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Show HN: Resume Worded – Write impactful resumes

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Re: Show HN: Resume Worded – Write impactful resumes

#81
I never understood what's the point of having quantifiable data in a resume for a software engineer.

Most of the time it'll likely end up being made up, as you don't have access to financial data and cannot estimate an impact your work had on a business.

Re: Show HN: Resume Worded – Write impactful resumes

#83

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…

As a professional resume writer/editor, I appreciate your comments. Excellent advice. I would say however, there remains a considerable amount of debate about the CL, even in editing and/or hiring circles. I work out of Shanghai, China and although my global clients are individual job seekers and academic aspirants, I keep in close contact with some local Fortune 1000 colleagues. I have had many say to me they spend zero time on the CL and only scan the resume quickly. It behooves the writer, if at all possible, to find out from the employer if a CL is even worth it. Writers may spend valuable hours on something which is given no attention.

Enjoying the discussion here.

Vince Fulco, CFA, CAIA vfulco[@]weisisheng.cn

Re: Show HN: Resume Worded – Write impactful resumes

#84
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

So by that point, I've already made like three things up because there's absolutely no way for them to fact check this nonsense. Why talk to George when I can just pull something out of my ass? "Yeah, the process totally saved a half hour every week, which is about $500 because BUSINESS. Good luck verifying that, asshole."

Wait, so you think that when you say "I made the process 13% more efficient and saved the company $12.5 million dollars" that they actually call the company to verify?

>>Why talk to George when I can just pull something out of my ass?

Because lying is bad? I mean when you talk to George you are at least making a good faith effort to come up with a realistic estimate (which you would be honest in your resume by using words like "approximately" for instance). That's preferable if you have no other way to calculate the business impact of your work.

Re: Show HN: Resume Worded – Write impactful resumes

#85

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 effectively reduces your chances just by sending low quantity of applications. I think you can't send more than 6-8 of those per day if you work on this full time and it gets quite depressing after a couple of months.

Re: Show HN: Resume Worded – Write impactful resumes

#86

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 to show how I'm a good fit? What exactly is the purpose of duplicating all that in a second document?

Re: Show HN: Resume Worded – Write impactful resumes

#87
This must be very popular in USA. It seems that there, people really like the idea of a hero, totally ignoring that a bellow average team can do much better than a hero can. If I would receive any CVs with such lines it would have a really good change of ending up in the "Liars" bin.

Re: Show HN: Resume Worded – Write impactful resumes

#88
post #87

This must be very popular in USA. It seems that there, people really like the idea of a hero, totally ignoring that a bellow average team can do much better than a hero can. If I would receive any CVs with such lines it would have a really good change of ending up in the "Liars" bin.

> 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.

Re: Show HN: Resume Worded – Write impactful resumes

#89

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…

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 that, what people think is interesting - or technical - is a clue as to their overall technical depth.

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

Re: Show HN: Resume Worded – Write impactful resumes

#90
post #88
post #87

This must be very popular in USA. It seems that there, people really like the idea of a hero, totally ignoring that a bellow average team can do much better than a hero can. If I would receive any CVs with such lines it would have a really good change of ending up in the "Liars" bin.

> 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.
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