How To Write A Network Administrator Resume That Converts

Network administrators make good money. In fact, it’s one of the highest-paid IT jobs in the world today. Though annual pay starts at around $50,000, with a few years of experience and the right skills, the pay skyrockets to over $150,000.

Today, that simply means that there’s a ton of competition for these roles. In fact, on our job board, we see hundreds of applications for remote net admin jobs.

With the competition that stiff, any small edge you can get is worth the effort.

Resumes are one place where you can truly stand out from the competition. So, how do you write a great network administrator resume? What should you include, what should you not, and what are the things that you can do to get ahead?

That’s what this blog is about. So, let’s just get right into it.

How to write a great network administrator resume?

Understand who you’re writing your resume for

There are two audiences for your resume — recruiters and ATS.

ATS, if you aren’t aware of it already, stands for Applicant Tracking System. It’s a piece of software that reads resumes and determines who goes ahead and who doesn’t. So, if your resume doesn’t pass the ATS, it will not be read by a human, at all.

So, the first step is to write a resume that gets past ATS.

How do you do that?

Well, the ATS works by picking up keywords. These are words or phrases that the ATS is told to look for. If your resume has these phrases and keywords, the ATS assumes that you have what the company is looking for and moves your resume to the next round. The ones that don’t have it are rejected.

There’s actually much, much more to how an ATS works. But this is the most important one. If you want to know more about how to beat the ATS, read our in-depth guide where we go over the fonts, templates, designs, and much more.

Here are a few keywords and phrases the ATS might look for, in a network administrator's resume:

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The job description is a great starting point

A lot of people simply don’t bother reading the job description simply because it’s chock-full of corporate jargon. And yes, that’s true. But spend a few minutes reading it anyway because most companies just outright tell you what they want to hear.

They’ll give you the exact skills they’re looking for, the sort of job they expect you to do, the certifications they hope you have — two to five minutes in and you’ll have pretty much everything you need to write a resume that they are praying they receive.

Write a compelling summary

Before we get into how to write a resume, let’s clear the air a bit:

A resume summary is written by professionals who have experience in the industry. So, if you’ve been working as a network admin for three years and you’re looking for the role of senior network admin or network admin at another company, you write a resume summary.

If you’re a fresher or a graduate, you write a resume objective. Resume objectives are also for those who are changing their careers. If you’ve been a front end developer for a while and you’re transitioning to net admin jobs, you have to write a resume objective.

A resume objective tells employers what you want to do and a resume summary tells employers what you’ve already done.

So, how do you write a great summary?

Look at the job description. Chances are, it already contains what you have to write. Obviously, this doesn’t mean that you lie. But the job description will give you a good idea about whom the company is looking for.

And then there are a few simple guidelines:

• Be concise: Your summary should be short. Never more than 4-5 sentences. Ideally, just three sentences.

• Focus on the Value You Bring: What is it about you that makes you so amazing? Write about that. Value is what companies are looking for.

• Use Relevant Keywords: Include relevant network administrator keywords that match the job description. That’s for the ATS, of course.

• Write in the First Person: But skip the pronouns. Instead of "I was awarded...", just write "Awarded..."

List relevant skills

The skills section is, more often than not, broken down into two subsections — technical skills and soft skills.

Don’t neglect the soft skills part. Network administrators have to talk to multiple teams, understand the functioning of quite a few other professionals, and have quite a bit of responsibility thrust on them.

Soft skills are crucial and employers know this. So, make sure you give enough importance to both, technical skills and soft skills. Again, use the job description to see what sort of skills the company is looking for.

To help you out a bit, here are a few technical skills that you can mention on your network administrator resume.

Obviously, you shouldn’t use all of these. But it’s a good place to start and create your own list. In fact, at the end of this post, you’ll find a downloadable Word document. It’ll contain all the skills, keywords, key phrases, objective examples, summary examples, and more.

Feel free to download it and edit it to match your skills and experience. That way, you’ll have a handy guide whenever you want to apply for a job.

Work experience — tailor it for each job

This is pretty much where the deal will either be made or broken. As a general rule, recruiters and the company want to know that you’ve already done what they’re asking you to do in your new job.

And again, they’ll usually outline responsibilities in the job description. Go through that and if you’ve done any of the stuff that they want you to do, make sure it definitely goes in the work experience section.

Once you’ve done that, follow a few basics for writing a great work-experience section:

• Chronological Order: This one’s fairly obvious, but let’s not skip it anyway. Start with your latest job and work backward.

• Relevance: Write your work experience for the job that you’re applying for.

• Position and Organization: Explicitly state your role, the name of the organization, and the duration of your tenure.

• Tasks and Accomplishments: For each job, delineate your duties and accomplishments. Utilize bullet points for lucidity and effortless comprehension.

• Dynamic Verbs: Kick off each bullet point with potent action verbs like "supervised", "established", "formulated", and so on.

• Numerical Evidence: Whenever feasible, provide numerical evidence of your accomplishments. This showcases the influence you've exerted in your former roles and substantiates your assertions.

Don’t neglect the basics

So, we’ve gone through all the important sections. But don’t get careless with the basics.

Your contact details should be easy to find.

If you’ve done certifications, they should be prominently mentioned. The network industry is quite standardized and certifications play a huge role. They are more important in this sector than in most others.

So, if you’ve got a globally recognized, industry-standard certification, make sure you show it off correctly.

If you fill all the basic sections and still have more to say, use the “Additional Information” section. If you do choose to use this, remember that it has to be about the job you’re applying to. Drinking a pint of beer under 10 seconds is not a skill that should go here, or anywhere on your resume.

If there’s too much to write in the resume, keep it for your cover letter. In fact, we’ve got a great guide on exactly how to write a cover letter. Refer to it to know the format, structure, what to include, and everything else.

Tailor your resume to match the job description

The importance of tailoring your resume to fit the job description cannot be emphasized enough.

Yes, it indicates that for every application you make, you'd need a unique resume. However, let's clear up a common misconception — this doesn't mean a complete overhaul of your resume for every new job post.

The foundational elements of your resume, like your educational qualifications, contact details, certifications, and personal information, remain the same.

The segments that require some fine-tuning according to each job description are your work experience, skills, and summary.

These adjustments aren't extensive. Mostly, it just involves changes to a few sentences, nothing more. A quick read of the job description and making those minor adjustments to the resume should take you no longer than ten minutes.

If you want to know more about how to customize your resume, read our in-depth guide on the subject.

A few additional tips for your network administrator resume:

Choose a simple, boring format

Go online and search for resume templates. Columns, boxes, fancy fonts, cool graphics, designs, images — you’ll be surprised at how good they can make a resume look. They’re genuinely fantastic to look at.

There’s just one issue. ATS can’t read most, if not, any of that. Boxes, columns, images, designs — ATS can read none of that.

And when it can’t read a section, it simply ignores it. Or reads it partially, which is a huge blow.

Also, use traditional names for the sections in your resume.

“Work Experience” is right. “Everything I’ve done” is wrong.

“Education” is right. “All my uni’s” is wrong. (This is from an actual resume, by the way)

“Certifications” is correct. “Certs” means nothing to an ATS.

You get the idea. You have to use words and phrases that the ATS understands. Those are the only ones that it can read.

So, make sure you use a simple, traditional template for your resume.

Typos don’t help your cause

Grammar mistakes or typos signal carelessness, which can put off recruiters. A minor error might not reflect your usual attention to detail, but the recruiter doesn't know that. Given the high competition for these roles, recruiters won't hesitate to move to the next candidate.

So, ensure you proofread your resume multiple times before sending it out. Here are 10 additional resume mistakes to avoid.

Use the right language

Your unique style should shine through your resume, yet it needs to maintain a professional tone. Clear and simple language that effectively showcases your skills and experience should be your aim.

While it's important to include industry-specific terms relevant to a Network Administrator role, ensure you're not drowning your resume in technical jargon.

Remember, before the hiring manager gets your resume, HR professionals who may not be tech-savvy will be reviewing it. So, keep it simple and clear for all.

Keep it concise

Considering the volume of resumes hiring managers sift through, conciseness is your ally. Aim to keep your resume as succinct as possible, ideally no more than a page. If you've got over a decade of experience, a two-page resume will do. Never more.

To convey your information quickly, use clear headings, bullet points, and concise language.

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Conclusion:

Just having a great resume won’t get you a job. You need skills and experience, too, of course. But it helps. It helps a lot. When the competition for these roles is sky-high, giving yourself all the chances you can to succeed is the way to go.

On that front, if you’re already looking for jobs, check out Simple Job Listings. We only list fully remote jobs. Most of these jobs pay amazingly well and a significant number of jobs that we post aren’t listed anywhere else.

So, visit Simple Job Listings and find great remote network admin jobs. Good luck!

Simple Job Listings Network Administrator Help Guide

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