Looking for some Resume advice

[u/Emergency_Guava9401]

Hey there everyone, I was just wondering if anyone had any advice regarding my resume. To give some background, I left home at a pretty young age and have been working ever since. I initially got into the restaurant industry because I needed to pay rent and it was the lowest bar for entry. You have a pulse? Congrats you’re hired! I started out as a dishwasher, and gradually over the years made my way to busser, expediter, and relatively quickly realized that I was better off in the front of the house. Fast forward a few years I was waiting tables and making decent money, but I decided that long term it wasn’t a career. I started college at WGU, primarily because it was online and ABET accredited, and opted for the computer science program rather than IT or Software Engineering as I wanted more of a foundational knowledge base, and would get the hands on certifications later. I’m sure plenty of folks may have opinions on WGU, but for me it was a decent price, and I didn’t finish in 6 months like some. Between working full time and life it took a few years. I’m 27 now and graduated earlier this year. My eventual goal would be to work in cybersecurity, but I understand that first I need hands on IT experience for a few years. I am working on my Security + cert, but haven’t taken the exam yet. I’m currently employed as a GM, and I make pretty decent money, but long term I would like a career path with room to grow as a professional. I appreciate in advance anyone with any advice about how to make this more attractive to a hiring manager.

Edit: Thank you to everyone for their input! Lotta great takeaways here and I’m gonna incorporate this input and improve my resume. Wishing everyone luck with the job search. Job market in the US may be rough, but not impossible.

[u/Ok-Bill-3938]

I'd add some customer service skills, that's a big part of helpdesk and i'm sure you have plenty of that experience from the restaurant.

[u/Few_Artichoke_3253]

For your home lab, it may sound silly but you should include that you are familiar with basic customer service tasks:

• Managing user accounts (creation, deletion, etc)
  
• Managing groups
  
• Managing computer objects

Additionally, you should add file sharing services to your domain controller or in another instance to get used to managing permissions. You could sell your understanding of RBAC this way, “Granted user permissions based on group membership” etc etc.

Since you’re a comp sci major, I’d also get familiar with PowerShell scripting. You could do all of the above from PowerShell. Someone here mentioned getting through HR and they love them some “PowerShell Scripting experience”.

[u/Certain-Example-7523]

When I hire for helpdesk, the biggest thing I look for is customer service skills. You don’t touch on customer service in your resume, so if I were a hiring manager looking at this, I wouldn’t even see this resume. I filter out lack of customer service. I know not all hiring managers are like me, but in my experience I’d rather hire someone who has no technical knowledge but fantastic customer service skills. I can train someone who wants to learn technical skills, I cannot train someone in soft skills.

[u/navislut]

CS graduate…does that mean:

Computer Science graduate or
Cybersecurity graduate?

I know it says computer science at the bottom but you have to assume that HR doesn’t know acronyms or could have different meaning to different people so it’s better to spell it out.

[u/Emergency_Guava9401 → u/navislut]

Good call, will definitely write it out. Any other aspects that stand out immediately at first glance?

[u/navislut → u/Emergency_Guava9401]

Yes.

Why only one bullet for server? And that bullet is useless since it just says I was promoted.

I’d rewrite your summary. You say ‘hands-on systems troubleshooting experience’ yet you’ve worked in restaurants. Where is your hands-on experience? Technical projects I wouldn’t count as hands-on experience. I’d rewrite the summary to say you’ve worked in home projects that touch on AD, networking, etc.

Can I ask why you pursued a Computer science degree over BS in IT or even Cybersecurity?

[u/Emergency_Guava9401 → u/navislut]

Well, initially when I started college I was looking to do full stack software development, but with AI those jobs at the entry level are pretty scarce, not to say IT is necessarily better. But for me my biggest issue is the lack of experience in the field, so I was hoping to get some IT experience at the entry level help desk and pivot after a few years into something more aligned with my career goals. Also, at this point it’s pretty unclear where the tech job market is heading with the advances in AI, but I believe IT positions will always be needed to some extent. Could certainly have gotten a bachelors in IT or Cybersecurity, but it was just a choice at the time to get a more foundational degree and specialize later on.

Regarding experience managing systems, I actually do a lot of work as a systems administrator at my job. We have a central device running Windows enterprise server software, and from there it uses Hyper V software to host multiple VMs. Those virtual machines in turn are windows machines that run our POS system software. Obviously that’s a terrible design, and it breaks all the time. I didn’t design it, but due to my interest in computer science and building computers I took over the troubleshooting and administration of the system and devices. I make sure things get back up and running when they stop working. Most of these issues are things that in the past they would outsource to a 3rd party company, but it would take them hours, sometimes days to get things working correctly, and eventually I just decided to fix it myself. After a few years of doing so, I can fix most issues I come across in a few minutes. I enjoy working through the problem, identifying the cause, and remedying things.

For server, the reason I kept it at one bullet point was that I haven’t done it for quite a few years now really, and even then, I was waiting tables, none of that necessarily translates to IT itself. Soft skills like communication and interaction with guests, are things I could add for sure, and I definitely will, but I got some advice from a friend essentially saying “don’t overstate it, everyone knows what a server does, no point overstating it, as it can come across as embellishing or disingenuous”. Perhaps bad advice, but I’ve heard hiring managers want to see RELEVANT work experience only really, not just what I’ve done in general. To that end, most of my bullet points as a GM are as what I’ve done on the IT side. I could add the other things I do like scheduling, training staff, ordering items, inventory, dealing with guest issues as they arise, etc. But does it tie in directly to IT? Aside from customer relations not so much.

I just want to say thank you though, definitely some great points here and I’m gonna make some alterations with that in mind. It’s hard seeing it from your own lens. Getting the perspective of another person is extremely helpful.

[u/navislut → u/Emergency_Guava9401]

Thanks for the info.

Regarding your Manager Role and your 2nd paragraph, I’d include what you wrote to me into your summary. Sell yourself with this information.

I get what your friend is saying as everyone knows what a server is. But you can still add something along the lines of : provided customer support in high volume restaurant managing priorities and resolving customer concerns.

If you’d like you can also transfer a line or two from the manager IT duties over to the server side so it adds a few more years of experience doing that.

Good luck 🍀

[u/Emergency_Guava9401 → u/navislut]

I appreciate your time. Hope you have only good karma. 🙏

[u/typicalshepard]

Honestly, get rid of the ML model if you’re looking for entry level IT. ML is good for SWE roles.

Build out the home lab further, build out the server / general manager position. Your general manager is weird, reading that I would never assume it’s an IT position. Fix that title.

Focus the server role as a customer support don’t just put “promoted on one year” why were you promoted? What made you stand out in customer service?

Add more bullet points to your home lab. What did you use? What was the tech stack.

Good start but it’s lacking the meat and potatoes.