Resume Critique
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Here is version 2 of the work in progress.
I added a few points that thought would be useful. My concern is that the points on the resume don't tell the whole story. For example, the line about server consolidation. When I arrived, we had a Dell T620 that was running Hyper-V as a Windows Server role, and the VMs on it were used for development. We also had an old desktop that was our Sage server. Over the course of my four years there, as I was granted more control over the network and decisions and learned more (thanks ML) about how stuff is supposed to be, that desktop-as-a-server is gone, the T620 was redone with Hyper-V 2016 as it's supposed to be and everything is a VM.
The problem is that we already had virtualization, but I improved it, yet "Consolidated physical servers into a Hyper-V 2016 virtual environment" reads to me as if there was no virtualization and I designed the whole thing.
Methinks I'm over-thinking this. As the above explanation would probably be great for the interview when the person asks me to explain what I mean by "Consolidated physical servers into a Hyper-V 2016 virtual environment."
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I like the fact that you have thought about listing things like I saved this much... but that is not for the resume - that is a cover letter item.
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@gjacobse said in Resume Critique:
I like the fact that you have thought about listing things like I saved this much... but that is not for the resume - that is a cover letter item.
Why not include in both resume and cover letter?
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@gjacobse said in Resume Critique:
I like the fact that you have thought about listing things like I saved this much... but that is not for the resume - that is a cover letter item.
Nothing is a cover letter item.
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@scottalanmiller said in Resume Critique:
@gjacobse said in Resume Critique:
I like the fact that you have thought about listing things like I saved this much... but that is not for the resume - that is a cover letter item.
Nothing is a cover letter item.
I agree with this. A cover letter is just a waste of your time.
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@eddiejennings said in Resume Critique:
Methinks I'm over-thinking this. As the above explanation would probably be great for the interview when the person asks me to explain what I mean by "Consolidated physical servers into a Hyper-V 2016 virtual environment."
You are. This is a detail. You do not put details on the resume. you put summary and then you talk about the detail in the interview.
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Change the top. The table is horrible.
Don't stress over the Hyper-V stuff. Even if you consolidated one physical server over to a Hyper-V server that was already running, you've still consolidated that server.
Expand on your points. What has consolidation provided to the business? What else have you setup? I'm sure going from 'N' aged servers to 'X' new hosts under support, has helped improve performance and reliability? Have you a second host with Hyper-V replica in place? Mention that...
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@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
Expand on your points. What has consolidation provided to the business? What else have you setup? I'm sure going from 'N' aged servers to 'X' new hosts under support, has helped improve performance and reliability? Have you a second host with Hyper-V replica in place? Mention that...
None of that should be mentioned on the resume. that is detail stuff that you discuss in an interview.
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I agree with Jared, keep the details on the resume sparse. It's just highlights.
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@jaredbusch said in Resume Critique:
@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
Expand on your points. What has consolidation provided to the business? What else have you setup? I'm sure going from 'N' aged servers to 'X' new hosts under support, has helped improve performance and reliability? Have you a second host with Hyper-V replica in place? Mention that...
None of that should be mentioned on the resume. that is detail stuff that you discuss in an interview.
From all my experience, at least here in the UK, leaving such things out put you in the bin pile, before even getting you to the position to discuss those things. The CV says 'Hyper-V', so what... If it doesn't give any actual details it's just a word anybody could have copied and pasted. Details are key.
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If you are just somebody that does a copy/paste on IT words, without any actual details, bin.
IMO, tell why you'd those things. If you say Hyper-V, and don't say why, you lose to the person that did.
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@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
@jaredbusch said in Resume Critique:
@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
Expand on your points. What has consolidation provided to the business? What else have you setup? I'm sure going from 'N' aged servers to 'X' new hosts under support, has helped improve performance and reliability? Have you a second host with Hyper-V replica in place? Mention that...
None of that should be mentioned on the resume. that is detail stuff that you discuss in an interview.
From all my experience, at least here in the UK, leaving such things out put you in the bin pile, before even getting you to the position to discuss those things. The CV says 'Hyper-V', so what... If it doesn't give any actual details it's just a word anybody could have copied and pasted. Details are key.
That seems to be the difference between a CV and resume, is it not? The CV is designed to be a detailed history whereas the resume is supposed to be succinct.
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@eddiejennings said in Resume Critique:
@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
@jaredbusch said in Resume Critique:
@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
Expand on your points. What has consolidation provided to the business? What else have you setup? I'm sure going from 'N' aged servers to 'X' new hosts under support, has helped improve performance and reliability? Have you a second host with Hyper-V replica in place? Mention that...
None of that should be mentioned on the resume. that is detail stuff that you discuss in an interview.
From all my experience, at least here in the UK, leaving such things out put you in the bin pile, before even getting you to the position to discuss those things. The CV says 'Hyper-V', so what... If it doesn't give any actual details it's just a word anybody could have copied and pasted. Details are key.
That seems to be the difference between a CV and resume, is it not? The CV is designed to be a detailed history whereas the resume is supposed to be succinct.
In the UK they are the same thing, I think. A one or two page document giving an overview. But, still with key details. As in:
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Hyper-V.
^ that doesn't say much. -
Hyper-V consolidation; prevented a costly replacement of 16 physical servers to one more powerful Hyper-V host saving the company over 120k.
^ says far more impressive stuff. I'd want to bring you in and ask more about that. Not about the one word 'Hyper-V'.
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@eddiejennings said in Resume Critique:
@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
@jaredbusch said in Resume Critique:
@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
Expand on your points. What has consolidation provided to the business? What else have you setup? I'm sure going from 'N' aged servers to 'X' new hosts under support, has helped improve performance and reliability? Have you a second host with Hyper-V replica in place? Mention that...
None of that should be mentioned on the resume. that is detail stuff that you discuss in an interview.
From all my experience, at least here in the UK, leaving such things out put you in the bin pile, before even getting you to the position to discuss those things. The CV says 'Hyper-V', so what... If it doesn't give any actual details it's just a word anybody could have copied and pasted. Details are key.
That seems to be the difference between a CV and resume, is it not? The CV is designed to be a detailed history whereas the resume is supposed to be succinct.
No, two names, same thing.
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@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
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Hyper-V.
^ that doesn't say much. -
Hyper-V consolidation; prevented a costly replacement of 16 physical servers to one more powerful Hyper-V host saving the company over 120k.
^ says far more impressive stuff. I'd want to bring you in and ask more about that. Not about the one word 'Hyper-V'.
No, the second isn't impressive, it is filler and speculative. It doesn't show that something smart was done, it compares what was done against abject incompetence. Hyper-V may be too little, but the subjective opinion as to value or adding in totally useless details look like desperate filler at best and outright deception or incompetence at worst. I would avoid this.
As a hiring manager what I see in a line like that is a poor understanding of the reasonable value comparisons combined with having worked in an environment where value is difficult to perceive because the bar is set so low.
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To give a similar example, a friend's husband is an "IT Director" at a firm and she swears that he is brilliant and does truly ground breaking IT work. But her sole example of her husband's brilliance that she repeats at every turn to show how five years of being an IT Director has paid off - he taught the office not to print out emails in hard copy.
That's it. Nothing technical or even IT related. Nothing impressive or difficult. All he did was apply a modicum of common sense and explain this to a company that, apparently, was so brain dead that they were actually doing something this dumb.
If he put "saved the company $50K in paper by implementing digital email usage" on a resume, we'd all laugh and laugh and never hire him.
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@scottalanmiller said in Resume Critique:
@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
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Hyper-V.
^ that doesn't say much. -
Hyper-V consolidation; prevented a costly replacement of 16 physical servers to one more powerful Hyper-V host saving the company over 120k.
^ says far more impressive stuff. I'd want to bring you in and ask more about that. Not about the one word 'Hyper-V'.
No, the second isn't impressive, it is filler and speculative. It doesn't show that something smart was done, it compares what was done against abject incompetence. Hyper-V may be too little, but the subjective opinion as to value or adding in totally useless details look like desperate filler at best and outright deception or incompetence at worst. I would avoid this.
As a hiring manager what I see in a line like that is a poor understanding of the reasonable value comparisons combined with having worked in an environment where value is difficult to perceive because the bar is set so low.
We'll have to disagree here. One shows a word. The other shows some thought and deeper understanding. It's purpose isn't to sound impressive, but to show reason and some depth as to why the word is on the CV/resume.
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@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
@scottalanmiller said in Resume Critique:
@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
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Hyper-V.
^ that doesn't say much. -
Hyper-V consolidation; prevented a costly replacement of 16 physical servers to one more powerful Hyper-V host saving the company over 120k.
^ says far more impressive stuff. I'd want to bring you in and ask more about that. Not about the one word 'Hyper-V'.
No, the second isn't impressive, it is filler and speculative. It doesn't show that something smart was done, it compares what was done against abject incompetence. Hyper-V may be too little, but the subjective opinion as to value or adding in totally useless details look like desperate filler at best and outright deception or incompetence at worst. I would avoid this.
As a hiring manager what I see in a line like that is a poor understanding of the reasonable value comparisons combined with having worked in an environment where value is difficult to perceive because the bar is set so low.
We'll have to disagree here. One shows a word. The other shows some thought and deeper understanding.
I don't agree, it shows a misunderstanding. You can state that you did a consolidation project. But stating the savings suggests a huge misunderstanding of the project and how to evaluate it.
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@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
It's purpose isn't to sound impressive, but to show reason and some depth as to why the word is on the CV/resume.
The reason it should be on the resume is only to show experience as might be useful to the next employer. Explaining why the last employer needed it shows a misunderstanding of the purpose of a CV. Why would the next employer care about that factor that was not relevant to your skill nor relevant to them?
The CV has a context, and that context is demonstrating or suggesting value to a potential employer. Those opinionated value details show neither, but suggests a misunderstanding of both the project (lowering the value of the employee) and of the CV itself.
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@scottalanmiller said in Resume Critique:
@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
@scottalanmiller said in Resume Critique:
@jimmy9008 said in Resume Critique:
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Hyper-V.
^ that doesn't say much. -
Hyper-V consolidation; prevented a costly replacement of 16 physical servers to one more powerful Hyper-V host saving the company over 120k.
^ says far more impressive stuff. I'd want to bring you in and ask more about that. Not about the one word 'Hyper-V'.
No, the second isn't impressive, it is filler and speculative. It doesn't show that something smart was done, it compares what was done against abject incompetence. Hyper-V may be too little, but the subjective opinion as to value or adding in totally useless details look like desperate filler at best and outright deception or incompetence at worst. I would avoid this.
As a hiring manager what I see in a line like that is a poor understanding of the reasonable value comparisons combined with having worked in an environment where value is difficult to perceive because the bar is set so low.
We'll have to disagree here. One shows a word. The other shows some thought and deeper understanding.
I don't agree, it shows a misunderstanding. You can state that you did a consolidation project. But stating the savings suggests a huge misunderstanding of the project and how to evaluate it.
It really doesn't. If you are unable to show savings made between solutions, and unable to show how your solution is better and saves money, then you are missing something critical.
A company doesn't care you consolidated. A company does care that you saved the board money which can then be reinvested or paid back to them. Money is the key.
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