA ^LH30,30 ^FO20,10 ^ADN,90,50 ^FDMangolasssi^FS ^XZWhich is basically start/end commands for the label with some coordinates and a text in between.
To put this printer command language in the same category as Javascript, C# etc, is to take it too far.
-
@travisdh1 said in Updated my Resume:
Yes, but almost no one is programming printers.
What? Crazy talk.
-
@s-hackleman said in Updated my Resume:
Ok Here is Attempt 2.
Now THAT is a great looking resume.
Short, straight to the point.Excellent job.
-
Yeah, really good. I think that there is an extra space hiding before DeVry. it's indented ever so slightly.
-
I'd also take We out of the second job description. Never use we or my team. Always use I or me on a resume. If you include team, the interviewer begins to wonder how much YOU actually did.
-
@s-hackleman Happy to share two versions of mine for comparison
[current]
[current-summary]
