Ask HN: How should I present my skills section on my resume? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How should I present my skills section on my resume?

9 pointseel3 comments

Hi HN, I am currently looking for a new job. I've already applied to a few, but I'm still tweaking my resume. I've run into a snag in how to present my skills. I am graduating with my Masters in May, and I have picked up a fairly broad array of skills via internships, jobs, class projects, and side projects. I have no idea how to present all this information on my resume. Currently, I am listing the following under my "Skills" section:

  Object-oriented programming (C#, PHP, Python)
  Front-end web development (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, YUI, Django, MVC design pattern)
  Familiarity with C programming (including C syntax, pointers and memory management)
  Windows application development (.NET Framework, WPF, MVVM design pattern)
  Mac OS X application development (Objective-C and Cocoa)
  SQL databases (MySQL, SQL Server, SQLite)
  Version control (git, SVN, CVS)
  Linux (Bash, Vim)

These are things in which I feel I have reasonable experience or practice in for a recent graduate. I'm also omitting things (such as Java and Lua) with which I have experience with, but still less than the above. Does anyone have any recommendations on how I can best present this information? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I'll start off with a question; what's your label?

A resume should echo what you are passionate about.

Some people write up a resume per interview specifically tailored to the need of the company. (I see you plan to do X, I have skill Y)

Saying 'I can do everything' doesn't imply 'I can do everything well'.

If you market yourself as a .NET programmer, then that's the job you'll get.

It's nice to have the occasional additives (languages/frameworks you rarely use) just in case of referral (being asked to interview for something that's not your speciality). But be sure to weigh your primary and secondary skills differently.

Be sure to provide social proof to back up your claims (ex. I used X, Y, Z to build A, B, C for company N to accomplish E, F, G). Interviewers/potential employers also want to see what your responsibilities were at your previous jobs/projects.

Don't be shy to mention hobby projects if your portfolio in regards to experience is a bit thin - also try to keep it less than 4/5 pages (think menu, not memoir) :)

Good luck

Your suggestion to tailor the resume towards your passions (or also the job you want) is great advice, but 4+ pages? I have 20+ years experience and my resume is two pages. The resume should be just enough to get them to call you and nothing more. No one is going to read through anything more than a couple of pages and certainly not for someone just out of grad school.

You should be tailoring your resume to the job that you are applying for. If you are applying for a job doing web development, does it matter that you understand Windows and OS X application development? Likewise, if you are applying for a company that builds C# applications, your knowledge of web development is not very meaningful.

The other problem with the skills section is that it is not clear which skill segment you understand best.

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