Network Administrator Resume: Examples, Template, and Resume Tips
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If you are reading this you must be wondering how to create the best network administrator resume so you could land a job in the company you’ve dreamed about?
Or it may be a position you didn’t even think you would be applying for?
Are you are maybe fresh out of school and the time to send out your resume has finally come?
Whatever the scenario may be, we are here to help you create the best network administrator resume there is! Be sure to prepare your interview shoes, because you will need them pretty soon!
We understand that sending your resume might be very nerve-wracking, now more than ever, since we live in a world that often resembles a shark tank where everyone is out and ready for their prey.
The competition is larger than ever; people try to land as best paid jobs as possible (and network administrators can earn a lot), so one must be prepared for elbowing with many other potential candidates.
This is why your resume needs to shine and stand out from dozens or even hundreds and thousands of other ones.
It is most probable that it will first be scanned by software and only then if it is good enough to get in the hands of a real person.
However, it is time to stop worrying, because the resume is just a piece of paper and we are here to help you have the best one.
We will first show you some examples of well-written network administrator resumes.
Afterward, we will do our best to explain thoroughly every individual section of the resume and what the information that it should contain is.
Your resume should serve one purpose: to give as complete and as the best picture about you as possible.
By doing this it should also cover several points:
- as we said it needs to stand out among many other, mostly similar resumes so it attracts the recruiter’s attention
- it needs to feature and highlight important information and distinguishing which ones are important and which aren’t can often be tricky
- your resume should have a very good template, with big headings and white space so it shows your professionalism
- it needs to be just right in length which is connected with the upper point that concerns the importance of the information
Let us start!
Network Administrator Resume Example
Network Administrator Resume Sample
HOW TO WRITE THE PERSONAL INFO SECTION 101
Now that we have taken a look at two different well-written network administrators resumes we hope you have a clearer picture of what yours should be like.
As we have already said, your resume needs to give a clear picture about who you are, what you have done so far, what is your field of interest, etc without meeting the recruiter face to face.
That being said, your resume is more or less your business identification card.
To be able to give a clear picture of who you are one thing is clear – no matter what internship, job or any other position you are applying your resume needs to start with your personal information.
Those are your first and last name, professional title, your home address and of course contact information, such as phone number and e-mail address.
As you have seen in the previous two examples, social media profiles are stated as well, since they have become a big part of our lives and a mean for communicating just like any other.
Many employees wish to visit your profiles to get a better picture of who you are in your every-day life and do it match their criteria, mission, and vision, that is, are you a suitable candidate for their company.
Your Name
Some might find this explanation unnecessary, but we wish to emphasize how important it is that you start your resume with your (real) first and last name.
It needs to be easy for the recruiter to read it and put a name to the photo they are seeing on your resume.
This is a sign of your professionalism and is something everyone does without thinking about it.
This is why you should avoid putting any other (funny) nicknames beside your name.
This goes for most of the jobs unless we are talking about certain professions, such as the ones in the gaming and movie industry where it is quite normal to have a nickname or an alias under which you perform.
Let’s see the following example:
Your Profession
Right under your name should go your job title, which shows what it is that you went to school for and if you have any experience (if you are a student, you will state “Student” and that will show that you are still studying, or if you are an electrical engineer you will put “electrical engineer” there)
Your Photo
First of all, having a photo is not mandatory and there are actually different “’rules” when it comes to resume writing in different countries.
Some say we shouldn’t upload them since people are subject to changing their opinion when they see a photo of someone; we can be subject to discrimination or that it is enough that all of our social media feature them.
However, millions off people upload them regularly, so we leave it up to you to decide.
If you opt for one, then please make sure to upload one where you look presentable and professional. This photo is very important!
We are all humans who can be subjective and judgmental sometimes and uploading a photo where you are sipping a martini in your bathing suit will give such a wrong impression.
People often can’t control themselves when it comes to first impressions and we know how important it is to leave a good one.
This is why you should take a few minutes to create a professional headshot that will represent you in the best light.
Here is what makes a good headshot.
Phone Number
We know you might b reluctant to share your private phone number, however, this is a very important thing to do for obvious reasons.
Recruiters often wish to speak to a candidate and hear their voice, have an interview via phone and hear their thought train live which altogether lets them get a better picture of somebody.
This way you also save your and their time, since e-mail correspondence often takes a long time, even several days, e-mail tends to get lost and all of it leads to confusion and boredom.
That being said, please do share your cell phone and you will make your and the recruiter’s job much easier.
Address
This one is not mandatory and it will not do you any harm if you don’t wish to share this information.
However, it can also allow the recruiters to know more about you and for example see if you will need a business car, payment for busses, etc since they will know where you come from.
E-mail Address
This is a vital piece of your contact information since all of the official correspondence anywhere in the world goes through e-mails and is used as a written document.
We are sure you already use it regularly for various purposes, so your job search will be just one more of them.
This way you will be able to hear from the recruiters, ask about any inquiries in case you have them, etc.
However, it is important not only to give an e-mail address that you have access to but that it also professional. Let us look at this example.
As you can see, these examples look funny and unprofessional, just try typing them and you will think about the person: “what a goofy guy/girl”
So, use your real name and last name, or any shorter version if it’s too long.
The new Age of Social Media in Resumes
As you might have experienced it yourself or heard from friends and family, it has become very common for recruiters to ask for your social media profiles.
This might sound odd, since it shouldn’t really interest them what you do in your personal life, what photos you take or what you tweet, post to your Instagram stories, etc.
However, if we think about it for a second, social media profiles are pretty much our online identities that are more and more exposed to many people, some of which we don’t even know.
This is why recruiters ask for them and wish to see what is out there, just like they ask for a resume so they know what you have done so far.
But, please be careful with giving your profiles, especially if you haven’t doubled checked them recently.
There are so many people who just copy the links and don’t give it a second thought, but then leave the recruiters mortified by the content.
If you have any photos, posts or have made comments that could be interpreted in a wrong way, are explicit in any way, have cuss words, or anything similar, delete them first.
Or, you could make your profile private and buy some time for the cleanup.
It happens regularly that people get hired and then post something that contradicts the company’s views, what they stand for, their mission and values, so they, unfortunately, have to let that person go.
Also, if your profile’s link has many random numbers and letters, and if it looks too tacky, you can remove them without damaging the address to which the link leads. This will make it look professional.
Now, if you are really opposed to sharing your private profiles, that is fine, and nobody can judge you for it, but it is recommended that you at least share your LinkedIn profile, as it presents your online business identity and is something you shouldn’t worry about.
THE PERFECT SUMMARY 101
Okay, now that we have covered the basics we have actually just scratched the surface of your network administrator resume.
The next section on it is your summary.
Summary exists just to summarize your whole experience in a few sentences and it needs to be in the beginning because that is where the recruiters naturally look after seeing your personal information.
It is quite important how you will write your summary because it will give the first impression of how long you’ve worked, what your accomplishments are, what your area of expertise is, and give an insight into your skills and abilities.
We recommend that you keep it at around 6 sentences that will hold as much important information about you as possible.
This will inspire the reader too look at the whole resume and learn more about your background and work experience.
It is especially helpful if your prior experience and skills align with what the company you are interested in is looking for and how you can contribute to them.
Once we compare the possible versions side by side, you can see how much better it is to state more facts and inform the reader how good of a candidate you are.
For example, Annette on the left says that she ”managed 30+ servers in a Windows 2012 system with 99.9% uptime and improved network performance 10%via monitoring and application prioritization.”
That gives the perfect picture of what she did, what her accomplishment was and what she brought to the company.
And that is much nicer than saying: “…4 years of experience managing servers and improving network performance.”
Someone might ask: “How many servers did she manage, how did she improve network performance”, “Did she really do it, or just wrote it to try to wow me?”
Please don’t be lazy to give your best and create a very good summary that will fascinate someone in the very beginning.
Just be sure to keep it short, since the whole resume needs to be as short and informative as possible – recruiters don’t like to spend 10 minutes reading just one of the dozens of resumes and get bored.
BEST WAY TO SHOWCASE YOUR WORK EXPERIENCE
When you start lining up your present and past positions, there is a common rule to do it in reverse-chronological order.
This means that you should start with the present or last position you held and go backward towards your very first job.
Now, an important question often comes to mind – How far back should you go with your positions and should you list each and one of them.
Well, the answer is “Maybe”.
It depends on how many positions you held, if they were meaningful for this particular one you are applying for and if you feel that they bring additional worth to your resume.
So if you are applying for the network administrator position, and have several years of work experience you don’t have to state that you’ve worked in concession stands during high school games or sold ice cones during summer.
They do showcase how diligent you’ve always been but don’t do much for the wanted position.
On the other hand, if this is the first job you are applying for then please go on with stating all of your previous work experience, since you don’t have the relevant one connected with the job you are applying for.
Just be sure to give many details about your positions and try to turn them around so they show your achievements and your diligence.
For example:
Here we see a clear difference between the informative and detailed work experienced and this short version which can’t even be called a work experience section.
When applying for a certain position, especially a dream one, you need to make sure to state all of the relevant duties performed in previous companies and do your best to turn them into tangible results and achievements.
By doing this there are better chances that the recruiter will say: “Wow, we need this person, they will be an amazing asset in the company”, and that is precisely your goal.
We recommend that you to use several bullets where you will state what we have just said, however, be moderate, 3-5 is enough, because you don’t wish to have too many and lose the reader at the 12tth one.
YOUR EDUCATION HISTORY WILL STAND OUT LIKE THIS
Writing about your education background is no different than writing about your past work experience and using a reverse-chronological order.
You will start with the last education and go back to high school. Listing to your elementary school is unnecessary.
If you have attended several high schools and then switched colleges, it is not needed to list all of them. You can pick only the ones where you graduated or insert also the ones where you had some special results.
This education section shouldn’t be very long since your whole resume should be between 1-2 pages long and you don’t wish to use up precious space, especially if you’ve got a lot of work experience.
Here is an example to look at.
It is important that you mention valuable details about your education such as any honors, significant research, the presidency of any club or student parliament, (almost) perfect GPA, gradation in top of the class, a minor if you have it, etc.
ABCS OF NETWORK ADMINISTRATOR RESUME SKILLS
So far we have covered all of the mandatory sections of a resume: personal information, summary, work experience, and education background.
Besides these, any other sections such as extracurricular activities that students mostly put or skills and qualifications are optional sections.
Most of the attention is paid on work experience end education, so by the time you come to the Skills section, there usually isn’t any space left.
This is why many people decide to leave it out, especially if they wish to fit the resume on a single page.
Unfortunately, this optional section suffers that decision and is left out.
We strongly recommend that you don’t throw the “Skills” away and use this part as another and last “selling point” for yourself.
It is one thing to state work and education history and any relevant facts, but another to pay attention solely to your attributes and specific competencies that will make you stand out.
For example, you are fluent in 3 languages? Imagine how many people couldn’t say that about themselves and you are thinking about skipping to mention it!
Skills are usually divided into hard and soft skills.
Hard Skills
The best way to describe them is to say that they are quantifiable and measurable. They are the ones you usually learn in school or at work and here are the examples of the hard skills that a network administrator could have:
- IT and technical skills
- Network Configuration
- System Administration
- Cisco
- Technical Support
- Security
- Vendor Management
- Research
Soft Skills
These are known as “People skills” or “interpersonal skills” and they may have been given to you at birth, or you may have acquired them through life and work.
Compared to the hard skills, they aren’t that measurable. Identifying these skills is very subjective and depends from person to person. Some of them are:
- Communication
- Collaboration
- Problem Solving
- Detail Oriented
- Patience
- Teamwork
- Critical thinking
- Foreign Languages
Technical Skills
These are specific mostly for people working in the engineering and IT industry and are stated separately for the purpose of this article and to make it easier for writing your network administrator resume.
- TCI/IP
- DNS
- DHCP
- WAN/LAN
- Windows environment
- Linux environment
- Ubuntu
- Network automation
- Cloud management
TIPS AND TRICKS FOR APPLYING FOR NETWORK ADMINISTRATOR POSITION
We are about to give you several tips and tricks that should help you with creating your first resume or editing the existing one.
- Using the Right Font – The right font is much more important than you would think. You should pick one that is” clean” and easy to read. Because of this, avoid using hand-written fonts, as they are a big “no”.
- Bulleting – As you’ve probably seen, the bulleting list is the most used way of listing things. When you create one, don’t exaggerate with too many of them. Let’s say that three to maximum five (in case you had amazing achievements at work) lines are just enough.
- Format – The most professional format that you should use for your resume is PDF. It looks very professional as it cannot be edited (like Word documents that tend to look unfinished) and it is easier to print and read. After saving the document, change the name to “FirstName LastName_JobPosition.pdf”
- Design – We are not exaggerating when we say that there are thousands of possible designs for your resume. Thanks to this you can choose the one that you like the most and that describes your personality the most. If not, you can always try and create your own.
- Adapting your resume to the desired position – This is one of the biggest mistakes people make. Just because you may be applying for several positions at once, doesn’t mean that you should send everyone the same resume. On the contrary, take some time to see what skills they are looking for and adapt your resume to every position.
- Grammar – It is impossible to emphasize how important it is to use impeccable grammar. The last thing you wish to cause is that someone picks through your grammar and thinks that you are illiterate instead of picking through your skills and work experience. Be sure to double-check every single work of your resume.
CONCLUSION
Well, we have come to an end of this “How to write the best network administrator resume” journey and we hope that picking through every detail of it will help you with creating or editing your own.
Even if you made the best possible one a few years ago it doesn’t hurt to give it a glance once in a while, because trends change and you wish to stay up to date with them.
Following our steps closely will definitely help you and will, more importantly, increase your chances of landing that dream job.
How funny it is to think that one piece of paper has such weight, huh?
Well, we are sure that you will have the best one possible!
Oh, and we hope you got your interview shoes that we mentioned!
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