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Based on another comment you made, I looked at your resume, here are my thoughts:

* Skip the crammed-together logo crap and links on the left.

* More whitepace, it's hard to read.

* Don't jam the position/company/location/dates all on one line.

* It's impossible to figure out what you (think you) know without reading everything: without a summary section you likely won't get past many automated or human systems.

* Even after reading your experience I have almost zero clue what languages and environments you know, have familiarity with, prefer, or enjoy.

* Stop with all the freakin' icons, flags, and pictures.

* References on request.

* Elide all/most of the "Personal Interests"

* Nobody cares about your iBooks in 2005

* I would keep the language, education sections; academic awards, meh; as a hirer, I don't care.

* Add a better summary section.

* Add usable, relevant info to the job history (e.g. "I wrote this", BFD: what did you use to write it?) or add an overall technology section, and don't lie, because if whoever is interviewing you is anything like you, I will ask about the weirdest shit you put on your resume.

Bottom line: lots of wasted space, way too light on actionable data. No clue what you actually know, what you want to do, how any of your experience is relevant to what I'm hiring for.

Tangential: For better or worse, your religious views will raise certain feelings in certain people. And if your life was predetermined, then this is all what's supposed to happen anyway, right? So why complain? Just sayin'.

I've emailed you with 3 alternative versions based on contradictory advice I've received in the past. Please read those and tell me whether there's a specific position at LittleBits that you think I should rewrite the résumé for.

I won't answer all your objections here, because I fear that it might sound defensive and I don't want to turn a comment thread into a flame war. I do appreciate advice.

I have responded to your email, although it's borderline creepy, and telling someone you've internet-stalked them is probably not the best approach.

It doesn't bother me if you sound, or are, defensive--people are naturally invested in their work, their image, their "self". Won't change my opinion(s), it takes two people to have a flame war, and I'd ignore anything war-like because I have actual stuff to do.

This is a very classy reply - you've offered OP some wonderful help and dealt with a strange situation with tact and class. Have a great weekend!

Ironically, that I would ignore anything war-like was parroted back to me as a bad thing in one of the OP's emails--he was offended because I used "profanity" (the word was "shitty") and he left in a huff after I spent the time to deal with both his post here, and his unsolicited emails asking for advice, with three resume versions to read, and asking how to get a job where I worked.

Some people... shrug wth.

That's sad. You went way above what most people would do and it's upsetting that OP would treat you like that after you did so much. From my perspective, what you did is absolutely amazing and I hope that one bad apple doesn't make you change how you'd react in the future.

This is one of those moments when Hacker News really needs an 'upvote' button and an 'upvote and buy lunch' button. Since I can't buy you lunch, at least accept my gratitude and respect. You're a good man and I have a lot of respect for the way you have handled this.

I (more or less) tend to operate, despite my cynical nature, that everyone's nice until proven otherwise. I genuinely enjoy helping people and providing feedback/mentoring/etc. My brevity is often taken for callousness, but that I spend the time at all is generally enough to offset concision--I do actually have stuff to do ;)

shrug It takes all kinds and all that :) But thanks, appreciate the appreciation. His knee-jerk reaction was just that, and while annoying, ultimately inconsequential.

this what i consider a very good cv, you might get some inpiration here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uG2aEh5xBJE&feature=youtu.be...

I would be neither impressed nor offended, I would be irritated.

It takes hours or days of clock time to find candidates to bother phone screening, let alone bring in for a face-to-face. Someone comes in that I'm not expecting to talk to... you'll meet the door with some velocity.

(And anybody that wants you to come in for a face-to-face before a phone screen... they deserve whatever they get, because that's dumb unless they're across the street and bring you lunch.)

If you can't figure out what to put on a resume how will you solve an actual problem?!

To add to the great advice you got by davelnewton already, you should consider a few more things.

It's obvious that you're at the point of frustration, and you're taking it personal. It's either affecting your style of communication, or your style of communication is combative as a whole.

Speaking of personal, your resume is very personal, where it should be professional. Reading your resume should be a succinct representation on your professional skills. Your personal style and hobbies are something that co-workers learn during interviews and after you start your job. As other people have said, less is more in this aspect.

Hiring managers find objectives in a resume mostly useless. Even if you insist on including an objective, the current one is weak. It's about as generic as the label you'd find on white bread. It should be a summary of who you are (professionally). For example: "A Software Engineer with over 10 years worth of experience with a track record of delivering exceptional quality on time with a focus on electrical engineering"

Your resume should sell, and you are the product. With that in mind, you should write it in a manner that describes the value you bring, not a laundry list of things you've done at your previous positions. It's great that you wrote driver software, but what impact did it have?

Everything on the resume that adds no value can be removed, that includes all of these 1-2 month long internship (it's ok to combine it into 1 "job" with multiple bullet points demonstrating value). It also includes everything that's extracurricular, hobbies, interests, languages, GPA, etc. (Use judgement here, if the job requires multi-lingual proficiency than you'd want to keep that)

References should not be on your resume. If someone wants a reference, they will ask for it.

You should list major roles and describe you VALUE and not day to day tasks. 3-4 bullet points each one a paragraph elaborating on how your contribution was valuable. Small roles can be combined, but the same rule applies - the place/title doesn't matter only the value.

I have a minor disagreement with the "Objective" section. I use mine as a (relatively) succinct window into my personality, goals, and ambitions: mine is a bit silly, but honest, and informative. If they don't like what I say in my objective, they will not want to hire me, and I wouldn't want to work there.

I use mine as both information, and a "gatekeeper" of sorts, and I believe it's saved everyone involved a fair amount of time in the long run. If they like it, and my skills or aptitude match what they're looking for, it's probably a good fit on multiple levels.

That said: it's a minor disagreement. For most people it probably isn't quite as functional--but I'm a unique snowflake ;)

I'd highly recommend patio11's fantastic post Don't Call Yourself A Programmer, And Other Career Advice, in particular this section:

"Read ad. Send in resume. Go to job interview. Receive offer.” is the exception, not the typical case, for getting employment.

[0]: https://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-pr...

I agree entirely. I don't expect that my real persona can succeed on a typical job board (e.g. Indeed, Seek, TradeMe, 104).

After trying with that method, I experimented with many other routes. Most expect me to already have a work visa. I've been trying since March. I rewrote my résumé twice. I updated my LinkedIn. I asked recruiters for help. I put side projects on the web to try to get attention. I asked friends who I worked with at a local company when I was there before. I found random people on Github and offered to work for free on open-source projects just to get an introduction. I contacted computer repair shops and asked them to put up posters advertising data migration services that I could do with my old Apple II. Nothing has worked. Now I'm spamming every company on the Accredited Employers list (whether in the tech industry or not), just to try to get some new ideas of how to approach the application process in that country.

Why do you think nothing has worked? Also you don't have an e-mail contact or anything in your profile for anyone who might actually be interested in your background!

Valid point; I've added contact details to my HN profile. I think that nothing has worked because although some people reply, the answers are always negative. I've had only a single interview.

Writing custom cover letters and tailoring my résumé for each separate application is very time consuming and involves exaggeration to the point of stretching the truth. What I'm considering in this project is to build a bot that could take over that process. Blatant lying, just not in my name. I think that fraud is wrong for a human, but for a bot, passing the Turing Test is a feature.

Your very premise is fraudulent: "You wanted to talk to this bullshit person some software invented, you will talk to me instead."

No, no I won't.

The bot created the resume under your direction: you're not presenting the resume as a science project or submitting it to a Turing Test, you're submitting it to an HR person, or hiring manager, as a potential candidate, and wasting their time. It's just rude.

"I think fraud is wrong for a human, but if it's the human pressing a button that tells a lie, no harm done."

The armed drone approach to resumes.

Thank you for the link! Gold.

Uh except for "You’re in the business of unemploying people. If you think that is unfair, go back to school and study something that doesn’t matter."

I think this is a bad idea. Odds are very high that this will end with an immediate rejection and maybe even blacklisting, if I were you I wouldn't risk it.

Thing is, even if the field of work is relevant (AI), most companies consider their HR process as some kind of sacred rite of passage and they tend to be very inflexible in changing their mode of operation per candidate. Not to mention that even if companies advertise otherwise, disregard for status quo || authority is not really a marketable character trait.

To answer your question on a more personal note: actually, I'd at least be a bit impressed if the end product is of high quality, and would like to learn more about the code and your reasoning behind it. Yet I believe this would be an uncommon approach in the industry.

Your résumé is 3 pages long, whereas DrNuke below recommends getting everything onto one page maximum.

Thank you for your opinion though, I'm trying to evaluate whether this is a situation of Asymmetric Risk [1]. When I have no job to start with, I feel like I have nothing to lose.

[1] https://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/investment-id...

I'd end the interview and put you on the do-not-hire list.

I find many kinds of hacks amusing or impressive. But not lying about your background.

The bot wouldn't be using my name. It would be creating an entirely fictitious persona.

... which you're using to get an interview:

> If my bots could get an interview, I would then attend and reveal my true identity.

So you'd be hijacking the interview of your fictitious persona. I'm not even sure which is worse, but IMO it's a dick move, and I'd show you the door before anything of value was discussed.

Although any place that's doing in-person interviews w/o a phone-call sanity check, and maybe more, isn't a place I'd want to work anyway, because that's un-sustainable.

"The game is hard so I cheated!" Do you think it's a good way to start a business relationship?

Some say cheater, others say "gifted analyst".

"A visa too! Wow, a fascinating problem with multiple dimensions to consider. And here at the center of it, a gifted analyst. I wonder what kind of theory or model could be drafted, something that fits the situation like a glove _and_ exposes critical leverage points. If anyone could do it...(points at you)"

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17927183

I haven't cheated yet because I have ethical doubts about it. But my resolve is slipping because I have tried every other conceivable option for trying to get a job.

I looked at your resume for exactly 5 seconds before I closed it again, so I think it really might be you(r resume).

Also I'm not sure if you tried ever conceivable option. If you know some Latex, fill out this template and you should be off a lot better: https://github.com/xdanaux/moderncv

What is YOUR opinion? If you were spending tens of thousands of dollars trying to recruit people and someone said, "Ha! Just kidding, here's my real resume." What would you do?

If the role is related to AI, and the interviewer wants to know about previous experience, does "Making a bot smart enough to fool your HR department" count as a demonstration of skills?

The HR department is already using AI to filter candidates. It's called Applicant Tracking Systems. It's a thing [1] [2]. If the companies are using bots against the candidates, why should candidates not use bots against the companies?

[1] https://www.analyticsindiamag.com/top-use-cases-ai-human-res...

[2] https://medium.com/@deadlocked_d/to-all-recruiters-use-machi...

It isn't a matter of using a bot. It's what the end result looks like. You can use a bot to determine which of your real skills would likely get your resume looked at. You CANNOT use a bot to build a fake resume.

Well... not so sure about that; I think I could probably spin out a reasonable resume bot. I gave the idea some thought; I think the hardest part would be a reasonable-looking work history (which of course would crumble almost immediately), but I suspect it's easier than I think it is.

I may have to take a run at it just for giggles.

Because your bot is a liar. Manipulating your resume to be more appealing is valid, because it's not a liar.

Shifting keywords, re-ordering sections, highlighting specific experience: totally, 100% valid, and if you can automate that, a potential product (it's similar to stuff I banged on years and years ago). It's what people should be doing to their resume anyway.

Companies don't use AI against candidates, they use AI to try to weed through the tens, hundreds, or thousands of resumes they have to shuffle through to find maybe one or two standouts.

You wouldn't be using AI against a company, you'd be using it because (in your view) it's in your, and the company's, best interests to hire you. Guess what: lying and bullshitting to get a foot in the door does not demonstrate that, and only very rarely will it be positively received by the people you lied to.

If you're waiting for a "Ya' gotta lotta moxie, kid, yeeeaaaarrrrhh" you'll probably be waiting a long time.

The person with a hireable mentality would have created Show HN: Fake Resume Generator

I might, but I made several Show HNs that didn't succeed.

Before making a controversial project like this, I decided to weigh up the attitude of the community. If the comment thread were encouraging, then I would probably have done it. But instead it's turned to personal attacks on my existing résumé. I think it's a toxic idea that's likely to breed flame wars, and that's not going to help me find a job.

Intriguingly, nobody doubts that AI could produce these bots. Somebody probably will do this, but I don't think they'll then show it off.

Ah. Yes I see that you did. I'm sorry for my comment, it was perhaps too glib. I wish you the best in your job search/immigration situation.

You can't make personal attacks on a resume, you can make personal attacks on... a person.

I didn't see anything in this entire thread that was a personal attack. I saw attacks on your idea, because it's deceitful, and I saw criticisms of your resume, which AFAIC, seems pretty valid under the circumstances.

If I write a fake resume generator, it'll be on Github for all to peruse and improve upon--don't know why people wouldn't want to "show their work". It's not like it's going to get a lot of people hired, and even if it did, it'll be rare that they're kept in their position for long.

A clear-cut, honest one-page CV stiil beats fakes and bots.

As an engineer who gets a lot of resumes from HR to make decisions about who is coming in for in person interviews, I would be rather annoyed. I would feel that you were dishonest and lacked respect for my time.

Saying you have nothing to lose because you're unemployed makes no sense. You would be losing potential job opportunities.

You'd be far better off putting your time into creating a neat, readable resume.

Well I do actually read resumes and cover letters. If I figured out you wasted my time with a fake resume (even if it's cool to create them programmatically), I'd blacklist you from future applications and move on with life.

You are likely being auto-filtered for a reason, ask for feedback and build on that. Also manage your own expectations, you are in a highly competitive industry with finely balanced requirements - you're not perfect for every role but there is a perfect role for you.

Ask HN: Fake résumé generator