How programmers should write their resumes
doesnotcompute.biz
doesnotcompute.biz
Article says: "Sure, you might have implemented a new feature "in less than a month", but why did you start in the first place?"
90% of developers reply with: "Oh dear God, I don't make the decisions. As far as I know, some AE was golfing with some d-bag client/customer who, between jokes about breasts and baseball, mentioned 'Wouldn't it be cool if your product...' and now I've been told to make it happen."
Article says: "Use all that freed-up real estate to describe how you made it better than anyone else could have."
Self-aware developers reply with: "Well, actually, someone else probably could have done a better job. I'm good, but I'm not the guy giving talks and inventing technologies. That guy doesn't need to write a resume. That guy shows up in jeans and a t-shirt and walks away with an offer 3x my salary."
Article says: "what was the impact of your work...in numbers?"
90% of developers reply with: "HAHAHAHAHAHA. You think we kept analytics??? Good one. That's a good one."
Article says: "You resume should be devoid of personality."
I reply with: "Please die in a fire."
Article says: "Answer this: what kind of job are you looking for?"
A confused developer replies with: "But still write my resume in exactly the same way whether I'm applying at a Fortune 100 company or a 5 person start-up?"
It was at this point I stopped reading, so if there's more ridiculousness at the end, well, you have more patience than I do.
- "Don't bother mentioning your G.P.A." : I know firms are only interested in your diploma's name, but it can be an advantage to mention you passed summa cum laude whereas another barely made it by coasting and offloading his share of works on others students (which is unfortunately a useful skill in the workplace).
- "Don't bother using verbs other than "made" for programming projects." : I completely disagree. Using the exact verb to describe your work show your understanding of the tasks which fell onto you, but also your writing proficiency (which will be reflected in the quality of your comments).
- "Answer this: where can I look at some stuff you built?" Github is a nice place to show-off your skill but not everyone is interested in open-source side-projects, so it's not a silver bullet.
- "Answer this: which languages and databases do you prefer?" Well, if you want to pass the résumes' automatic parser used by the HR dep., you need to stuff your application with keywords anyway.
- "Don't bring up your hobbies." : This one really raised my hair. Not everyone is tweeting every part of their life (I certainly don't) so hobbies are a great way to lighten the mood during the interview and assessing the interviewee's personality.
You can't, it's closed source proprietary internal stuff. And I'm not allowed to talk too much about it because I had to sign a NDA.
Sadly, when you're competing against the world for many positions, you need every possible advantage.
I did on my 'about' page ( http://nickkusters.com/About ) for stuff that was under NDA and I haven't had any comments.
But hey that's a lot of interesting stuff you've worked on :)
I think it is fluff. Unless you are going to put something strikingly like juggling live swords, it is something I would glaze over. There are other ways to lighten the mood (like small talk) during the interview.
> - "Don't bother mentioning your G.P.A." : I know firms are only interested in your diploma's name, but it can be an advantage to mention you passed summa cum laude whereas another barely made it by coasting and offloading his share of works on others students (which is unfortunately a useful skill in the workplace).
Only if you are close to fresh out of school. If someone has five years of experience and mentions his GPA, I either think he has not updated that portion of his resume (which is OK) or that he still thinks I care about what he did five years ago in an ivory tower (which I really don't).
You may think so, but you've no idea who is ultimately reading your resume.
Granted keep it short, but more than once this has got someone from the "maybe" pile into the "we'll take a look cos he plays bass" pile.
I'd much rather have the motivated, driven guy who wants to dot his I's and cross his T's than a programmer who thinks that learning big-O notation isn't worth it, that learning software engineering methodology is a waste of time, and operating systems is dumb because all hiring positions want Java programmers.
High GPAs come with certain attitudes built in. It is not the only indicator of success, but when I see anything less than a 3.5 it makes me question the candidate's grit. Is that how you are going to behave when you are given work you don't like, or do not deem is important? We are paying you "A+" salaries, we want A+ work. Not night-before C- "I turned it in" software.
I see so many 4.0 students from top schools that it doesn't even turn my eye anymore (grade inflation is a bad problem in china).
Two biggest things in my personal experience that ended up with amazing hires. Unashamed to admit they don't know something in the interview, treat it as a matter of simple fact - they don't know yet, but can find out. Program in multiple languages / explore languages / can speak about strengths and weaknesses across languages.
In my (obviously limited) experience, high GPAs have correlated to poor or even poisonous personalities. Often arrogant without merit, unable to change positions because of ego, and with an inability to adapt and learn.
Google appears to have done an experiment on a much grander scale and come to similar (but IMHO a little better written up) conclusions: http://qz.com/180247/why-google-doesnt-care-about-hiring-top...
I would assume that arrogance, ego, and inability to adapt and learn comes out during the interview process. You should be weeding these people out regardless of their GPA.
Assuming they aren't afraid to admit they don't know something, or aren't a complete asshole, I want to know how you deal with the cards you are dealt - that includes going to class, studying for tests, and doing things you deem "unimportant." The last 20% of any project is where 80% of the time and effort go, and I want to know when that time comes that you won't settle for a "B."
Over time (around 15 years), I simply had to accept a negative correlation. It is something me and my peers spitball ideas about often these days. Our working, but entirely booze derived, theory is that the high GPA kids are generally able to keep top marks because mom and dad pay for everything, so they can devote themselves more easily to getting an A. But, this ease gives a sense of absolute entitlement and bitter, useless arrogance... versus the kid working a job, helping at home and struggling to lock down that B. But, just a theory and all that.
Tldr I totally buy your "brat theory"
C's get degrees my friend.
Added:
How are you using hobbies to evaluate the person's personality matters? Does someone who coaches his son's ultimate Frisbee team have a better personality than someone who plays with his Raspberry Pi?
Coasting and offloading work don't necessarily negatively correlate with GPA. Some of the people I knew in school who cared most about GPA would 1) pick the easiest classes they could find and 2) push as much of the work as they could onto others, neither of which was particularly impressive.
The author may even be hiring and saying "these are the only kinds of resumes I read" but there are a thousand other companies out there with their own criteria for what makes a resume work.
I have to disagree. I got my current job because my resume stood out. It was the only one not written in MS word. The other candidates had equal if not greater experience than me, but I got the job before they even got a response.
If you're going for a programming position where you're not expected to be different, then sure, but if you're going for a development role where you may be full stack, or expected to be different, make sure your resume shows that.
Sell yourself in the 10 seconds you get. A school boy resume isn't going to do that.
And as mh_yam says, don't call yourself a programmer.
In either case the introduction letter is probably the best place to show why you're special and a good fit for the company.
Once you get through the screen, you can show them your fancy resume, but at that point, no one cares about your resume -- you already caught their attention and it is interview / references time.
The reasons are often somewhat complex. Their application tracking software only supports word. Their IT department has sent word from atop the mountain to only accept .docx because it works with their AV and a bad virus got into the company via PDF last year.
It isn't the people you are going to be working with that are the problem, it is the people who defend the outer ring of large companies -- IT and HR departments.
Larger companies may do this, and if you like larger companies, this is probably ok. Not for me.
But companies also have a zillion "well if they don't want to work with me I don't want them working here" rules.
Listen, sometimes in the real world you have to do something a little unpleasant every now and then. Candidates should bend a little to employers, and employers should bend a little for candidates.
As a result, they'll take your CV, remove all identifiable information and send it on
If they specifically allow other formats, or request a specific format, use it. But, in the case that they don't specify -- go with the most common format in the industry, anything else is nuts.
Additionally, if the primary filter on talent is .docx versus .pdf (or .txt or even .tex) -- it is a place so stupid you probably don't want to work there anyway.
> HR sees a unfamiliar format, and simply bins that resume.
When they bin the good resumes, they bin the good candidates, which means the chances of the current employees not being particularly good is higher. This would make me think twice about working for a company that says no to the better candidate because HR found their job too difficult.
I also think that if you have a GPA that is worth being proud of you should include it. It takes up very little space, and it summarizes years of accomplishment in a quantitative way. I'm more than 10 years out of my undergrad now, but I'm still going to say that my GPA was 3.98 (4.0 in majors).
Or use another goddamned software hosting service? I'll never understand this sense of GitHub supremacy amongst trendies.
Otherwise, the advice in general is subpar.
1. I am a good programmer.
2. I have/am X.
3. (Optional) Just-so story about how X makes you a good developer.
4. Therefore, job candidates must have/be X.
I've seen this taken to stupid lengths, where employers want someone who has done professional work with the exact toolchain in use. I don't like car analogies, but it would be like hiring a driver and saying "well, we need someone familiar with the Ford Fusion, and you only have driven a Ford Taurus."
Who do you think has a higher chance of getting the job? It's a definite plus.
I am sick of job ads that use words like 'ninja' and 'rockstar', btw.
The American Engineers' Council for Professional Development (ECPD, the predecessor of ABET) has defined "engineering" as: The creative application of scientific principles to design or develop structures, machines, apparatus, or manufacturing processes, or works utilizing them singly or in combination; or to construct or operate the same with full cognizance of their design; or to forecast their behavior under specific operating conditions; all as respects an intended function, economics of operation or safety to life and property.
Software engineers take scientific methods created/researched/etc from Computer Scientists and created something from it. The difference between an engineer and joe shmo is that an engineer understands the science behind what they are doing.
An engineer could build a bridge and a regular guy could build a bridge. Both may work for 100 years, but the engineer KNOWS it will work for 100 years (under specific conditions obviously) and the regular guy doesn't. The same could be said for software.
Get it done by a professional service. It's pretty much one of the most important documents you will ever have created. It's your ticket to employment, which is quite likely determining your quality of life.
Shop around. Find a quality, professional resume writing service with plenty of positive testimonials that will provide a custom service, not some "paste your text into a template" crock job.
Pick the service like you pick any other service. Word of mouth from people you trust, reviews, research into the service, common sense, money-back guarantee etc. How do pick how to use any service? How do you pick an important SAAS or library or API to use?
If you are so convinced you wouldn't be able to tell if a service is doing a good job, how do you know that this recruiter you went to "butchered" your resume and didn't improve it?
Sorry if I'm coming across as overly combative, I just feel that IT professionals in particular are really bad at acknowledging their inexperience in other domains. I think this is especially true when it comes to writing. Perhaps it has something to do with documentation traditionally being an afterthought in the FLOSS world.
I can tell ugly and bad resumes. When a bunch of sentences on using Microsoft Office have been added to my resume, I can tell it's a bad resume. This doesn't mean I can tell the difference between the 95th percentile and the 98th percentile resume for a particular employer, where the latter will get me in the door and the former won't.
> but it's probably pointless trying to convince you otherwise.
Hey, thanks man!
[1] Say there are two companies and one has a "don't say anything about hobbies" hiring manager and the other has an "always mention hobbies" hiring manager.
I'm not really sure what else to tell you. When you use any service, there is always a chance that the result is shit. As an adult and a consumer you just have to do your best to mitigate the risk.
If you are already getting lots of callbacks and interviews then it's probably already fine. But if you are getting none, then it's time to swallow your pride and accept that you need help from a professional.
> Hey, thanks man!
I didn't mean to insult you, but if your personal experience with recruiters is only negative, nothing I say will change that perception.
This is a good tip. I often just say My interest never leaves education, tool automation, and security.