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Help me improve my CV

3 pointserhardm5 comments

I want to do an internship this summer and I have some doubts writing my CV. In Technical Experience & Side Projects section I have most of my doubts.

I don't have experience working on a open source project, I'm right now at the beginning of the two listed projects, but I don't have enough milestones to publish them. I don't know if I should even list them. I could talk about them, but implementation wise...it's almost nothing done.

The most experience I have is in Java, having some mock projects that I finished(Polynomials calculator, Bank application with a DB, Point of sale simulation, Product management app, Bank application w/o db - just to learn how to properly use Design by Contracts - mostly university assignments but with the extra mile.), some experience in C, mostly for school(various sorting algorithms, some cli book management app to learn how to implement single/double linked lists), some Python(mostly to learn the language, some scripts and now learning some Twisted, which I need for one of the side project) and the rest are assignments for school, some of which I find them very insteresting(Haskell, Lisp) but didn't yet managed to study them more closely.

Having read your comments on this submission https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7854029, I thought I could use your honest (especially, cruel truth) opinion and advise for improving my CV. The more honest, concise and true (even if it's cruel), the better. I really want to find a place that gives me opportunities to grow in my passion and want to be good at it, not just to earn some money.

My CV can be found here:

https://www.wetransfer.com/downloads/7f548d7fa1f599e290f0d033655e948320140621064314/8a3e97ed8c7279926a1b4721eb498f8420140621064314/26a136

Just going to throw everything out as word vomit, remember that this is a work of iteration. There's tons of advice out there about how to write a resume, but at the end it's a very personal document to write.

Some of my per section recommendations: Technical Experience Remove side projects from the header, it's not necessary Remove KLOCS, instead opt to add descriptions of your experience. Built something you're proud of? talk about it!

Your experience should speak at your capabilities, saying you know linux and git adds nothing but something like "Built a linux console application that utilizes git to achieve *" has more value.

Education: Trim trim trim, anything before college doesn't matter, unless you have something super awesome to put in. At your level of experience, maybe list some relevant courses or a current GPA if it's really high

Languages: not relevant to your professional experience, so it doesn't belong in your resume

Professional skills: I'm mostly against giving a laundry list as these are mostly shallow. "Responsible"? "Analytic ability" what do they actually mean to the person reading your resume? You have about 1 paragraph worth of space to put something more personal in your resume and those words can be part of that: "A Passionate team-worker with great attention to detail with X amount of experience" Note that even that sounds kind of impersonal.

Other: Doesn't belong on your resume

References: Ditto, it's obvious that you have references upon request, why waste space on your resume?

Some general recommendations: The text on your resume should speak about your RELEVANT professional experience and nothing else. The rest can be represented in a cover letter/interview

Anything more than 1 page is tiresome to read and messy to handle. Don't forget that this is going to pass several hands (hopefully)

Your resume is usually the only thing representing you between a stack of dozens more, it should be informative and interesting enough to get noticed.

Always tailor your resume to the job - Are you applying to a position that requires Java and Linux experience? Show that off and remove your prolog/lisp/asm experience.

Feel free to re-draft for more specifics

Thank you for your feedback!

Please check the updated version 2, linked in my response to S4M's comment.

Here is how I would rewrite your cv:

1. Your name: add a title below (Junior programmer) and a short summary of yourself (for example Enthusiastic CS graduate with experience in Java, C, Common Lisp and Assembly).

2. Section "Technical experience and side projects". Instead of listing the programming languages you know, list the projects you have done, with the technology used. For example: "Tor isolation proxy: [High level description everybody can understand, not sure if what I gonna say is right, or even possible:] Transformed a wifi router into a Tor relay. Technology involved: VDHL and C."

You mention that you have experience with HTML. Do you have a webpage online that you can show? Also, add a link to the github repo of your project if you have it. I am not sure your prospective employers will bother to click on them, but they will if they find the description of your project interesting.

3. section Education. Drop everything below University, because frankly, nobody cares. Instead, write the date of your entrance at your university, the year of expected graduation, and a description of what you are learning there.

4. Languages: unlike what mataniko says, I'd recommend you to leave it there, but just write: English: Fluent, German: mother tongue - it's especially relevant if you want to apply in companies in Germany. Out of interest, why don't you mention Romanian?

4. Professional skills. Drop it. Nobody cares that you have "tact and diplomacy", that's something they will find out if they interview you. You mention "self employed". In English, it means that you are your own employer, i.e you have your own company that makes some money. I am not sure that's what you meant, maybe what you meant was more like "I can work by myself".

5. I would suggest to remove the "others" section. You mention your interest in cryptography and open source, which is good, but must be visible in your side project. If you have contributed to an open source project, mention it in the section "technical experience and side projects", and if you haven't you will look bad if someone asks you in an interview "You are saying on your cv that you are fond of FLOSS. Have you contributed to some open source project?". And same for crypto.

6. Drop the "references" section as well. They will ask you if they need them. Meanwhile it's just eating place on your cv.

Thank you for your feedback!

version 2.0:

https://www.wetransfer.com/downloads/67bb311d67f76dcd74318b7...

1. Added your suggestion. Not sure if the format(can only write capital letters because it's a subtitle) is the right one.

2. Considered mataniko's suggestion and removed "side projects" part from the header.

I listed projects that I've done(they are mostly university assignments with the extra mile). I have limited experience with HTML, had to do an assignment involving PHP and I'm really ashamed of the result. It will do more wrong than good.

All the listed projects have a private repository on Bitbucket. Currently I'm not comfortable making them public, but after my finals I will take some time polishing them for publishing.

I'm not sure if I worded correctly the descriptions of the projects(particularly "build with Ant...etc...managed with Git" part). I want to show that even if I developed them alone, I am rigorous using source code management and automated build software/systems(even if nobody asked me to). I'm not sure if I achieved this purpose.

I swapped "Technologies" part with "Familiar with". I'm not sure if it's the right thing. I'm not particular interested in getting a internship only in Java or C. I would like to broaden my options. I like Python, ASM, VHDL, Common Lisp, Prolog and others even if I've only done trivial things in them. I'm more like "the right tool for the job" guy, but also at the right time(i.e. I avoid PHP as much as possible because it breeds a wrong way of doing things and I'm too inexperienced to avoid common mistakes - later, having more experience maybe I'll reconsider my choice).

Could you suggest a way of finding the companies that appreciate the spirit of learning new things, considers applicants even if they don't have enough experience yet?

3. Dropped everything below university(details in 4.). Added expected graduation year. I don't know if describing what I'm learning here adds any value(also that would take more space and it will pass the 1 page suggestion from mataniko). Fairly standard - Algorithms, Data structures, OOP, Operating systems, functional programming, image processing, system theory, hardware/logical design, embedded systems(mips,avr), Computer architecture, etc...

4. My mother tongue is German, but I'm born and live in Romania. Previously listed education has shown that I studied at a German school. Now studying in English and most of my relatives living in Germany and not speaking daily anymore, my German is a little rusty, so I changed it to "fluent"(managing expectations). I added Romanian though being a Romanian citizen is self-explanatory.

4'. Removed professional skills.

5. Removed others.

6. Removed references.

You may notice I didn't took every single suggestion into consideration and I hope I didn't insulted you having done that. My apologies if it may seem ungrateful. I really appreciate taking your time writing your suggestions down. Maybe I'm wrong and need more persuading:)

Definitely an improvement but at the end, as someone who reviewed countless resumes I find it shallow.

By the time i finish reading about your experience I should want to know more. Or at least know enough to take you into consideration.

Since you don't have the traditional "worked at X for Y time and made Z" experience you really want to tell a story here.

For example, the first two items have a lot of redundancy and can be combined and speak about how you built a bank application using all of those technologies. If you can put a link to github repositories of these projects thats even better.

Some of the stuff listed is very basic, and thats ok since you don't have the experience yet. But why even put it? Use those precious lines to expand on meaningful stuff you've done and proud to show off. The line about Tor Isolation Proxy is great, the one about CLI Books management is tiresome.

Is there a particular internship you're targeting? Do you have a side project you can work on in case that doesn't work out, or as additional experience towards a related internship?

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