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Just want to get some opinions on my CV. Wondering if anyone, with more experience, has any suggestions on things to add or remove. Especially @SAM as he is the one who told me to write this up. I followed an outline given on about.com but don’t know if that was best. (see attached)

Thanks in advance,

A.J.

18 Spice ups
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Keep it simple and don’t go into how horrible places were. Maintain just the simple facts of experience. When sending things out for jobs, the people screening them don’t have time to read the stories.

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One thing I would recommend, it’s not a story, it’s a resume. Bullet points, and lots of them.

As a person looking through potentially hundreds of resumes, I am going to scan them, not read them. I’m looking for key-words.

I would suggest taking the outline you have now, and changing those sentences into bullet points.

8 Spice ups
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Also NEVER say any job was a nightmare. this caught my eye as I went back to look at it again. You can say things like it was challenging and what you did to overcome them, but never say anything negative about you, a previous job, employer, boss, or anything.

11 Spice ups
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Also, don’t put any information regarding religion, sexual preference, even race, they don’t need to know it. Stuff like that has no need to be on a resume.

3 Spice ups
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Also, CompTIA is not to be listed under education. List your A+ or whatever other certs you have under accomplishments, but not education. PM me if you’d like to see a copy of my resume and i’ll email it to you. I’d rather not post it here.

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Hi,

My review is based on what is considered to be “best practice” on my part of the globe, it my be different on yours - so keep that in mind.

First, I think the CV is too long. CV should be written on one page, leave the rest for the interview. This the person who’s hiring need to read 300 CVs. No way he is going to read 300x3 pages.

Second, I’m missing job titles for your positions. I can see the dates and the company, but not the title.

Third, Try to use bullets instead of paragraphs, it is more focused and sends a message the you can be short and to the point.

Fourth, Try to include something(s) that are nor related to technology & IT in your hobbies. As a manager I’m looking for people with more interests than just IT. I’m sure you have them, don’t be afraid to point them out.

Again - This is all based on my experience and what is known to be “best practice” here.

Hope this helps.

Good luck!

9 Spice ups
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Know that no matter what job you get, you will end up doing the phone support for a user just like you did at Rescue Me. It will always be there no matter what.

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Yasaf is right in that 3 pages is a bit long, however the common practice here now is not to worry about fitting it in a single page. If a resume is 2 pages, thats ok, as long as the information is relevant and there is no redundancy. What i mean by that is I don’t want to read that you have experience with MS active directory 4 times in your resume.

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I agree that it is too long and has too many negative elements.

Tank has some really good points - consider revising it using these and other suggestions.

When people read these they will not spend the time you might hope for on sorting out details so the more clear and concise you can make it the better.

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Remember, you have less than 30 seconds that the person going over resumes will spend looking at it. I have even read where you only have about six seconds before they go to the next one.

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Wall of Text Encountered - Interest 0%

I had some help on mine from KForce, PM me if you didn’t catch it when I posted it earlier.

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Keep it concise, objective, and to the point. If you are submitting a resume to an employment firm/headhunter bloat it with more details. In your skills section try to focus on keywords. Resume databases are going to hit on those keywords when your resume is categorized and made queriable for employers using the job board’s services for sourcing candidates. Think along the lines of: “VMWare, Active Directory, Debian, Red Hat, etc…” You can use the actual job descriptions under each position to give a more in-depth OBJECTIVE explanation of how you used the technologies.

Under the skills area of my resume I just built a gridless/borderless table and populated it with skills/tech that I have used/picked up over the years.

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Now that I’ve taken time to do some more reading over yours, jesus.

  1. I don’t want your story, thats for the interview.

  2. Never talk down about previous employers. You think I want you talking shit about me when you leave?

  3. Objective, skills, and experience. Make it concise.

  4. Preparation classes mean nothing to me. Just that you don’t have followthrough.

  5. EXCLUDE RELIGION. Do not include any information about religion or race as this can very quickly disqualify you for a job.

6 Spice ups
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All the input above is valuable for you: you should definitley pare down. It’s difficult to pick out your skills from your narrative. I would add that your Staples experience section definitely needs a red pen taken to it.

I see that you’re newly graduated from High School. I would focus on completing your education. You’ll be much more valuable (resume-wise) with a college degree of some sort under your belt. Many HR depts will simply toss your resume without a completed degree, especially if you’re going for an IT job. I’m not saying it’s fair but it definitely happens.You sound like you’re pretty smart. You can prove it (and demonstrate your follow-through) with a completed degree.

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When I glance at it I just see a wall of words, and I immediately don’t want to read through it all. So a hiring manager or recruiter would read even less. Start with bullet points rather than paragraphs and go from there.

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Also, don’t talk about playing video games. I play a fuckton of video games. I watch a lot of japanese anime. These are things employers don’t care about, and make you look like you’ll just waste time at work if you’re talking about them on a resume.

REMEMBER: You are interviewing to be a PROFESSIONAL. That means like an old person! Act like it!

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Hi,

One thing I would advise is take your Date of birth off your CV, because they will get a hint of how old you are by looking at your qualifications. and also I would bullet point objects. and but references Available on request.

Regards

3 Spice ups
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Totally agree on the degree. I have been lucky but with the economy the way it is today, it is needed. I have been turned down for several jobs because of no degree. I called up HR and asked and they said specifically that because I had no degree, I was automatically removed from consideration.

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I don’t have a degree, thank god my old boss took a chance on me and now I’m doing really well :slight_smile:

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