geekhack
geekhack Community => Off Topic => Topic started by: tbc on Tue, 31 March 2015, 22:59:17
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This is mainly aimed at programmers and related hiring managers.
Back when I was a fresh grad, experience was pretty minimal and my resume was pretty empty of quality content and obviously padded with fluff; there's a reason I didn't show it around too much. Nowadays, I can fill out a couple of pages without a sweat.
When the resume was brand new, it was suggested that I fill it out with barely semi-relevant stuff such as completely unrelated supervisor positions just to show a personality trait.
Do people think it's still relevant to put 'personality' on resumes when the resume already has directly relevant qualifications? Should I be putting 'programming tutor' when I already described how I was a 'researcher/instructor' for a fulltime programming position? Should I be letting them know I'm CPR-qualified? Should I only put it in for companies that are super modern and want well-rounded employees?
thoughts?
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i'm not a hiring manager, but i'm a software engineer who is very involved in the hiring process for my team. when i'm looking at a resume, the question i'm trying to answer is "is this person worth an hour of my time for a technical phone screen?". generally three things lead me to a yes answer: relevant technologies, recent work experience, and BS/MS degrees you possess. when i say recent, i mean i'm primarily interested in details about your last couple of positions. beyond maybe two positions back, it's mostly an exercise in counting the number of years of relevant experience.
so, if you've got more than 5 years of experience after getting your degree, i'd drop all positions that aren't strictly tech-related. even at three years or so, you can leave the company name and job title, but don't bother going into job responsibilities or anything of that nature. when you're a fresh grad and you don't have any industry experience, it's good to show that you at least have some experience working. once you've got a few years of industry work under your belt, really anything that's not related to software development is pretty much fluff / noise that makes it harder to find the things i'm actually looking for ("let's see, he said he had java experience, right? how many years? blah, now he's talking about working at taco bell when he was a junior in high school..."). even positions like technical support or web design are things i typically ignore when i'm reviewing resumes for SDEs or WDEs, because it's a very different kind of role. on the other hand, i do take programming tutor pretty seriously because it takes a certain degree of knowledge and understanding to be able to teach another person, and it also shows that you could potentially mentor other employees down the road.
as for the personality type of stuff, i'm not so much interested in that until i've got you on-site for an in-person interview. the CPR thing's not something i'd include on your resume, but it's fine to mention when you're talking to the HM, and it's great to tell the rest of the team about in your introduction email after you get the job.
oh, also, don't list a technology on your resume unless you're actually comfortable using it. it's great that you've used ruby on two projects and you were able to coax it into doing what you needed it to do, but if you put it on your resume and i ask you about it and you tell me well actually you only used it a couple of times and can't answer detailed questions, you come out looking worse than if you'd simply not mentioned it at all. pet peeve of mine, but i'm sure i'm not the only one.
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Should I be putting 'programming tutor' when I already described how I was a 'researcher/instructor' for a fulltime programming position? Should I be letting them know I'm CPR-qualified?
no.
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Should I be putting 'programming tutor' when I already described how I was a 'researcher/instructor' for a fulltime programming position? Should I be letting them know I'm CPR-qualified?
no.
+1
Your resume's goal should be to get you in the door based on the business value you can provide from the position you're applying for, not cultural fit. That can be assessed much easier in an interview.
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i put in all kinds of crap, military training, survival course,medical training, worked in a nursing home etc
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http://sockpuppet.org/blog/2015/03/06/the-hiring-post/