System Administrator Resume Examples (Linux, Windows)

How To Write the Perfect System Administrator Resume Example

System administrators are very important to the installation and maintenance of computer systems. They can manage a company’s entire network infrastructure or set up new users’ computer systems.

System administrator work requires candidates with many high-level skills to manage complex networks. To give yourself the best chance of landing your new system administrator job, you need an excellent system administrator resume that shows off your experience and high-level skills.

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What to Highlight in a System Administrator Resume

As a system administrator, you need to showcase your technical skills and confidence in managing both WAN and LAN networks. System administrators also need to show hiring managers that they understand information systems, IT infrastructure, servers, and more to fill the job description.

Let’s dive in and explore how to make a resume that gets noticed.

Structure of a System Administrator Resume

The structure of a system administrator resume depends on the resume format you choose. There are three resume formats: chronological, functional, and combination. Chronological resumes focus on employment history, and functional resumes focus on skills. Combination resumes are a mix of both formats that features strong skills and work history sections.

Whether you’re a recent graduate with little system administration experience or have many years of experience, your resume should contain a good mix of skills and certifications.

Contact information

The header section contains your contact information. This section presents your name, phone number, and email address. If you have a LinkedIn profile, include the link in your header.

Resume summary or objective

A resume summary or resume objective is a short 2-3 sentence paragraph that highlights your strengths. If you have years of experience in system administration, you should use a resume summary to highlight your most important achievements in previous roles. However, if you’re a recent graduate or going through a career change, you should use the resume objective to state your career goals.

Skills

This section is crucial for your resume, especially if you’re a graduate and lack professional experience. Your skills section should contain a combination of hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills are skills that allow system administrators to do their job. Soft skills are general people skills. Here’s examples of skills you can use in a system administrator resume:

• Problem-solving
• Network security
• Project management
• Troubleshooting
• Technical skills
• Knowledge of popular operating systems like Linux, Microsoft, and Unix
• Programming skills (JavaScript and PHP)
• Network administration (Active Directory)
• Disaster recovery
• System monitoring
• Systems upgrades
• Windows
• VMware Virtualization
• Optimization
• Knowledge of firewalls and network security
• Use of Linux Red Hat
• Experience using Domain Name System (DNS)
• Client-server protocol DHCP
• Amazon Web Services (AWS)
• Routers
• Communication
• Teamwork

Work experience

The work experience section acts as a record of your work history in information technology. Candidates typically need experience as a junior system administrator or experience using Microsoft Windows systems, Linux, Oracle, and other operating systems. So your work experience section may be the most important section of your professional resume.

If you have relevant experience in another system admin role such as IT helpdesk, or working with VOIP, VPNs, or Windows servers, you can also include this information.

List your work history in reverse-chronological order, starting from the most recent job. This provides the hiring manager with the most up-to-date information at the top of your resume. You should also include the company name, job title, location, and the dates you worked there.

Education

List your highest academic credential here. Employers are likely to look for candidates with a bachelor’s degree in computer science, computer engineering, software, and other related fields. So it’s important to include this information in your education section.

You can also grab the hiring manager or recruiter’s attention by providing information about your certifications, such as a Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) or Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) certifications. Be sure to list all your relevant certifications.

Also, be aware that you won’t need to include your high school GPA in this section.