Resume makeover number two

We're back with another resume makeover from resume expert Jennifer Hay. This time we tackle the resume for a support pro.

We have the results from the second resume makeover Jennifer Hay of Information Technology Resume Service and IT Resume Expert did for us.

As usual, we have changed all the identifying information on the resume for the benefit of the person who submitted it. We will display specific areas that Jennifer addressed and show her analysis and explanations for what was changed. We also have the Before and After versions of the resume available for download.

The original resume started off like this:

Jennifer's analysis:

  1. John had his name and contact information in the header on the first page of his resume. Since most Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are not able to parse information from the header, it meant that his resume would be loaded without his name and contact information. Even if the reader didn't use an ATS system he was still at a disadvantage because they wouldn't be able to easily copy and paste his email address. My recommendation: Don't make the reader work so hard to contact you!
  2. His resume was very typical of many resumes I see for support staff. He listed all the things that you would expect to see for someone in a support role.  Although you do want to include these on your resume, you don't want to end there. John had worked on a number of network, systems, and operational projects, so I included those under a different section to draw attention to these projects.
  3. I used John's 12/2012 performance review for the summary section. I see a lot of generic summaries that aren't unique to the individual and could relate to many people. It's difficult to capture a person's personality, strengths, and contributions in a short summary that is clear and concise. John's summary is more powerful because others have described what he does best.

This is what the resulting resume looked like: