Entry-Level Cyber Resumes
The entry-level cybersecurity resume is very challenging to write due to lack of experience to showcase to the employer. Sometimes employees don’t give honest feedback on the reason why they don’t hire you or the reason why your resume was not favourable to get you hired. Especially when trying to earn education and certifications while forgetting to focus on our resumes. The best resume is the one that shows case your skills and get you hired. The best resume should introduce yourself to the prospective employee on every level.
Best cybersecurity resume needs to be organized in a way that it will get you hired, and it will contain the following seven sections:
Ø Bio Data
Ø Summary/Professional Skills
Ø Education Information
Ø Certifications
Ø Professional Experience
Ø Related Volunteer Experience
Ø Professional Associations
Through analyzing all the seven sections and building important qualification in every part, will increase the chances of getting employed at an entry-level cybersecurity job are very high. Every section should be addressed as follows;
Appropriate Contact Information or Bio Data
The biodata should be properly formatted and effective, while the contact information at the top of the resume will be important. When creating the contact data section, the information it is important to centre the personal information in the centre to avoid any overly large font size or. The font which is difficult or hard to read.
The first line should be your name so that it will be easy for the human resource database to file and retrieve your resume by name, followed by the address, phone number and email address. In case you are insecure about the address location such that it will lower your chances of getting the job. It will be appropriate to remove the home address but ensure you include the home address and personal phone number. The email address should look professional and avoid unprofessional emails such as poolhustler24@yahoo.com or partyboy2020@hotmail.com and instead use email address based on your name. Also, if you’re using older email services such as aol.com or yahoo.com, it will be appropriate to create and use email address because it looks better and easy to use on different devices.
Lastly, you should include your LinkedIn profile, and it is necessary to keep your LinkedIn account updated every time and matches your resume. Also, the LinkedIn account should include your professional photo as the profile picture.
Summary/Professional Skills
Summary of professional skills sometimes referred to as the objective side, but to reduce the number of pages for the entry-level resume while keeping our resume close to help us get the cybersecurity job. Therefore, it is good to avoid waste of space with unnecessary information that won’t help to get a cybersecurity job. The objective will be unnecessary since the employee already know what you want is the job, and that is why you have applied. Therefore, this section needs to focus on three main things which are:
- The list of skills that you have obtained in different fields, such as military experience or project management if applicable.
- The list of technical skills and knowledge that you have gained through coursework, labs or topics that you have learned.
- Avoid listing things that are obvious, or everyone will say such as ‘hard worker’, ‘quick learner‘ or ‘dedicated’ to avid misuse of space.
On this list ensure you are through with the list of technical skills and technology skills. The list will consist of skills that are competent enough to get the job, and the qualitative skills will enhance to show the volume of your experience. Therefore, it is important to include in the list the things that you know and has experience with.
Education
On this section, you should list your education qualification before you list the experience unless the related experience is strong. Start by listing the current program first, then list backwards. List all academic institution attended with qualifications and list any institution with a GPA higher than 3.0, followed by the list of any related accomplishments such as dean’s list. In case you have training or other technical skills, it should be important to add them on the list. The high school experience should not be important unless you had a very high GPA or some other important accomplishments.
Aim of avoiding listing the high school qualification is ensuring the employer doesn’t determine your age easily. You should indicate the completed course work in various courses and the skills of what you have learned or learning. The resume should be constantly updated on the current field of study so that the employer should know that you’re actively learning now.
Certifications
On this list, you should include any related qualification next after education. Adding certification is important since it shows the case to the employer that you have gained a strong level of knowledge in a specified area and even gone extra level to prove it. It will be necessary to list the qualifications in bullet point. Avoid listing the expired certifications or the certifications you intend to do.
Professional Experience
In this section, you should list the professional experience only not any experience. On this section is important to focus on any paid work or internship experience that is related to your field. It is important to avoid listing non-technical jobs or any manual labours from previous years unless it is tied to the job you’re applying. Also, it is necessary to list your current employee so that the employer should you’re employable and not just sitting at home.
Related Volunteer Experience
On this section, you should list the related experience to build the resume, and this will serve a major milestone on getting the first technical job. By volunteering to do various organizations such as churches or mosque, local non-profit organizations that have computers but does not have technical support. On this way, it will enhance to build your experience and create a good public image that you are a good person and a good citizen. The prospective employer will notice your volunteering experience when other applicants don’t have it.
Professional Associations
On this section, you should list the organizations and clubs that you have a membership. For instance, if you are a member of professional technology association.
However, other clubs or association offers cheaper membership rates, and the membership association indicate to the employee that you are serious about the job you are seeking to get.
Referees
This is the final section on the resume where you will provide information for anybody who you have worked with, worked for or the person who trained or taught you. On section, it is important to let those who you’re using as the referees to know and keep in contact with them in case you are being contacted. Provide the referee’s email address and phone contact so that they can be reached easily.
Example of a cybersecurity entry level resume.