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Help - What am I doing wrong

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by bob s.

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I have been looking for a IT Position for some time now but have had no luck
in getting one. What am I doing wrong. I have applied to position that I am
qualified for and even over qualified for. I am willing to go anywhere in the
world. I have pasted here a link to a resume of mine online. If someone would
please look at it and tell me what I am doing wrong I would apprecieate it very
much. Thank you. http://www.geocities.com/sunw101

6 replies

by dukebytes

Bob,

I will not be rude - but I will be blunt. Number 1 - lose the resume. You really need to write a much better one. It needs to be clear and have some kind of flow to it.

The words "I have built a Personal Computer" in the "cover letter"part is just weird. I don't even know what to suggest other than just scrap it and start over. One example - split up experience and certifications. List any certs that you have and what your working on now. Then list experience - and state it as if your doing it now. Like Word - have used for papers in school. This should be grouped and written something like - Experience with MS Office 97 - working with, setup and configuration, and supporting Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Outlook. See what I mean?

Number 2 - GET experience. People will not even blink before they drop your resume and not look at it again when they see Jobs listed - Dishwasher. Now don't get me wrong - a dishwasher is honest work and there is nothing wrong with doing that - I worked in an ice cream stand for a summer - I was the milk shake guy. But you NEED to have something listed CURRENT working with computers. Do charity work - get an internships thru your school - ANYTHING - but get something.

I know that this is driving you nuts - because you can't get a job becuase you don't have any experience - but you can't get experience because you can't get a job........... Been there done that - But talk to friends - relatives - teachers - anywhere you can get a contact to getting a job - DO IT. This IS A GAME - trust me - you need to smile all the time and sing and dance for everyone - till you get a rep. Then you can write your own ticket - but you need to get there 1st.

I hope that this has helped some.

Good luck,
Duke

by bob s.

Thanks you for your suggestions. I have showed this to many people and usually they say looks good. I have not been given many suggestion on how to improve it, mabey that is because I have not asked the right question. I will redo everything and repost it on Monday or Tuesday May 28 or 29. If you would like to view it again be my guest, If not that's fine. Good luck in whatever you are doing.

by ebob

Lose the resume and the "cover letter". I'm sure your friends and relatives have told you it "looks good, Bob", but they love you and they were lying.

"Word97" is NOT a skill. "Using MS Office" is (arguably). Never list a dozen or so applicationson a resume unless you are really an "Expert" on those (and I have personally never met anybody who is an expert with a dozen apps).

One thing your resume needs is to tell the prospective employer what they will get out of hiring you. If you're coming in as a junior systems admin, great. Nobody will expect you to do the work of a CCIE if you're a "jr". Reflect to yourself "What would the employer expect a 'jr' to be doing?" probably a lot of plugging cables, carrying boxes, working stupid shifts, and interacting with senior staff and possibly with users. OK, so write a resume with that in mind, to apply for Junior Net. Admin. job.

To apply for a Helpdesk job, write a different resume. Stress different skills and abilities. HD staff need to be very patient. They need to know how to ask questions (not necessarily how to answer them). HD staff may need to be able to look up answers in a Knowledge Base. HD staff also need to be VERY METICULOUS in record keeping.

It does not helpyour case with some writing errors in your documents. The style is very rough. It hops around and makes me think you're quite young, perhaps too young to have a "real" job. So why should I interview you? I see the following "this is a few of the things that I have installed" which at the very least should be "THESE ARE a few of the things that I have installed", although having made that change, the whole paragraph needs to be rewritten.

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by ebob

You tell about how you took this course and that course. Did you complete the course? If so what is your certification? If not, are you still attending the course? If not, you might want to not mention it. The negative implication is that you got sofar and either got bored and left, or flunked out and left, or and left. All of which suggests "bad things here".

Look, I don't mean to hurt your feelings, so I apologise if I have been too blunt. All of these comments are meant to help you clean up your resume and cover letter so that you CAN bring yoru skills to a job in I.T., and get the experience so you can get a good job in I.T., and so on.

Best of luck, and we are all looking forward to seeing v2 when it's ready ina couple of days.

by dukebytes

Bob,

It is looking good. Much better than the 1st one and still a good bit better than the second.

Keep working on it - I have "improved" my resume about 500 times over the last 15 years so it is a never ending type of thing.

It does look much more professional - and that is what you need.

Good luck,
Duke

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