Check My Resume

[MethodOne]

Right now, I'm looking for an IT job (most likely a network admin) after I graduated from college. Could someone please look at my resume and make any suggestions? But I do have a few questions. Do you think I should put "OpenOffice" or "OpenOffice.org" as the name of the popular office program? My counselor told me to call it "OpenOffice," but I know that "OpenOffice.org" is the proper name of it. For some of the graphics applications I have limited experience with, do you think I should list them? Attached is my resume.

[billgoldberg]

English isn't my first language, but a resume is the same as a curriculum vitae isn't it?

The layout could use a bit improvement.

And you should put way more one there.

Anyhow, the are hundreds of sites that will help you one what to write.

http://www.powerful-sample-resume-formats.com/index.html

[LaRoza]

Don't try to bloat it, it should fit on a single page, unless you have a lot of experience.

[Superkoop]

I would put down the names, and phone numbers of your refrences. Along with why they are your refrences. (like previous employers and the like)
I think that would make it look nicer.

[Vitamin-Carrot]

Don't try to bloat it, it should fit on a single page, unless you have a lot of experience.

A SINGLE PAGE!!!!

Mine barely fits on eight and that aint with formatting it to bugery,

Tailor your CV for each position you apply for, keeping in mind the information about you that is more relivant to the position thats being advertised is most likely the stuff potential employers would want to read, have a generic one for when you are walking around on the street and you see a place with a help wanted ad in the window...

Always have a cover letter but dont ramble on and on about yourself tailor it for each position you apply for.
i could go on and on and on.

the most compact version of my CV got me the job i have now ...

WOOT!!!

best of luck champion

[adamklempner]

Not a bad start. I think the format is OK for the most part. I agree that you should probably look at some samples and instructional resume sites.

More specifically, if you can I'd try to make it a little stronger.


If your GPA was good in High School and College, I'd put that in there: "GPA: 3.8/4.0"

About the OpenOffice thing, I'd at least be consistent (you have it both ways). I have it listed just as OpenOffice on mine...

'Created documents with Office' and 'Troubleshot XP' statements are pretty weak. If you want to include things like that, be more specific and show that you have more than the basic knowledge of the programs. Have you made complex presentations/spreadsheets/databases? "Extensive experience with Microsoft Office common, including technical presentations and complex data bases". And what exactly have you troubleshot in XP? Nearly every XP user does that day in and day out ;)

I also notice that you talk about experience with Apple hardware but don't mention any Mac OS's. Was that intentional?

"Used command line" should sound a little stronger like "Familiar with..." or "Experience with..."


You have a good start. Just keep plugging away. Both Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com have good resume guides you might want to check out.

I personally don't include the references on my resume, especially if it is going to be posted somewhere on the net.

I am not that familiar with the IT field, but you might want to check to see if there are certain key words that you can add in that will make you stand out more, especially to resume search bots.

[original_jamingrit]

Hey, I'm just a CS student and I've never had an IT job, but here are some ideas.

First off, it might be necessary to use a txt file resume depending on whatever service you're using, but it might not hurt to set up some web hosting on angelfire or geocities to keep some better looking formats handy. For example, OO.o is great, and allows you to save your documents as odt, pdf, and doc. I've attached a handy template that I use myself, loosely based on the default resum-ay template. (format the size and fonts to your liking).

Also, one buzzword that IT employers are supposed to look for is "LAMP": Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP. As long as you're at least familiar and prepared to learn more about LAMP, you can say you've got it. If you don't intend to get any sort of position that may require working on web servers, then maybe avoid LAMP.

Cheers, and good luck

[myusername]

it would probably be best to not give out your name, phone number and address to people on the internet just take it off for the time being

[toupeiro]

THe formatting is OK. As far as the rules about keeping it to one page. If you are coming from college without a lot of job experience, its a good practice. I cannot seem to get mine under three, and I have cut out a LOT. I don't think this is going to hurt you too badly though. Usually in highly technical positions later in your career, recruiters are looking for very specific things. Itemizing could mean the difference between a phone call and a filing cabinet. ;-) Generally though, as you gain experience, it becomes less crucial to itemize technical merits, but turn projects around into number affecting your organizations bottom line.

and.. if you haven't checked out dice.com, thats a good technical recruiting site.

Also, check your VAR's and IT consulting companies like Wareforce/PCMall and beeline.

[macogw]

English isn't my first language, but a resume is the same as a curriculum vitae isn't it?

The layout could use a bit improvement.

And you should put way more one there.

Anyhow, the are hundreds of sites that will help you one what to write.

http://www.powerful-sample-resume-formats.com/index.html

CV and resume are similar, but resumes shouldn't go over a page unless you've a lot of experience...then a page and a half. 4 pages may seem fine on a CV, but that'd never fly on a resume. Resumes get about 30 seconds before being tossed aside if not enough pops out on that first page. Mine's 1 3/4 pages, so it's pretty long for a student.

For IT, I wouldn't list an office suite. The skills part of my resume lists:
Programming & Web Development:
Java (applications & servlets), C, Python, PHP, SQL, XHTML, CSS, Javascript, bash & sed scripting
Operating Systems & Software:
Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Red Hat), Microsoft Windows 95–XP, Mac OS X, Solaris, LaTeX, QuickBooks

Something you can do is put "Independent Contractor" in your Experience section and just list the odd-job computer things you do for people...like clearing out viruses and installing drives or whatever. And don't put "entry-level" or you'll be paid entry-level ;) Just say a position. If you know your stuff, you can do better than help desk (which is what entry-level tends to mean in IT).

[LookTJ]

Right now, I'm looking for an IT job (most likely a network admin) after I graduated from college. Could someone please look at my resume and make any suggestions? But I do have a few questions. Do you think I should put "OpenOffice" or "OpenOffice.org" as the name of the popular office program? My counselor told me to call it "OpenOffice," but I know that "OpenOffice.org" is the proper name of it. For some of the graphics applications I have limited experience with, do you think I should list them? Attached is my resume.Take a look at my resume layout (http://www.ubuntuboxes.co.uk/LookTJ/Resume.pdf). You can improve your layout in my humble opinion

[Tristam Green]

What everyone here has said.

I do think that adding Office Suite experience is a little necessary. While you're shooting for a network admin job, a good starter job would be Desktop Support, and office suite knowledge is a great skill to have in that respect. At the very least, if you go somewhere that *hasn't* heard of OO.o, you will invariably get asked "what's that?"

Something I did on my résumé was add the most relevant coursework. If you took classes dealing in Cisco Routing but haven't obtained certification, show it. It shows that you're at least working towards that goal.

My résumé is two pages including references, and at times I leave the references off on a separate sheet of paper, and include a line "more references available upon request" on the résumé.

Best of luck to you, I hope the IT market is better where you are than here :confused: