Slashdot Mirror
How To List FOSS Experience On Your Resume
maximus1 writes "If you're selling skills gained in an open source project, you have additional opportunities to shine, say experts in this ITWorld article. But what is the best way to explain your FOSS experience? 'Someone stands out because of how they talk about the project, says Zack Grossbart, author of The One Minute Commute. His advice is to describe the project and discuss your contributions in detail: 'If you were a committer, what did you do to earn that status? What features did you work on? Did you design new areas, or just implement predefined functions? Did you lead meetings? Define new architecture? Set the project direction?' If the FOSS experience is part of your background but not a shining beacon or job equivalent, it's common to list it under 'other experience.' Andy Lester, author of Land The Tech Job You Love, says: 'Think of each project as a freelance job that you've worked on. Just as different freelance gigs have varying sizes and scopes, so too does each project to which you contribute. The key is to not lump all your projects under one "open source work" heading.' Good examples are worth a thousand words. Grossbart offers up his resume as a sound but not perfect example (PDF) that includes open source experience. (His article on how to format your resume might also be of interest.)"
Why not just show them what you did?
step 1: get your resume posted on /. front page
step 2: ???
step 3: PROFIT !!!
> Did you lead meetings?
What are these "meetings" you speak of?
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Aside for the formatting of skill lists and stuff, its pretty good, which means one thing, in my opinion: he is another victim of the "YOUR RESUME MUST BE ONE PAGE REGARDLESS OF YOUR EXPERIENCE!!!!!111!" school of thought.
The one page resume rule: hurting professionals everywhere since....well, ever.
I have not had a 1 page resume in 20 years. I seem to make all the automated HR filters too... I just wonder if that is connected? :)
:) He is still there, and I have long since left. HR is worthless...
A friend and I were co-workers in a company that went bust. We had almost the same job and almost the same experience. We both applied at the same company, and I got a call back and a job. He never got a call back. My new boss asked if I knew anyone else. I said, "Uh, Yes?" and told him about my friend. He never saw the resume. I got it for him and he hired my friend as well. HR was pissed at him for at least 2 years.
I hope you never accidentally open a book, you might go blind.
Is not "worry about the content, not the presentation" the mantra around here? If we are supposed to follow that for the web-pages we produce, why should the resumes be different?
One's resume should be in XML, from which various other formats can be produced automatically (and consistently)...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Make a portfolio of open source work you've done. Go in and extract code that you've written. Annotate it explaining what problem you were solving and why you chose the design you did, etc. Keep each section fairly short (a few hundred lines of code) and write an overall document linking up the various code excerpts, creating a narrative for them to follow. If you have planning/design documentation, etc feel free to show excerpts of that too. Even emails from mailing lists where you defused a potentially difficult situation is good. Finally, provide links to all the original projects that you've contributed to so they can see your contribution first hand.
After you have organized all that, put it up on a web page somewhere and put a link on your resume. Burn a few business card sized CDs and hand them out at interviews. Make sure to bring a few to each interview. I've found they are popular.
This has gotten me more than one job. I used to maintain my portfolio continuously on my web page, but I'm teaching now and have let it lapse. However, it's sometimes useful even outside the job searching venue.
Aside for the formatting of skill lists and stuff, its pretty good, which means one thing, in my opinion: he is another victim of the "YOUR RESUME MUST BE ONE PAGE REGARDLESS OF YOUR EXPERIENCE!!!!!111!" school of thought.
The one page resume rule: hurting professionals everywhere since....well, ever.
if i had mod points i'd mod this +1 Insightful also. I've had an increasingly-long resume as I have moved up in my career. It started out as one of those "fit it in one page" jobs which makes sense when you are starting your career. People who have no experience, should not have a long resume. But if you've had any sort of career (which this Grossbart fellow seems to have had) it's right and proper to give adequate space to explaining what you did in these jobs, and highlighting your successes over that time. Most importantly, don't assume anyone is going to actually "read" your resume. Bullet points let the reader skim quickly, which is what most people do. Grossbart's resume has a lot of words about his decade+ at Novell, but even reading it, it isn't clear what he actually accomplished as an individual.
HR is worthless...
Where I work, only HR is hiring...
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Perhaps a better way to express it is: Your resume can be as long as you think is necessary to describe your experience. But you should be aware that very few hiring managers will read past the first page. So the first page should list the experiences that you would like managers to know about when they're deciding whether to hire you.
The rest of your resume may be read (or skimmed) by lower-level managers (and your friends), and it may be searched for keywords by HR's software, but it usually won't contribute significantly to any hiring decisions.
This may all be disregarded if you know that the company's hiring managers are intelligent and knowledgeable in the company's field. Such people do tend to read entire resumes, and even understand them. This mostly applies to the smallest companies, since in large companies hiring is done by professional managers, not by people knowledgeable in their subject area.
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
opinion? Blah blah blah, try 30 different fonts. Blah blah blah, try 20 different text editors. And HR will still want a copy in word format or plain text format, ignore any formatting, and keyword scan.
My resume is done in latex. Better font, better justification, better appearance.
This guy is so good at writing resumes that he tells the rest of us how to write them as a job; what more proof do you need that he must have an excellent resume?
// MD_Update(&m,buf,j);
I agree that one page isn't enough for people with lots of experience, but his solution is not the best to address this either. --WAY-- too much to read.
Note. I actually see the reason for keeping resumes under one page; most people that think they need two usually don't. I think it's only appropriate if the position is really important, since the pool for those positions are smaller and, thus, those who make the hiring decisions can (and will) spend more time on the person's merits and personality.
The methodology my school uses for resume writing is that people should list three key responsibilites for each job listing, in list format. This can make keeping a resume within to a single page even more difficult because many people have had numerous interesting experiences at their previous workplaces that may or may not be able to get listed on there. Then again, if that person does claim to have many of those experiences, they should be able to list a few which will grab an employer's attention fairly quickly.
After hearing of several interviews in my co-ops and speaking to a few managers about this, the logic behind this makes a lot of sense. Even though HR uses a bland filter to separate the "wheat" from the "chaff" (or, more appropriately, the ones who know the system and the ones who don't), those resumes still need to be passed down to management, as the decision is ultimately up to them. What this means is that they look at TONS of resumes, sometimes on a daily basis. Most of those resumes are ill-formatted, poorly written and are eyesores to look at. Additionally, they usually want to spend less than a minute looking at one before deciding whether to yay or nay a second interview (the nays don't get saved; they get binned).
It's for this reason that having a resume in list format helps so much; hiring managers or others with decision power don't have to think as much when looking at one. They can sift through the list and see if they make the cut (for an interview, that is).
1. only list relevant experience, if your applying for a DBA position i don't want to waste time reading about how you enjoy cake decorating.
2. put the good stuff first, i need to skim 100's of these resumes so having to read till page 10 isn't helping your chances that'll see your skills.
3. keep the format clean and easy to read, don't make my eye's bleed because your going in the bin after page one with pink curly fonts.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
Why would FOSS or volunteer work be any different than work you did for a pay check?
It goes on the Resume same as any other job. I treat them with the exactly the same.
I read about data miners and other such rubbish filtering out FOSS and such type work. Well that is complete and total non-sense. Your resume is a record of your experience and accomplishments plain and simple.
Hear is some advice.
DO NOT MAKE YOUR RESUME OVERLY COMPLICATED. You do not need 20 headings highlighting the different views of your career. K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple Stupid is the rule to follow. Spend your effort on making sure that each piece of experience is effectively presented through a well written resume.
I use this rule of thumb. I treat my resume/CV as a full time job for 1 week. I spend no less than 40 hours working on it before any potential employer will see it. That's nto for every employer. That's for each time I'm on the job market. In North America no more than 4 pages EVER. In other parts of the world they like to see as much as a page per year experience ( I know ridiculous ). So what if the agency filters it and puts into their format. Let them. You're bring fresh copies on PLAIN WHITE PAPER in B/W to the interview? Cause you should be slapped if you don't. Oh gee all of a sudden your resume stands out in the pile of identical resumes in the stack. Why? Because it is well formatted on quality WHITE paper.
I read a lot of resumes. A LOT. I toss almost all of the resumes that have pictures / fancy paper / more heft than a phone book into the bin before turning the first page.
------
Do NOT's
- Put your picture on the resume. You are not that good looking.
- Use colored paper. What are you 12?
- Use textured paper. Again are you 12?
- Use multiple fonts. Only use Helvetica. Why all printers have it and it looks clean and is easy to read.
- Leave half empty pages. All pages should have a solid balance of text. Half pages are tossed pages.
- Only use one recruiter. Where is there a law that states you can only use one recruiter?
- Forget to shave. Guys Gals, it applies to both of you. Clean looks get the jobs and more money. Don't care if it's racist / prejudice or what ever complaint you have. Clean looks always win. Grow the pRon mustache after you get the job OK.
You are so right... except for the font. Humans read a serif font about 20% faster and with less errors than a sans serif font so use Times instead of Helvetica (which btw. is not available on a std.Windows PC... Arial, Tahoma or Verdana are not good substitutes for Helvetica).