Rate my résumé

11. Does the person provide enough information about their past or not enough? What should they have left out or included in their résumé?

Egan: Yes, enough information is provided, yet not too much.

I noted that the candidate has provided only the last 18 years of her work experience and in the additional data provided on the candidate, perhaps she has additional work experience. However, her work experience prior to 1992 may not be relevant to a network manager.

Stevens: The candidate is in her mid-50s years old but shows only 12 years of experience. A better approach would have included a line in the qualifications summary that stated: Network and information systems professional with over 15 years accomplishments in (then detail remaining summary). Her professional experience abruptly ends at 12 years. A better approach could be an overview such as: Prior to 1996 accomplishments focused in these areas: (then name them).

12. What is the résumés greatest flaw?

Egan: The greatest flaw is in the design. I would definitely change the order of the candidate's credentials presenting her summary of qualifications first followed by her knowledge base (technical skills). I would then immediately follow that with her "professional experience" and move her education, specialized certifications, and specialized training to the end of the résumé.

Stevens: The résumé fails to show any kind of differentiation over her competition and doesn't answer the questions, "What can you do for me?" and "Why should I interview you, over someone else?"

Rana: The dates for the first two jobs are a little off. If the candidate fixes the margins so that all of the dates are all in one line the résumé would be flawless.

13. What is the best feature of the résumé?

Egan: The BEST feature is the content of the "knowledge base" section (I would change the section heading name from "knowledge base" to "technical skills".)

Stevens: The résumé does show the depth and breadth of the candidate's knowledge and competency.

Rana: The best feature of the candidate's résumé is the first page. I really liked all of her skills and education information on the first page and the employment history following.

14. Does the person successfully sell themselves? What did they fail to do?

Egan: This résumé is certainly adequate. The candidate needs to be more concise about her professional experience as stated in question 3. She needs to use more bullet facts about her actual experience.

Stevens: No, because the résumé is so responsibilities-oriented instead of showcasing how her contributions affected organizational performance, efficiency, productivity, decision support efforts, and internal /external customer experience.

Rana: The candidate does successfully sell herself to the employer.

15. Additional comments

Egan: Based on the qualifications presented, I would definitely call the candidate for a follow-up if I had a need for a network manager.

Just change the order of the sections and be more concise.

Also, when interviewing, just because you have all of your credentials on your résumé, do not assume that the interviewer has read everything. In a competitive market, be ready to market yourself and your experience.

Good luck to the candidate!

Stevens: Yes. There are numerous small, but noticeable missteps in how she has written the résumé. These show a lack of attention-to-detail or ignorance of the basics of a well-written document. This could harm opportunity to gain a quality interview.

Some examples and suggestions:

• Many places she forgets to hyphenate.
• No imaginative use of action verbs to start sentences (which communicate achievement).
• Overuse of "responsible for" verbiage.
• Would like to see actual titles shown on first line of each experience, then the next line names the company.
• Tuck in dates after the company, city, state instead of right-margining, which then will allow employer to focus more on achievement.
• Spell out "present" (as in 2008-present).
• When using small caps, first lower-case what is detailed, THEN, highlight and small cap to avoid the first letter in each visually appearing darker in font color.
• Use bullets for each thought, with separation of 3pt (in the Word Format feature "Indents & Spacing" (and then "Spacing"). Example is here in these bullets where spacing between bullets is set at 3 point (pt) spacing.
• If job hopping was due to company closures, contracts expiring, organizational or project underfunding, say so. which will minimize the "first impression" of job-hopping.
• Make sure all that is written demonstrates up-to-date knowledge of latest systems. Delete from résumé out-dated ones.