I’m an IT guy, and I just racked up my second certification (passed the test this morning). If all goes well, I will have another in a few weeks when my results get mailed, making a total of three. Assuming the best, I will soon hold an MBA, a CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional), a CEH (Certified Ethical Hacker), and CISM (Certified Information Security Manager). Yay me.
So, I’m warming up my resume and wondering how to style my list of initials. A Googling tuns up a lot of conflicting advice, so I gather there’s no generally accepted rule. Right now, my resume is headed Bayard, MBA, CISSP. I see some sites that say you should list your credentials by increasing “academic precedence.” That would suggest I should be Bayard, CISSP, MBA. But a site for nurses suggests the reverse, saying your most important academic degree goes first, followed by licensures and other certifications. That seems analagous to my situation. That site also suggests, quite reasonably, that stringing the whole alphabet after your name makes you look like a wanker. Fair enough, but I would like potential employers to see my credentials without having to wade through the resume to get to the education section.
So, the question before this august body is: What do I put at the top of my resume? The options seem to be:
[ol]
[li]Bayard, MBA, CISSP, CEH, CISM[/li][li]Bayard, CISSP, CEH, CISM, MBA[/li][li]One of the above, with a different order of the technical certifications[/li][li]Bayard (and leave the alphabet soup for the education/certifications section)[/li][/ol]
I have a cv, not a resume, and so the rules may be different. I am also in a different field. However, I’ll take the plunge anyway since my spouse’s cv is organized the same way and he is in IT.
I list certifications (and licenses, which are necessary in my field but possibly not in yours) in subsections under education labelled "certifications"and “licenses”. When I had fewer of them, I had one subsection called “certifications and licenses”.
If you are staying in IT security, I think you’re fine to go with #1. In this market, jumping out as having the right keywords right off the bat is more important than not seeming like a wanker. It’s a resume, not an e-Harmony profile. #2 seems only to make sense in a limited number of situations ending with a doctoral degree–like MBA, PhD for someone in management consulting.
If you are getting a prestigious MBA and going for more general management jobs, I’d leave them off and trust that the MBA from Harvard is going to speak for itself and the IT certifications will just be window dressing in the certifications section.
I do plan (read: hope) to stay in IT security, so I was thinking the same thing you are – that I want the keywords to jump out. A number of the jobs I would be applying for say that one of those certifications is required or preferred. So I would think that throwing that out soon would be good. But, at least so far in this poll, you and I are in the minority. My resume isn’t terribly long, but I know that people reviewing them don’t always get to the bottom before finding a reason to toss it.
I don’t think my MBA is weighty enough to carry the day. It’s from the University of Cincinnati. Not Harvard, but not a diploma mill either. I’m going to be applying for jobs in another state, so I can’t rely on the regional reputation of UC to count for much.
Hmmm. I look forward to hearing some more viewpoints.
I think the fact that they are all specialized certifications pointing in the same direction, and it’s the direction you want to go in, further argues for putting them at the top. If it were MCSE, CEH, PMP that wouldn’t tell nearly as clear a story. If they specifically say that one of those certifications is preferred, you could just list that one with your name, and the others in education.
I think that resume style is somewhat profession-specific. That said, I agree with the posters who suggest not listing the letters after your name and instead listing them under education. The first impression of your resume matters in addition to the content, and it will look better this way.
If the credentials are key, put the entire education section first. But I would put it in the following order (master’s degrees, undergraduate degree, chronological order of technical certifications).
I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect an employer to at least glance at the entire first page of a resume, especially at this point in your career, but again that might be industry-specific.
So the resume would be something like this (in terms of order, obviously, not style or formatting):
Bayard
contact info
Education
University of Cincinnati (1998)
MBA
Undergraduate College of Awesome (1995)
BS in Computer Science
I was also considering something like that. I did get my undergrad in 1995 (but, uh, in English Literature from The College of Middlin’) I got the MBA last year. I’ve got a little over nine years experience in the field, so who the heck cares about my undergrad now? So, I was hesitant about putting that at the top. But I do like the idea of putting the education and certs up there for the other reasons.
I like twickster’s suggestion of putting them on one line. They do take up a little too much space the way I have them.