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This may be the best resume I have ever seen

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Re: This may be the best resume I have ever seen

#21

Post by cperciva »

tptacek wrote: post #3

Not good. * Has a graphic which must be interpreted simply to find the last few projects the candidate worked on. * Uses a proportional diagram scheme that is (a) worse than pie charts (an achievement) and (b) requires a color coded legend to illustrate the simple clause: "[Project Name]: Rails, CSS, jQuery". * Straightjackets the candidate's work experience into "technology used" instead of "accomplishments earned".…

No reasonable employer cares about college credits earned in high school

I'm not sure about that. When I interviewed at Google, everybody seemed very impressed that I finished half my Honours degree before I graduated from high school at age 17. I had far more questions about my experience with concurrent high school and university than I did about doing my doctorate at Oxford.

But on the broader point, I absolutely agree -- if I was looking to hire someone, this would get an immediate reaction of "this takes way too much work to comprehend; trash it and move on to the next candidate".

Re: This may be the best resume I have ever seen

#23

Post by slavak »

In addition to all the (valid) comments that have been posted so far, there's one more thing that bothers me:

When I was looking for a job, a fair number of the resumes I sent out were either sent by fax or given out in printed form. Either way - they were in black & white. Requiring your resume to be in color in order to be readable seems like a terrible way to actually go looking for work.

Re: This may be the best resume I have ever seen

#24

Post by Spyckie »

tptacek wrote: post #3

Not good. * Has a graphic which must be interpreted simply to find the last few projects the candidate worked on. * Uses a proportional diagram scheme that is (a) worse than pie charts (an achievement) and (b) requires a color coded legend to illustrate the simple clause: "[Project Name]: Rails, CSS, jQuery". * Straightjackets the candidate's work experience into "technology used" instead of "accomplishments earned".…

Sorry, this is not your type then. I would definitely spend some more time to look into the applicant.

Yes, for pure coders, this is a terrible resume. It looks like she is using the right side of the brain for something left-sided. But, that's the point.

How many coders do you know can show an interest in both design and code (same for designers)? To have an aptitude and interest in both code and design is something very hard to find, and to be able to express the fusion of the two is a challenging process for many who are aching to stretch the boundary set by text heavy, information-only resumes that do not communicate nearly what you want it to. (How much design skill, creativity, and passion can you communicate with just information?)

Yes, I would never hire her for algorithm optimization, but if she was building a website that doesn't innovate technologically but rather creates social, cultural, aesthetic or other value (which the majority of startups do) - I would take a second look.

For what its worth though, I do think the graphs are a little hard to read but not hard to navigate, especially if I'm looking for a particular skill to hire for. Its easy to see if she has Ruby skills, for instance - but its hard to see the overall picture of what skills she has without spending a lot of time on it.

Re: This may be the best resume I have ever seen

#25

Post by tptacek »

cperciva wrote: post #21
tptacek wrote: post #3

Not good. * Has a graphic which must be interpreted simply to find the last few projects the candidate worked on. * Uses a proportional diagram scheme that is (a) worse than pie charts (an achievement) and (b) requires a color coded legend to illustrate the simple clause: "[Project Name]: Rails, CSS, jQuery". * Straightjackets the candidate's work experience into "technology used" instead of "accomplishments earned".…

No reasonable employer cares about college credits earned in high school I'm not sure about that. When I interviewed at Google, everybody seemed very impressed that I finished half my Honours degree before I graduated from high school at age 17. I had far more questions about my experience with concurrent high school and university than I did about doing my doctorate at Oxford. But on the broader point, I absolutely…

You have an anomalous school story. Feel free to revise my recommendation if you are some kind of crazy child prodigy and you think it's going to help you to point that out.

Re: This may be the best resume I have ever seen

#27

Post by jwwest »

Love it. It takes a certain size of balls to send something like this to a potential employer.

This kind of thing targets a certain type of company. This could be a way of flushing out the type of companies you don't want to be involved with (stodgy, old-school traditional).

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