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How to write a developer resume that will get you hired

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Re: How to write a developer resume that will get you hired

#131

Post by JoeAltmaier »

logfromblammo wrote: post #129
mrottenkolber wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have all these different kinds of clothing. (And no I don't want to own them either). Am I the only one who thinks this game should be played the other way around? If a company needs my services, they should impress me. I am not a model and I am sure as hell not a wage slave. I don't do CVs, and I sure as hell don't talk to HR. I am performing a necessary duty, if I can fill my role then my other traits will…

That attitude is a bit arrogant, and will only serve you well as long as potential employers have little alternative but to put up with it. But it is still less arrogant by far than the attitude of most employers with open positions that I have encountered. The "game" should be played with equal respect offered by both sides. Both parties are vetting the other before entering into a potentially long-term relationship…

I thought interviewing was a negotiation, you trying to get the best deal, them trying to convince you to work for peanuts. You meet in the middle, or you both walk away.

All the talk of respect and time wasting and efficiency is missing the point. Arrogance is a tactic and if it works for you at your level, then more power to you.

Re: How to write a developer resume that will get you hired

#132

Post by vonmoltke »

georgeecollins wrote: post #118

Great tip: HR is just matching technical words they don't understand as a filter. They also do this for titles. So they might be looking for a "Project Director" but think you are a poor fit because your last title was "Founder". And for past employers. You may have done marketing at Intel. They will see Intel and think you were an engineer. Etc. Also, peer interviews are very important and often the least thought th…

As a former non-IT systems engineer[1] I have this problem frequently. I get pings once a month or so for DevOps and SRE type positions from in-house recruiters or various companies, but never anything for embedded development (which I was actually doing at the time I was called a "systems engineer").

Now that I have more than a couple years if NLP experience the contacts are getting more relevant, though less frequent. Unfortunately, I don't want to make a career out of NLP.

[1] http://www.incose.org/practice/fellowsconsensus.aspx

Re: How to write a developer resume that will get you hired

#133

Post by goombastic »

Also, never ever apply through one of the career portals companies setup (taleo and the like).

Having applied for tens of perfectly matching jobs at MS, Google and others through their portals, all I can say is they never call you if you apply through their online resume management system. Taleo etc are a resume blackhole, and once they have your resume in their DB, the third party consultants cannot help you either since your phone number check turns up a duplicate on taleo.

If Satya Nadella were to apply via taleo, he wouldn't even be called.

Re: How to write a developer resume that will get you hired

#134

Post by gizzlon »

peteretep wrote: post #68
ionforce wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the slides could use some dressing up. What's the Perl scene like in the UK? As a former Perl professional, I'm continually not impressed by the caliber of some of my colleagues. I've actually left for greener pastures.

> I think the slides could use some dressing up Specifically? > What's the Perl scene like in the UK? "Candidate driven", which means: there's a lot more demand than supply. Mostly London centric. Good roles tend to be in mid-sized companies with large existing Perl codebases rather than startups (who often choose something a little trendier) or huge corporates who rewrote everything in Java 5 years ago[1]. [1] Or, t…

Great slides, thanks..

> "Candidate driven", which means: there's a lot more demand than supply.

Really? Good to know :) I'm a Perl guy, but I'm looking for consultant / freelancing gigs. Do you think it's worth looking to the UK?

I'm a Norwegian citizen, which is basically EU when it comes to working permits etc..

Re: How to write a developer resume that will get you hired

#135

Post by hcho »

gedrap wrote: post #91

At our university, University of Manchester, we had a careers service drone telling us to list your experience working as a waiter and highlight skills you learned there ('communicating in stressful environment' and what not). Dear young readers. Seriously, don't do that. Waste of space at best. Looks just stupid at worst. It doesn't tell me anything about your ability as a programmer at all. Description about a week…

I beg to differ. For a graduate position, any professional experience is a big plus. I am prepared to teach people programming. I dread to teach people professionalism.

Re: How to write a developer resume that will get you hired

#136

Post by hgh »

tempodox wrote: post #66

On slide 16: Shows you actually care about programming I have yet to meet an employer that is actually looking for this. Caring about programming only gets in the way of the atrocities my employer needs me to commit to make things work. Now. One of the differences between academia & real life, I guess.

I'm a hiring manager and it's a surprisingly rare but strong signal that someone has a record of contributions or portfolio, especially given how low the barrier to entry is. It's practically an automatic interview given the CVs I've seen and hire if you can talk intelligently and engagingly about what you've worked on.

Re: How to write a developer resume that will get you hired

#137

Post by DigitalJack »

talmand wrote: post #107
Tyrannosaurs wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't disregard them completely and I think CVs can be written in such a way that recruiters (who actually get very excited about such stuff these days) and HR people will be fine with this sort of thing. What I would say is that there is a difference between hobby code where you get to do what you want and code where you didn't control requirements and had to deliver to unreasonable people in unreasonable timefram…

What I get out of that first statement is that you do tend to disregard unless the candidate knows exactly how to describe the related subjects on their CV in a way that makes you happy. And you don't see the problem that developers might have with that? Especially when they don't know the secret method of describing things to make recruiters happy? As for the rest, I think it's reasonable to assume that a candidate…

The GP is giving helpful advice here. It takes stages to get to the people who will have some idea if your side project is really something or a bit of fluff.

Recruiters don't have the experience to know, so it is your job to help them out with your CV. They are looking at many applicants and can't research them in depth and get through the stack at the same time.

I believe this is essentially true for hiring managers as well, although they will probably be able to tell fluff from something interesting, they won't have the time to do it. And it will reflect poorly on you if you aren't willing to work your CV for relevance to the job.

When you get through those gates to a peer interview, you can talk up your side projects all you want, and these are the people who might look at it and incorporate it in their decision making.

Re: How to write a developer resume that will get you hired

#138

Post by ky3 »

FlyingLawnmower wrote: post #116
gedrap wrote: post #91

At our university, University of Manchester, we had a careers service drone telling us to list your experience working as a waiter and highlight skills you learned there ('communicating in stressful environment' and what not). Dear young readers. Seriously, don't do that. Waste of space at best. Looks just stupid at worst. It doesn't tell me anything about your ability as a programmer at all. Description about a week…

Do you (or anyone else reading this thread) have advice for current college students looking for internships or their first full time job? Unfortunately, I don't have the breadth of experience detailed in the slideshow to even justify a multi-page CV. In my environment, we work with a 1 page resume and I have a variety of side projects I've hacked on, but it's very hit and miss -- some recruiters care a lot, others c…

can't have multiple resumes for every company there is

But you can target 3-5 companies which you reckon you stand the best chance of getting in.

Research up the wazoo on your selected handful. The best is if you can network into present employees and probe into what's actually going on in there. What technologies do they really use, what's griefing them, and most important of all, why's this req open.

By working backward from why THEY need that extra pair of hands, YOU stand out as the best person for the job.

Re: How to write a developer resume that will get you hired

#139

Post by dasboth »

vinceguidry wrote: post #111
Tyrannosaurs wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't disregard them completely and I think CVs can be written in such a way that recruiters (who actually get very excited about such stuff these days) and HR people will be fine with this sort of thing. What I would say is that there is a difference between hobby code where you get to do what you want and code where you didn't control requirements and had to deliver to unreasonable people in unreasonable timefram…

I do agree with you RE: hobby code. I did a jQuery Facebook app for fun, but the one-off weather app I built for a major utility company was and should have been way more impressive even though I did the hobby project after the weather app with all the lessons I'd learned about Javascript from the one I got paid for. Ultimately this is why I don't take any of my side projects seriously anymore, and if there's somethi…

"if there's something I want to learn, I'll find a way to get paid for it" - I'm intrigued, can you give an example?

Re: How to write a developer resume that will get you hired

#140

Post by tzakrajs »

hcho wrote: post #135
gedrap wrote: post #91

At our university, University of Manchester, we had a careers service drone telling us to list your experience working as a waiter and highlight skills you learned there ('communicating in stressful environment' and what not). Dear young readers. Seriously, don't do that. Waste of space at best. Looks just stupid at worst. It doesn't tell me anything about your ability as a programmer at all. Description about a week…

I beg to differ. For a graduate position, any professional experience is a big plus. I am prepared to teach people programming. I dread to teach people professionalism.

I guess if you have no other experience, then you put what you've got.
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