This Resume is for AndrewTomaka. Feel free to click on AndrewTomaka for my Profile.

(734) 732 - 5086
G321 Yakeley-Gilchrist
atomaka@gmail.com
East Lansing, Michigan 48825
Andrew E. Tomaka

Education
8/2002-present,Michigan State University,East Lansing, MI

• Pursuing Bachelor of Science, Computer Science
• Pursuing Bachelor of Arts, Telecommunications
• Overall GPA: 3.0; Computer Science GPA: 3.5; Telecommunications GPA: 4.0

Professional Experience
8/2004-present, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
Resident Mentor

• Facilitated discussions and mediated conflicts to increase the community development of a residents hall floor.
• Worked with a staff to increase the knowledge of safety issues and campus events for residents.
• Planned and provided residents with educational initiatives that ranged from multicultural development to personal well-being.

8/2002-present, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
Student Supervisor

• Answered phone calls from students with problems in hardware, software, Ethernet access and more.
• Worked in a team on the development of numerous web scripts to improve productivity including decreasing walk in consulting by five minutes per customer.
• Managed a team of over thirty help desk consultants and worked closely with upper management to create and enforce policies..

3/2001-present,Jeoworks, LLC, Spring Lake, MI
Web Developer

• Developed web applications in PHP and Perl for clients including decreasing the complexity of a download program which increased orders by ten percent..
• Designed static HTML pages from artistic images based on the needs specified by clients..

5/2003-7/2003, Chelsea School District, Chelsea, MI
Lab Teaching Assistant

• Assisted in the teaching of basic computer use to approximately forty-five local factory workers.
• Dealt with hardware, software, and network issues that arose during the third shift class.

3/2001-8/2002, Chelsea School District, Chelsea, MI
Student Technician Supervisor

• Supervised a small group of student technicians and worked with management to plan workdays.
• Moved and setup 900 new and old computers in record time after a late shipment arrival.
• Worked with several network aspects including Cisco switch setup, Novell management, server backups, managed virus updates, and other various software needs.
• Programmed a web application that allowed for non-technical administrators to quickly add emergency messages to the district's web page.
• Created, filled, and maintained a database using File Maker? Pro to track the inventory of the entire IT department which allowed quick access to a listing of equipment per building, room, and more.

Relevant Skills

• Languages: Perl, PHP, C, C++, Various Assembly Languages, Visual Basic, HTML, XML, SQL
• Operating Systems: Windows, Free BSD?, Open BSD?, Red Hat Linux, Mepis Linux
• Applications: Microsoft Office, Open Office, Apache, mySQL, Remedy

Activities

• Eagle Scout, Boy Scouts of America
• Member, MSU Fencing Club
• Treasurer, MSU Dodgeball Club
• Representative, Yakeley-Gilchrist Hall Government
• Founder, MSU Club Mario
• Member, MSU Ultimate Frisbee Club

References Available Upon Request.

Comments

These comments by Jeremy Wright:

Objective: Andrew, do you feel your Objective adds anything substantial to your resume? See this post at Jobs Blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/jobsblog/archive/2004/10/20/245223.aspx(approve sites). Ultimately if you are going to include an Objective, it really needs to have a selling point, otherwise it's just wasting space (mostly).

Education: You may want to look at the formatting here. Also, does your High School add anything? I mean if you're in Uni you've obviously graduated, right?

Experience: Based on the way you've written your experience, I'd guess you were going for an IT-related customer service roles. A lot of your experience is simply highlighting your ability to problem solve, work with people, etc. There isn't a lot (especially the newer stuff) which highlights your technical abilities, your ability to bring efficiencies (as stated in your Objective), etc.

Overall: It's not bad. Obviously it's been good enough to get you an interview at Microsoft. So these are just my personal thoughts on first glance. Good luck!

These comments by Andrew Tomaka:

Thanks for taking a look, Jeremy.

I actually thought that including an objective was worthless, but one of my friends insisted it was necessary. Like you said, I thought it was wasting space (precious space at that...one page is quite limiting) that could have been better used to expand upon my professional experience. Your education point is also well taken. I was thinking it was recent enough to be relevant, but it doesn't really add anything.

How can I improve on the formatting for my education? The text may be slightly deceiving so if you'd like <a href="http://www.whoisandy.com/_fil-bin/resume_04-10-07.pdf(approve sites)">check out my formatted version (PDF)</a>. Should I be including more information here? I'm not sure exactly where to go with it.

Do you have any suggestions for moving my descriptions to show more of a technical background? I don\'t really think I'm looking for customer service, but I do want something that involves people and not just coding. Did I press too hard on the non-technical aspects? Should I broaden my past experience where I've had a bit more technical experience? What about including anything else that I may have done on my own? I can't really put a spin on the whole mentor thing to be technical. Should I put more emphasis on the technical stuff with my current supervisor position, even though it is primarily customer/staff interaction?

Thanks again!

Comment from Jeremy Wright:

In terms of formatting, I just mean that the line breaks seem kind of off. You may need to insert double backslashes to get it to appear right here :)

These comments by Andrew Tomaka:

• I decided to remove the objective statement for now. Like you said, it doesn't really offer anything. I'm still unsure whether or not it's something that needs included.
• The high school education has been removed.
• I modified some of the job descriptions to include a bit more technical information. I'm still not entirely sure how to put a more technical swing on it, but I think it's a start.
• Used the double backslash to "wikify" it

These comments by Jeremy Wright:

Andrew, just be careful of bullet points, as some systems don't like them (an FYI). Also, you have experience in PHP. But your resume doesnt' really talk about any database design or anything like that. You may want to highlight that type of experience. I'm not a big fan of point-style resumes, but I can see why you did it. Also, please feel free to comment on other peoples' resumes. Give and take and all that :)