What do you do?

Heylel_sl said:

What finally clicked for me was realizing it's a marketing document. It's intended to be a sales pitch, not a comprehensive work history. I don't even bother with any professional work prior to grad school anymore.

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I treat my resume like how I treated my online dating profile. They don't need to know everything about me they just need to get a high level overview to know if I'm a good fit. I don't list every project I've been on and I don't list every single technology I know. Unless the job specifically states "We need someone who knows X" I may or may not put that technology on my resume. Like I just take for granted knowing Java indicates I know how to manipulate XML but some job descriptions will say "Knowledge of DOM parsing and manipulation" so I'll toss that I know DOM on the resume before sending it out to them.

Yeah, some things you can assume get grandfathered in. For myself, I tend to assume that if I'm putting down that I manage a couple million in research projects that they also know I can write grants, do budgets etc. If it specifies those skills I'll tweak a bullet to call those out.

I gotta say, this thread has been really helpful putting my thoughts in order. I'm pretty confident in my resume right now.

Heylel_sl said:

I'm very curious what you use for C. Specific projects you can call to follow up? Competency quizzes?

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Areas to dig into in-detail. More or less to see if I can trust that what is stated on the resume is correct.

IE: If someone claims to have designed a Disaster Recovery scenario for Data Center A to B (An area I know well) I will dig in very very minute details to make sure they give a valid response.

Cad_sl said:

I used to have a 1 page resume but I've gone to 2 pages the last couple of years. Especially once you have worked more than 15 years and have graduate degrees and other bar memberships etc, it ends up distilling down your experience too much. With 2 pages, I can list representative cases, what I actually did at each job beyond "performed research, wrote briefs, argued motions before Northern/Eastern District of Texas Courts" which is what it ends up being with 1 page.

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These are valid reasons to. Work Experience is not.

Patents?
Professional Certifications (Talking CCNA, VCP, VCDX, NPX, whatever. More or less anything not CompTIA)

I'm just referring mainly to people whose current job is a superset of prior jobs so you end up with

Job A - Software Engineer
Wrote Code
Hardcorded Algorthims

Job B - Sr Software Engineer
Wrote more code
Wore more baddass Algorithms
Lead team Y

Job C - Principle Software Engineer
Wrote more more code
Algorithmed badassery
Lead team X
Owned Architecture

I had actually condensed my resume down to a single page, and after I was hired I was told that they would have preferred multiple pages so I could provide more details. They actually wanted me to list publications and presentations like you would in a CV. It really depends on who is reading it.

This also goes to show, however, that the resume is just a means to get your foot in the door, because my interviews and presentation are what got me the job.

What I do for that, especially when they're progressive roles at the same company, is just list them together. Example from my own resume:

Research Scientist I/II - 2010-Current
- Bullets that aggregate both titles.

This way I save space, and it shows greater continuity in the same position while retaining the ability to show progressively more senior roles.

a_skeleton_03_sl said:

I put in a prayer for you and lit a candle.

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The atheist in me recoils, but I appreciate the sentiment.

Pinch_sl said:

I had actually condensed my resume down to a single page, and after I was hired I was told that they would have preferred multiple pages so I could provide more details. They actually wanted me to list publications and presentations like you would in a CV. It really depends on who is reading it.

This also goes to show, however, that the resume is just a means to get your foot in the door, because my interviews and presentation are what got me the job.

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I put a lot because most of the people I talk to where I have interviewed, competitors, and when I owned my own business it's very difficult to find people/attract people now. Very difficult. There's just not a very large pool nationwide to draw from and very few skills cross over.

The biggest thing they are looking for (and I looked for) is the background across a wide spectrum of roles so they can at least have a meaningful conversation about it. A few times I have sent in a resume and got a phone call about it a few minutes later.

That's why you see more than one page is because nobody has a "role" they fill. They fill many. The other option is to hire someone relatively young and train them. It's hard to attract people at $20/hour doing phyiscal work to get them the necessary background and such with the "promise" of much better pa and work conditions 10 years down the road.

I tried moving a 20 man office from Thailand back to the US and I couldn't find 3 people to do their job at a payscale of $60-$72K per year doing drafting work. That plan has been scrapped. The guy that owns the company in Thailand started with 20+ people who knew how to use a computer and that was it. He tought them how to use AutoCad. Taught them how to draw. Taught them the business inside and out over a 10 year period while partially funded by a competitor that eventually went under. I guess they buy into the promise of bigger and better pay down the road. I approve their time sheets. Many weeks it's 60 hours a week or more sometimes. No thanks.

Vinen is like that guy that during an interview brought in an assembly program on paper and had me step him through it. You could tell by his devilish laugh he wanted to catch me in a lie. Well, I'm still working here, guess I passed.

HR lady just forwarded me some more resumes for my replacement to go thru. I still look at resumes of people with college degrees, multiple years or decades of professional experience where they put stuff under skills like Microsoft word. I know I have a really long resume but you really need to drop the shit that everyone expects of everyone let alone someone who is a professional.

I do get a kick out of when legal reviews job listings we put out. Duties include prolonged sitting, ability to pick up to 5 pounds. No shit.

You laugh about the 5 pound thing man. When I worked at the grocery store like 13 years ago we hired this girl who was legitimately nuts. The job listing said you had to be able to lift 25 pounds or something. First day she shows up with a doctor's note saying she can't lift more than 5 pounds.. they had to fire her on the spot.

I really don't know what you would need to pick up that weighs 5 pounds anyway. I change out the rolls for the plotter if runs out while I'm using it. But we could get someone else to do it lol.

If we plot out an entire job at once it can weigh a good bit, but since I fired the IT guy that said it was too difficult to do dual monitors the need to plot all our shit out has pretty much ended. Not to mention cost savings of not plotting 1,000 24x36 sheets only to replot it the next day.

Noodlemod_sl said:

You laugh about the 5 pound thing man. When I worked at the grocery store like 13 years ago we hired this girl who was legitimately nuts. The job listing said you had to be able to lift 25 pounds or something. First day she shows up with a doctor's note saying she can't lift more than 5 pounds.. they had to fire her on the spot.

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I can't imagine doing that nowdays and what would be involved on the legal end.

Borzak_sl said:

HR lady just forwarded me some more resumes for my replacement to go thru. I still look at resumes of people with college degrees, multiple years or decades of professional experience where they put stuff under skills like Microsoft word. I know I have a really long resume but you really need to drop the shit that everyone expects of everyone let alone someone who is a professional.

I do get a kick out of when legal reviews job listings we put out. Duties include prolonged sitting, ability to pick up to 5 pounds. No shit.

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MS Office experience isn't necessarily a given. There are a lot of things people can do with Office that aren't standard. You'd be amazed how many people can't do a pivot table in Excel.

Well for these jobs the only thing you would need to know in office is how to open a document someone else sent for the most part.

Right now if someone with good qualifications didn't know anything about office they would hire an assistant to do all that for him/her.

My 11:00 interview hasn't show up. He flew in last night and I got an email saying he was in town. Office is about 5 minutes and 2 turns from the hotel he was staying at.

We'll see. If they don't show up with a copy of the flight receipt and hotel receipt they don't get a check cut for reimbursement.

Borzak be the hero we deserve by telling the candidate you're crowdsourcing interview questions and we can post some

Ask how they wipe. Sitting down or standing?