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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

#161
post #154
post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great slides - thanks. One surprise "leave off education". Would like to hear some more thoughts about that - haven't seen that before. 18 yrs experience so I'm sure its not too important (I did nothing spectacular in college, but did graduate) - still leave it off completely?

I second the question. I have a bachelor of Software Engineering (certified Engineer) with First Class Honors, and I know I'm usually competing against people with a Comp Sci. degree, or even just a diploma. I think it's important to highlight my education, as it puts me a cut above. Am I being a little stuck-up?

It depends. If you have a lot of experience in the field, then that's going to be more important then the degree you obtained 10-15 years ago. If you don't have that wealth of experience, then it makes sense to include your education.

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

#162
I don't know how effective it is to go via a recruiter. But it is indeed effective to talk to a technical person directly and establish a rapport.

For example, if you wanted a job with Amazon and are qualified, I would say send me a mail. Or go to an Amazon show like RE:Invent and show off your programming skills in a boot camp. You will meet Amazon engineers there. Get their cards and send them a resume. There are github repositories where teams from companies like Amazon (AND twitter/fb/google/ms) actively contribute. Go see how you can improve them and submit a pull request. We not only have systems work happening in AWS - there is work in every aspect from web programming to documentation to distribute systems. IMO, it all comes down to initiative.

I have switched about 4 teams now between MS and Amazon and not one of them were via a recruiter. There were extremely talented recruiters who handled the interview logistics, but the jobs themselves happened because people on the ground knew me.

Good luck.

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

#163
I really wouldn't wanna work for company that:

1. Is "too lazy" to deal with visa stuff.

2. Where the recruiter doesn't hire you because you have jQuery and Angular, but no Javascript experience.

3. Doesn't hire people because they didn't wear a suit.

4. Interviewing developers did not prepare for the interview.

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

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're being harsh - graduate CVs are tough because almost no-one has done anything useful. Yes it all looks rubbish but I'd rather someone who had made an effort to sell themselves and had shown they had the ability to pitch up to a job on a regular basis.

I don't think that's true. In my experience, development experience is relatively easy for students to obtain while in school. Internships are abundant (obviously not everyone is going to come out of school having worked for Google or Microsoft but most people who want to get development experience during college can find it). Personal projects are another way of doing something "useful" that have effectively zero ba…

I'm not saying it's hard to do, I'm saying people don't do it.

You'd have to ask them why.

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

#165

I really wouldn't wanna work for company that: 1. Is "too lazy" to deal with visa stuff. 2. Where the recruiter doesn't hire you because you have jQuery and Angular, but no Javascript experience. 3. Doesn't hire people because they didn't wear a suit. 4. Interviewing developers did not prepare for the interview.

How many perl programers wear suits? I think the Venn diagram of people who wear suits and perl programmers would not show any intersection.

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

#166
post #161
post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I second the question. I have a bachelor of Software Engineering (certified Engineer) with First Class Honors, and I know I'm usually competing against people with a Comp Sci. degree, or even just a diploma. I think it's important to highlight my education, as it puts me a cut above. Am I being a little stuck-up?

It depends. If you have a lot of experience in the field, then that's going to be more important then the degree you obtained 10-15 years ago. If you don't have that wealth of experience, then it makes sense to include your education.

Thanks. That's probably why I still like to include it, I've taken many years off for traveling, snowboard instructing, etc. so my experience section is a lot thinner than it should be for my age (32).

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

#167
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it doesn't fail. I've been recruiting solid teams who deliver software for a decade now. The right current skills and the ability to learn future skills aren't incompatible. After all, how do you think those people got those current skills? I don't have to choose one or the other and I've rarely met anyone in IT who isn't willing to learn new skills. Generally I have two or three core skills I'm looking for for a…

You have little idea what your opportunity costs are. However, it’s unlikely that the best fit is going to have your ideal background and be willing to spend much time jumping through your hoops.

I imagine Kernighan, Ritchie, or Dijkstra talking to an HR drone. They say, "I see from your resume you have a lot of experience with C and C++, but we're really looking for someone with more recent $MAGIC_KEYWORD experience."

The legend laughs, says "thank you," and then hangs up the phone. Meanwhile, everyone behind the HR firewall that has actually earned a CS degree is blissfully unaware of the sheer magnitude of idiocy that one sentence represents.

The image is hyperbole, but that is a fraction of what you might be doing when you focus on specific experience rather than aptitude and adaptability. What you are looking for is someone who can solve complex problems by reducing them to smaller sub-problems that can be automated. Anyone with a knowledge of how computers operate can use any higher-level language to perform the actual automation. Focusing on candidates who already advertise specific skill keywords will save you, at most, a few days, as the new hire acclimates to new syntax and keywords.

If your business involves spatial positioning, for instance, it is far more useful to learn whether the candidate knows the difference between 4x4 matrices and quaternions, or between geodesic and geodetic coordinates, than it is to know whether they can describe the math in Lisp or C# or Javascript or reverse polish notation.

Your initial bozo filter should undoubtedly be a simple trapdoor function that takes candidates several minutes to solve, but takes you (or a less qualified underling) only seconds to verify. Then, if they pass it, make a more concerted effort to determine whether the developer is a match for your team's development style, without resorting to keyword-based prejudices, or relying upon people with little or no technical capacity to filter your candidates.

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

#168
post #63
post #37

> Sorry, you need JavaScript experience, but all I can see in the web development section is AngularJS and jQuery This actually happened to me a couple of weeks ago, and I do have JavaScript listed in my languages section...

Good, if a company deals with a recruiter that dumb, imagine the quality of the rest of the staff you would have to deal with!

Actually I'm thinking of testing future candidates with a "dumb" response like this, just to see if the candidate clarifies the situation and is helpful, or if we are dealing with someone who is just rolling their eyes all day, because of all the dumb colleagues. Someone who feels the need to be condescending when someone lacks some knowledge.

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

#169
post #154
post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great slides - thanks. One surprise "leave off education". Would like to hear some more thoughts about that - haven't seen that before. 18 yrs experience so I'm sure its not too important (I did nothing spectacular in college, but did graduate) - still leave it off completely?

I second the question. I have a bachelor of Software Engineering (certified Engineer) with First Class Honors, and I know I'm usually competing against people with a Comp Sci. degree, or even just a diploma. I think it's important to highlight my education, as it puts me a cut above. Am I being a little stuck-up?

How much work experience do you have? If it's more then 4-5 years, no-one cares.

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

#170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work at a very casual office, when I've interviewed I've seen just about everything from jeans/t-shirt to a suit. My take away is "look nice" regardless of what level of dress you have chosen. I've been impressed by candidates that wore suits. It shows they understand their appearance is important, however, it is not a deciding factor in the job, just a nice to have. Also had people show up in a suit that is 10 yea…

> Also had people show up in a suit that is 10 years out of style or with hideous tie,etc. And a sense of fashion is relevant to the job...how, exactly?

It's likely that at some point in your career you will have to interact with clients or present in front of an outside audience. What you wear and how you present yourself reflects on your company.
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