IT Resume

About This Resume

If a laptop, a printer or a password is involved, the IT team usually is too. In fact, so many parts of a business depend on working computers that many IT workers choose to specialize. Some become security analysts. That makes direction matter, and hiring managers want to see which way your resume is pointing before they spend time on the details of each job.

With experience, you could progress from the help desk to systems administrator or network engineer. You could also move into cloud administration or IT management. Hiring managers read your resume for where you are on that career path: the certifications you hold, the systems you've run and the size of the environment, whether that's 50 users or 5,000.

What to Include

• The size of the environment: users, devices, servers or sites you've supported
• Systems and tools by name, such as Windows Server, Active Directory, Microsoft 365, VMware or Linux
• Certifications with the year earned, such as CompTIA A+, Security+ or a Microsoft or Cisco certification
• Projects with a start and a finish: a migration, a rollout, a new backup system
• Support numbers where you have them, such as tickets closed a day or average response times
• Security and compliance work, such as audits passed, patching schedules or access reviews

IT Resume Sample

Tips for Your IT Resume

• "Maintained servers" leaves out the scale. "Manage 140 Windows servers and 600 accounts across 11 branches" puts it in one line.
• When you list a certification, give its full name and the year every time. That is, if you write "CompTIA Security+ (2021)," make sure the others follow the same pattern.
• If you're moving up from the help desk, pick two or three projects you led or helped with, even small ones, and give each a bullet with a result.
• Outages make good stories. A bullet such as "Restored the main office network after a switch failure on the first morning of testing week" shows you can find a cause while people wait, which is the part of the job no certification tests.
• Home labs count. A virtual server you built at home, with the tools you used and what it runs, belongs in a projects section if you haven't used that system at work yet.
• A clear how-to article shows not only that you fixed a problem but also that the next tech won't have to start from scratch.
• Most IT workers learn through help desk jobs and certifications, but some start out by fixing computers for family or in the military. Both routes belong on the page. Many employers also expect system administrators to be certified, so list yours near the top.