Ask HN: What do you look for in resumes when recruiting? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What do you look for in resumes when recruiting?

10 pointsRikNieu4 comments

I want to do a quick holiday side project and thought I'd make a online resume builder.(Yes, I know there are thousands already, but I want to build one that's slightly different, and won't harass you for your email before giving you your resume.)

What I want to know is what do you, person responsible for sifting through these things, want to see when going through resumes?

What format, how much information, what information... Things like that? What pisses you off about a resume, what makes you appreciate it?

I basically want to make a kickass resume-making service that both applicants and hiring managers would appreciate. There's more secret sauce to my idea, of course, but I want to focus on the resumes first and foremost.

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Separately be sensitive to cultural issues as I don't know where you are developing. In my professional resume editing business based in Shanghai, I wanted to set up a really polished resume site where employers could screen my clients since they've been through my full process (resume, LinkdedIn Profile enhancement, interview coaching) and a top notch candidate. I found people are afraid of their stuff being too accessible in public due to being targeted by criminals and ID theft. It's a damn shame really. Good luck!

Vince Fulco, CFA, CAIA vfulco[@]weisisheng.cn

Clean format. Don't get too fancy. It should be super basic and completely focused on content.

Don't get too fancy with words. Don't use acronyms or get too technical, save that for the interview. Put what you accomplished in layman's or business-terms ("Improved speed of X by Y%, causing Z" vs "Improved image processing in DFE by leveraging FGFR then post-processed with FESDG")

Shorter is better. Giving a really good tasty morsel is way better than a 5-course bland meal.

Honestly, github and video screen are way more informative. Usually through cyclops.io so we can jump into whiteboarding or screen sharing.

If there was a way to have a single hosting platform. Where candidates could create 90 second video intros of themselves. Describing their projects, interests and personal and professional philosophies. With links to demos, apps, etc. A lot like YCombinator startup candidate videos. I think that could be tremendously useful! Best of luck ;)

I was super disappointed about jsonresume.org never getting their pdf issues worked out. So many others have tried (they tried and failed? they tried and died...Dune reference ;-) ). That was about the closest I have ever seen to a standard which could be used to semi-automate writing them.

Most services seem to stumble with consistent PDF or MS Word formatting. Rarely can you get a service that provides both easily.

Check them out for some trailheads though.

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