[TriLUG] looking for resume writer/improver

[Michael Kimsal]

There's a pragpress book "Land the Tech Job You Want" (IIRC) -
http://pragprog.com/news/land-the-tech-job-you-love-practical-programming-in-print-podcasts-
which may be useful to you (and others) as well.  My one critique of
the
book is that it's from one person's viewpoint, and didn't offer multiple
views on the same situation (again, IIRC - been awhile since I looked at
it).


On Sun, Jan 23, 2011 at 9:22 AM, Matt Flyer <matt at noway2.thruhere.net>wrote:

> 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).
>
>
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-- 
Michael Kimsal
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