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If no one else suggested it, call the school or Department of Ed where he obtained his GED. Most of them will issue a high school diploma (it's the same thing). I got mine years ago, called Colorado Dept of Ed and asked about it, they were surprised I only had the cert. They sent me the diploma right away.
With that being said, having a GED is not negative, there are all sorts of reasons why people have them.
This person ought to consider using a Functional style resume.
Also, your friend needs to understand that IT does not exist for the sake of IT alone.
IT is used as a leverage so a company can achieve competitive goals in its respective marketplace.
IT is also used to increase/improve a company's Customer Experience.
So, a resume needs to show what was achieved -in a measurable way- that made a difference for a company's marketplace, its users, internal and/or external clients.
Showing technical knowledge without being able to show what the person did with this knowledge -to an employer's advantage- is useless information.
Contact me if you need examples.
Moving paragraphs and changing fonts has zip to do with the effectiveness of a resume.
Your friend has to be able to show how/why he is the best choice from a stack of 750 - 1200+ resumes.
Here are a few excerpts from real resumes in my files. Don't sweat that your friend does not have the same exact experience....the point here is for him to 'get' what is being said....that the emphasis is on not only what he knows technically, but how what he knows was used to the advantage of an employer.
Also, he can read these and know what he should be shooting for as far as being perceived as a Change Agent, using IT technology as leverage.
Many of these are management-achieved distinctions but I include them so he will know where he should be headed with his technical knowledge.
Using the same format of showing achievement....he should take what he knows and show how he used his knowledge to his employer's advantage.
Of course, if he did not 'do' anything with his knowledge then perhaps these examples of accomplishment below will be a wake up call for him.
In any event, after reading these he should have a better idea of how he should be showing how he is a better candidate than the next person in the same stack. After all, if all he has to sell is his technical knowledge, then he is not showing any competitive edge.
As I said, leveraging his knowledge is what makes for a competitive candidate:
Upgraded IT functions from 15-year old technologies to current standards. Implemented VPN between offices replacing 56K frame relay with dedicated T1s at each location. Directed creation of extranet with reporting and statistical analysis of real time data. Resulted in streamlined services for clients with less support from the IT department.
Led team in creation and implementation of a data warehouse with a web based front end that enabled customized reporting including statistical analysis, modeling and simulation.
Implemented formal IT management structure: defined processes and procedures for project management, software development, configuration management, security measures, capacity measures, documentation, infrastructure component reliability, disaster preparedness/recovery, and portfolio management. Resulted in cost savings of $1.5 millionannually.
· Saved $8 million annually through system consolidation of several back office systems used by Sun's technical escalation organization into a single integrated web-based system built on Siebel CRM technology.
· Turnaround of several poorly performing software applications, dramatically increasing performance and availability, leading to significant cost savings in business productivity. Specific examples include:
o Saved $4.8 million annually by significantly improving both performance and availability of Sun's mission-critical customer support call center application used worldwide by Sun's Enterprise Services organization. This application supports over 8,000 users in 50 countries.
o Saved $1.6 million annually by dramatically improving the performance of Sun's mission-critical internal help desk application. Performance improvements enabled application to be used over the Web globally by all of Sun’s 35,000 employees.
* Developed and deployed an automated update feature which eliminated human error and saved the customer base over 8400 effort hours annually
...............
Okay, now you see how changing fonts and moving paragraphs around won't do jack to improve the impact of your resume.
This forum has a bad habit of applying bandaids to resumes where what is usually needed is an entire re-thinking of how the message is being put out there via a resume.
Resumes need to be looked at holistically, not just from the viewpoint of an editor.
..............
Most of the bullets above are past your friend's current abilities but the point here is to emulate the above style of showing how technology was used for a benefit.
Print this page out and show it to your friend.
He will see how he needs to sit down and determine how his past work can be expressed in a similar manner as above to show how he is a better choice than the rest of the people in that stack of resumes.
At the least, as I said, these bullets will give him a wake-up call as to what being in IT is all about.
Thanks,
Paul....
..
Last edited by HeadhunterPaul; 03-20-2014 at 10:47 AM..
Reason: simple editing
What he has for his resume, will turn off the HR or HM looking to hire a new employee, as they will be comparing it with resumes designed for the particular job, and with college education, etc. It is a competitive jungle out there, and the best one will be hired. I know when I was in the corporate world, looking for employees, I saw this type of resume many times, and never considered that person when I had so many good applicants that could show me why they were the right person for the job.
Lets look at the problems shown by the resume from a HR/HM point of view, as I did when in the corporate world.
Problem #1: He does not have any IT education showing above a GED, No degree, etc. He is competing with people that have degrees, etc. Saying I have a GED and that is the height of my education, is not a big attraction to employees.
Problem #2: Does not list the employers names. There is nothing for a HR/HM to use as a guideline of what he did and for whom he did it.
Problem #3: Current job shown. Says he is a 'Quality Assurance Engineer. But when you read further it says to the HR/HM he is repairing computers and selling them on eBay. Receiving parts from Dell. Etc., Etc. This says to the HR/HM it is not a real job, but buying old computers, trouble shoots them, repairs them, and then sells them on eBay. And apparently doing a little helping computer owners with problems on the side.
Problem #4: He was for the first job a computer sales person, and is trying to make the things one has to do as a computer salesperson sound more glamorous.
Second job, only lasted 3 months.
This resume from a HR/HM point of view, says he was a computer salesman, then worked 3 months, then went out on his own trying to make a living doing things with computers.
I am not trying to run down someone that is trying to break into a better job, but trying to point out what the HR/HM sees, when they look at the resume. When they compare his application /resume with other applications/resumes he is going to lose every time.
He needs to go down to his local library, and check out some books on resume writing. Then write his resume specifically designed to show each place he applies why he is the one that can solve their problems.
With his background, he only needs to apply to small local private firms. The bigger companies will have so many much better qualified people applying, he will not have a chance. The small mom and pop firms, are the place for him to apply and get a chance.
As someone with a 25+ year career in I.T. who has done some looking over of resumes and made hiring recommendations in the past? I agree with some of what "HeadhunterPaul" said.
Basically, you have to get really specific with a few good examples of exactly what you accomplished at each position. If you serviced PCs for resale? Tell me approximately how many you personally serviced (either a "per week" average, or some performance metric like that would give me some idea how efficient a tech you were).
Any situations where you know you did something that saved a company money? Don't pass up the chance to say, "Suggested a change in methods used to re-image PCs which resulted in a 20% improvement in efficiency." or anything like that.
All in all, I.T. is a tough field to really "move up" in though. I know a lot of people who "got their start" taking some sort of phone support position (say, with the local cable company or telco), and found out eventually it was a dead-end job. Similarly, working as an on-site service tech can pigeon-hole you in the same situation. The only people who want to hire you after that are other companies needing on-site service techs, and most won't pay appreciably more than the next company needing them.
If you're content to earn what you earn and do the PC tech/troubleshooting work, you should be able to readily find such jobs for as long as you want to do it... and I think fixing up the resume with suggestions like people gave here will accomplish that.
If the goal is *really* to move up to better pay in I.T. though? Sometimes it really is who you know.... Someone doing corporate I.T. in a management capacity you can befriend and convince to give you a chance as some kind of "support specialist" or "support analyst" or what-not is a better career path.
What he has for his resume, will turn off the HR or HM looking to hire a new employee, as they will be comparing it with resumes designed for the particular job, and with college education, etc.
It is a competitive jungle out there, and the best one will be hired. I know when I was in the corporate world, looking for employees, I saw this type of resume many times, and never considered that person when I had so many good applicants that could show me why they were the right person for the job.
Old Trader....
Overall, it is probable.....well, actually certainly true that your message here is the best comment so far.
Mine was an optimistic viewpoint of attempting to a) Be Nice....something not easy for me to do and b) Be Optimistic, with the thought that my 'template for success' would be a guideline for Mr. Monday.
Realistically, his resume isn't worth dog breath but as I said, I have turned over a new leaf and did not want to tell the poor guy his resume is to a job in IT as a fork is to a Zulu warrior.
Thanks for doing the dirty work, your message is demonstrably more applicable as well as useful than my input earlier here today.
In IT as well. This wasn't nearly as bad as I anticipated. I would do a few things.
1) Qualifications says what he thinks he can do, not what he has done. While you can't do the revenue/money saved/sales generated thing in an intro position, he needs to emphasized what he has actually done.
2) Certs and education need to be combined into "professional development."
3) In technical skills, I've always just listed the skill/tool. His AD statement just becomes "Active Directory" in my skills column. I list everything I've ever worked on and have at least a cursory understanding of. If he makes his resume searchable and has some experience, recruiters should contact him. I have at least a few recruiters emailing me unsolicited every week for some type of job. While not well-paying or glamorous, I'm at least out there.
4) The "quality assurance engineer" sounds like an all-in-one IT guy in a small biz. Don't oversell.
5) There are some grammar/writing mistakes. Not terrible, but a bit of a turnoff.
6) Why was the guy a sales associate for going seven years? That's the worst part of all to me. What else was he doing to get better during that time?
To be honest, I didn't get a full breakdown of his IT background.
I was in IT years ago & have seen people get level 1 gigs with much less...Don't really know how competitive it is now.
As far as the GED goes, he has that and 3 IT related certs. His education didn't stop once he got the GED.
oldtrader, Thank you for being real cut and dry about the situation. I agree with about 99% of things you said..although I relied it to him in a much nicer fashion, lol.
Here's what I know of his current responsabilities
1. He is responsible for every piece of hardware that flows through the warehouse. He's the first person to grab it as the enters the warehouse and the person to pack it up on it's way out to whoever purchased it.
2. He has to monitor and maintain the entire network. This includes 5 work stations, 2 network printers, 1 file server, and a handful of mobile devices
3. Has to "fix" at least 75 desktops and 25 laptops per work week, have them listed on eBay with perfect descriptions & photos, and ensure a net profit of $5000 dollars
The way it's worded on the resume makes it seem like a easy job, but it really isn't.
I never been good with writing myself, so outlining all of this on a resume is a bit difficult for me also..I'll figure it out, though..I really do want to help him get into a level 1 position in any way that I can. I know he has the skills for at least level 1 help desk.
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IT Resume Is Missing a Message!
