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Show HN: Resume Worded – Write impactful resumes

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Re: Show HN: Resume Worded – Write impactful resumes

#91

Post by camillomiller »

earlybike wrote: post #43
camillomiller wrote: post #35

Never use this if you’re applying in Germany or other European countries unless it’s an American company. Most companies hate exactly this kind of lines and they will ignore your CV

> Most [EU] companies hate exactly this kind of lines and they will ignore your CV Disagree. Finally it depends on the content your actual achievements but the wording is totally fine + learned. Most EU companies shouldn't have any problems with this style.

Try and do that with a truly German company. I do agree that things changed, but they definitively prefer a modest "lebenslauf" (just a list of your studies and previous positions, basically) to a self-centered American-style CV. I'm not saying it's better, it's just a different approach.

Re: Show HN: Resume Worded – Write impactful resumes

#92

Post by jcun4128 »

stingraycharles wrote: post #59
jcun4128 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a free resume evaluation thing done to my resume and this was what was suggested to me regarding "I did x, resulted in % effect" and I don't know how to calculate that as a task do-er person / working on a site that doesn't make money yet (but being paid by site owner to develop features). You also mentioned the how to calculate part which may imply having access to the site owner's data (however that may be, a…

Regarding your first question, I think you’re looking at it too much from your own perspective. Take a look from the perspective of the site owner; what problems do you solve for him/her? What other value do you add to the site?

If say you added a capability to encrypt data (not SSL but static data storage encryption) and ability for multiple users. Without any users yet how do you qauntify that?

Re: Show HN: Resume Worded – Write impactful resumes

#93

Post by benji-york »

egman_ekki wrote: post #85
gingerlime wrote: post #57

Having reviewed hundreds of job applications recently (for three completely different roles at my company), I would generally say candidates should focus on the cover letter / email. Most applicants won't even get their resumes read at all if their cover letter or emails aren't good. I was quite shocked how many emails and cover letters from candidates were 100% generic, had spelling mistakes, highlighted irrelevant…

That sounds great. However, after helping my girlfriend to send hundreds of cover letters and resumes crafted for each and every position and all you get back is generic reply, e.g. "Dear applicant, we are receiving a large amount of application. If we decide to invite you for an interview, you will hear back from us within 8 weeks." and that's it, I'm really questioning this strategy. It is so time consuming that it…

When intently looking for a job, I segment leads into three groups depending on how much I think I would enjoy the job. The first gets a generic cover letter and generic resume. The second gets a custom cover letter and generic resume. The third gets a custom cover letter and custom resume. Perhaps an approach like that would give the best of both approaches.

Re: Show HN: Resume Worded – Write impactful resumes

#94

Post by Kiro »

GoToRO wrote: post #90
Kiro wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> totally ignoring that a bellow average team can do much better than a hero can I don't understand what you mean by that. Sounds like a paradox. If they do better than a hero, then they're not below average.

Individually they are. As a group they can deliver if they are a real team. Just look at the German soccer team. You could not mention a star on that team but they won 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Good point. I didn't think of synergy effects.

Re: Show HN: Resume Worded – Write impactful resumes

#95

Post by SirZimzim »

sdiupIGPWEfh wrote: post #70
komali2 wrote: post #52

>Led the transition to a paperless practice by implementing an electronic booking system and a faster, safer and more accurate business system. Reduced costs of labor by 30% and office overhead by 10%. Just looking at the first example, this nails the head for me as an ex-recruiter about the best way to write a resume tagline. You didn't "use simplybookly.me," you "( action verb )implemented a ( description of thing…

I hate this advice so much, even if it's true that it works. How many people actually have any sort of knowledge of (or access to) such measurements? If you're in sales or management, great, but the bulk of the workforce, especially those who desperately need their next resume to land them a half-decent job fast, are not in such positions. Even as a developer, I've had exactly one gig where I had access to quantifiab…

Yeah 30% is not a "hard number", I use this stuff on my resume but only because I know the people who read them are not like me.

Re: Show HN: Resume Worded – Write impactful resumes

#96

Post by sdiupIGPWEfh »

enraged_camel wrote: post #73
sdiupIGPWEfh wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate this advice so much, even if it's true that it works. How many people actually have any sort of knowledge of (or access to) such measurements? If you're in sales or management, great, but the bulk of the workforce, especially those who desperately need their next resume to land them a half-decent job fast, are not in such positions. Even as a developer, I've had exactly one gig where I had access to quantifiab…

You should always strive to measure the impact of your work. Always. And if you can't measure it, you should ask your users for ballpark estimates. "Hey George, how many minutes a day does the new feature I added save you?" From there you can convert it to an estimated average financial impact fairly easily.

And at the end of some successful two year project, having moved on to a new position at a new company, am I to call George back a few years later and ask for him to leak me info about my project's impact, assuming George still works there himself?

Re: Show HN: Resume Worded – Write impactful resumes

#97

Post by gingerlime »

benji-york wrote: post #93
egman_ekki wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds great. However, after helping my girlfriend to send hundreds of cover letters and resumes crafted for each and every position and all you get back is generic reply, e.g. "Dear applicant, we are receiving a large amount of application. If we decide to invite you for an interview, you will hear back from us within 8 weeks." and that's it, I'm really questioning this strategy. It is so time consuming that it…

When intently looking for a job, I segment leads into three groups depending on how much I think I would enjoy the job. The first gets a generic cover letter and generic resume. The second gets a custom cover letter and generic resume. The third gets a custom cover letter and custom resume. Perhaps an approach like that would give the best of both approaches.

Yes, I totally agree this makes the most sense.

I think that even one quick sentence or a few tweaks to make the application look more personalized, can go a long way to getting on top of the list though. e.g. something as simple as "I love what you guys are doing at " / "It seems like a great place to work with like-minded people at on "... not to mention simple formatting, avoiding typos and spelling errors etc :)

And of course, even if you write the best resume or cover letter, there are others who would do the same, and perhaps are better qualified. Or did an even better job at it... Sadly, we also had to reject candidates who spent time writing good cover letters and had good resumes. You can only shortlist as many people, and some are bound to get rejected however great they may be.

Re: Show HN: Resume Worded – Write impactful resumes

#98

Post by Diederich »

ci5er wrote: post #69
Diederich wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh...interesting. I don't think I've ever sent anything except a URL to my resume, along with a very generic subject that might mention a specific job posting...or not. Maybe that 'forces' the receiver to read my resume?

I don't know your geography, industry or role - but - as a hiring manager for developer roles - generically - if I have to plow through 200 applications to find 25 candidates to screen to find 10 interviewees to fill two positions in any given month, I would not read your resume. I am not saying that your approach is a bad one, but I wouldn't be "forced" to read your resume.

Thanks for your feedback.

I am in the SF Bay area, and I do (and have been doing what is now called) "devops".

Re: Show HN: Resume Worded – Write impactful resumes

#99

Post by gingerlime »

mikebenfield wrote: post #86
gingerlime wrote: post #57

Having reviewed hundreds of job applications recently (for three completely different roles at my company), I would generally say candidates should focus on the cover letter / email. Most applicants won't even get their resumes read at all if their cover letter or emails aren't good. I was quite shocked how many emails and cover letters from candidates were 100% generic, had spelling mistakes, highlighted irrelevant…

Thanks for writing this. It's very difficult to synthesize all the resume advice one receives though. I've actually been told more than once not to spend any time on the cover letter because no one will read it, and that in fact if I include a detailed cover letter I may look clueless. And, honestly, it is a little hard to understand the point. Aren't I supposed to customize my resume itself to each role, and use it…

Even without a cover letter, you need to write an email and attach your resume? If this email is being read by a person, then this email is therefore the most important thing to even get a chance of your resume being read.

Re: Show HN: Resume Worded – Write impactful resumes

#100

Post by gingerlime »

dsr_ wrote: post #89
Diederich wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh...interesting. I don't think I've ever sent anything except a URL to my resume, along with a very generic subject that might mention a specific job posting...or not. Maybe that 'forces' the receiver to read my resume?

The instructions at the end of my job postings are pretty clear: use email to send resume and cover letter in PDF or text, in your cover letter describe an interesting technical problem that you solved. The cover letter is a writing sample: I want to see how well you communicate in written English with a presumably limited time budget. Lots of documentation gets written that way; it's directly relevant. Deeper than t…

I'd +1000 this if I could!

> Getting the resume in .docx means that they aren't so great at details.

:) I also discovered this to be true even when we didn't require the resume to be PDF formatted on the ad.

And a fantastic point about testing your writing skills as early as the initial email (and with a limited time for each job application, but fairly high stakes). Couldn't agree more.

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