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Resumes for New Grads?
CastrTroy asks: "I recently graduated from the software engineering program at the University of Ottawa. With 4 terms of experience, and good marks, I am still unable to even get interviews for jobs. What makes a good resume? I've gotten some good pointers from people I know, but it just doesn't seem to be working. Is there something that works really well for technically related jobs? What is a good way to include skills that I don't have on-the-job experience with? Some people say 3 pages is too much, while others say their resume is 25 pages. Are there any actual proven methods for writing good resumes, or is it all just hit and miss"
Fluency in Hindi.
There's no time to stop for gas, we're already late.
as short as possible while still highlighting your skills. Remember, recruiters are busy people, and they usually spend a very small amount of time per resume(unless they are interested). Sometimes your resume may even get filtered out by computer.
Your best bet is to make a tight, targeted resume. Flooding monster or hotjobs with generic resumes probably won't get you very far. Find the jobs you think you are most suited for, and go for them! And of course, networkin never hurts either!
Happy hunting!
Keep it simple. And I don't mean cryptic. I mean, it must have a clean layout, nice itemized lists instead of clumsy paragraphs of post-modern crappy descriptions of your work. Of course, this doesn't mean you have to write a list like "tech support, programming in Java, computer mainteinance, bla1, bla2, bla3..." either.
Remember, you have to write something that can give the reader a grasp of who you are in 10 seconds. Otherwise, the whole thing will end up in the trash basket.
- Let me know you read the ad: reference the content of the ad.
- Tell me how you fit the bill: Choose one experience, one skill, or one attribute that meets the at least one of the requirements listed in the ad.
- Express (sincere) interest in the job: try to make it feel like you didn't just respond to this ad because you're desperate for any kind of interview.
- Don't send your cover letter as an attachment! It should be your email body. Really. I won't read an attached cover letter.
Make it easy on the hiring person, and you'll improve your chances on having your resume actually read -- and that is what will get you the interview.The problem is that your resume says Software Engineering.
For an entry level position just out of school you really need to keep your resume to one page. It sounds like you don't have a great deal of work experience, so you should probably put your academic experience first. If you took any particularly challenging classes you may want to break them out much like you would with challenging projects from a job.
In todays market you can probably expect to send out about a hundred resumes per interview. Work any friends and family that you have- even if they're just acquaintances. Start sending your resume to large corporations- they're always hiring, even if they haven't posted anything, and you may catch someone in the right mood.
Skills sections will show up on hits when recruiters do searches, but they tend to be ignored when your resume is actually sitting in front of a real person. Try to work any skills you have into the context in which you used them. If you implemented some stuff for fun definitely put in a section of personal projects. When I'm looking at fresh from college resumes that's a definite plus, as I know the person actually enjoys development.
Recruiters make money by selling you. In Canada anyway, they typically only get paid if they place you and you meet expectations. They benefit by from your resume being up to par.
Interview your recruiters closely, and talk to their previous hires. Get an idea of what worked before, and what the recruiter is willing to do to make you sellable (ie better resume). If you're worth it, they will help you.
Like any profession, some recruiters can be really good at what they do, and others can be just useless. Run in the opposite direction of the latter.
Here's what you need to worry about on your resume: Is everything spelled correctly, laid out in a pleasing manner, one or two, three pages tops. In your situation, a resume doesn't matter.
Unless you were involved in some crazy groundbreaking research, went to an extremely prestigious school that will make a mark based on the name (Ivy League, Cal Tech/MIT/etc.), or work on some readily recognizable OSS in your spare time, your resume is about as good as it's going to get provided you follow the rules above.
Now for the fun part: Remember that cliche about "it isn't what you know, it's who you know?" It didn't achieve cliche status without having a bit of truth. Two of my friends graduated last Spring. One had a pretty good GPA and a degree in Chemical Engineering. Hadn't programmed since High School. He's now a consultant with Accenture, doing minor programming work on site for pretty nice cash, considering he's a first year employee. The other day he mentioned how one of the guys he had graduated with had a better GPA, better extra-curriculars, and sends out a shitload of resumes with no result (He was bemoaning the economy). I answered to him that the reason he ended up with that job was that he showed up everytime Accenture came to campus, be it for some random business school speaking engagement, or at career fairs. He came to be known by the guys there. The second friend graduated at the same time with a BS in EE. He spent about 5 months working on getting hired with one of about three different places, and now he works on the ISS at NASA. A third friend did approximately the same thing, and now works for the State Department (I think, long story but I suspect he works for a more clandestine side of the executive branch, but having had relatives in those positions I know he can't tell me if he does).
These guys are not geniuses, they both went to state schools (albeit good ones, and the third went Ivy League, so I consider his example less representative), and they're not the sort who were posting Summa Cum Laude grades at graduation. In short, they're probably just like you.
So what you need to do is this: Take a look at the companies operating in the region in which you want to be hired. Pick two or three good ones, and make sure to read up on corporate (or govt.) culture, benefits, etc. Know them well. Now start finding out ways to make contacts with the people there. Do their developers participate in some SIG around town? Go get to know them. Speak to guys who might be responsible for recommending a new-hire, but make sure you aren't hounding people. A lot of jobs aren't filled in a position->applicant order, but rather the other way around. In other words, a lot of times a team might need another hand, or a particular task that you're well suited at might need an entry-level programming position. The company probably wouldn't actively go and create a job advertisment, post on Monster.com, etc., but if one of the devs says, "hey, there's that guy I remember from the Linux/Graphics/Networking SIG who could probably help us out", the job will be "created".
At the risk of sounding like some crappy self-help speaker, when you're trying to get a job, you're essentially acting a salesperson, and the product you're selling is yourself. Right now, you're basically a commodity product, nothing but a slightly-better-than-average list of achievements on paper. Your job is to provide that extra push, in whatever way you can, to put yourself above commodity status.
Oh yeah, and please ditch that "objective: To obtain a position in..." section. God I wish those things would go away on resumes. Everyone of them is the same canned line that does nothing but take up space better devoted to anything.
as short as possible while still highlighting your skills. Remember, recruiters are busy people, and they usually spend a very small amount of time per resume(unless they are interested).
That's very true and there are other reasons for keeping your resume short. Quite frankly, if you cannot tell me the important things about yourself in a single page, I shudder to think of the mounds of documentation you will produce when I ask you to summarize your recent progress on the project you are working on. A succinct resume is a demonstration of your ability to quickly identify the most important parts of something (in this case: you) and communicate those clearly and effectively. I believe that a good resume indicates a focused mind and an ability to cut through the crap and get to the heart of what's important. In addition, when I see resumes over two pages, I get the impression that the applicant is trying to "snow" me with tons of crap. That s/he's trying to bowl me over with quantity rather than quality.
Your best bet is to make a tight, targeted resume.
Again, I agree. I'm baffled at how many people just stick a generic "goal" at the top of their resume. Something like "Seeking employment in a challenging field, allowing me to further develop my experience and capabilities" is just a bunch of crap. Who the hell doesn't want a job like that?
The cover letter can make a big difference as well. There was a recent slashdot story about handwriting and someone pointed out that a handwritten cover letter will make you stand out from the stack. That's something you might try. But definitely explain why you are interested in that particular company in your cover letter -- don't use a generic letter!
GMD
watch this
Target your resume for the job you want. Write a different resume tailored for each job you apply for. Be humble, yet confident, and only mention relevant skills.
Think: What do they want? What do I have that they want? Write down everything you can think of, and then turn it into a 30-second commercial slot. Pound on those few points solidly, and leave the rest as dressing. Avoid things they might not want. Definitely avoid negative things.
For instance, if I were applying for a software engineering position at, say, Microsoft, in C++. I would highlight all of the experience I had writing C++ code, emphasize the project's I've worked on, and bullet point the various things I've done in relation to coding. The "dressing" will be where I've worked (relevant places only -- NOT McDonald's), what college I've graduated from, what degree and what my GPA was, and what my other skills or hobbies are.
Think of your resume more as an ad: You have to hire me because I will bring your company $$$! Sell yourself!
The radical sect of Islam would either see you dead or "reverted" to Islam.
For someone fresh out of college with no work experience, there's absolutely no reason to have a resume that's more than one page. No offense, but you probably haven't done anything worth taking that much of the reviewer's time.
List your coursework and your strengths. Describe some of the relevant projects you've done for class. You can list summer-job type work experience, but if all of it was just flipping burgers don't dwell on it. On the other hand, if you've interned or done anything related to your field, play it up!
If you've done anything applicable outside of schoolwork, be sure to list that! That's what's going to catch someone's eye. When I'm looking at resumes I give top priority to people who have technical hobbies. It shows that they really like this stuff, and aren't merely going to be punching a clock.
Also, make sure you send out resumes. Lots of resumes. To anyone and everyone. I graduated in 1988 with a BSEE degree from a respected university. Jobs were easier to find then, but I still ended up sending out over 400 resumes. That netted me only a handful of interviews, and a huge pile of FOAD letters. You know how I got my first real job? Through a friend-of-a-friend, who happened to have also graduated from my school ten years before. That's right, in the end good ol' social networking gets you the most action.
All I can say is keep at it. Definitely get involved in some sort of activity related to the work you want to do, if only to keep your knowledge fresh. Send out lots of resumes. And especially, chat up your friends and see who's hiring.
Chelloveck
I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
I might be bitter and jaded from living in Portland, OR, but you have 4 terms experience, and you're surprised you can't find a job? There are people with degrees and certs coming out their ass around here that are out of jobs.
Pretty Pictures!
"Are there any actual proven methods for writing good resumes, or is it all just hit and miss"
Make certain you get a resume writer who has a passion for his/her work.
----
Don't give me that look. If it applies here? Then it applies to this situation too.
I used to be a resume consultant for younger sutudents when I was in grad school and am willing to provide brief help if anyone wants to email me. I've put a decent amount of time into crafting my own resume-- it's online, but I fear the mockery of the Slashdot community. If anyone's interested in an example that follows the notes above, email me and I'll send the link.
Good luck!
I got a few good job offers in software engineering right out of college with a B.S. The resume I used follows (sans identifying information). Feel free to use it as a template or whatever, but your success with it will vary (make sure to put in your info. instead of mine). Some key points:
1. List every acronym you've ever learned in the skills section.
2. Try to put a positive twist on non-relevant job experience. For example, I ran a creative arts journal, but I mainly focused on the technical aspect of the job. At every interview I had, employers seemed to focus on this job quite a bit because it proved my English skills (which nobody I work with now has).
3. Relevant coursework is a good thing to have, especially if you're light on work experience. You can know every language on the planet, but employers like it if you can use them in conjunction with data structures, etc.
4. For a new college grad, one page resume maximum. PERIOD. Even if it means reducing the font and margin size, get it onto a single page any way you can.
5. Computing skills should be a bulleted list (so should everything else), but the lameness filter yelled at me.
NAME
Street
City, State Zip
Phone
E-mail
OBJECTIVE: To obtain a position in programming or application/systems development.
EDUCATION:
2000 - Present
University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)
Bachelor of Science Degree expected May 2004
Major: Computer Science
Cumulative GPA: X.XX
COMPUTING SKILLS:
Ada, Assembly, C, C++, CVS, Flash, HTML, CSS, Java, JDBC, JSP, JavaScript, Linux, ML, MS Office, MS Windows 3.1, 95, 98, 2000, NT, Me, XP, Novell Client, GroupWise, OpenGL, Perl, PHP, Python, Quark, SDLC, SQL, MySQL, Tcl/Tk, UML, UNIX, VHDL, XML
WORK EXPERIENCE:
Intern, Project Manager
Office of Transportation Technology Services, Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT)
2003 - 2004
Hanover, MD
Managed development of a communications infrastructure asset management system
Assisted with beta testing and analysis of plug-in to apply MS Outlook interface to GroupWise
Assisted with procurement of network management services for MDOT
Authored policy paper on expanding the implementation of technology on toll roads
Managing Editor
Bartleby, The Creative Arts Journal of UMBC
2001 - Present
Baltimore, MD
Organized and led a staff of 20-30 people
Developed and implemented web application programs in PHP and MySQL
Solicited and reviewed submissions
Webmastered UMBCbartleby.org
Produced (using QuarkXpress) and distributed yearly creative arts journal
Admissions Representative, Processing Assistant
Office of Undergraduate Admissions, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
2002 - 2003
Baltimore, MD
Interviewed prospective UMBC students
Processed incoming student applications for admission
Managed student information database
SAMPLE OF RELEVANT COURSEWORK:
Data Structures
Algorithm Analysis
Operating Systems
Assembly Language Programming
Computer Architecture
Computer Graphics Programming
Software Design & Development
Database Design and Implementation
Scripting Languages
Calculus I, II, III
imho the best length is 2 full pages, about 100 lines. if your experience of talent can't fill this up, you need to indulge a little. if it's longer, you need to cut out the fluff. they don't want your life story.
keywords are important. if a recruiter is looking for a c++ or java coder then they don't want to spend 2 minutes reading your resume, trying to figure out if you've ever used them before. they want to see those keywords easily in your resume and then if they do, how much experience you have. after the basic quantitative evaluation, they'll like take a look at the major projects you've listed off. the more impressive-sounding the claims, the more likely you'll get a call.
remember that if you're young with no real-world experience, no matter how important you make yourself sound, you will not look better than someone who has 5 years of experience, unless perhaps your reputation precedes you (about %0.0001 of people). no matter how cool your final project was or how much better you were than the rest of your class. you're entry level and when you find a job it will be entry level unless you have a rich family member who owns a business (perhaps 2% of people). for the other 97.9999%, keep blasting out those resumes
as for actually find a job, just keep trying... my girlfriend looked for a job for months before she got lucky and found a place where an ex-colleague was in a position to hire and she got the job. the old "it's not what you know it's who you know" story. try checking with people you or your family or friends know; your highest probability for employment (note: not best jobs) is likely with someone you already know... although i did that twice through friends of my dad and they were both shitty jobs. good luck!
Oh yeah, and please ditch that "objective: To obtain a position in..." section. God I wish those things would go away on resumes. Everyone of them is the same canned line that does nothing but take up space better devoted to anything.
I hear you, pal. I once had an applicant in my office hand me her resume. Her objective was something along the lines of wanting to apply the knowledge of communications technologies she learned in grad school to real world problems. Sounds great, right? Just a tiny problem: WE DON'T DO ANY COMM WORK! So I asked her if she was aware that we didn't have a Communications division and pointed out her objective. "Oh yeah," she replied. "That's just something I put down. I'm flexible."
So now I'm thinking:
Needless to say, we did not offer her a position.
I'm in a similar situation and just graduated from university in computer science. The thing that really has worked for me is focusing on experience. Anything will do as long as you put it right. Summer jobs, working in classes or labs, or projects you did in class. Saying "I did this cool project all by myself" is a lot more interesting than "I did some courses and got good grades". ...
...) and clearly show them that you've done some interesting stuff.
...)
You want to work as a consultant ? Then focus on stuff someone asked you to do and that you succeded in delivering it and so on. You get the picture
If you just graduated, they KNOW that you've taken a lot of classes, so focus on stuff they don't know. Stuff that makes you different from your classmates.
More than anything else, focus on stuff that is interesting for the company. Figure out the field where you want to work (programming, networking, web stuff, databases,
My initial resume focused on everything I'd learnt (OSes, programming languages and so on). Now I've removed all that and focused only on summer jobs and work that is direct experience to the employer. Use one type of resume for each type of company (consulting, programmer, web company,
Using this technique, I just landed a job so cool, I couldn't imagine a better one. Hope this works for you =)
You're fresh out of college and applying to an entry-level job. If you give them a 3 page resume, you're going to be taken about as seriously as a guy whose shoulder says 'private' but whose chest is covered in badges and medals.
Make a one-page resume. Customize it to the particular job, and make it as easy to read as possible. The very first rule is to look at the template resumes that come with Microsoft Word and make sure that your resume looks nothing like any of them, because most of those are designed to be visually appealing, but aren't the easiest things to read.
Don't mention too much stuff - your resume is going to get scanned quickly, which means that the more you put on there, the more is going to not get read. Cut out the less important stuff to make sure that the stuff you want to be seen does get some eye time.
Most of all, know what you should be selling. If you're right out of college, don't get tricked into thinking you have skills, because from a company's point of view, you don't. All you have is potential.
He used to get around 50-100 resumes a week even when he didn't have a job posting up or any availabilities. Basically, IF he looked at them at all, he wouldn't spend more than 3-5 seconds with any given resume. The layout has to be clean and really easy to follow. There's very little that can be interesting or eye catching about a resume, but that said the good stuff has be OBVIOUS.
Basically though, in this job market, resumes basically resemble spam. Sending companies resumes is not really an effective way to get a job. Start calling people at the company, and don't be afraid to be a little pushy. Don't be afraid of approaching the same company multiple times, especially if you can talk to different people. Network like crazy. Everyone in your life up to and including your aunt's neighbor's mailman should know you're looking for a job and what kind of job you want.
A good resume is really a springboard for the kinds of questions you want them to ask you in the job interview.
As for the basic format considerations, go for information density on a single page. Bold key terms that you want people to notice right away, but embed them in sentences so they're not just looking at lists. I don't like lists of just words, but used to have a section titled "Other Technical Skills" where I put the stuff I wasn't emphasizing.
If you're really convinced that you're doing everything else right and it's the resume that's holding you back, go hire a service. They're cheap and they do decent work. Or do what I did, look at like 20 other people's resumes and steal the format of the best one.
One other thing that a friend did that was a little weird, but worked. She got the name of a manager at a company in her field, called him and sold him the following line. "I understand that you're not hiring right now, but it's a lean market and I want an edge on my competition. Do you have a project that I could be involved with as an intern? I understand that you probably couldn't pay much if you can pay at all, but at least I can start building up experience and if you love me, and trust me, you're going to, you can offer me something when it comes up." It was ballsy but she pulled it off and later parlayed it into a job with one of their competitors.
Maybe it's not for everyone, but the moral of the story is that a one or two page piece of paper is a weak way to job hunt. Start thinking about what else you can do and don't sweat your resume.
In truth, all great jobs are far too valuable to be given away to perfect strangers. As well, the employment industry is generally quite expensive and ineffective unless you are over-qualified and don't require help anyways.
Talk to everyone you know or ever met, especially family and friends. Failing that, take a temp position and make friends quick. Failing that, take some more courses, one's that have an on-job work experience component. Initiate personal contact with instructors, well connected students & co-workers and employers.
Kiss some butt, it's the corporate way. Get use to it. Welcome to servitude.
However, my best advice, start your own company. Never work for someone else. You will be owned.
Oh, and as for resumes, get a professional resume or technical writer to produce yours.
Words to men, as air to birds.
I'm back in school now myself but I did college recruiting and was involved in a lot of hiring decisions.
Keep it short. One or at most two pages. If you had two pages it better have summer job details or discussion of some major class or personal projects you work on. Did you have a senior project?
keywords, Keywords, KEYWORDS. Unfortunately, the people/machines/managers than often process incoming resumes tend to look for certain keywords. J2EE. C++. I usually put this in a skills section on the bottom, listing programming languages, tools, operatings systems I am comfortable with.
Since it has to be short, try to customize it for the target employer if possible based on the job you are submitting it for.
Cover letter (or email). If you are sending an email or can provide a comment when submitting, make sure you say why you are interested in the position posted and why your background qualifies you.
Persistence and followup. a lot of times organizations can be disorganized. I remember one summer we were so busy we didn't really go over the resumes to look for interns. so the two or three people that emailed to reiterated their interest got hired.
Unfortunately, in the end, a lot of things come down to having an "in" somewhere. all my jobs, including the one out of college, came via a referral of some sort. where are your friends working? are they hiring? what about former classmates from previous years? go to a couple alumni events if your school has them. it is more effective than posting 1000 resumes to websites.
Good luck!
Eric Kibbee
.Net and MS SQL Server to develop applications for use by the department employees
716-169 Lees Avenue, Ottawa Ontario, K1S 5M2 Phone: (613) 612-7561 Email: eric@kibbee.ca
PROFESSIONAL PROFILE
A new Software Engineering graduate looking for an introductory software development position. Participated in the co-operative education program, which provided four terms of directly related and progressive experience. A strong team player, as evidenced by excellent grades on the program's major final year team project.
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Applied Science, Software Engineering 1999 - 2004
University Of Ottawa
Participated in co-operative education programme
Graduated Magna Cum Laude
EXPERIENCE
Build Manager
Software Engineering Final Project
January - December 2003
Responsibilties
Final year project that was part of the program that followed all the steps of the software development life cycle
Developed on an on-line document management system
Designated role was Build Manager, but also participated in all aspects of the project
Used ASP and Visual Basic with MS Access as a database
Accomplishments
Completed the project on schedule and met all required performance criteria
Achieved a mark of "A" in the course based on customer satisfaction, documentation of the system and quality assurance presentations
Web Developer
Office of Critical Infrastructure Protection and Emergency Preparedness (OCIPEP)
May - August 2003
Responsibilties
Responsible for the upkeep and development of new features on the department Intranet site
Used Visual Basic
Accomplishments
Provided a high level of service and consistent performance of the Intranet
Developed new tools such as an employee directory and an events calendar
Web Developer
Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO)
August - December 2002
Responsibilties
Development of a web based financial tracking application
Used ASP with an MS Access database to allow for data entry and retrieval.
A significant portion of the job was to meet with clients and users to obtain new requirements and resolve existing problems
Accomplishments
Project completed on schedule and provided targeted functionality
Web Developer
Environment Canada (EC)
January - April 2002
Responsibilties
Responsible for working on many of EC's Intranet and Extranet web pages
Used JavaScript to create interactive menus for the website
Accomplishments
Completed a major update to the on-line version of the health and safety manual
Developed and implemented a Java based employee training application
Software Developer
Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC)
May - August 2001
Responsibilties
Responsible for reverse engineering an N-tier e-commerce web application
Worked jointly with a second software engineering student on the project
Analyzed the application that used a variety of technologies including ASP, VB, MS IIS, SQL, XML and COM
Accomplishments
The reverse engineering of the application was successfully completed
Developed skills with the above technologies and improved technical writing skills
SKILLS
Web Development - Experienced in web development with HTML, ASP, VB/VB.NET, and PHP
Database Development - Experienced in database development with MS SQL Server, MS Access, and MySQL.
Application Development - Experienced in applications development for both Windows and Linux, in a variety of programming languages including C/C++, Java, Delphi, and Visual Basic
----------------
Whoever reads your resume is going to do so from the perspective of someone who needs X Y and Z, and needs it now. People are looking for a condensed skill section like "PHP, ASP, VB/VB.NET, HTML" (Don't lead with HTML). Your skills section is good, and would be a good leader, though it needs to be less wordy. Give me a list of what you can do. Remember, this list is targeting two peo
The ______ Agenda
GET A JOB!!!
(and minor in Business, not Math!)
I was 15 at the time, but I worked for $60 a week washing dishes. It gave me the confidence and understanding of the business world to be a "go getter".
I did the college thing, and while I did it I was working at tech-related jobs/consulting gigs here and there. Learning how the business world worked (as droll and drab as it may sound), is actually quite valuable. Learn about sales and marketing and it will help you sell your skillset and accomplishments to employers. I've only really had to "seek" work once (maybe twice) in my professional career. Every other time a job/headhunter has either come to me, or a friend of a peer, etc has offered me a job.
It's worth noting that about 70% of all [US] jobs are obtained via personal networking, and references.
Don't be anti-social!
Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
In four years of study you didn't have a *single* class on resume writing, interviewing, and presentation skills? The dean of your particular school should be beat around the head and neck for not providing you with any education on how to get a job.
Classes in "getting a job" are the domain of truck driving, cosmetology, and welding schools, not universities. However, there should be a placement office outside of campus that provides just the services you describe for current students and alumni.
One CPU cycle wasted on digital restrictions management is ONE TOO MANY.
Try submitting your resume to fields other than your target. It seems that people with skills unrelated to IT work seem to get the IT jobs, and the IT-minded people with valuable skills seem to end up working at Burger King. Along those lines, modify your resume to include a bunch of non-IT work and skills.
Also, don't let them know that you're intelligent. If you give them that impression, they will fear that you will realize how messed-up their processes and procedures are and point them out and try to change them. You have to pretend you're completely incompetent and will never have an opinion on anything, but rather just do as you're told.
I speak from personal experience.
Don't core dump on your resume. A resume is a teaser. Its purpose is to capture interest. Keep it to one page as much as possible. A prospective employer doesn't want to sit there reading your life story when they have a stack of other resumes to go through. Save the details for the interview and, perhaps, a summary of qualifications, which you should have handy when you go to the interview. Targeted resumes are very important. One thing that makes me cringe is seeing people write out these long lists of operating systems, programming langauges, applications, office suites, and the like. Lists like those are meaningless. Instead, under your job experience list, give a short description of what you did and include the relevant OSs/langs/apps/suites. But again, keep it brief and maintain scope. Drop the generic mission statements. A good interviewer will guage how well-rounded you are, so leave those lists off the resume, too. Briefness, specifics, and relevance are what you should concentrate on. Forget the fancy fonts. Keep the layout neat and readable. It's a resume, not a royal proclamation. This has worked very well for me. And remember, be sure you can back up and immediately recollect anything you write on your resume. Think of it this way. Your resume is like the front page of a newspaper, the headlines, the stuff that makes you buy the paper. Interviews and everything else are the rest of the newspaper, the juicy details.
An objective statement is meaningless just like the answer to questions like "Where do you want to be in 5 years?". Nobody who ever answered the question truthfully got hired.
I put "graduated from Carleton University" on mine and the phone won't stop ringing! ;-)
(for those who don't know, Carleton and Ottawa U are "competing" universities in Ottawa)
Don't underestimate the power of an excellent cover letter. Not some generic form letter that you fill in the blanks for each prospective PHB^M^M^Memployer but a well written cover letter. Get help if you are not clear on why a qualifies as an excellent letter, take a class or do it the American Way(tm), pay someone. I know a few HR people, cover letters are important.
There's nothing 'vocational' about it. Resume writing and interviewing are skills a person needs to get a job. College is the place where you learn those skills. It makes *sense* to have classes in such things. I went to a Big-10 college and earned a Bachelor of Science. It wasn't a vocational school and the department has an almost 100% placement rate within the first 3 months after graduation....without having to push students through the campus placement office. One of the first things we learned in the class is that resume spamming and using an over-taxed resource like a Placement Office are the absolute *WORST* ways to go about getting an interview.
I had a required class my senior year that covered resume writing (relevent to my major), portfolio layout and creation, and mock interviewing (with representatives from the industry for which I was going to be entering).
I'm in a position in my career now where I look at resumes and portfolios;many from recent college grads wanting to get their foot in the door. It is very easy to see which people have been taught the necessary skills to present themselves effectively. Unfotunately they the minority of the resumes I receive. I can honestly say, though, that the people who can present themselves well have a *huge* competitive advantage over the regular folks who think the Word Resume Wizard and a clumsy cover letter will get you a job.
You can belittle such required college classes all you want. I know, from experience, that the class I took was one of the more important classes I attended.
I basically don't have an education/diploma and am a late comer to the IT. So a proper CV would be kinda thin.
So I add some stuff that every human resource monkey will tell you is a no-no and hope the CV is read by the tech-head/director/someone with clue/non-tie person instead. Stuff like a Q&A section. Birthday-???? School of life. Diploma not yet. (note that I mean humor, it is not comedy) Most of my jobs HR said no, boss and tech department said YES. I only get in trouble once the tech department is reorganized.
Granted I work as a web-developer wich is perhaps an area in wich a bit of creativity is more appreciated then in other fields. You wouldn't accept a simple CV from a designer would you? Your CV will be read among dozen of others, some more capable some less. What you need to do is grab their attention make them curious. Curious enough to want to find out if your the right person. If they are any good they can train you in skills you don't yet have (language, dev tool, eviroment) but they can't teach you to be creative. Nor can they teach you if they never hire you because your cv looked good but didn't spark an interest.
Also another rule seems to be to not list your negatives. WRONG. Honesty works. Works in two ways. First you don't have to bother remembring your lies. Second you can never be caught out telling the truth.
But the most important is this question. If you got to bend youreselve over backwards in the CV what kinda loops do you have to jump through in the job itself? Make the CV reflect who you are. Then the person they invite will be you. Not some superman you dreamed up and can never be in real life.
Last trick, rate the skills that they absolutly require honestly but at the level they ask. So if they ask PHP excellent and you have it list it as such. But don't brag. Be moderate with the rest. If they are smart they will ask you some questions relating to the skills they want and it is better to have them rate you upwards of what you have put down then have them rate you down. (I find that just listing all your skills is a stupid thing to do, it just doesn't tell them anything HR monkeys love it, tech people know it to be a bragging list, rate the skills as to how well you know them and don't be afraid to rank youreselve a noob)
So basically, be yourselve, show some sense of humor, be modest, don't tell lies and above all, DO NOT FEAR REJECTION. And finally (longer post then I intended) don't blanket bomb. Certain companies will just never hire you. Your personality will just not match what they want. I got long hair and look like something the cat brought in and then brought up. Suit companies don't want me, they do invite me because they like my skills but they want someone in a suit. It is funny to do these interviews because of the reaction on their faces.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Other people have told me that recruiters spend 10-15 seconds when first looking at a resume. Give your resume to acquaintances. Can they identify the important attributes on your resume in 10-15 seconds?
As an aside, I also graduated from college, and I was fortunate to have significant work experience while in university. Ever since school ended, I haven't been able to get an interview with anyone! Makes me wish I was still a student so that I could still be eligible for student only internships. Student pay (which is very good at the big companies) is better than no pay.
Other people tell me the hiring patterns are seasonal. Summers are slow. The big guns supposedly start hiring in the Fall.
You don't want even the merest whiff of exaggeration coming off of your resume, or everything on it is immediately suspect. If you were the team leader on a class project that doesn't make you "Highly skilled at project management". Even three years of class projects in Java probably doesn't make you a "Java expert". New grads are rarely "expert" at anything, and if they think they are it usually means they're extra clueless.
If I see a long list of programming languages with no details about how much experience you have with each, I immediately assume you've listed even the languages you've listed every language you've ever used for a class project, played with for a few hours, etc. Tell me how much experience you have with the languages, and if you can be specific about any large programming projects that's even better.
The number-one characteristic of a good resume is the year of publication. Release your resume in 1987, you'll definitely get a job. Same for 1998. From personal experience, I can say that 1975 was a poor choice, and of course you already know that the Bush II era is really bad. 2006 will probably be good.
Seriously, I think the most important advice I can give you is that you shouldn't let the failures get you down. I know how discouraging it is, but realize that your current difficulties aren't a reflection on your personal worth as much as on the economy. If you can stick it out, things will get better.
You might want to read What Colour Is Your Parachute. Resumes will get you a job 2% of the time. A method for getting a job 80% of the time is to simply walk in, ask to talk to the boss, and ask for a job face to face.
That's all, just ask them... They might have
asked their boss's what got them in (or have
heard or worked it out for themselves...)
Don't ask me... it's been too long since then
Go check out the Jobs Blog at Microsoft: http://blogs.msdn.com/jobsblog. The authors are great people, and have really good advice on this sort of topic.
iRooster, the Mac OS X a
Much more important than marks are all the part time jobs you had whle studying that were related to your field so focus on them. Didnt have any? Oh dear.. You might want to spend a couple of years getting some work experience as a volunteer first. After all work involves actual work, not sitting exams.
Also dont apply through the email. You really must send in a printed copies of your CV, with photo, and application letter. And keep it brief. Hobbies and interests are no longer required unless related to the job.
Starving new IT graduate.
Knows how to use computers.
Will work for food.
Have passport, can relocate.
My old grandpappy taught me the most important lesson in job acquistion:
... take away ... take away the thing
.../kidding aside...
:p
You can slide furthur on bullshit than you can on concrete.
Now, there's a difference between bullshitting and lying.
JAKE
Well, they aren't the kind of guys
who write letters. You were outside!
I was inside! You were to keep in
touch with the band. I kept askin'
ya' if we were gonna play again.
ELWOOD
What was I gonna do?
your hope?
what kept ya' goin' in there? I
bullshitted you, okay?
See, the difference between Bullshit and Lying, is that people want to hear the bullshit.
So tell them what they want to hear, not what you want them to know. Employers don't really care that you like to hug teddy bears for goodwill, but they certainly want to know if you will show up to work 5 days in a row.
Employment and Skills. A resume with more than that is fluff, and probably smells like it.
Now, that being said, I have an unusually long resume, but that's cause I know-it-all.
"...In your answer, ignore facts. Just go with what feels true..."
For an entry level candidate, you should have no more than one page. Anything else just shows your arrogant. There are a lot of people who are a lot smarter than you. There are reasons why most recruiters only want one page but just accept this for now.
You want to have an aestically pleasing resume. You should look at it and immediately notice whatever you are most proud of. You'll want to make very clear your past work experience and especially the skills you possess.
Most recruiters run through resumes looking to fill jobs. They'll look for a "Linux developer with n years C/C++ experience" or a "Java programmer with J2EE blah blah blah".
I imagine the fact that you have more than one page is why you're not getting interviews. Most recruiters I know immediately throw out resumes greater than one page.
int func(int a);
func((b += 3, b));
I've had 11 job offers through three different job searches since senior year of college five years ago. Here's how I did it.
Background: Studied history and a foreign language at an Ivy League school. I worked my way through school in part as an employee of the university's computer group.
The first job search was during the 1998-1999 school year. I knew I couldn't work for the university computer group forever, although it was a terrific job, but was unsure on what I wanted to do. A bigger issue was that I hadn't done any summer internships and, although my Unix skills were strong, lacking a CS degree meant I was a long shot for many technical jobs (not that I wanted to grind out code anyway). At the same time, my technical skills often confused HR people looking to fill non-technical jobs.
To compensate, I applied to dozens and dozens of positions in a wide variety of fields, including investment banking and other financial services; consulting; established companies; and startups. In addition to using the university's career center (the school made ten new job listings available every week or so), I also aggressively targeted individual companies through their career Web sites, using electronic résumé submissions when possible and nice, thick, high-quality paper and envelopes when not. I even spent part of Christmas break mailing off cover letters and résumés.
It took a while, but as I became better at interviews, the offers started rolling in. By the week after graduation, I had seven job offers. These included one from a famous investment bank's technology group (working with tech companies as an investment banker, not IT for the bank), one from a management consulting company, four from small tech companies (one marketing/product management, two sales, and one that involved pretty esoteric financial software development using PL/I), and one from an online trading company. No offer came through "knowing the right person"; each one took hard work on my part. Although several of the jobs' descriptions formally required a technical degree of some kind (Especially that PL/I coding job!), I was able to demonstrate that my background met the requirements. I ultimately chose to go with the investment bank, in large part because I figured that I could always make the jump to a startup down the road from such a job, while it'd be much harder to make the jump in the other direction. Little did I know how true that would turn out to be.
Three years later, somewhat burned out by the investment banking lifestyle and looking for a change, I quit my job and reentered the job market. Again I aggressively worked job listings and company Web sites. Given that this was right in the middle of the 2001-2003 era of massive job losses at financial services firms the search took a while, but after about four months of looking I ended up with two offers, one from a buyout fund and one from a small investment bank.
A few months ago, deciding that I liked the sort of work I did in my first job better than that in my second job, I once again began looking around. Using the same methods as before and thanks to a reviving financial services job market, within four weeks I'd landed two terrific job offers, one with another famous investment banking tech group and one from a hedge fund. I took the former and started there last week.
---------
I've used what is essentially the same résumé design since senior year. I don't have an Objective line at the top; having one is almost always a red flag to companies. And it doesn't matter if you are the President of the United States; absolutely, positively, keep the résumé a single page. This is not an academic CV, where listing the names and coauthors of every paper you've published is important. This is for a job search where your résumé will get maybe 30 seconds of attention. Also, using a readable, classy serif font like Garamond or Palatino is another way
Hell, I have been an engineer for 17 years, and I would try to keep my resumee down to 3 pages!
First pass, your resumee will get about 10 seconds of review, if that. If I cannot extract the meaningful information in that length of time, bu-bye.
If you are using a head-hunting service, they WILL hammer the shit out of your resumee - it will look like absolute CRAP when they are done with it (scan it, OCR it, condense it, fax it, convert it back to a PDF). True, IF you are sending your resumee directly to the company you need to make sure it is cleanly printed, preferably on a good high bond weight paper. But don't be like Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes - a shiny binder and pretty paper will not disguise the absense of content.
You need to play up whatever experience you have - even if it was just washing dishes or pushing a lawnmower for a parks department (those items are autobiographical). Demonstrating a good work ethic at a crap job is STILL very valuable.
But DON'T exaggerate yourself - you may have taking Signal Processing 101, but you don't know CRAP about signal processing yet (substitute anything from your own education you want). I cannot count the number of times I've interviewed someone who said "C++ experience" on their resumee who could not tell me the difference between IS-A and HAS-A, or even what a class is!
Since you are staring out, you DO need to tell me where in general you want to go - a one or two sentence goals section is helpful. Be real, be specific - "I want to develop Web applications for public use" or "I want to be a technical writer" is good, "I want to excel in creating software" is bad.
Apply for approrpiate jobs. I had a candidate come in the other day - she had been an engineer for some time, but had basically been doing mostly apps level work. She had studied DSP in school, and wanted to get more into that. Unfortunately, she was applying for a senior DSP position. She wasted our time and airfare for the second interview, and that makes us LESS likely to hire her.
I am going to give you the three most important words any technical person can learn, right now. Study them well:
I'd FAR rather deal with somebody who is willing to say they don't know (but are willing to try to find out) than to deal with somebody who is unwilling to EVER admit ignorance. Hell, I am one of the "go-to guys" at work, I *do* know the answers most of the times, but I still often have to say "I don't know, that is not my field of expertise - I can look it up, or you might talk to [person] as they would know more about it"
One last piece of advice: Be trustworthy. Be the sort of person your supervisor can say "This needs to be done. Handle it." and feel that it will be handled. If you have problems, by all means ask for help - but make sure that what has been assigned to you gets done - if not by you then by somebody. One of the best job recommendations I had was from the foreman at the Parks department - while all of the other summer help fuckoffs needed constant supervision to insure they did their jobs and weren't out joyriding or smoking dope, he knew he could just say "The city building needs work today." and I would do it - quickly, properly, and professionally - the Mayor would not be calling about me screwing off.
www.eFax.com are spammers
Why should humans do job hiring? The computer could and should be able to analyze all PDF resumes in a matter of minutes.
Why not let a computer give each resume a score based on what's required for the position and simply have the person with the highest score be automatically hired.
I see no point to having humans do this, or in having an interview process. Humans when it comes to this stuff are just not as efficient as computers and never can be as efficient. This would be equal to using humans to givee all grades. Teachers use computers and grading standards for a reason.
People don't exist to serve systems, systems exist to serve people.
I see a LOT of resumes. Short is great, if you've got a lot of job experience which targets the job you're applying for.
So if you can do short, great.
BUT YOU CAN'T, BUCKO. You've got no experience. So you need that interview, 'cause we think you're a rank amateur. You'd better show in that resume that you didn't just do the basic class crap we see all the time.
Talk about projects in complete sentences and make interesting points about them.
Screeners ARE busy people. They won't read your resume. Or Mine. Or anyone else's. They search for keywords. Put in a short skills section with keywords. Use different forms of the same skill names (eg. VB, Visual Basic, Microsoft Visual Basic librarywhatever environment, etc. (and by the way, if it's a java or C job, downplay the friggin' VB)) so that the search is more likely to hit.
That was stage one: "Get past the screener, to someone who knows something about computing."
Then you've got an entirely different stage. The stage where you have to get the interview. Your resume has been passed to someone who will maybe read it. You have to talk to them like a human being, and tell them what you know, honestly, and yet in a way which shows you ACTUALLY KNOW STUFF.
You cannot do that in SHORT. You do that in sections.
Some people will skip such a resume. Well, you weren't gonna get the interview with them, anyhow, because without job experience, as a candidate, you suck.
So take your time. Write several sentences for each skill or experience you want to accentuate. Say it in your experience section, say it in your cover letter, etc. Don't be boring, but don't expect people to believe that since you took a class in VB that you know anything at all about it. SHOW IT.
Include a link to a web space which shows your work, if it's good.
Include a few sentences in the cover letter which show that you've looked to see what the company you're applying to does. Use its name. Say you're interested in something to do with it.
And don't listen to anything you've read about resumes for jobs right out of college or high-school. They assume you have no skills and they know nothing about the computing workplace. They're school-teachers, for goodness sake. They have associates degrees, many in education, and damned few of them worked in a MIS shop. Ignore them.
I have taught for 23 years, and have teaching/technical certifications. My resume is one page. On a second sheet, I have references, publications, presentations. Everything is tightly edited, and they only get high points. Any idiot in HR can scan the thing to see if I meet job requirements. They can ask for detail in the interview.
I was an assistant principal for a while, and I had all the scheduling and disciplinary duties that go with such a position. I don't bother listing the specifics. They either already have a pretty good idea or they don't care.
Get some experience. Trim down the resume to a single page. Do volunteer work if you don't have any real recommendations.
As you can see from the responses, different people look for different things. Here is my take on resumes. First, your resume will be reviewed by someone in HR. They will look for specific qualifications, like C++ or Java. So be sure to list all of the languages and CS courses you have taken. If you get past HR, your resume will go to a manager of some sort. They will be real impressed if you mention something specific about the company, preferably in a well written cover letter. Finally, you resume will come to a senior programmer type (like me). I want to interview and recommend intelligent people who love to program and who can learn and work independently. If you have taken any advanced math, science, or statistic courses, I consider it a good sign. I would also like to read something about any class projects you may have worked on. Stuff you have written on your own for fun, or open source projects you have worked on will indicate that you like to program. A list of programming books you have read will help convince me that you can learn on you own. Don't lie or exaggerate about anything. If hired, you will probably be found out. Being fired for unethical behavior is not a good career move.
Hope this helps, good luck.
Someone needs to be "beat (sic) around the head and neck," but it's not the Dean of that institution. Universities were in the business of educating you in the theory of whichever field you choose to study, not in the theory of finding a job. That's for someone else to do, often a service-type department of the university.
Besides which, I don't believe he was belittling the classes, he was belittling the idiotic idea that presentation is more important than what you have learned. Beyond a point, presentation is a shiny, shiny trinket, nothing more.
Universities are supposed to educate you to a point where you are capable of successfully communicating with your peers, so surely a pretty, pretty resume means very little other than to establish the applicant has the relevant qualifications. If you're hiring someone, it's your duty to the company to interview each and every suitable application, regardless of their crap or shiny, shiny trinket of a resume, and find the BEST possible choice, not say "Oh, I like his CV, it's printed on pretty pink paper, with lavender ink and he has such a flowery script. I think I'll interview him!"
That's very true.
Actually, as I understand it from people who do this for a living, you have around 20 seconds to make a first impression on a very quick scan. That's mostly first-page stuff: does this person have roughly the right mix of skills, and do they have roughly the right level of professional and academic experience?
If you don't get circular-filed at that point, you'll probably get a reasonable, slightly deeper reading: they'll look at the more specific details of past work experience and higher academic qualifications. If you mentioned a web site and your CV is being read by a real person not an HR computer, they might take a look at this stage, too. If they're still reading worthwhile stuff after a couple of minutes, you're probably shortlisted.
CVs might include more (relevant!) detail than that so that they can form the basis for a conversation at interview, but remember that it's a conversation starter. It should provide the interviewer(s) with a neat list of things to start talking about, and you should be able to expand on any of them as they wish when you meet them in person. You don't need to tell your whole life story!
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
I'm sure I'm not the first, nor the last who tells you this. A good resume doesn't hurt, if someone is hiring in a legitimate sense it is a majory benefit, however you often have better chances gettings started using the connections your school and department can build for you. The problem is the larger the field the harder this will be, and its more doable with high profile schools that are known for their connections to the industry.
My expertise is in a narrow and new field, I've already been published and i've already been given a summer research position and free housing because of what I'm doing. I got lucky, but in the end if you can build a network of companies, professionals and other sources you'll benefit greatly.
That said, a cover letter and clean simple layout are important. The person hiring is not necessarily the brightest, or most interested in what they're doing. Don't fold your resume and put it in a regular envelope, send it first class in the larger envelopes. Unfolding is enough of a chore for the employers. Also if your school has a career help group or office, go to them, they will usually help even grads put together resumes and give pointers. Or they may have samples or guides on how to do it.
The ability to miss pell code in sophtware and talk badly about America. It would help if you could work for three and a half cents a day, eat stale bread and dirty water, and somewhere around 90 hours per week.
I recall an article on Yahoo about HP hiring primarily Indian workers for exactly those reasons. I can't personally comment, however, I've heard numerous complaints both externally and internally about the quality of service from support staff in foreign countries. In relation, other companies such as Dell, have "clipped coupons" when it comes down to support expenses. I recently called Dell about a BIOS problem, the guy didn't know about a BIOS update, kept me on the phone for 45-50 minutes while I found the answer in less than 20 minutes, its documentation on the known problems of the old BIOS - what causes the anomaly, and installation instructions. To top it off, the guy yelled, "F*ck" into the phone, then hung up on us for no reason. He never called back and his review (sent to me via email) was returned with poor markings.
-- Game Developers: Stop porting badly-textured games from crappy console systems!
I find your sig particularly ironic in light of that comment.
Did it not occur to you that there's more to finding the right person for a job than looking for the most years of experience in the most skills (by a specified name)?
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
Say you're out with friends people watching, joking about snap, shallow decisions about who you'd do, who you wouldn't do, who's hot, who's not, and why.
Recruiters' initial glance at resumes is equally shallow. Take it for granted that someone out there has seen your resume and rejected it out of hand, simply because something irritated them about it. Something as simple as your choice of fonts, or maybe even the paper. Or they just don't like it, period. Your piece of paper has about three seconds to make a good impression.
Good luck!
I didn't think the house band in Hell would play this badly.
Or do what I did. I happened to know an HR guy that went to my church. I asked him I could talk to the IT director about how he/she first got a job and what they look for. I never directly asked anybody for a job. Four weeks later, someone got canned in IT and guess who was the 1st person the IT Director thought of? Me. So now I work in the IT department of a hospital and have been for nearly a year and a half.
:wq
yes their race matters.
People don't exist to serve systems, systems exist to serve people.
A lot of places use a scoring technique to reduce the number of applications/resumes that are seen by the HR people.
The problem with an automated system that leads straight to interviews is that it can be gamed. If google and spam filters can be gamed to give irrelevant results, so can a resume sorting/filtering/scoring system.