Slashdot Mirror
Writing a Good Technical Resume?
SuperMallen asks: "As a newly minted hiring manager, I've spent the last few weeks plowing through the large pile of resumes for one of my open positions. The varying formatting and quality of the resumes has stunned me. People do everything from a short list of jobs and positions to essays on each and every project they ever thought about in a job. Everyone seems to subscribe to the 'here's a giant pile of technologies I'm familiar with at the top' school, but I usually ignore this and go straight for their past work history and glean from there. Surely the Slashdot community can help point out what makes for good formatting and content in a technical resume. I'd love to also see some good sample resumes people have used in the past, and any good websites or book recommendations on how to write these effectively, so we can all spend less time reading and writing bad ones."
Write "Karma on /.: karma_value"
I've had occasion to read through stacks of Curriculum Vitea (I'm English) in my job. It's truly a soul destroying task. I don't have any links to samples but experience has taught me one universal truth: Long lists of skills mean nothing. People put everything they've ever heard of. It comes to the interview and it goes along the lines of "You know Perl well? No, but I walked past the Camel book in a library once.". If there isn't any mention of using the skill then the chances are the candidate hasn't ever used it professionally. I've updated my CV to put jobs and key projects with a description of the skills used in each first now.
http://twitter.com/onion2k
Well, first of all you should realise that every applicant is just trying to please you. So if they write the CV in a certain way, they do it because they expect you to like it that way. How do they know? Well, they go by the few clues that they have, the most important ones being the job announcement and the company website.
:-).
> People do everything from a short list of jobs and positions to essays on each and every project they ever thought about in a job.
If you think that the variety makes it difficult to compary CVs, you can specify a certain structure. The easiest way to do that is a web front end for entering the CV information, with some guidelines on how many details to give. Just look at the CV generator at monster to get the idea. For applicants that can be a pain (unless you use e.g. monster), so you may lose some, but if it makes your work easier, it might be worth it.
> Surely the Slashdot community can help point out what makes for good formatting and content in a technical resume.
That depends on what you are looking for. I like to see a clear (and appropriate) structure, because structure is so important in IT. Many HR people look for fonts and spelling etc, but I always found that a bit superficial. Instead have a look for good command of the english language, which is not at all too common
Oh, and BTW: all these requirements also apply to the job ad. You get what you deserve. So if your job ad is a huge unformated pile of bullshit bingo and TLAs, don't complain about the declining quality of resumes!
Paul.
--
Paul Hurley, Completely Pointless
The ideal resume structure depends upon the job for which one is applying. A resume I recently used was slightly under 200 lines of (up to) 78 characters of ASCII text; its sections were "Education" (2 degrees, 5 lines), "Scholarships" (3 entries, 3 lines), "Awards" (5 entries, 5 lines), "Employment" (3 entries, 8 lines), "Research" (8 entries, 60 lines), "Other activities" (10 entries, 20 lines), "Publications" (10 entries, 25 lines), "Software written" (3 entries, 15 lines), and "Grep bait" (3 lines). Obviously, this was heavily weighted towards pointing out my research abilities; this makes sense, since I was applying for a job doing research.
If I had been applying for a position as a programmer, I would probably have swapped the positions and lengths of the "Software written" and "Research" sections. If I was applying for a scholarship, I would have listed more of the awards I've received. If I was applying for a job at a company which didn't have a reputation for applying computers to the task of filtering resumes, I would have omitted the "Grep bait" section.
It's not rocket science: Decide what job you want, decide what you would like to see on a resume if you were hiring someone for that job, and then write that resume.
Tarsnap: Online backups for the truly paranoid
The problem with resumes these days, IMO, is that you have to both make a resume that'll get through the automated filters many companies use and still be grabbing to the human that eventually will read it. Filters throw out anything without the right keywords so you have to cram your resume with lots of keywords. Obviously, like web pages that are stuffed with keywords, this leads to resumes that are long and ugly. Then you feel your resume is to long and repetitive so you feel the need to trim out details in your work and education history.
I always feel the need to explain not only what I know but also how well I know it and how recently I've used it. This is helpful I think but leads to a resume that some people throw out as simply being to verbose.
Then my girlfriend says my resume is ugly so she wants to spend a lot of time picking the right fonts, paper, etc despite the fact that the nicer looking version is actually harder to read. I hate resumes. Why don't we use one of the available XML-based formats for passing around resumes.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
taught me that short and to the point works, under 2 pages, is preferred. Incidentally, my English professor shares this same attitude about good writing (using the book "On Writing Well" by Zinsser).
My experience bore this out. Of course, a resume is only to get a foot in the door. You can use (or prospective future employees) can bypass that step and use contacts to land an interview.
In my experience you can't just write one CV/Resume. You always have to tailor it. Try to submit one that company A loved in the past to Agency/Company B and they'll complain it shows "too much of X, and not enough of Y". Tweak it to their specs and the next lot will complain it has "too much Y", then the next will say "where's the Z section?", and you'll go and add that in, to which the next will say "Sorry, because you included Y and Z it's too long, we only check the front page" (which is the reason for that brief listing of skillsets people use).
Like others have said, the only way to be sure the applications will be amenable to you looking over them quickly, and later in detail, is to have CV/Resumes submitted directly to yourself and pre-specify the format you expect.
What's needed is an ISO (eek!) standard CV format, and for all agencies and HR depts to accept it without whining.
My experience is that finding a new, decent, job takes around seven months. I've done it several times and that is the average time it takes from the time I start looking until I start the job. I've not noticed learning new skills or getting job experience as speeding the process up that much. The most useful thing is to make contacts. I'd suggest starting some personal company utilizing your skills and join your local chamber of commerce and actually attend events and be social. It's rough if you're shy but the personal skills are important for you career. You may get hired by Ma & Pa's Kettle Shop instead of IBM but it'll give you some valid work experience and a paycheck. Learn some new skills too. Knowing the tech stuff is great but if you also understand business and other useful stuff you'll be a lot more useful to future employers.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
I graduated with a First Class Masters, so I am not *exactly* in the same position as you. I managed to find a job, as did most of my friends, quite quickly. However, your carpet-bomb approach has come up with jack, and you should have found a job by now. I am expecting you are doing something wrong.
.NET guy for a month or two to help out with a project; and they generally aren't that picky (if you were a stunning recruit, you would already be in full-time employment!)
;) Good luck! Persistence is the key! (and it really seems you have that in bucket-loads!)
First place to start is the resume. Is it eye-catching? If it's not, it's in the trash. You can Google for resumes, and some people have good-looking ones (especially graphic designers, but don't use graphics in yours!). Don't fall into the trap of copying other people's structure either. I suggest a Personal Profile, bullet-point list of achievements, and then your education at the bottom (your degree isn't too hot, you've got it, but they're looking for what you learnt from it, and that's what you are giving further up)
Does it tell them who you are? You have no work experience, which really hurts you, but what did you do at school? Think about what they are looking for. Have you been a team leader? Give an example when you had to communicate something effectively (written or verbal). Do you have teamwork experience? These are the things that your degree isn't necessarily going to prove you have, and separate the wheat from the chaff. You need to let them know.
The second place to look is who are you sending it to? Is it targetted? If you just send a CV to IBM, it's going in the bin. Don't just send it with a cover letter and cross your fingers. Actually apply to a position that exists. You'll need to apply for a position where you are suitable. You probably aren't going to get a graduate job with the big companies, look smaller. Look for grad programs, sure, but also look for small-time positions at universities, IT support for schools or small businesses.
The third thing to look at is definitely that experience problem. Get a job, doing *anything*. Even retail will help, show you can manage your time effectively, communicate with customers to help find what they want (requirements elicitation is a great way of wording that!) There is no job which will not help you resume (apart from stripper). I would suggest looking at recruitment agencies; there are usually temp programming jobs in cities that need a Java or
I hope this helps. I also hope this seems very obvious to you, and this is what you have been doing already
Identification & contact details. (address, phone etc)
Date (so they know the resume is current)
Summary blurb. (Use this as your "hook" if you have anything to brag about.
"On our last project I was instrumental in our team's successful cure for cancer, elimination of world hunger and the establishment of Unreal Tournament as the nation's premier sporting event."
Bullet point listing of key competencies.
* Brain surgery
* Microsurgery
* Lisp coder
etc
One or two paragraph summary of experience, most recent first.
August 2005 - Current:
Crowd controller for Rammstein.
Acting as a human buffer to crazed fans, I successfully protected the band from encroachment and injury on 37 separate occasions. A strong commitment to workplace safety was demonstrated by my use of a rubber-shielded baton, while my leather and vinyl attire coordinated well with the band's homo-industrial stage antics.
July 2004 - August 2005:
Speech Writer for Tourettes' Debating Team.
etc
The key is to get ALL of this up to a couple of your most recent gigs on one page. That'll give the reviewer a good chance to assess you and shortlist you without having to wade through reams of paper, so keep it al brief and to the point.
Once you've got that part done, you an start listing other experience and qualifications on the following pages, then finish up with references. As well as a list of names and contact info, it's a good idea to include a couple of juicy quotes from referees.
References
"T Person was the most effective human speed-bump this company has ever employed. His great bulk would have been enough to stop a rocket propelled tank."
Good luck...
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
Just do something like this Aleksey Vayner.
(Yeah. I know its old news by now. Still makes melaugh)
I write Perl, and I work writing Perl.
:)
And ever since I got to about 4 or 5 CPAN modules released, I haven't needed a resume at all since.
Generally it's just enough to say "My CPAN id is $foo".
It also works in reverse as well, in situations where I've been hiring or interviewing Perl people, my first question tends to be "Do you have a CPAN id?".
If so, you can immediately go see what standard they work to when they expect their peers to read their code.
If not, they general apologize or mumble something about always meaning to, and we go into why not. Often it's valid reasons, and all is fine.
If they don't know what a CPAN id is, well then they almost certainly aren't getting the job
Make it one page with a short work history (past 5 years only) with dates, places and company names. In the opening blurb, condense your professional interests, accomplishments and goals into a short paragraph.
Graphically organize this information so that it is easy to digest at a glance, bolding important words as appropriate for the situation. Be honest and do not embellish or pad your experience, education or knowledge.
Since blinky LEDs and tiny batteries are cheap these days, you could always attach a few to those envelopes going to the places you *really* want to work for.
it took me 3 months to get my first in person interview, and they ended up hiring me. I started my search end of april last year. Not sure if that helps.. btw only 3-4 per week? I think you need to up the quota :)
BTW i had a 2.4x GPA. One thing i did do, was outside projects though. All of the 9 people who interviewed me, asked me about the MUD i worked on.
I have an oddball background (some people have it worse). I've tried about 9 different formats and I always get a 50/50 love-hate response. That part's probably normal and I'm being paranoid. :)
I always find that, on forms like Monster's, there's always one or two required fields I can't correctly/honestly fill in the way they want it. I tend to find the automated formats "unflattering," but there you are.
It's a hot job market, though. Sometimes it doesn't seem that way, but that's because it's a very competetive one as well.
I'm not in position of actually hiring people, but every now and then I've been asked to interview the employee candidates. The managers then base their decision (more or less) on my opinion. In the (hopefully clearly structured) resume, the candidate claims to have knowledge on specific technical areas, let it be programming environments, languages, databases or whatever.
My job as a interviewer is to determine how truthful the resume is. This is done by discussing the competence areas with rather low level technical terms. Asking whether the candidate can explain terms like semaphore, mutex, process, thread, iteration, recursion, and so on, tells a lot about persons technical skills. Way more than "Java Programming, level 4", in the resume.
So if the person can fluently discuss with technical terms, he probably also knows the stuff he's talking about. Conclusion? A compact, well structured resume may get you to the interview, but IMHO it's the interview that eventually matters.
You probably want to find or make a good LaTeX/TeX template and use that. Every computer science master student does that here at least, and the companies loves it.
I recently graduated, and my school's job placement program required resumes in a very particular format - which looked like crap. However, I guess it does standardize things a bit when they send off fifty of them to a company that asks for "everyone in CS with a 3.4 or higher gpa".
I think the best way to get better resumes is to in your job posting either give a format or give specific items you'd like to see. I knew when I wrote mine that it had to get past a million filters - so even if I only spent a couple days and one project writing Java, I had to get it on there somehow - if only to get past the HR department into a real interview, where I knew I could convince people that I knew how to code.
If you only care about job experience, say that. Or if you want sample code.
My current employer glanced at my resume to get me an interview, but then didn't even want to see my references. They just gave me a coding assignment and two days to do it. I've honestly started thinking that might be the best way, for just a straight introductory to middle-of-the-road coding job. If they aren't don't want the job enough to do the assignment, why hire them? And how else can you tell what their code is like?
Most recruiters, job engines, etc wouldn't even forward you the resume if it didn't match certain keywords. So people that want to get their resume in front of someone have to put every conceivable keyword on there, in the hopes that their resume will at least get to some decisionmaker. You can safely ignore that list, it's an unfortunate consequence of trying to get hired in today's market. A classically formatted resume will never get past the computer filters.
stuff |
One question I always ask in interviews -- "Tell me about some code that you wrote that wasn't for work or school." As an example, I wrote "voting fraud" program to You need to show that you'll be a great employee because you love the job. If you're going for an IT position, you should be proud of your home network. If you're a coder, you should talk about the program/package that you wrote just for fun. Whatever you do, on your resume have examples of how you do it for the love of it -- Write about your MythTV, write about your web site, write about your spam filter implementation ....write about SOMETHING that shows you're in the field because you LOVE it, not because you're looking for a job.
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm
In a lot of cases, people know languages/technologies very well that they do not use at their job. Basically, if you follow the procedure of only accepting technologies used on in the job history, once someone gets their first job that will define them for the rest of their career. Most computer science (and even other subjects that require programming) college graduates used C++ or Java while at college (in the past 10 or so years). In addition to using it for many years at school, they also use it on their own. Nevertheless, their job may be using VB/C#/something else.
Another good example is Linux. A lot of us use it at home but at our jobs we are stuck using Windows or some proprietary UNIX. Nevertheless when my last job got a Linux server to experiment I was there to install Linux, recompile the kernel with what we needed, and to show everyone how to navigate around the box. Now using your technique if I was applying for a job at some company using Linux I would have been screened out.
Another example I can think of is Ruby. There are many Ruby fanatics who use it all the time at home but just cannot use it at work. If you were looking for a Ruby programmer a lot of these people who use Ruby like crazy at home would be excluded because it is not in their work history.
Also, no matter what technology there is, your company will eventually probably switch technologies. Do you want to keep hiring people every time your company switches technologies? Probably you need someone who can grow and learn whatever technology they want. Also, even if you do not plan to switch technologies (which sounds questionable to me), the new employee will have to learn your system. I think the technical skills list provides a good basis for talking about what the candidate knows. If you see many technologies not interested in their work interest it may express a willingness and desire to learn new things. I think the best thing you could do (and I had a company do this) is to give a small assignment to all you candidates in whatever technology you are most interested in and see who succeeds.
I had a financial company do this to me one time (in a language J that me, and most of the people being hired, did not use). The task was ultimately easy but because it was a language that most people don't use it took time to use the language reference to look up the task. Ultimately, it narrowed the field of applications from hundreds (1.5-3 hundred I forget) to a handful for the interview (if only I didn't get lost finding the building I would probably have been working there).
This becomes even more important as you use less popular technologies. But also, if you hire people and they are only permitted to work with things in their past work history, the job is going to be boring. Personally if I don't learn anything new at all at a job, I'm going to be looking to leave.
To add on to the advice:
When dealing with recruitment agencies, you need to be persistent. It's a two-way street. You need to follow-up with them. The go-getter who calls is going to stick in their head more than the the stack of CVs on their desk. If they don't have your CV in front of them when you call, offer to e-mail it straight away.
The other part is that you need to be selective about the recruitment agency as well. Make sure they are good. Ask if you can talk to others who have worked for them. You don't want to get bound to some crappy company. And companies vary from region to region, so make sure you find out from someone local what the rep is, not from another part of the country.
I hounded my recruiter for weeks and weeks. And he got me a job, partly because I kept up with him, kept my skills fresh in his mind, and reminded him that I could do jobs he was thinking would be boring for me.
Linux - because it doesn't leave that Steve Ballmer aftertaste.
Why did you begin job hunting so long after graduation? That's the first thing I'd notice. As an HR deparment, I'd think you either couldn't land a job in that time or were already fired once and haven't dislosed it. There's nothing you can do about it now but that's something to think about.
Did you send 50 or 60 different resumes to these 50 or 60 different companies? You should always tailor your resume to each and every company. Make sure you don't waste resume space on things they don't care about. If the job listing doesn't mention C#, the don't waste HR's time by putting C# on your resume for them. And do a cover letter for each and every resume you send out. Make sure that letter focuses first on how you can be an asset to them and secondly on how much you would like to work with them.
Then call them. Call them early in the process and call them every time they say you should hear back from them. This is so important because you can get feedback on why they're not persuing you as a candidate. If you hear the same reasons over and over, you know that you need to fix something.
How sub-3.0 is you GPA? Surely you're not putting the GPA on your resume at under 3.0?
If your shyness is getting in the way of effectively job hunting, then you my need to consult a doctor. I had a friend in that situation and the doctor prescribed him an antidepressant to get him through the anxiety he experienced due to his shyness (there's a term for that and I forget what it is).
I recently graduated from college (B.S. CS, Math minor) myself. My experience has been the exact opposite of yours: People are finding me and offering me jobs - I haven't actually applied for one since three years ago. It's come to the point where I'm turning them down (mostly because I'm currently doing a Ph. D. full-time, but I'm assuming you have no desire to do that - you'd honestly have a hard time getting in anyway with a sub-3.0 GPA).
Unfortunately, I also did the opposite of what you did in college (though I'm probably just as shy as you are) - I got involved with lots of extracurriculars (being president of an honor society, in particular, resonates very well with employers) and graduated first in my class. I also built up a relevant work history while in high school and college. If you go back for a master's degree at any point, try to do things differently - it's important.
From my experience, the statistic companies are most interested in when hiring college graduates is the GPA. This can be frustrating regardless of what your GPA is (if it's very high, they ignore the rest of your resume; if it's low or absent, it becomes a focus of the interview). If your major GPA is higher than your general GPA, you can try listing that. Lacking a good GPA, you're going to need to compensate with something else - work experience, hobbies, or, in general, some sort of demonstration that you know what you're doing in the field. If you did some sort of research while in college, you can try listing that, even if you have no intentions of pursuing an academic career - publications demonstrate uncommon expertise in a small area of a field, which can perhaps make up somewhat for a poor GPA.
Next, skills and experience: if you list a skill on your resume, list some way that you've demonstrated that skill, even if it's a hobby. Nothing says you can do a job better than having done something similar already, so build a portfolio of your work. I expect that you at least work on technical projects as a hobby, or else what are you doing in this field in the first place?
To summarize: you want to demonstrate to an employer that you have the skills and experience necessary to successfully perform a job for that employer. Merely listing the skill isn't enough; you have to prove, in one way or another, that you have the knowledge, intellectual strength, passion for the field, and work ethic to work on these sorts of projects. If your academic record does not demonstrate any of these qualities, you must find another way to do so if you expect anyone to hire you.
Even if employers may ignore the skills at the top, those skills will do a lot to get your resume found by search engines. If you end up near the top of a results list for some common search term and your resume is suitably impressive, people are, at some point or another, going to contact you with job offers. This is obviously a good position to be in. Never be a supplicant if you can avoid it.
As for what to put on it, a short paragraph about each job is pretty standard. Obviously, you want to highlight your strongest points. If you have an excellent academic record, it may help to include more detail in the education section. Similarly, if you have lots of work experience, make sure that the resume gives an accurate representation of that experience. If you have good records in both, balance it based on what sort of job you're looking for.
Agreed
The biggest resume mistake that I have ever seen is when everyone in some college / university program takes a course where *EVERYONE* has to format the resume exactly the same way. The result is that the entire classes resumes look almost identical.
After I read the first two of those resumes, every single one of them gets weeded out.
You really need to do something on the first page that clearly gives me a reason to hire you. When reading through a stack of resumes, I am looking for a reason to hire you. Why are you better than everyone else? If you can't give me a reason to hire you in the first page, then you are out. I am not reading the second page.
Incidentally, I went to one of these photostat resume courses once. I did a resume on blue paper. I was held up as an example of the worst possible resume you could write. That resume netted me a job interview with a prestigious high-tech company at the time.
Lesson: avoid having the exact same resume format/content that your classmates have.
The parent is spot on. In today's recruitment business, there may be as many as three filters before you even get to the guys who are technically knowledgeable: a recruitment agency/job board if you use one, the HR database at the company you're applying for, and the HR weenie who's pulling out things that pass their automated filters to pass to the technical guys. Exactly none of these steps is likely to involve anyone technically competent who understands what the buzzwords and abbreviations mean. Java is the same as Javascript, right? But there's no way someone with five years' experience working with Linux, Apache, MySQL and Perl is going to be of any use doing a job that uses PostgreSQL and PHP.
Of course the skills list is of limited value to the technical reviewers/interviewers. In fact, it's of no value at all unless the candidate has attached some sort of meaningful experience/skill level indicators to each entry. But to get that far with most large organisations or if agencies are involved, you've got to play the database game. That's yet another reason I prefer working for smaller companies, where the CVs that aren't obvious recycling fodder generally go straight to the technical guys who are doing the interviews.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
For some jobs, I add a 3-4 line "Things I do for fun" section to my resume, highlighting relevant technical and non-technical hobbies and volunteer work not listed elsewhere.
It just might get me the interview if I'm on the bubble, and it may help me know which hiring managers see me as a person not just as a skill set.
The key is keeping it relevant and short, and remembering that the entire section is expendable if space is an issue.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Hmm, well, not exactly. If you only put down the skills that you have that are your best, you may miss opportunities. I have gone over many resumes, interviewed a lot of people in my day (probably 50) and have been a hiring manager. I like seeing a list of their skills grouped by their level of understanding of the subject. If using Linux is a must-have skill, but I don't need a guru, I might be willing to look at someone who has a decent understanding of it. I have talked to people who said "yes, I have used Unix". My next question is always "What shell do you use?" If I get a blank stare, I already got my answer. But it is much easier for someone to learn MORE about Unix than to have never used it at all. I don't have a problem with people putting everything they've ever used on their resume, as long as they qualify it. Oh, and aren't stupid about it... listing all the versions of Windows you have ever used is silly. I put on mine "MS Windows - 3.11 through XP" That covers it.
Yes, that can maybe be gleaned from job descriptions and whatnot, but things like programming knowlege can't always. I have a CS degree, and used to do programming. But I have been involved in QA and testing for my whole career of 13 years. I still have the various languages I am familiar with on my resume, with the caveat that my experience with them is fairly low. Of course, I still get people asking me about programming jobs, probably because they don't even READ my resume and probably have someone keyword matching on it.
I can tell you, finding technical QA people is difficult, so I make sure to point out on my resume that I do have a technical background. It makes a big difference when interacting with the programming team to have a CS degree. I can read Java and pretty much figure out what is going on, but I wouldn't want to have to write anything in it. I know enough to leave that to the experts. But if my job involved writing some Java, it wouldn't be too far of a leap for me.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
I assume you are looking for any paycheck that pays the bills and uses your skills, and that you aren't expecting $50,000 to start. You won't get it with your history.
After you've been employed 2-5 years GPA becomes less important.
Get a job, any job, even if it's not in IT. You need to pay the bills and get some "employment" experience. Best would be one that has a decent-sized IT dept, preferably one in the same building you are in.
In your spare time, do volunteer work that can boost your resume. Teach kids how to use computers or better yet, teach them how to code. Design web pages for charities. Write some code and publish it. Coach a kid's sports team - that shows leadership and management skills. The list goes on.
Meet people. Join your local ACM or IEEE professional chapter if there is one. Join your college alumni association.
If you have the luxury, pick a job that will lead to internal or external connections. If you work as a bank teller then get transferred to corporate, you can have lunch with some IT guys. In 3 or 4 years, they may hire you.
Another option is to go for the low-wage IT hire. Go to your state's employment office and look for IT jobs. SOME, not all mind you, but SOME, of those companies are looking for cheap labor and won't mind a sub-3 GPA at all, if you are willing to work for under the industry norm.
From reading your post, your biggest obstacle to getting a paycheck isn't your low GPA, but your past and possibly present shyness. If it's a current problem, join Toastmasters or a similar organization, they can help in that department.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Some employers and agencies like 1-page resumes.
Some like no more than 2 pages.
Some like you to use their application or their format.
Others want your whole life story.
Some require keywords to get past the filters.
Others find keywords a waste of time.
Some want 65-character-wide ASCII.
Others want a specific version of Microsoft Word.
Still others want PostScript or PDF.
Some want paper, others want fax, others want email, with or without attachments.
Some want references and salary history with your resume, others don't.
Know your target and customize accordingly.
Remember, getting a job is a job in itself.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
A hypothetical college grad wanted a job that would lead to leadership roles within a couple of years. His stated objective:
To be technical team lead within 24 months
This tells me several things:
This guy doesn't want to merely sling code his whole life, he wants to lead.
I should look elsewhere if I know my company can't do this, because he won't be happy and will likely leave.
I SHOULD consider this guy even if he doesn't meet all my other requirements, PROVIDED his resume demonstrates leadership, because in 2 years we'll need more team leads.
All of this is useful communication between the hiring manager and the prospective employee, makes for a more productive interview, and prevents interviews that won't lead to an offer anyways.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
There is some good advice in this thread and you should take it to heart.
I can think of a few other things. For one, do you have email addresses of old classmates, profs and school friends? Are you in touch with them all? If not, consider starting to contact them even if you haven't seen them in well over a year. Drop them a line to see how they are and what they are up to and mention that you are in the job market and would truly appreciate hearing of any openings they may know of.
Do you live near a decent market? If not, would you consider moving? Being willing to relocate might open new opportunities for you.
By all means, follow up! I can't stress that enough. If you see a job listing and send in your resume and cover letter (you do fine tune each to the job and company right? Research is easy with companies having a web presence and being unemployed you should have the spare time.) follow up a few days later. An email is the most basic, better if you are able to pinpoint an actual person, better than that is to call them. I know you said you are shy, but forcing yourself to do this is well worth it. Just call the main switchboard and ask to speak with someone in HR. If they ask why say it's to follow up on a job application. Believe me, this small bit of initative will make you stand out from the mass of emailed resumes.
Is your resume on the job boards? At least once a week (better once a day) go into your account and "update" your resume. When employers and consulting agencies do a candidate search the responses are listed by freshness. At least that is what my sister who is a headhunter has told me.
Again, I know you said you are shy (and I can empathize with that), but you might want to force yourself to take the steps to get involved with a developer community. Many technologies have regional/local user groups. Could be a good way to meet new people and maybe learn of an opening somewhere.
You haven't said where your talents/skills lie, but I bet you could find ways of putting them to use which would help you build a portfolio showing you can code. Whether it's volunteering to help a local non-profit on their website, soliciting local businesses for consulting work, hobby projects which you can reference in your cover letters (and pointing to source code on your website), etc. You need to show a prospective employer that you can "do".
Once you get an interview, whether it is a phone interview or a face-to-face one make sure to follow up immediately with a "thank you for your time" email. It used to be a thank you card was the norm, but email seems to be very acceptable now and it is immdediate. Also reiterate in it briefly why you want the job, how excited you are about the possibility of working there, etc. You can also use this as an opportunity to point out something that you forgot in the interview. Again, a little extra effort and initiative helps you stand out. Personally, this and being very enthusiastic in the interview, have probably led to more job offers than anything else.
Finally, just to reiterate what others have said -- look into getting into a consulting group. It'll get you job experience and help you build up a network. Once you can put some work experience on your resume your educational background (and that GPA) will not be the thing a prospective employer will focus in on. They'll see that you can hold a job, know how to work, and can produce results.
Good luck to you!
For some people IT is just a job, just like working at Mcdonalds with a better paycheck and a different skill set.
:).
I love the challenge of tech work, but I love the fast-paced nature of retail also.
Give me $50,000/year to hand out burgers and frys and I could be happy. Of course in my spare time I'd be slinging code
Substitute other relatively-low-paying jobs like teaching, less-skilled nursing, some less-skilled skilled trades, for McDonalds and there are probably a number of happy computer programmers who would switch for the same paycheck.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
I work at our school on the network staff, we deployed a new network wireless network over the summer, and I'd say I'm pretty good at linux administration. I do things like install big brother network monitor for my machines in my dorm room, just because I can and take my CS assignments and make huge projects out of the basic labs and when 11 pages came out of the printer, I told my boss that there were 3, doing some development work for the school, etc. Basically, I'm really enthusiastic. I don't think I'd be able to be a coder all day, I think sysadmin/netadmin is in my future. I'm currently working on cisco certifications and trying to learn as much about systems management as possible. However, because I spend so much time with this job, I don't really have any other outside research to speak of, or any other jobs. I'm a sophomore in college now and have held this position since halfway through freshman year. It is mine until I graduate. Does only having one job and no outside research or awards and such to speak of a hurt my chances? Do certifications help at all? I'm trying to figure out what I can do now to make myself stand out later.
That's the biggest part of it, in my opinion. My general approach has been to tailor my resumé to the people who will make the final decision, rather than the people who do the initial filtering. As a result, when it does get to the hiring manager, what they see is an accurate and concise description of my qualifications and abilities.
As a result of that, I've generally gotten very little response from companies that have to go through significant filters in HR, but excellent responses the other way - the hiring managers who see it know much more about me before the first interview. Ultimately that saves them time if I'm not right for the job, and it gives them a lot more confidence once they've gotten to 'should we hire him?'
On the other side of things, I just did a quick pass of resumés I've seen lately, and I can see two clear trends in them. One is "gotta pass the filter" and one is "I'm good: hire me." The former may indeed pass HR filters, but it leaves us scratching our heads. "Wait, what is this guy good at?" We generally don't see enough in them to pursue it any further. The latter are more helpful, and we're much more likely to interview their authors.
I found that you should have a section called 'technical skills' to list all your skills. You can call it skill proficiency, but only if you are proficient in ALL the skills. I switched the name when I got burned in an interview at yahoo, because I put mysql and was expected to be a f'n DBA in mysql, and expected to know all date time datatypes. I'm a developer who has worked with mysql, but have always had dba's that dealt with that crap!
I have also found that using 1 sentance bullet points, which in the xmlresume format they call 'achievements' I think, at least that is what I am using. each line says clearly how you used technology X. Also I think you should use 'active voice' I think it is called ( or is it passiv, I forget ), like 'I created blah blah using C/Java, blah, which resulted in more sales of the product.
Only 'flamers' flame!
Does slashdot hate my posts?
Every Perl programmer knows the way to job security is to write piles of horrible undecipherable code, so your current employer will be afraid to fire you because they can't find anyone to take over the mess. The only reason anyone hires new Perl programmers any more these days, is to take over the horrible mess left by their previous Perl programmer who got hit by a bus. Anyone hiring Perl programmers to write new code is crazy.
-Don
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
That's why I made our company post resume format requirements in our job listings. We also warn the applicant that we'll be calling in 2nd interviewees to prove their knowledge in person.
The number of incoming resume's shrank by 83% and now we mostly have qualified applicants. The problem now is choosing which one has the coolest sounding Mumbai or Hyberadad address.
(Just kidding on the address thing.....)
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
Basically, this is how my resume looks:
... of course, as this works for me, I'm probably shooting myself in the foot by giving advice on the matter to duplicate it. :P
Education
This section just has the schooling and special certs I've got, with the dates of accomplishment and any other pertinent information (GPA, magna cum laude, etc), in table form.
Experience
This is a list of past/current employers and the dates of employment/contract, listed with what the job entailed. If you've got a lot, just list the most significant ones and note that you've done so to give a better picture of your overall experience (letting them know that additional information will be made available upon request).
Skills
Conceise, organized groups of technology skills - basically, buzz words. I add and remove skills as they become outdated/ill-used, and taylor the list for each application. Again, note there are other minor skills not included for breivity's sake - they don't care if you're able to configure and set up apache or what have you if you're being hired for a development position, but they'll probably be interested in experience in kernel development or apache module creation. Make it buzz-word compliant.
Interests
Build stock cars for a hobby? Involved in a competitive sport? Published a book? List them very briefly. Demonstrate cross-competency and personality - useless for screening, but if you get past the entry HR shmuck to a real interview, then chances are it'll be more personally beneficial than not having it. They can tell in synopsis that you're not just a coder/administrator/whatever and are knowledgeable outside your realm of expertise. Obviously it'll be more useful for certain types of jobs than others, so use discretion.
I try and keep it to a single page with multiple columns per section, with a right-face section header, and a 10pt font.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
Yes, LaTeX is nice, and in a past life I wouldn't have expected anything else. (Academia -- paper CVs being handed around is how things were done.)
Now, though, I really don't want to have to keep track of any more paper, my desk is already piled high. Nothing beats a simple URL sent in email. (HTML attached to email (not HTML email!) is second.) And just plain HTML, no flash/backgrounds/blink/... Don't set fonts and sizes, let the reader's browser select the fonts to use. (Nothing pisses me off more than having to read a 3-pt font because yor platform and mine are different. Dark blue text on a black background would just complete the disaster.) Only use plain markup: H[1-6], blockquote, dl/ul/ol, em, b, p, etc. Don't use tables for page layout.
Experience should be the first section, because that's what I'll use for an idea of your skills. One paragraph for each job, with an outline of responsibilities and tools used. Try to be brief -- no need for the entire saga, that will get covered in a phone screen or interview. Try to get all the important information on the first page.
Unlimited growth == Cancer.
Hahaha, mod parent funny!
Your resume should hit hard on all the open source projects you contributed to. The fact that an employer can look at a website with an interesting or useful project and see (or at least imagine) your name in the list of contributers is a MASSIVE help in getting that first job.
Include all your contributions, no matter how small.
I understand exactly where you're coming from. I graduated in Spring 2004 with degrees in Biology and Microbiology (CS minor stymied by one necessary course not being offered). While I was in school I spent three semesters doing undergraduate research that directly relates to my research interests (molecular genetics) and after I graduated my research advisor went on to take a position as assistant dean. I spent a year working at a crappy local call center because my girlfriend was finishing school and there's little to no work in this area. Eventually it got to be too much and I quit putting my time into searching for a job full-time. That was a year ago and in that time I've had exactly one job interview out of only two places that have even responded to my applications.
Scientific research isn't really an area where you can just work on projects in your spare time or learn new skills at home. Personally I worry that part of my problem is a mix of not having experience and a lack of good references: I've been long out of contact with my professors and even then there was only really one that would have given me a reference. At my previous job the rate of turn-over is so high that there isn't anyone there who could act as a reference and the one former boss who liked me no longer has any valid contact information.
My girlfriend and I are moving next month and hoping that that helps us find jobs, but honestly it seems like the entry-level job market is particularly terrible right now with what would normally be an entry-level job seemingly wanting a degree of experience that counters the idea of it being "entry-level".
I know the feeling. I graduated at the same time, but I was hunting for jobs 6 months before I graduated. And while I tend to be a little shy as well, I made an effort in college to correct this. I joined a fraternity, where I held leadership positions. I joined the campus newspaper. I worked in the school IT department for two years, and I had a few other jobs (not all listed on my resume as it would balloon it to a 3rd page and aren't relevant to the IT world). And I started a photography company to provide images to my college for a year. I didn't have the best GPA either, but I made something out of my college experience.
But I still haven't found a more permanent position yet. One recruiter screwed me over. Another recruiter with a long term position led me to get fired from a temporary (one-month) job I had taken because of their interview schedule. I've done some consulting (which didn't work too well because the client wouldn't communicate the information I needed to do the job).
My resume starts with my education, and then I include my relevant work experience, specifically my IT jobs. I then have a technical skills "appendix" that lists my technical skills by how proficient I am with them. I have an extra-curricular activities section, and an accomplishments section that mentions when I was employee of the month in my jobs and that I have published a short story.
My Sysadmin Blog
For all you hiring managers, how important is the inclusion of a college undergraduate GPA after the applicant has been in the workforce for a few years? It seems that the value of that measure would decline over time, and be replaced by descriptions of whats actually been accomplished in the jobs held since graduation.
I totally agree with this. When I graduated in 2005 from a reputable liberal arts school (in Greek and Latin), I decided to take a couple of years off before going back to grad school. My hope was to establish myself in some sort of career, so that I had a backup plan when I got out of grad school. (if you think the job market in IT is tough, it has nothing on being a professor in the humanities)
I'm not going to pretend I did everything perfectly the first time around, but my resume and interviewing skills really aren't that bad. From academics alone, I think it was clear that I'm intelligent, dedicated and hard-working. All I hoped for was a toehold, at any the many jobs I applied for-- just a chance to get in there and prove myself... and nothing.
I finally gave up and got a job as an administrative assistant for a year, and that was pretty soul-crushing. But over the summer I taught a camp for middle school kids, and remembered that kids are more fun than answering phones. Now I'm substitute teaching, and, provided I get accepted somewhere, I'll be starting grad school next fall.
Furthermore, I've managed to put together a portfolio of tech projects, and have a much better idea how to conduct a job search. In the event that I get out of grad school and can't find an academic position, I think I'll have a much better chance of getting a decent job.
I'd advise any slashdottieri who are considering going to a liberal arts school/majoring in the humanities is that you should think hard about that decision. My liberal arts/humanities friends are for the most part poor and miserable, whereas my friends who majored in CS/engineering/whatever are rich and reasonably happy.
It's important to be tough-minded and pragmatic at every stage of the game, and it's never a bad idea to have a second option.
Professors and liberal arts/humanities boosters will tell you that being liberally educated trains you to do whatever you want to, and that the skills you gain (thinking critically, communicating) will be an advantage in any job. They may have a point, and I suspect that it's at the entry-level that the liberally educated have the hardest time. But that transition is a bitch.
So think hard about double majoring.
Volunteer as much as you can, offer your programming skills to local agencies, churches etc. Volunteer fixing up computers or doing tech support for local non profits. Also, you have to really want a job before you will be offered one, the last place I worked would get hundreds of resumes for any opening.
>>> Do you also filter by the orientation of the staple on the resume?
I would. If the staple(s) are on the wrong edge, or opposite edges away from the vertices, your candidate lacks attention to detail OR is a moron.
The filtering would however be Bayesian.
>>> You can't be bothered to turn the page of a document right in front of you
As the applicant it's your job to summarise your skills and experience. If you provide a good summary then providing a link to further information seems a good idea. A good summary will make me want to know more. However, the link may be your downfall as an alternative way to get more information is to invite you for interview.
The rule with marketing brochures is to know your audience. If it is customary in your industry to send novellas in place of resumes, by all means go for it. You must be in academia where you put every frickin' paper you published ever in the history of your life and your ancestors' lives. But for most corporate jobs, you are hurting your chances by submitting a 10-pager. Them's the breaks.
I realize that in your ideal world, hiring managers wouldn't be busy and wouldn't be deluged with resumes for each open need. But the fact of the matter is that they are both of these things, and as a result, the time they can spend per resume is short. Marketing is about making a sale, not about living in your idealized world. Ignore your customers at your own peril.
They don't grade fathers, but if your daughter's a stripper, you fucked up. --Chris Rock
I can't believe I missed this story!
Anyhow, I hate to quote another site, but I had read this really good article from eweek about tech resumes. It was awesome. It was such a good article, I could have sworn it was covered here. 10 Ways to Tweak your Tech Resume.
So here's the short version of my story. I liked my job as an admin at an ISP in NY. We decided to sell our house and move down south to SC. I knew getting a job wasn't going to be a huge problem, but my resume needed help. All my friends were harrassing me about it, in fact. (That and the fact I was going to be moving 800 miles away).
I saw this article and read through it thoroughly. My resume was looking rather dated. So I threw the entire thing out and started from scratch. I didn't use a template, picked fonts I thought were appealing, and it was bascially me in writing in less than 2 pages. I took about 20 skills I had (actually "clumped" them together) and made a quick chart of what I was good at (and not so good at). And this information was very objective, as if someone other than myself was writing it. It was more like a report card.
So first I had my profile, who I was and what I was trying to accomplish. Next was my skills matrix. Follwed by my experience and job history. Then a brief description of training, certificates and school (as well as accomplishments). That was it. I quickly got a good job and started three days after I moved here. Of course, I went ballistic posting my resume on all the job sites. Needless to say I got a ton of hits, mostly from recruiters. I still get them today.
Driving a 27' truck with a car carrier behind it 800 miles... well that was another story. Let's just say I have a new respect for professional truck drivers.
FLR
That works until they find someone bloody-minded enough to rewrite the Perl program. I've done that, with a Perl program consisting of about 10,000 lines total, which behaved almost randomly because of how badly it was written (originally by a high school student). That conversion was one of the most lucrative short-term contracts I've ever had, although it was also one of the most painful to do - that Perl code was *horrible*, and there was no detailed specification other than the code itself.
When I got out of school, I had some problems during the interview process. My shyness was hurting me in the interview process. The best way to break this problem is schedule as many interviews as possible. Schedule interviews with companies that you do not want to work for. The more interviews you do, the more comfortable you will become at them.
I adblock all animated gifs.
Blessed be the prime numbered slashdotters