Comment by aaronbrethorst | Hacker News Reader

Comment by aaronbrethorst | Hacker News Reader

I've started writing my resume in a more prosaic form, and dropping the stilted language of resumes past. I talk about not just what I bring to the table, but also what I'm not looking for in an employer. Check it out if you'd like to get a better sense of what I mean.

(It's also worth noting that I have ~12.5 years of experience in the software industry, Seattle—the city where I live—has a hot tech market, and I have focused mainly on iOS software development for the past six years. Relatedly, I never apply for jobs through websites, only through people, meaning that I manage to skip buzzword-skimming front-line recruiters. So YMMV.)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0tntyr8isf2l47k/Aaron%20Brethorst%...

Coming at this from the other side of the table, my first reaction to reading most resumes is "so what?" Tell me why I should care that you increased Flibbet production by 22%, or that you decreased bug volume by 19%. What does that translate into in terms that someone who doesn't work at that company would care about?

Some initial criticisms:

1. Avoid saying things that apply to everyone. Example, "I love building products that delight my users." Who wouldn't say that when applying for a job? This, "help create positive social change" is more interesting and should be the focus of your intro.

2. Avoid useless phrases. Example, "This has manifested itself in many ways during my career." Boring filler.

Overall, you could cut the length of this by 30-50% just by removing cliches and filler phrases. It would immediately become much more readable and emphasize your technical skills.

Thanks for the feedback. I do disagree on the 'delighting users' thing though. This is not something that occurs to many engineers.

I think you might want to consider how it reads to your audience. I think it's one of those phrases that triggers a "well duh" reaction-- especially since it stands alone without anything that supports it actually being true or unique.

You make a good point. Thanks again for the feedback. I'll take another look at it.

Have you gotten any feedback on the length of your resume? Four pages is considerably longer than the often recommended single page.

Four pages is tl;dr length for recruiters and most hiring managers.

Fine by me. Those are the ones I don't want to speak with. Like I said, I don't go through the front door when I'm looking for a job.

Nah, four pages is really too long. As much as I agree with the notion that being prosaic has some punch, and that your CV is the only piece of marketing you'll ever be writing about yourself, the fact is that recruiters won't endure much more than a page per decade of experience. Plus one maybe. But not two or three, so methinks get to the point faster.

You're the founder of Cocoa Controls?? Thank you for creating an incredibly valuable resource that I've used frequently for many years, and do get in touch if you ever find yourself in LA and would like a free beverage on me!

Thanks, josh :)

Thanks for sharing your insights and resume. It's really refreshing to see you describe your work in previous positions in such a clear and meaningful way.

I guess the next step is to write a blog post to assimilate everything I learned today about setting up a 'dev' resume.

That is a really great format. I'm going to model mine after that. Great work.

thanks, and happy to help! :)

Nice format! Small typo:

"Most recently, I been the de facto architect of NBC News’s four iOS and tvOS applications."

I think your cv is great example how to sell benefits instead of features.

Hey, you live across the street!

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