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"

Comments

Humor

[SmallFurryCreature]

Well it worked for me. About 50% of the time I did get an interview. This was during the bubble and after.

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.

How CVs get read

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

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.

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!