Hi, Im looking for examples of good CV's that I can use to critque my own. I'd rather not put it up on here as you never know who he is reading. I've been doing some searches on line and have come across the usual "How to write a CV" and lots of examples, but was looking for something more specific to programming related roles. I'm looking to try and apply for such roles as 'Junior Tool developer' or 'Junior graphics programmer', two subjects I very much enjoy.

From reading this forum, a lot of you have advised against, just listing skills and tools, but to rather list the projects you have successfully created or are creating with those skills and tools. However, every other "CV advice" site advices to actually list them.

What should be written in the intro of the CV, and would should be witten in the cover letter? Wouldnt they be very similar?
There are quite a few artistic applications that I feel I know very well like 3ds Max and photoshop, yet not in the artisic sense. Should these be listed?

I did a bit of both. Listed the projects I was on and within that, listed the technology that was used.

As for the 3D applications issue, list them in the right context. I assume you know the scripting side of the applications or know how to write plugins for them so list them in that context.

Hi, Im looking for examples of good CV's that I can use to critque my own. I'd rather not put it up on here as you never know who he is reading. I've been doing some searches on line and have come across the usual "How to write a CV" and lots of examples, but was looking for something more specific to programming related roles. I'm looking to try and apply for such roles as 'Junior Tool developer' or 'Junior graphics programmer', two subjects I very much enjoy.

From reading this forum, a lot of you have advised against, just listing skills and tools, but to rather list the projects you have successfully created or are creating with those skills and tools. However, every other "CV advice" site advices to actually list them.

What should be written in the intro of the CV, and would should be witten in the cover letter? Wouldnt they be very similar?
There are quite a few artistic applications that I feel I know very well like 3ds Max and photoshop, yet not in the artisic sense. Should these be listed?

Repost in breaking in and don't worry if people see it unfinished. You'll get much better feedback if you let them see the actual CV.

Just remove your personal info from the CV and its highly doubtful anybody will be able to trace it back to you. Because you really should post it because a few of the posters around here do some real good critiques. And without being able to read it they won't be able to tell you if you are doing anything wrong.

From reading this forum, a lot of you have advised against, just listing skills and tools, but to rather list the projects you have successfully created or are creating with those skills and tools. However, every other "CV advice" site advices to actually list them.

Be careful with that.

Yes, use the keywords. They are the proper names for the technologies, and they are important. You need the keywords to be there for your application to be searchable.

But that doesn't mean to use them blindly.

It is very depressing the number of resumes and job applications that have something like this:
SKILLS
* Good Communicator
* Word
* Excel
* Type 54 WPM (job corp certified)
* Windows
* Visual Studio
* OpenGL
* DirectX
* Maya
* 3D Studio Max

That kind of list is horrible. Skills like "Good communicator" are often just ripped from templates or lists of desired skills in applicants; reciting it as a skill demonstrates the lack of communication skills. Listing skills unrelated to the industry is generally bad; you are not doing data entry so typing speed should not be an issue. Further, if a programmer is unable to use Word or Excel or Windows, well, they have deeper issues. Listing skills unrelated to the job, such as art and modeling packages, is generally bad because those won't be your part of your workflow. It shows that you don't understand the job you'll be doing, and as such, are likely less suitable for it than those who do understand the job.

On the skills list where you do get to relevant keywords, just stating "OpenGL" tells me nothing. It could mean that you read the word and thought it was a good keyword, or that you played with OpenGL primatives in some existing demos, or that you installed the OpenGL drivers because the default that came with Windows weren't good enough for a game you played, or that you used it in a single class at college, or on the other extreme, you may have helped draft the latest version of the OpenGL standard or were the primary author of the ARB reference drivers. Some people try to add "Expert at" or other self-assessment. These are also generally useless. Some people who say "expert at" are little more than beginners with rudimentary knowledge. Others who say they have limited experience with it may actually mean that they have 3 years of experience and have a solid working knowledge, but they are comparing their skill against the lifetime-experienced globally recognized experts.


Yes, use keywords. Just be smart about it. Use the keywords where they apply and give them context, otherwise they become useless to everything but Google and you might as well leave them out completely.


As for your specific CV, post it to the Breaking In forum, lots of people (including me) love to break them down.

cut for length

to elaborate on this. I think you will find if you list your projects and what you did specifically, you will end up both listing your skills and displaying your proficiency with them via the project itself/references gained through the project.

In many cases, if you have space, it's good to do both. One gives quick view bullet list of skills and the other backs it up with why you're qualified in that skill. If you don't have space, you either have useless things or you don't need our advice to make your resume look good.

* Type 54 WPM (job corp certified)

Am I the only one who thinks this is a bit low for a programmer? I would have thought that a typical programmer would have had at least a 90-100 average WPM.

[quote name='frob' timestamp='1297802288' post='4774625']
* Type 54 WPM (job corp certified)

Am I the only one who thinks this is a bit low for a programmer? I would have thought that a typical programmer would have had at least a 90-100 average WPM.
[/quote]
The was an example pulled from the ether.

For a programmer I would be less concerned about how fast they type, and more concerned about their effectiveness and skill.

I'd prefer someone who plods along at a leisurely 40 WPM but has amazing developer superpowers over somebody who can do data entry at 300 WPM yet has lackluster programming skills.

[quote name='Oberon_Command' timestamp='1297803248' post='4774636']
[quote name='frob' timestamp='1297802288' post='4774625']
* Type 54 WPM (job corp certified)

Am I the only one who thinks this is a bit low for a programmer? I would have thought that a typical programmer would have had at least a 90-100 average WPM.
[/quote]
The was an example pulled from the ether.

For a programmer I would be less concerned about how fast they type, and more concerned about their effectiveness and skill.

I'd prefer someone who plods along at a leisurely 40 WPM but has amazing developer superpowers over somebody who can do data entry at 300 WPM yet has lackluster programming skills.
[/quote]

Fair enough. Typing speed is unquestionably irrelevant unless we're talking hunt-and-peck "typing" here. I guess my thinking was that a programmer would develop blindingly-fast typing abilities simply as a result of doing lots of programming.