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Ask HN: What do you consider resume red flags?

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Re: Ask HN: What do you consider resume red flags?

#111

Post by CodeTheInternet »

flukus wrote: post #51
bwang29 wrote: post #23

1. Some links on the resume (github, portfolio, linkedIn) return 404 or access denied. This is suprisingly common. 2. Little facts / actual performance data, and over use of words such as "passionate", "strong", "self-motivated", "success", "thrive", etc when describing themselves in the resume. 3. Changing jobs very frequently and no consistent theme in jobs, say 5 jobs in 5 years, one in A.I., one in e-commerce, on…

> 3. Have a big, long "technology used" for a project. For example, "technology used" in a project includes "Python, Java, Javascript, HTML, CSS, jQuery, SQL, C#, Django, Messaging, C, Bash.." How exactly is this a red flag? Javascript, HTML, CSS, jQuery, SQL, C#, Messaging would be a typical project for me and there are likely to be integrations with other languages and I usually have some bash scripts for various p…

I think it means the word salad. Are you really working on a project that mixes Python, Java, C# and C?

On the flip side of the coin, this word salad appears on many job posts. It would be nice to see them clearly define their stack but also other languages they accept on a separate line.

Re: Ask HN: What do you consider resume red flags?

#112

Post by CodeTheInternet »

wedmondson wrote: post #56

I do lots of hiring. Here are some things I watch out for. - Multiple, short stints at different companies. Sometimes things happen but if you have a track record of jumping from one place to another I am pretty confident you won't stay around very long if I hire you. - Multiple pages. A long resume is not impressive. Typically it is just annoying because it makes it harder to find key information. It shows a lack of…

These are all good points. However, I think these occur because the skillsets in our field don't fit the "traditional" resume outline. We almost need a different, common outline for tech jobs. Instead of listing the company and timeframe, list the projects you worked on over time, what was used (lightly, no word salad), how you contributed, etc. I would be more impressed with the big projects you worked on at a startup than the small contributions made at a Fortune 500.

Re: Ask HN: What do you consider resume red flags?

#113

Post by bb88 »

matt_the_bass wrote: post #95
bb88 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why do you say this? I say it because I keep seeing articles like this one [1] all the time: "Workers who stay with a company longer than two years are said to get paid 50% less." And that matches my personal experience. After spending 14 years at a company giving me 3 percent raises year after year, I've switched jobs frequently, but usually with large pay raises with every job. 8 years out and 4 jobs later now I'…

Thank you for your follow up. 5 jobs in 22 years doesn’t seem that extreme to me, especially if you had a legit story to go along with it. Do you think the company you work for now only wants you for 1.1 years? Out of curiousity, in what region do you live?

I'm in the Pacific Northwestish area.

I'm a consultant these days, so yeah 1.1 years is actually a long time.

Re: Ask HN: What do you consider resume red flags?

#115

Post by BrandoElFollito »

dano wrote: post #114

- mispellings and typoes - long term consultant wanting full time job - hotmail / outlook address - lack of learning new things across their career - non-business like fonts and general lack of typography - buzz word list

What is the problem with the consultant? And with an outlook.com address?

Re: Ask HN: What do you consider resume red flags?

#116

Post by handbanana »

bwang29 wrote: post #23

1. Some links on the resume (github, portfolio, linkedIn) return 404 or access denied. This is suprisingly common. 2. Little facts / actual performance data, and over use of words such as "passionate", "strong", "self-motivated", "success", "thrive", etc when describing themselves in the resume. 3. Changing jobs very frequently and no consistent theme in jobs, say 5 jobs in 5 years, one in A.I., one in e-commerce, on…

Workaround for #4. List all relevant tech at/near the top of your resume under a section called something like "Skills" or likely a better name than that. Try to be as concise as possible and avoid going too granular (listing just SQL vs TSQL, MYSQL, XYZSQL). I do something similar and avoid listing the tech used for jobs. If I was versed in many stacks/frameworks, I might have a bullet point/mention under each position what stack each company used (Rails, .NET, Django). As a side note to all of this, I believe resumes/CVs should be a single page

Re: Ask HN: What do you consider resume red flags?

#117

Post by souprock »

bostik wrote: post #83
tylerwhipple wrote: post #26

Anything containing Ninja or Wizard

Or anything with the word Cyber. (Unless that was in their official job title. Anywhere else it's a big red flag.)

Heh, that actually is in my official job title. I'm a "Principal Cyber Engineer". That came about as a way to offer better pay and benefits without affecting a parent company; we all got "Software" changed to "Cyber" with the pay/benefits upgrade.

Re: Ask HN: What do you consider resume red flags?

#118

Post by jasonlotito »

viraptor wrote: post #55
bwang29 wrote: post #23

1. Some links on the resume (github, portfolio, linkedIn) return 404 or access denied. This is suprisingly common. 2. Little facts / actual performance data, and over use of words such as "passionate", "strong", "self-motivated", "success", "thrive", etc when describing themselves in the resume. 3. Changing jobs very frequently and no consistent theme in jobs, say 5 jobs in 5 years, one in A.I., one in e-commerce, on…

> no consistent theme in jobs, (...) one in e-commerce, one in gaming Not sure why that's a bad thing. I've done telco, cloud provider, ecommerce, embedded systems. I'm happy with that - it gave me much better experience on a path towards an architect position than any one industry on its own could.

Alone, it's not. However, when you are "Changing jobs very frequently and [have] no consistent theme in jobs", then you don't really have much experience that would help you toward an architects role.

Re: Ask HN: What do you consider resume red flags?

#120

Post by cimmanom »

handbanana wrote: post #116
bwang29 wrote: post #23

1. Some links on the resume (github, portfolio, linkedIn) return 404 or access denied. This is suprisingly common. 2. Little facts / actual performance data, and over use of words such as "passionate", "strong", "self-motivated", "success", "thrive", etc when describing themselves in the resume. 3. Changing jobs very frequently and no consistent theme in jobs, say 5 jobs in 5 years, one in A.I., one in e-commerce, on…

Workaround for #4. List all relevant tech at/near the top of your resume under a section called something like "Skills" or likely a better name than that. Try to be as concise as possible and avoid going too granular (listing just SQL vs TSQL, MYSQL, XYZSQL). I do something similar and avoid listing the tech used for jobs. If I was versed in many stacks/frameworks, I might have a bullet point/mention under each posit…

Single page resumes made sense when it was typical to stay in the same job for decades. They're not much use for explaining 20 years of experience and growth with 2-4 years at each stop.
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