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My dad's resume and skills from 1980

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Re: My dad's resume and skills from 1980

#21

Post by jean_tta »

spywaregorilla wrote: post #5

Why does he call out that he is 5'4" I wonder? The "Health: Excellent" seems amusing in today's context too.

This is pure speculation, but I would guess it was simply expected information at the time. In some countries, it is still expected or at least common to see information such as: a portrait ; date and place of birth ; marital situation and number of children ; and so on.

Re: My dad's resume and skills from 1980

#22

Post by jll29 »

The interesting bit about this post is that with that resume, you can still feed a family in 2022 (okay, you won't need any assembler, and one from the set { Fortran, COBOL } will do).

I wonder if Python and JavaScript will get you that far 50 years from now?

Re: My dad's resume and skills from 1980

#24

Post by daveslash »

spywaregorilla wrote: post #5

Why does he call out that he is 5'4" I wonder? The "Health: Excellent" seems amusing in today's context too.

I've been reviewing a lot of resume's lately that call out the candidate's exact date of birth and marital status. Many even call out their parents' occupation. I've seen more than one that say "Mother's Occupation: Homemaker".

Although I now realize this is a cultural difference issue, it caught me off guard at first.

Re: My dad's resume and skills from 1980

#25

Post by onei »

yupper32 wrote: post #11
rmnclmnt wrote: post #6

Can we bring back this form of resume, please? Information is clearly organized, easy to read, easy to remember. No need for 5-star skills ratings, dual-colored backgrounds, unreadable fonts, and whatnot...

I don't see many 5-star skill ratings, dual colored backgrounds (?), or unreadable fonts. Where do you see those? I would turn people away from that format if they asked my advice. My resume, and the resumes I've seen aren't too far away from this format. More bullet points and a bit more detail than this, I guess. But otherwise pretty similar

I see them a lot for interns and new grads. I think there's a bunch of templates that have these 'features' and when people are first starting out they don't know better. No interviewer I've ever met thought 5-star ratings were a good idea.

Re: My dad's resume and skills from 1980

#26

Post by taude »

AlmostAnyone wrote: post #16
spywaregorilla wrote: post #5

Why does he call out that he is 5'4" I wonder? The "Health: Excellent" seems amusing in today's context too.

I've been to a military museum few days ago and I was surprised how incredibly small some of the cockpits are. I'm 6'3" and wouldn't fit in most of the fighter jets and other vehicles. Not that I wouldn't be comfortable with my legs pushed to something - my shoulders are literally too wide to get in, my thighs/ass are too wide to even try sitting there. Might be a problem for aerospace tech. And don't get me started…

Your comments made me wonder if there were height restrictions, found this verbiage on US Airforce site:

"For pilot and aircrew positions, height specifications vary by aircraft and most applicants can successfully pursue a career in aviation with the U.S. Air Force. Applicants who are significantly taller or shorter than average may require special screening to ensure they can safely perform operational duties. Applicants of all heights are encouraged to apply."

Re: My dad's resume and skills from 1980

#27

Post by lordnacho »

That job market seems like so long ago. See job ad, type out a letter with your CV, wait for them to write back, somehow organize a time to meet, more rounds, and so forth. At least it must have been hard to spam out CVs.

The guy seems pretty hardcore from my perspective. University training for all those techs. Of course hardware back then cost a lot of money so you wanted people who knew what they were doing.

What did people do for interviews back then? Reverse-a-linked-list? That would have been a relatively recent publication in 1980. Kadane's algo didn't arrive until 1984 IIRC. Was K&R published yet?

Re: My dad's resume and skills from 1980

#28

Post by chrisseaton »

daveslash wrote: post #24
spywaregorilla wrote: post #5

Why does he call out that he is 5'4" I wonder? The "Health: Excellent" seems amusing in today's context too.

I've been reviewing a lot of resume's lately that call out the candidate's exact date of birth and marital status. Many even call out their parents' occupation. I've seen more than one that say "Mother's Occupation: Homemaker" . Although I now realize this is a cultural difference issue, it caught me off guard at first.

> Many even call out their parents' occupation.

Are those German resumes? Very odd. Can't be used for anything except discrimination.

Re: My dad's resume and skills from 1980

#29

Post by j33zusjuice »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #14
rmnclmnt wrote: post #6

Can we bring back this form of resume, please? Information is clearly organized, easy to read, easy to remember. No need for 5-star skills ratings, dual-colored backgrounds, unreadable fonts, and whatnot...

> No need for 5-star skills ratings, dual-colored backgrounds, unreadable fonts, and whatnot... I read a lot of resumes. Honestly, the number of quirky over-designed resumes I see is probably 1 in 50. The vast majority of people do submit clearly organized resumes based on a template they found. The reason those quirky over-designed resumes get shared on HN or other social media is because they’re different, not beca…

In my experience looking at résumés (mostly for entry-level tech roles), fancy formatting is 100% an attempt to cover for a lack of skill. I haven’t seen one that had good content. Intuitively, this makes sense to me, and seems to fit with the old adage, “if you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.” Imo, your experience should speak for itself.
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