OS Projects and Your Resume?

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Posted by Cliff on Wednesday February 26, 2003 @04:00AM from the tooting-your-own-horn...tastefully dept.

DavonZ asks: "Being that many readers of Slashdot may have contributed to Open Source projects, I thought this the best place to ask this question: What is the best way to outline our side projects into our resumes? I did the conversion of the C700 from Japanese to English, review hardware for nvmax.com, run MaxProjects which ports applications to the Sharp Zaurus, founded the Embedded Linux Developers Group and still maintain a full-time job with a semiconductor. How to I add these into my resume? I have been told not to; to only enter them into my cover letter. Others have told me to add a projects section. I have even been told that I shouldn't mention my projects at all. Which is the best approach? What are other Slashdot readers doing?"

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Community by rw2 · 2003-02-26 04:11 · Score: 4, Interesting

I added a "Community" section to my resume and put things like that there. Similar to a 'hobbies' section, but community expresses it better. Would running the local Unix security SIG be a hobby? Not really.

My resume
try before you buy... by boldingl · 2003-02-26 05:14 · Score: 2, Interesting

put it in there! for employers, this is a further chance to "try before you buy" - they get to see some projects that you've worked on, rathern than just hear about them. I contribute to several projects, and have details of these on my CV. At every single interview, without exception, I have been asked more details about the Open Source projects that I work on. All have been intrigued to learn more. At the end of the day, it is something that will make you well remembered and stick in an employers mind, which is going to make it much more likely that you will get an interview, or the job.
Re:Resumes are hard by JGski · 2003-02-26 06:46 · Score: 2, Interesting

Not only that, resumes really need to target specific jobs (yes, a different resume for each job is best if you want to maximize you chances - no two resumes the same). Call it optimization or call it marketing spin or kissing up - the only outcome that matters is whether you get the job you want or not.
Once you get enough experience under belt you want to rearrange your resume to make it a "perfect match" for any arbitrary job.
And if you are over 40 you definitely want to "dial-out" experience to fly-in under the rampant age discrimination in the industry today
Example: my current agency made me shave off 15 years. They said I shouldn't even bother otherwise. Never mind that the job and the management expectations of the job I'm working now on more closely match my original resume. Hey, the short resume got me in the door and was able to talk up the rest, so, whatever! :-p
Related to this, has anyone seen any tools that allow you to break your resume up into reuseable components (ideally XML) and reassemble them quickly into multiple customized versions? Possible OSS project? Any takers.