As a network engineer, you need to show recruiters that you can manage company network technologies. Here’s how you can highlight your skills in a resume.
Stunning Network Engineer Resume Examples for This Year
Network Engineer Resume Example
Network engineers are in charge of designing, implementing and maintaining a company’s network infrastructure. If the company’s network goes down, it’s up to the network engineers to get everything up and running. They monitor the network’s performance and work closely with company staff if a problem hinders work. When it’s time to implement a change, they work on the network design to create a system capable of handling the company's work. This article will teach you what to highlight in your network engineer resume and how to structure your professional resume to impress hiring managers.
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What To Highlight in a Network Engineer Resume
A professional resume for a network engineer will highlight the job seeker’s network administration abilities. Network engineers often work in teams, so the resume must also emphasize good teamwork and communication—the best resumes for this kind of job balance technical skills, experience and knowledge. Let’s take a look at how you can showcase those elements in a resume effectively.
Structure of a Network Engineer Resume
In a resume, how you present information is just as important as what kind of information you include. The right resume format can help you turn a bland document into the perfect resume hiring managers will remember.
You can use three main resume formats: the chronological resume format highlights your work experience while the functional resume format emphasizes your skills. The combination resume format highlights both equally. How you structure your resume will depend on the kind of format you choose, but regardless of the format, these are the elements you must always include in the resume:
Header
The header is the section at the very top of the resume. Here, you will include your basic contact information with your name, phone number and email address. You can also include your professional social media links, like your LinkedIn profile or online portfolio.
Resume summary
After your header, you should introduce yourself with a resume summary. The resume summary is a short statement that talks about you and mentions your most impressive achievements and highest metrics, like your years of experience or special references. It should only be two to three sentences long.
Skills
Hard skills and soft skills are where you list the special abilities that make you qualified for the job. Soft skills make you an efficient worker, such as good time management. Hard skills are more about your technical abilities, such as your proficiency with load balancer implementation. Here are some examples of hard and soft skills you can include in your resume:
- Problem-solving skills
- Communication skills
- Interpersonal skills
- Firewall diagnostics
- Data center diagnostics
- Troubleshooting Local Area Networks (LANs) and Wide Area Networks (WANs)
- Dynamic routing protocol proficiency (OSPF)
- Cisco router knowledge
- Knowledge of all major operating systems
- Project management skills
- Teamwork
- Systems administration
- VPN and TCP/IP
Work experience
The work experience section is where you sum up your professional experience. List jobs you’ve had in the last 10 years. A lot has changed in a decade, especially in IT. Hiring managers want to see what you’ve been up to most recently.
List jobs that are relevant to being a network engineer. If you’ve never had a network engineering job, list jobs related to IT or working with network systems. For example, if you worked with Domain Name Servers (DNS) configuration, mention that over talking about a retail service job.
Education
In the education section, list your academic achievements and certifications. Network engineers usually have a bachelor’s degree in computer science, computer engineering or information technology. Aside from a degree, network engineers have many options in terms of certifications because there are a lot of operating systems and network devices they can learn how to work with.
You can become a Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) and complete courses for VMware, Juniper and CompTIA. These certifications are standard in the field and look impressive on any network engineer resume.
Do’s and Don’ts for a Network Engineer Resume
Keep these tips in mind as you are writing your network engineer resume:
Do:
- Mention your previous work responsibilities in your resume. In the work experience section, list your responsibilities at each job. This can help you relate your previous experiences with the skills you’ll use for the current job title.
- Use action verbs. Action verbs are words that emphasize activity. They sound good in a resume because they highlight your ability to take responsibility.
- Keep it short. The resume is meant to list the elements of your work and education history that makes you qualified for the job. Anything more than that should be reserved for the cover letter.
Don’t:
- Use too many bullet points in the skills section. You should only list up to 12 skills.
- Copy network engineer resume samples. Samples are great if you need guidance, but they lack personality. Copying off of samples makes your resume seem bland and robotic.
- Put the wrong contact information. Double check that you have the right contact information. You'll miss a job opportunity if the recruiters can’t reach you because of an error.
FAQ: Network Engineer Resumes
Do I need to include a cover letter for a network engineer application?
Yes, you should include a cover letter. A cover letter is a document stating why you want to apply for the job. You can also go into more detail about your skills and work experience. Writing a cover letter can help you impress hiring managers before you meet them in person.
How can I write a network engineer resume without a lot of experience?
For an entry-level network engineer resume, you can write a resume objective instead of a resume summary. A resume objective focuses on your network engineer skills and career goals instead of an impressive work history. Use the functional resume format to highlight your skills.
How do I change my network engineer job resume to apply to different jobs?
The best way to change your resume for different job applications would be to look at the job description for keywords. Keywords give you an idea of what the hiring managers want in the perfect candidate. You can use those keywords throughout the sections of your resumeto personalize each one. For example, if the job mentions Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP) and you have a lot of certifications from Cisco, highlight that in the resume. If the job description says network security, talk about vulnerability management.
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