Posts filed under 'Resumes'
Tips: Ten Tips for a (Slightly) Less Awful [Programming] Resume
– some idiot applying to Amazon.com
On Stevey’s Blog Rants (Random Whining and Stuff), author Steve Yegge ponders the question: “Why are the resumes of programmers so uniformly awful? And how do we fix them? The resumes, that is.”
Steve knows of what he speaks. Steve is the guy who ported Rails to JavaScript for Google. The hushed silence we non-programmers hear is due to the awe that our encoding brethren have for an accomplishment like this.
The guy is good. But he’s not perfect.
Or that really dumb guy who accidentally listed “work at IBM” as the objective on his Amazon resume. Ha, ha! What a dork!Oh wait — that was me. D’oh. I sometimes refer to it as my “million dollar typo”. It’s kind of a painful story, especially for my eardrums, since whenever I tell it people predictably point at me and scream with hysterical girly laughter. Dammit.
(Mentioning the wrong company is one of the most common errors I see in resumes – I got one just yesterday. I think Steve would call that a #3.)
Steve has condensed his wisdom and experience into 10 tips that any programmer, firmware engineer, software engineer or web developer can take to heart:
Ten Tips for a (Slightly) Less Awful ResumeTip #1: Nobody cares about you
Tip #2: Use Plain Text
Tip #3: Check, please
Tip #4: Avoid Weasel Words.
Tip #5: Avoid Wank Words
Tip #6: Don’t be a Certified Loser
Tip #7: Don’t say “expert” unless you really mean it
Tip #8: Don’t tip your hand
Tip #9: Don’t bore us to death
Tip #10: Don’t be a lying scumbag
Go check out the entire article. His advice is good for non-programmers too.
DYHAQFM?
Add comment 21 November 2007
How Not to Get a Job: Bad Resumes in Australia
Matt on the Still as Life blog is helping his employer screen resumes.
Now there have been a lot of resumes come through and since I do most of the email work, I have the job of going over each resume and deciding which one’s are worth printing and forwarding to my boss, and which ones will get a lovely little email in response
Things move along swimmingly, until he runs into Billy’s resume, which Matt provided in total:
Name: Billy K
Address: 85 Bad St
Phone: 0400 000 000
Email Address: billy*****@hotmail.com
Drivers Licence: No
Personal Qualities: Friendly, Fun, keen, patient
Interest & Hobbies: Hanging out with friends, going to movies, talking to peple
Schooling: ********** State High School 1998
Objective: To get a job to save some money and get
Work experienceAvailability: Casual
References: Will give when you call.
Matt’s comments are right on the mark.
Now, I’m not the employer, but just reading that, why would I want to work with them? So why would an employer want to consider employing them?
In short – if you’re going to do a lousy job, why bother?
See the whole thing on Still as Life: How Not to Get a Job.
His follow-up, titled “Resume Suicide“, is also worth a look.
TIP: Don’t do this. Use your resume to show your employer how you can help solve his business problems.
1 comment 15 November 2007
How Not to Get a Job: Lie on Your Resume
As I noted earlier, I’ve caught about 20 people who have falsified their credentials or degrees on their resume. Microsoft Recruiter Jim Stroud has had a similar experience. ON his blog, he details “Six people who were caught lying on their resumes“.
At least George O’Leary was honest when he got caught, saying, “In seeking employment, I prepared a résumé that contained inaccuracies…”
The problem is, many people do it, and so few get caught.
HT: My buddy Art Romero at the CheckMate blog.
Add comment 5 November 2007
Tip: 10 Things about IT Resumes
About Creating a Resume
for a High-Level IT Position
Add comment 21 September 2007
Tips: Resume Pet Peeves!
Cara at the Husky Career Blog (from the Career Center at the University of Washington) has a nice essay on how to avoid putting her pet peeves on your resume. Her pet peeves are some of my pet peeves, so I suggest checking it out. She’s aiming at the new college grad demographic, but the rest of us can pay attention too.
Add comment 21 August 2007
Youth Spotting – Video Resumes
In his Youth Spotting segment on last night’s Daily Show, Demetri Martin gave Jon Stewart some how-to tips on video resumes. He did come up with the world’s longest acronym to help. Check it out.
Warning: Cable TV Language
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=86620&title=youth-spotting-video-resume
Video expires 10 June. If you don’t see it here, check Demetri’s Comedy Central page.
Add comment 11 May 2007
