certifications on resume

[sm43]

hi,
I know this is more of a career advisor type question, but i thought i'd ask here.

where on your resume do you list your certifications? I have sections called:

Honors
Computer Knowledge
Experience
Coursework

on my resume.

Also, do you list MCP as a seperate certification, even though it's obtained on your way to another certification, like mcsd or mcdba.


Thanks.

Saad

 

[ecafracs]

Why not insert a section Trainings and Certifications.

 

[SeanFlynn]

If you have a higher cert, I wouldn't list the MCP, it's redundant. The people who care about certs will know you have it if you have listed the MCDBA or MCSE.

If anyone asks if you have your MCP, it's a good time to tell them that you have exceeded that and have past many more exams than just the one required to earn your MCP.

Just my .02

SeanFlynn

 

[CharlieJax]

Saad,

I would change your resume to this format:

Skills: (List out your technical skills and certs)
Work Experence: (List your companies that you worked for and significant ACTIONS that you did there)
Education: (List your college(s) and degrees)

If you don't have much work experence then list out some of the classes you took under the educational section and ACTIONS that you did in those classes.

When I say ACTIONS I mean, for example:

- Responsible for upgrading 200 Desktop PCs from Windows 98 to Windows 2000 in 60 days

People looking at your resume will want to know what you did, how you did it, how long it took, and how it benifited the company. List cost savings, increases in revenue etc as you can.

But certs should go under a skills section, and only list ones that would be relavent to the job, don't oversell youself out of a position! CJ

Don't drink and post, save that for driving home!

 

[dogbert2]

My resume lists the following:

Goals I would like to achieve (mini-intro)

Education (includes certs)

Skills with hardware/software/operating systems

Any professional honors/awards/publications/organizations

Work History

in that order...

 

[sm43]

Thanks

Saad

 

[sm43]

Ok Thanks for your responses. I got a similar recommendation from my old school career-advisor. she said it should be placed under seperate 'Training & Certs' heading if you have more than 1 certs, otherwise it should be placed under Education.

Now, here's a related question. Can/Should we mention the actual exams that we cleared. For example, i have an MCSD, and i passed the visual basic exams, wouldn't it come in-handy to mention the exams explicitly, if i was applying for a job that asked for experience in visual basic?


Saad

 

[mot98]

Hi sm43,

Any job that you will be applying for that is VB specific, should already know what MCSD entails.

You probably will already be showing your skills/experience with VB through your work history anyways.

Just my own 2 cents... mot98


"Victory goes to the player who makes the next-to-last mistake."
- Chessmaster Savielly Grigorievitch Tartakower (1887-1956)

 

[algernonsidney]

I don't have a resume. I have a template for resumes. Since finding a job has more to do with how you play the game than actual skills or experience, one of my first rules is that you customize your resume for the job.

Chris

 

[dogbert2]

Another thing is that if you are going to list certifications or degrees on a resume', you have better make sure you have copies of those documents ready to hand in, if asked, during a interview. Fortunatly, most certs also give you a wallet sized card in addition to the larger cert, to make things easier on you.

Remember, you don't want to tell a interviewer 'I don't have those documents with me' if and when you are asked for them (doesn't look good, does it)

 

[sm43]

mot98,
Since having an MCSD doesn't necessarily mean you took your exams in Visual Basic (cauz it could be Visual C++, or Visual FoxPro), wouldn't be better to mention Visual Basic explicitly, since when applying for Visual Basic jobs. I mean, certainly the more edge (points) you get over other applicants, the better isn't it. God forbid, what if your mcsd goes unnoticed. i've seen recruiters out there, believe me, who have very little idea of the technical constituency of the position they're recruiting for. often, these people would just search for words, such as Visual basic, and count the number of times they find it in your resume. if they find it under Certifications, they'd know that this person has testing proof of his/her skills.

so, come on, if you were to put visual basic on your resume alongside the mcsd certification, how would you put it?

algernonsidney, that's an excellent point. that's sort of what i have too.

dogbert2, true that.

Saad