What Scot has done before.
My resume is only a summary. A resume shouldn't have to spell out every single thing you have done. It's meant to provide a core summary of skills and experience. It doesn't deliver the kind of detail, however, that some people want. The resume, in fact, is meant to get you in the door, after which you can flesh out your experience and make your personal pitch, plus feel out the employer for what the job entails.
Here is my résumé. I put it here again in case you want to review it along the way.
I bill myself as a Unix systems administrator, but I've done a lot more than that, from computers in general to telephone systems and service to site installations, banking and foreign currency, and more. There is a lot to cover to deliver proper detail.
I've done a lot of stuff, from building, setting up, and repairing desktop and server systems to configuring and even fixing printers, to setting up and troubleshooting modems, and on to wired ethernet networks and even wireless ethernet networks. I have set up complete point-of-sale (POS) installations, with receipt printers, label printers, cash drawers, barcode scanners, card swipes, and serial and ethernet terminals.
Server systems. This covers PC and Mac systems. My POS systems were all run on Compaq ProSignia servers with SmartArray RAID controllers using either mirrored or striped volumes and dedicated serial-port systems from Stallion Technologies and Digi International. In-house we had a Dell PowerEdge 2300 on which I installed a Dell RAID controller. We also ran a MacOS AppleShareIP server on Mac server systems, this time just with big drives. All the servers sported either single-tape or magazine-load DAT tape drives except for the Mac server which used an 8mm Exabyte drive.
Servers really need to be good systems that will stay up for hundreds of days without fail. If you rely on these systems for your business, then don't skimp a few thousand dollars. The extra money you spend on the server(s) will save you money from downtime, where the cost of lost productivity and sales quickly passes the "savings" on the lesser server.
Desktop systems. This, too, covers PC and Mac systems. I have worked on clone systems (purchased or built), Compaq, Dell, HP, and Apple Macintosh systems. I've been from the guts up, installing motherboards, cards, drives, power supplies...everything inside the box. I have been in and around these systems, PC's and Macs, so much that I know them intuitively.
My real knowledge started with reading "Upgrading and Repairing PCs" by Scott Mueller. That book gave me the complete knowledge of the workings inside a computer that make it easier to figure out problems. Certifications are such a thing nowadays that I might as well work towards the A+ and Server+ certificates. Not that I don't know these things already, but it seems lots of folks are looking for certifications.
Repairing Macs has been the secondary of my skills, but I still understand more than most poeple, tech or layman. The trick is finding books about Macs from the technical angle. Most of the so-called authoratative books are really about using Macs from a user standpoint. My best resource on that matter has really been UseNet newsgroups, though there are now some (a few) books on the technical side of Macs. Still, they're not all that hard, and they are closer to PC's now more than ever.
PC and Mac peripherals and devices. Most folks think first of printers, then maybe modems, then, today, maybe desktop scanners. That usually covers the bases on the common peripherals. The workings of these devices is relatively simple, or are at least understandable from a technical standpoint.
I'm going to stop here for now. I have errands to run and still have to pound the virtual pavement for jobs. I'll be back soon to flesh this out some more. sh 8-16-01