Re: Where do you put your eight?
- From: Eric P. <ericpNOSPAM06@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2007 14:50:12 GMT
On Sat, 9 Jun 2007 14:17:11 -0700, Keith Davies hath written thusly
(in article <slrnf6m66m.tje.keith.davies@xxxxxxxxxxxx>):
Eric P <ericpNOSPAM06@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Great Moments in résumés (hope the accents come through!) continues...
On Sat, 9 Jun 2007 10:38:26 -0700, Keith Davies hath written thusly
(in article <slrnf6lpch.tje.keith.davies@xxxxxxxxxxxx>):
Eric P <ericpNOSPAM06@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I don't know about outside the States, but here, that kind of resume
quickly makes it into the circular file ;) Prospective employers here
like clean, bright white paper. No graphics, no backgrounds, nothing
embossed. Times New Roman is the preferred font, in 10 to 12 point
size. Ample white space sets off the text and makes it easy to
read/scan. Social interests, physical fitness, etc. are usually not
wanted on the resume, but are appropriate to include in interviewing
conversation. The resume should be kept to a single page, or two pages
at the most.
I made the mistake -- once -- of using a lightly marbled paper for my
resume. It looked great! Until they photocopied it (one of my
interviewers had a copy). Never again.
These are the lessons we sometimes learn the hard way. I've seen that
kind of paper, too, and didn't realize at first why it's not desired.
FWIW, I blew that one in the interview. I still got that far.
Might be possible to save one's bacon (soy bacon, of course) by
carrying extra copies on plain white paper...but not generic photocopy
paper, but nice, sturdier, professional paper.
I realized at that point that resumes, you have to take into account
photocopying and fax, both of which do better with cleaner presentation.
For a while I was leaning toward sans serif fonts, but Bookman does very
well here too.
This is crucial, as the document will probably get faxed a lot,
especially if you work through an employment agency.
Ayup.
My resume is two pages and consists of:
. contact information
. relevant work history
. my role and who it was for
. specific descriptions of some of what I've done that's related to
what is being looked for -- Oracle DBA? I've designed and
maintained a 40-million record Oracle database[1]
. skills chart showing various relevant skills, grouped by type.
. education, which I'm considering removing since it was ten years ago.
Skills should appear before work history, for best at-a-glance viewing.
Education is relevant if it's relevant ;) If the major coursework
doesn't apply to what you seek, including the information won't add
value.
I used to think that, but for me I think it works better the other way.
It puts more focus on what I've done (proven ability) than buzzwords.
Sure, some details that aren't directly related to the job may still
show that a candidate is versatile and has knowledge that might somehow
apply. None of my assignments ever depended on my ability to speak,
read, and write in French, but I discovered that, when talking with
French-speaking customers on the phone, if I broke into the language
during our conversation, doing so put the customer more at ease, and
made him or her more conversive and friendly :) Also helped me to enjoy
my work more, as I rarely ever find opportunities to speak the
language, what with living in California and all.
"Okay, he's got C++." This isn't terribly meaningful when applying for
a job programming C++. I mean, yes they're going to look for it, but
since that's what the job is about it must be there. Having it at the
front adds nothing.
OTOH, if it's to write data processing software, that I wrote software
in C++ that performed list matching between two disparate systems made
it possible for the customer to save about two million dollars, *that*
says something.
Yeah, what we do with the skill sets should be the focus, so
prospective employers can easily determine if the candidate is a good
fit.
[1] not "I've used Oracle", but "I've worked with decently large data
sets". This is specific and indicates that I (at least probably)
understand some of the issues around that.
I cringe whenever I see or hear mention of an Oracle database and SQL
scripting, because it was such a headache for those of us who had to
deal with it at Synopsys Inc, but that was largely due to the poor way
in which it was implemented at the company. Seems the people who set up
the database didn't allow for much growth, if any. Often, as data was
added, some parts would end up crashing into others, as was explained
to me, and then the system would fail. Then, the Oracle consultants
would have to build in more headroom (like from 1% to 5%), and we could
continue working...for a while. They even had me help to write some
scripts, even though I had no prior knowledge of computer programming
beyond BASIC (and an introduction to machine language). Fortunately,
it's very easy to do a little SQL scripting.
And a bit more depth of what that entailed, or including to what
purpose, helps to manage the reviewer's expectations. Nice one!
Point form only at this point. If they want to know -- and they
probably *will*, now that I've given them something to think about --
they can ask during the interview. They don't need a full description
of the project, but that I've worked with data sets that large is
meaningful. Lots of people have worked with record sets in the
thousands, record sets in the millions have a whole different range of
problems.
Precisely! My resume mentions that I reconciled a fixed asset inventory
account that had ~$3M in assets unaccounted for, but the details of how
I accomplished it come out during interviews. There was no process in
place, so I had to figure out how to handle the task, then implement
some procedures, create some forms and a FileMaker Pro database, etc.
Also, since most of what I do is actually problem analysis (I've worn
programmer/analyst and systems analyst hats fairly regularly... and
often concurrently), that I'm aware that database size is significant
says something too.
Was a time when I wanted to become a programmer/analyst, and then a
game programmer, but my performance in algebra convinced me to go
another route *L*
Yes. "I can read this easily, the writer obviously cares enough to make
it easy -- this shows *thinking*" comes into it too.
Leaves a favorable point of comparison as the person sifts through
resumes, too. It's too bad that these things aren't more actively
impressed upon job seekers. There's a book that was highly recommended
when I was working at APDA (Apple Programmers and Developers
Association), before that division was outsourced, entitled _The Damned
Good Resume_. I don't recall the author, and I'm too lazy to look it up
just now, but it's a well-respected book on the subject.
[snip]
absolute worst resume I saw included a photo of the applicant
paper-clipped to the front. A cover letter was included, where the
applicant went to great lengths to praise himself and to detail his
unrelated social activities. It was on very fancy paper. A shame he
didn't use the paper for something more creative and constructive!
Still, I entered the relevant information, then added the document to
the pile to be filed, having a good idea of where it would end up ;)
I've seen those. I've seen some horrendous ones (photocopied crooked?!
FFS, it's not that goddamn hard, guys), specially-shaped paper, weird
colors ('bright red, I want to get their attention'... which *does*
work, it gets picked out first and dumped), and so on.
Sad, but true. I think more people clue into these things these days
than in the past, but then I haven't processed resumes for about ten
years, only focused on my own. I found that, for someone like me who's
worked many temporary assignments, the functional resume looks better,
but many employers still like to see the chronological format. In those
cases, I'm quick to point out that the in-between times were spent
seeking work and working very brief (a week or less) data-entry
assignments, or *shuddering* simple filing. Ach, filing...we haaaaates
it! *L*
My resume outlines specifics about the things I've done and what I know.The Digital Age, and how it influences the way we do things...a
Cover letter describes how I see these things applying to the position
and shows that I've actually thought about what the job and company. I
haven't updated it in a while, but I've been meaning to do up something
more like a CV. The various projects I've been involved with, my *full*
skill set (there isn't *room* on my resume for the whole thing, I trim
it down to just the most relevant bits), and so on. I may put a link to
that in my cover letter (or resume -- at the bottom of the skills
summary, "see http://www.kjdavies.org/cv.html#skills for more details").
Keith
reference to on-line documentation will probably have a favorable
impact on prospective employers. I'm not familiar with the differences
(didn't know there were any!) between a resume and a Curriculum Vitae.
While it's mostly discouraged to post a resume for all the on-line
world to see, it's still handy to have one in an on-line directory
somewhere, and you control access by where it's located and who you
direct to it.
I wonder if there will come a time when we simply hand over little
flash drives, or even a swipable card, that holds our resume. I
wouldn't be surprised if this is already in practice, as I used to
carry my resume around on a 3.5" floppy disk...and that was considered
high-tech at the time :)
- E
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