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Resume Critique

Started by November 08, 2011 04:08 PM
13 comments, last by Tom Sloper 12 years, 11 months ago
Ok, I've been told to keep it to one page if possible, but to elaborate on the use of the IDE's and the languages it will definitely push it to a second page.
So should I do that or cut some of the other items out to keep it a single page?


Does not matter and here is why... Employers rarely fully read your resume. So it does not matter if it's 1 page or 4 pages. The important thing about a resume, and what others have been trying to say, is the quality of the content. Keep job relevant material towards the beginning of every job entry. They are going to skim them and only read the beginning of each.

Attached is a sample of a resume I sent out a few weeks ago when a specific person requested it. Notice I am currently a lead project administrator, but the resume (and job) is for a software engineer? I designed it around this and showed progression.

It's not the best, but it will hopefully give you a few ideas. It must not be too bad either because I go Wednesday to negotiate.

Best if luck
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Ok, I've been told to keep it to one page if possible, but to elaborate on the use of the IDE's and the languages it will definitely push it to a second page.
So should I do that or cut some of the other items out to keep it a single page?

CUT.

Why do you think an employer cares what IDEs you have used in the past?

A tell-tell sign of a beginner is the 'skills', 'languages', and 'tools' sections similar to you have in your latest revision. Simply stating "function pointers" is meaningless. It may as well also include "Header files. Do-While loops. Iterators". It provides absolutely no evidence that you can do the job.




Employers care that you can do the job; they are hiring you to implement complex systems of code.

They want evidence that you have actually written complex code. They want to see what you have actually done and how it relates to writing new systems in the future. The statement of tools you have used does not provide that evidence.
[font="Arial"]I have worked on many team and solo projects throughout the past eleven years.
[/font]
[font="Arial"] Horrible opening sentence, too vague and does not grab attention. Something more exiting, about why you love videogame design or something. As it is now, I find it very dry.



I started programming at the age of twelve, doing small computational programs in True BASIC to help me solve homework problems. This evolved into Visual Basic and creating Windows applications to make it even easier to do homework.

Why should I care about your homework so much? Mentioning it one time is enough. Though inclusion of specific languages give me a good idea of time-frame and skill level at the time.



More recently, I have been doing C# and C++ development, most notably on the Xbox Live Indie Arcade game “Snail Shot Torpedo” and a voxel rendering engine implemented in C++ and OpenGL that uses function pointers and the Boost libraries to allow it to be easily extendable.

Stop this sentence at OpenGL. The rest is largely irrelevant.



C++ - 5years – Polymorphism, functionpointers, STL, algorithm, and Boost libraries

Why are you listing random programming terms? I don't need that, 5 years is enough info.



Rest seems fine. You've got some good experience on ya.[/font]
Horrible opening sentence, too vague and does not grab attention. Something more exiting, about why you love videogame design or something.


No, no! We hear people tell us that twenty times every day. Never enthuse endlessly about how much you love games and game development. Just tell us why we should hire you, and why you're the right person for this opening.

-- Tom Sloper -- sloperama.com


Does not matter and here is why... Employers rarely fully read your resume. So it does not matter if it's 1 page or 4 pages. The important thing about a resume, and what others have been trying to say, is the quality of the content. Keep job relevant material towards the beginning of every job entry. They are going to skim them and only read the beginning of each.


Agreed to front-load both the resume itself and individual sections -- the most relevant/interesting material should always come first.

But the "one-page" rule, while not a "hard" rule, is a good guideline. There's basically no reason a recent grad would need more than one page, unless he's been involved in a fair amount of (probably ivy-league) research projects with published papers, or is a whiz-kid that's been consulting since he was 14. I've been out of school 7 years and my resume is 1 and 3/4ths (admittedly dense, at around 650 words) pages, with about a quarter page of that an "about me" at the end. I only considered going beyond one page when I literally couldn't cut any more out to make room for recent experience without cringing. Many reviewers will read all of 1 or 2 pages, but not 4-5 unless its a more-senior role. The general rule of thumb I've heard is 1 page to start, plus one more for each 10 years of relevant experience.


[quote name='spooderw' timestamp='1324779498' post='4897198']Horrible opening sentence, too vague and does not grab attention. Something more exiting, about why you love videogame design or something.


No, no! We hear people tell us that twenty times every day. Never enthuse endlessly about how much you love games and game development. Just tell us why we should hire you, and why you're the right person for this opening.
[/quote]

Tom's absolutely right -- An objective statement isn't about you, and it isn't even about the opportunity -- its about how you will fit into the role specifically, leading into how you can grow in the company long-term. There's room for showing some enthusiasm, but it shouldn't be the focus.

throw table_exception("(? ???)? ? ???");

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Ok, I've been told to keep it to one page if possible


Yes -- IF you are a student, a graduate, or have very little pertinent professional experience.
Once you've been in the industry a while, you can go to 2 pages.

-- Tom Sloper -- sloperama.com

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