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Resume Tips For Jobs
JerseyTom writes "SAGEWire reports that with the economy speeding
up, more and more people
are freshening up their
resumés. They've printed an article by Tom
Limoncelli, co-author of TPoSaNA, that offers specific advice for geeks writing resumes." 'Course, I'm not sure how much I believe the economy speeding up - but still good information.,
1: Try and sound interesting in your Hobbies / Interests section, you'll just come across as a twat. Be honest. And DON'T mention Stanley Kubrick. Everyone does that!
2: Go too far ahead in 'Career Objectives'. Think 2 or 3 years, not 10!
3: Forget to spell check the thing.
DO NOT put an "Objective" section at the top of your resume, they're all bullshit, never relevant and only limiting, and when you hand someone your resume, your objective is simple - TO GET A JOB FROM THEM.
You have 2-4 inches to catch someone's eye - if you've got a college degree put it there, and next, put your most relevant work experience.
customize your resume for the job you're applying for.
... hi bingo
This is a shameless advertisment of my bosses free tips on how to get a job in general. If you're looking for a job in Germany, Austria or Switzerland, these tips might be of help to you. Of course you'll have to be able to read german.
Tipps & Tricks zur erfolgreichen Stellenbewerbung
Ever hired anybody? Ever sifted through a pile of even 10 just resumes a day, especially while you're trying to code something on your own?
Yes, you have 1" to catch my eye. You don't catch my eye with education (the piles are already sorted by BS, MS, etc) You don't catch my eye with experience; I want to know what you want to do, not what you did (you are, after all, hiring for the future, not the past). If you sound interesting, I'll read what you've done.
You ESPECIALLY don't catch my eye with a multi-page resume if you've worked any less than 10 years. This means you're a babbling idiot who can't summarize properly. This means you'll write lousy memos, ramble on at meetings, and aimless documentation (all of which I've seen, amazingly enough all with multi-page incoherent resumes). The memo part is key. People won't listen to you if you can't write a good memo.
Yes I have 10 years experience. Yes my resume is 1 page with a clear objective. Yes when my dot bomb went under I was somehow only out of work for roughly a week (admittedly after taking a month of voluntary vacation), fending off offers from both coasts, where everybody else is suffering.
Coincidence?
- Matt
You might want to read this first.
- Make it look nice. If it looks like crap, I think your code looks like crap. Marketing is critical here.
- Don't include every technology you've ever touched. If you do, I love calling people on their tech knowledge. You've used Intermedia, interesting. Tell me, what's the function of a stemmer and how does it work in Intermedia? Don't be too agressive. You cannot know everything.
- If you put multiple tools or editors down, make sure you know them. I used to ask people what they liked about a Visual Cafe over JBuilder, and, more importantly, why. If they used BEA and Websphere, great, tell me why I would use one or the other. If you can't do that, then you don't know the tools.
- IMHO Certifications quite frankly are crap. They show you can take tests, not that you understand the tools or languages. Mention them later, not at the top.
- A style note: use verbs!!!! Developed, Created, Architected, Designed, Coded, Documented etc. Do not use sentences. I was responsibile for is a banned phrase.
If you have any other questions or comments, just let me know. Hope it helps....tizzyd
Having scanned thousands of resumes in my time...
.5%, or worse.
In general, only the first sentence of the first few paragraphs are read. The rest is skimmed.
The skim looks to weight the paper on keywords and your written presentation skills.
Time spent per resume? About 3-8 seconds.
If you pass that test, it will be read -- but mostly for reasons NOT to hire you. This would include the typical "degree bigot" check for grossly outdated BS/MS credentials.
"Objectives" are strictly rejection criteria. There is simply nothing you can say to fit the details of any given job well enough to make sense. Thus, your "objectives" rarely fit well with the job under review -- hence the rejection.
The biggest problem today is automated HR systems. They can only search for that obnoxious laundry list of every technology everyone in the chain remembers the company ever used. The systems simply cannot recognize aptitude.
So you end up with these stupid generalist resumes. You know, people with every freaking technology in the world listed. Typically the result of finding themselves on the market so often for sub-par performance.
Trouble is the market is absolutely flooded with people who have been told "Computers are where the money is", and literally boatloads of people brough in under fraudulant H1-B requirements. What was a search for a 5% "cream of the crop" is now a search for the
What was a hundred resumes is now ten thousand. How does anyone stand a chance in what has become more a game of chance than skill?
Here's mine.
Hired less than a year ago. Got interviews from about 20% of the cold contacts I made; got offers from 5 out of the 6 interviews.
Looks like I followed >50% of the recommendations. The best one in the thread so far is to analyze all the competencies you list, and break them up into categories (I use three, from "very strong/good " to "experienced" to "familiar"). That was picked up at every interview but one.
It helps an interviewer tailor his/her questions. For example, if I say "familiar with C++", an interviewer can feel comfortable asking about public/private/protected, extern "C", etc. If I say "very strong C++", I'd better damned well be able to answer questions about things like vtbl layout, partial specialization, the current state of the standard, etc.
I've rarely read a resume that accurately reflected what a person did or could do. A cocky genius would write a crappy resume and be a pain in the neck to work with, but they might do some great stuff.
Insecure, introspective, aspergic people also often write sad resumes but that doesn't mean anything. Is the employer looking for a wizard, or a fork-lift driver ?
If you don't have a network of people to help you land a sure thing and are reduced to applying with a resume that matters, then you're in pretty bad shape. Be humbled when alone in the wilderness. Carefully determine what the employer wants and then be it. Do the same thing when meeting big bears in the forest.
What's the point of the "Objectives" section ? Most employers don't really care what YOU want to do; they want a handle on you, they want to know what kind of carrot to put in front of you. Make it easy for them. If they find out the handle on their mug is broken
Some scouting employers don't know what they really want, they may have a vague idea and are just looking for some free direction from people they don't intend to hire at all. Tease them with vague ideas but don't give them anything solid unless they hire you.
Some people are classifiable as "generalists" in the sense they can do just about anything very fast on the uptake, but probably not as well as someone who's been working for 5 years doing one thing. In these quickly changing times, being a generalist may be the way to go, but there's no way easy to say you are flexible without appearing weak and flimsy except by listing a large number of things that you've worked on, none of which you are an expert on. In that case, you might consider saying that you "managed" these projects rather that worked on them.
Good luck.