Ask HN: What do you consider resume red flags? • Hacker News Board

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

#81

Post by jchung » Thu, May 03, 2018, 3:54 AM UTC

prothrowaway wrote: post #42

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…

> 2. Changing jobs very frequently and no consistent theme in jobs, say 5 jobs in 5 years, one in A.I., one in e-commerce, one in gaming, without specific pursuit of interest. If my resume contains many short stints, what's the best way to paint this in a positive light? I've already removed the months of my job history so that only years are on there, which makes some of my positions appear longer.

Make sure you are only including positions that help you. Common mistake I see is including tiny 2-3 month long positions, without considering whether including them is additive or not. It's often not.

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

#82

Post by cjoelrun » Thu, May 03, 2018, 4:10 AM UTC

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…

> When sending your document, try sending a PDF but not a .docx

Is that a suggestion or a red flag?

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

#83

Post by bostik » Thu, May 03, 2018, 4:41 AM UTC

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.)

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

#84

Post by reitanqild » Thu, May 03, 2018, 4:46 AM UTC

jchung wrote: post #81

prothrowaway wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 2. Changing jobs very frequently and no consistent theme in jobs, say 5 jobs in 5 years, one in A.I., one in e-commerce, one in gaming, without specific pursuit of interest. If my resume contains many short stints, what's the best way to paint this in a positive light? I've already removed the months of my job history so that only years are on there, which makes some of my positions appear longer.

Make sure you are only including positions that help you. Common mistake I see is including tiny 2-3 month long positions, without considering whether including them is additive or not. It's often not.

What should you do about the time in between then?

Personally I'd consider undescribed gaps of 3 months in between the interesting projects unusual.

In fact I'd rather see "waiting tables" rather than nothing.

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

#85

Post by unmole » Thu, May 03, 2018, 4:50 AM UTC

walrus01 wrote: post #65

esalman wrote: post #10

I used to hire at a startup. Following are the things I usually looked at. These are not sorted by severity, some are red flags but others are just irrelevant. * not following instruction in the job advert * CC resume to many recipients * weird sender name in email * compressed resume * begging for job in the cover letter * photo * "career objective" * personal information * broken links * clear lack of personalizati…

Photo on resume seems like a South Asia defacto standard. At least from what I have seen in Pakistan and India. Cultural differences.

It most certainly isn't a de facto standard in India. Some eople find the need to include a photo but it's entirely useless.

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

#86

Post by warty » Thu, May 03, 2018, 5:04 AM UTC

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…

> 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.."

I've also seen this recommended as a way to get past recruiters in big companies.

I feel we should have two separate resumes. One for the recruiter crapshoot (where we play buzzword bingo) and another for engineers.

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

#87

Post by arbie » Thu, May 03, 2018, 5:59 AM UTC

muzani wrote: post #27

* Lots of typos. One is fine. Too many suggests someone who is poor at English communication. It doesn't matter how good someone is, if they build the wrong thing. * Generic boring template-ish resume. Usually these guys don't care much for craftsmanship. * Too much specialization. 80% specialization is fine, just not 100%. * For startups, a history of only working at big companies. Especially at the management level…

> * Generic boring template-ish resume. Usually these guys don't care much for craftsmanship.

I thought standardized resumes made it easier for HR systems to parse.

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

#88

Post by muzani » Thu, May 03, 2018, 6:31 AM UTC

arbie wrote: post #87

muzani wrote: post #27

* Lots of typos. One is fine. Too many suggests someone who is poor at English communication. It doesn't matter how good someone is, if they build the wrong thing. * Generic boring template-ish resume. Usually these guys don't care much for craftsmanship. * Too much specialization. 80% specialization is fine, just not 100%. * For startups, a history of only working at big companies. Especially at the management level…

> * Generic boring template-ish resume. Usually these guys don't care much for craftsmanship. I thought standardized resumes made it easier for HR systems to parse.

A bit hard to explain without examples, but you can have the usual format just fine. Some minor things like color, jokes, icons, or a slightly different template.

But there are just some really lazy, generic types of resumes which make this person seem really cookie cutter. Like they just downloaded the first resume option on Google or MS Word and took out some words, replaced with their own text.

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

#89

Post by germainelol » Thu, May 03, 2018, 8:38 AM UTC

Interesting replies on changing jobs frequently. Personally, I have only been an engineer for around 3 years, of which I have had fairly valid reasons for leaving each time.

- 8 months in a startup that burned out and failed

- 18 months in a successful startup where the tech side became very stale

- 12 months in an agency where I was required to step up to a management position rather than engineering

- current role @ a company I plan to stay at for at least 2-3 years

Would you suggest that I explain why I left all of these roles on my resume then?

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

#90

Post by janbernhart » Thu, May 03, 2018, 9:40 AM UTC

warty wrote: post #86

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…

> 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.." I've also seen this recommended as a way to get past recruiters in big companies. I feel we should have two separate resumes. One for the recruiter crapshoot (where we play buzzword bingo) and another for engineers.

yeah that's difficult. Recruiters who know their stuff will be equally annoyed by buzzword bingo. My advice; read the job ads carefully and tune for their style...