Hello all, I've been working on my resume for a while. Just wondering if I can get a critique. I'm especially concerned about my Skills section as I'm not sure what is relevant, what is given, and what else might need to be added/reworded. My portfolio link is in it as well, feel free to critique that, but for right now I'm looking for mostly Resume critique. http://www.micsworld.com/portfolio/resume Also, does anyone have any tips on spreading resumes around? Everyone always says customize the resume to the employer, but I'm wondering if it's necessary to do that if the positions I'm going for should require pretty much the same resume (I could understand it if I had a larger skillset). I do understand customizing the cover letter, so no need to preach to the choir on that. Update: Created another Resume without objective, but used the space to add Related Coursework, programming languages, and Relevant Tools sections. [Edited by - way2lazy2care on February 1, 2010 4:44:56 PM]

This looks surprisingly identical to my resume in terms of format. I like that. Very legible.

Some thoughts:

* Drop the objective. It is a space waster, and your cover letter will make it clear what you are applying for.

* Drop any experience that is non-related to what you are trying to do. Jimmy Johns does not relate to game development.

* What is MAAS? What do they do? I have absolutely no idea what your role as a 'software engineer' was at General Dynamics after reading your bullet points.

* Expand your relevant experiences. For each bullet point, try bolding a phrase that really emphasizes what you want the bullet to say. For example, your bullets could be written as:

Ingenuity: Researched and documented potential development technologies for increased productivity in the team
Test Driven Development: Developed an automated Unit and Integration testing framework for the MAAS development team
Communication: Experienced intra and inter organization cooperation and communication in an international corporation

I would also do more to quantify each bullet point. By what metrics did you increase productivity? What development technologies did you research and document? To what benefit was the automated Unit and Integration testing framework? How exactly did the communication affect your everyday work? How many people did you communicate with? To what purpose?

This is your area to really shine -- I would make each bullet a few lines long and really work on getting measurable metrics down.

The goal should be to show TRANSFERABLE skills to wherever you are applying. If you aren't highlighting something transferable, take it out.

* Technical skills may be better replaced with 'relevant school work', or a section of project descriptions that allow the employer to get a better feel as to your actual level of comfort with the skills you enumerated. I glossed right over your portfolio link at the top -- and so would anyone else who printed the paper out. Use this area to enumerate the projects you have worked on in your portfolio and the skills required to complete them!



Other than that, I liked it! Good luck!

Quote: Original post by choffstein
* Drop any experience that is non-related to what you are trying to do. Jimmy Johns does not relate to game development.

"Experience" is "work experience." ALL work experience must be listed regardless of "relevance."

Quote: Original post by Tom Sloper

Quote: Original post by choffstein
* Drop any experience that is non-related to what you are trying to do. Jimmy Johns does not relate to game development.

"Experience" is "work experience." ALL work experience must be listed regardless of "relevance."

Stating it like a fact does not make it true. He can put whatever he likes on his resume. I personally think that the space would be much better served enumerating the many things that he did do that are transferable to the new work environment. How on earth listing Jimmy Johns work experience would be at all relevant is beyond me. So why should he list it?

Noted previously stated things. Will update resume and repost an updated one later. And my other experience there is there because someone told me, specifically out of college, that employers want to make sure you are holding jobs whenever you aren't in school. Once I get a normal job they will no longer be there.

Quote: Original post by Tom Sloper

Quote: Original post by choffstein
* Drop any experience that is non-related to what you are trying to do. Jimmy Johns does not relate to game development.

"Experience" is "work experience." ALL work experience must be listed regardless of "relevance."

Really? Pretty much every hiring manager I've met recommends that you leave off non-relevant work experience, except maybe in circumstances where doing so would leave a pronounced gap in your employment history. Even then, if its not relevant, its probably only worth a one-liner just so you can say "Yes, I was actually employed." Its pretty common advice to leave off your fast-food job if you're applying for a programming position.

I have run into a problem.

I think I am going to replace most of my skills section with a related coursework section, but a lot of my classes have very long titles and i'm not sure how to go about adding them without taking up too much space. For example, "Math Foundation of Computer Graphics" is a pretty long title, and there are a couple more long ones. With titles like that, it makes it very difficult to fit more than a handful of classes on the resume.

Quote: Original post by Tom Sloper

Quote: Original post by choffstein
* Drop any experience that is non-related to what you are trying to do. Jimmy Johns does not relate to game development.

"Experience" is "work experience." ALL work experience must be listed regardless of "relevance."

I disagree as mentioned in this thread. I was advised by two people in our internship office at Northwestern to remove my summer job as a bag boy when I was 14. It's not relevant and just takes up space. Jimmy Johns probably has the same thing. Unless it was a long term job (more than a year) and you had several key responsibilities, it shouldn't be on there. If your only responsibility was "make food," then it's not something the company is going to care about.

I know that most of you guys are Americans, but the resume/CV depends heavily on where (geographically) you want to work. I think it applies to the USA too, since it's big, so maybe we should state where we are, and what is common there.

In some places, especially when you are a foreigner (and especially in this economical situation, and especially when the employer doesn't take care of the employee's tax/insurance/superannuation/whatever businesses, for example in Finland), every single workplace is worth mentioning, because it shows that you can organize your things, and the employer doesn't need to hold your hand, and you are ready to do not so pleasant/interesting/relevant jobs too.

And the "level" of your job (sorry, can't think of a better word) matters too, if no one mentioned yet.

In some countries CV means 20 pages, in some 1 page.

Edit: okay I see now, that most of these threads are Americans, but maybe it's interesting that I said anyway.

Quote: Original post by szecs
snip.

I'm guessing you're from Finland then? I'm open to working out of the country, so I'll have to keep this in mind.

I've created a new version of my resume with Relevant Coursework, Programming Languages, and Relevant Tools sections.

I think I like the way the new one looks, but if you all wouldn't mind checking the new one (same link as original. Both are available) I'd appreciate it a lot! :)