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The Startup Resume

justinkan.com

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Re: The Startup Resume

#2

Post by angelbob »

The principle applies elsewhere, too. He's right - tailor your resume.

Also, make sure what you rock at is big and clear and up-front and featured. Because you hope your resume is being read by somebody who doesn't just read resumes all day.

Then put keyword soup at the bottom for recruiters, if you need to.

Re: The Startup Resume

#4

Post by zackzackzack »

Sounds like an excellent in-comment writing exercise.

Zack's Resume (ala Justin Kan):

If I could, I would spend all day rolling around in data. I have fond memories of spending a weekend graphing the comments of top posters on Hacker News[0]. In the next week or two, I will be opening a pull request for d3.js for an easy way to do fisheye distortions on geographic maps[1]. I got a beating over winter break trying to convert the R project into JavaScript via emscripten[2].

Hire me so I can make your data beautiful[3].

[0]https://github.com/zmaril/HN-Visual-Comments

[1]http://mbostock.github.com/d3/

[2]https://github.com/zmaril/emscripten/tree/herecomesdrtran

[3]https://www.odesk.com/users/~~80bea7ba2750c34b (Shameless misdirecting plug)

Re: The Startup Resume

#5

Post by kevingadd »

Am I correct in interpreting this post as saying that generalists don't get hired at startups, and that you should optimize your resume to look like a specialist? That seems pretty counter-intuitive, since at an early stage startup, employees end up wearing many hats.

Re: The Startup Resume

#6

Post by mustafa0x »

kevingadd wrote: post #5

Am I correct in interpreting this post as saying that generalists don't get hired at startups, and that you should optimize your resume to look like a specialist? That seems pretty counter-intuitive, since at an early stage startup, employees end up wearing many hats.

> Overall, startups are looking for employees who are exceptional in the one key thing that they will be doing

Key - in my opinion - being the operative word. In other words, you may be doing many things, but how good you are at those things aren't as relevant as how good you are at this key thing.

Re: The Startup Resume

#7

Post by Swizec »

This is the resume that has gotten me at least a call-back from every startup I have ever sent it to: [paraphrased since I type the email every time anew]

Hi,

I'm a coder from Slovenia.

I like writing JavaScript and Python. I'm learning Haskell.

Here is my github: http://github.com/Swizec

I have a blog at http://swizec.com

Most recently I did cool thing X

Cheers, ~Swizec

Re: The Startup Resume

#9

Post by heretohelp »

kevingadd wrote: post #5

Am I correct in interpreting this post as saying that generalists don't get hired at startups, and that you should optimize your resume to look like a specialist? That seems pretty counter-intuitive, since at an early stage startup, employees end up wearing many hats.

The generalist is the CTO, if they're bothering to hire somebody, they're looking for something in particular you're strong at that they need even if you'll be wearing multiple hats.

Re: The Startup Resume

#10

Post by karterk »

heretohelp wrote: post #9
kevingadd wrote: post #5

Am I correct in interpreting this post as saying that generalists don't get hired at startups, and that you should optimize your resume to look like a specialist? That seems pretty counter-intuitive, since at an early stage startup, employees end up wearing many hats.

The generalist is the CTO, if they're bothering to hire somebody, they're looking for something in particular you're strong at that they need even if you'll be wearing multiple hats.

Things change very fast in startups. As your problem space emerges, you will be changing technology also to fit that picture. Strict specialists are rarely good in that kind of environment.
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