Ten Tips for a (Slightly) Less Awful Resume

[KaiRu]

It looks like that a lot of fresh graduates here work in development roles (because there are a lot of questions about software development) and to some degree tips for IT resumes should be helpful for them as well. I just found quite good article from Steve Yegge in my old bookmarks about resumes for IT jobs - I enjoyed it one more time and thought it would be nice to share this old article with others.

http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2007/09/ten-tips-for-slightly-less-awful-resume.html

PS. Pay special attention to the warning on top.

WARNING: These are my own *personal* opinions, not Google's or Amazon's or anyone else's. I do think you'll find that most resume screeners at tech companies — particularly tech companies that build their own software in-house, like Yahoo! or eBay or Amazon.com or Microsoft or Google — will agree with a lot of this stuff, on the whole. But experienced screeners disagree on lots of the little details, and in the end these are just my own opinions. These tips are not guaranteed to get you any better results. Your mileage may vary. Do not use these tips in a bathtub or when standing in a pool of water. Do not tap on the glass or the tips will be irritated. Do not feed the tips. Etc.

 

[atreides]

Got a good laugh reading the blog post. Some interesting quotes from the page

"Proposed" is another Weasel Word, unless it's immediately followed by a claim of bona-fide work, such as "...and implemented". There's a certain type of candidate who drifts from job to job and produces nothing but proposals. This can mean that the person doesn't like to do real work, or that nobody ever listens to the person, but either way it's not good.

See, it's like this: you'll get caught. I'm still amazed at how many candidates think that the resume game is some variant of bingo, wherein all the words on your resume have optional invisible stars indicating whether you actually know something about that word, and you just cross your fingers hope the interviewer shouts out Bingo! after randomly selecting five starred words.

The weird thing is that so many people do it. Maybe they had to write a 10-line program in Forth back in approximately fourth grade, so they shrug and list "Forth" in their programming languages section, squeezed in at the end right between "HTML" and "English", in the hope that it looks good but won't be selected for Interview Bingo. That, folks, is tantamount to lying.

Here's your absolute bestest-best winning strategy: don't lie and don't exaggerate. Everyone's had brief exposure to programming languages they didn't like and didn't understand, and there's nothing to be gained by listing them on a resume. Do your best to give a qualitative estimate of proficiency for every skill on your resume (the acceptable levels being "novice", "amateur", "tyro", "newbie", and "invented it" if you want extra insurance towards

 

[Yike Lu]

The problem with "consultant" is that it has two meanings. It can either mean "person who was hired on a contract basis to fill a coding need in the organization", or it can mean "person hired to 'consult', aka 'wank', because the hiring organization is too clueless to solve their own problems and too incompetent to retain even one full-time staff member capable of helping them, so they turn to paid self-help." When you see the word on a resume, it can be hard to distinguish which kind it is.

http://craphound.com/usrbingodexcerpt.txt

 

[D C]

Certification is for the weak. It's something that flags you as a technician when you really want to be an engineer. If you want to be a television repairman, you can become certified in TV repair. If you want to work for Sony and design their next big-screen TV, then you clearly don't need a busy-working-adults course on how to repair the fugging things.

this bothers me...I have been getting psyched about the C++ Certification course Andy Nguyen and Daniel Duffy have been working hard to create
http://www.quantnet.com/forum/threads/c-online-certificate-for-mfe-applicants.6297/page-4#post-60797
...but while reading this blog it made it seem like it would be looked down upon. Does a C++ certification course not rival a C++ course taken in school?????

Or does this only apply for IT jobs??

 

[Shantanu Kumar]

groutgauss
Well it depends i think.If you have other necessary background like good mathematics degree/some experience etc. then C++ course certification is just another bullet point.On the other hand if you want to land a job with this certification then i will agree with whatever you have quoted above.So just relying on the certification and considering it as your selling point is not a good idea.

Same goes for tech certification. It means you had to take a course to learn something you could have read in a book. If you know something, just say you know it, and then be prepared to answer questions about it during your phone screens and/or interviews. If you feel compelled to add that you're certified in said skill, it's just broadcasting that you lack confidence in your own self-assessments, which doesn't help you in the slightest.

In my case this certification will be more of confidence booster.I have a C certification but i never wrote it on my resume as i didn't find it my selling point.Just wrote it as one of my programming skills.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

this bothers me...I have been getting psyched about the C++ Certification course Andy Nguyen and Daniel Duffy have been working hard to create
http://www.quantnet.com/forum/threads/c-online-certificate-for-mfe-applicants.6297/page-4#post-60797
...but while reading this blog it made it seem like it would be looked down upon. Does a C++ certification course not rival a C++ course taken in school?????

Or does this only apply for IT jobs??

The author of that article is writing about his experience interviewing developers for Amazon.
Our C++ certificate is not designed for you to apply for coding positions at Amazon or any tech company. For that, you need more advanced training and/or work experience.
It's designed to help people to learn C++ for various reasons: (those who never studied C++ before, those who want to meet MFE admission requirements, those who want to refresh their knowledge, those who want to learn financial applications in C++, so on...).

As for online C++ certification versus campus course, if you are lucky enough to have both options, then compare them to see which one offers the best value and meet your specific need.

 

[CrazyRussian]

if you want to learn C++, just purchase a book on amazon. The basics are not something very difficult to learn. They key is just to do a lot of programming practice. And if you are worried about not being motivated to get the work done, try tricking yourself into thinking that you are taking a course. For example, dedicate a slot of time to go to the library to work on your programming.
A really great way to test your knowledge of basic C++ OOP is to build a blackjack game from scratch.

No one really wonders if you are certified in a language. You'll just be bombarded with a bunch of questions, and the employer will definitely be able to tell if you know your stuff.

 

[D C]

I see what you guys mean - thanks for the tips. I think y'all are right, if you put something down, just be confident that you can back it up. And, I still plan on taking the C++ course, looks great.

CrazyRussian : wow, great idea about the blackjack game, I'll try it out!