Should I list specific router and server models in my resume?

Question

I've been told before to be as specific as possible with this, but I'm not sure that's the way to go because it would quickly turn into a laundry list of router and server models. How should I list what server, router, switch, etc models of devices I currently support in the technical skills section of my resume?

We currently have a bunch of different router and server models in production.

Should I list each model like this:

Cisco routers (3945s,1941s,3640s), Dell servers (Poweredge R310s,R320s,etc)

Should I list just the more general series like this:

Cisco routers (3900,3600, and 1900 series) and Dell servers (poweredge)

Or is even that much unnecessary? I'd like to just put "I support various models of Cisco routers and servers Dell, HP, and IBM".

I'm worried about being too vague or too specific here.

Answer 1

I'm in app dev and not infrastructure, but there's a similar question on developer resumes with listing IDEs, platforms, and operating systems. Instead of listing (for example) Visual Studio 2003/2008/2010/2012/2013/2015 or SQL Server 6/7/2000/2008/2012/2014, I prefer just "recent versions of Visual Studio and SQL Server."

By getting very specific your resume becomes noisy -- you also risk looking as though you don't have the most up-to-date skills. Plus, do you really want to get hired to work on old technology?

Remember that your resume is an introduction to an employer. There's plenty of time during the interview process to discuss specifics.

Answer 2

Having experience with a number of different model routers is an interesting point, and you should mention it on your resume.

As one item.

Having a wide range of experience is a good thing when looking for a job where you'll be dealing with a lot of routers (and I assume you are, or else you should not even mention this at all), but this is only one fact about yourself, and trying to spread it out and name every router you've ever worked with makes it look like you're trying to pad your resume - which is not the impression you want to give.

If you want to impress an employer more, you should mention specific tasks that you've accomplished - mention that you've connected routers, fixed routers, swapped out routers, set up wireless/wired networks, all the different tasks that you've accomplished in your career/education/spare time working with different routers, those are interesting points to put on your resume.

What employers are interested in when reading a resume is not a mass of information, or the number of different objects you've worked with, but the skills that you have that they can use.

It IS good that you know so many routers, so mention that you've worked with many different ones, but don't dwell on it - focus on what you can do in a practical manner, not the raw data of your experience.