[TriLUG] looking for resume writer/improver

[Matt Flyer]

This has been my experience too with resume writers and critiques in
general.   What is worse is that my experience has been that they
belittle technical subjects.  I presume it is because they don't
understand them and hence the think it is a bunch of geek babble that
makes you sound stupid.  I had one actually ask me how is anyone
supposed to know what a "xyz" (I can't recall what I had for xyz) but it
was something that anyone hiring in my field WOULD know.

It i s my impression that a resume has to do three things.  First, it
has to have enough keyword content to get you past the automated filters
and get it into the hands of a person.  Second, it needs to get you past
the human filter called HR where it will be reviewed by someone who
doesn't understand the material, but can again look for keywords and
whether or not they are used in a logic fashion with content.  Third it
needs to communicate to the hiring manager that you have the skill set
to do the job.

One point that I have always tried to remember above all else is that
the person who reads it is going to be pressed for time.  They are going
to scan over it with their eyes.  They are NOT going to read long
paragraphs of text.  When I have been on the hiring team this is the
same approach I take.   More than two pages and huge globs of text
become a royal turn off that says (to me) that a) you don't respect my
time, b) you can't communicate concisely, c) your a pompous SOB that
thinks I am going to be impressed by all this shit.

Personally, I have found that a modified bullet list to be effective;
both in sending my resume and in reading others.  By modified I mean
that I follow a bulleted list format but I include a short sentence or
two EXPLAINING the tech talk.  I think this helps get through the human
filters.  For example, if I say I worked on a blah-blah project, I
follow this up with a short description of what blah-blah project is in
terms that an HR person can relate to.
  
For when you get past the resume stage and are looking are facing an
interview, the book Knock Em Dead  contains a LOT of excellent interview
information including strategies and how to answer the off-the-wall
questions.   Once after reading it I realized I faced a text book
interviewer and gave him the text book answers which weren't as obvious
as you might think.

On Sun, 2011-01-23 at 05:40 -0800, Joseph Mack NA3T wrote:

> They were uncomfortable with a techical person and needed 
> reassuring that I didn't want to be a manager. They 
> protested too long and loud that they did resumes of 
> professional people (whatever that is - I thought it was 
> doctors and lawyers, but I understood I was one of them).