Subj : Re: Software Job Market Myths
To   : comp.programming,comp.software-eng
From : Phlip
Date : Tue Aug 16 2005 06:50 am

Robert Maas, see http://tinyurl.com/uh3t wrote:

>> I have looked at your CV
>
> I don't have a CV (curriculum vitae), so what did you actually look at?

Your capacity for obstinance is breathtaking.

Everyone knows brits use "CV" to casually mean "resume". Did you actually 
not know that? or are you intentionally irritating Chris, who is trying to 
help you, for no reason?

> No, my detailed list of things I've been **recently** goes back that
> far, in an attempt to fill the gap between my most recent complete
> resume and current time. Several times I've sent my resume to somebody
> who had posted a job ad, only to get back the response "this doesn't
> show what you've been doing recently", so now I'm keeping that data on
> a month-by-month basis whenever I happen to have time and notice
> there's a gap that needs filling.

Do you have a resume out there that _excludes_ the non-recent material?? 
(Nothing would surprise me by now.)

>> It gives no idea of age, qualifications companies worked for etc.
>
> It's against the law for you to expect me to tell you my age in order
> to qualify for a job.

He meant seniority. If I want a senior, I will look for >8 years from early 
projects to major works. Everyone here has pointed out both the USA laws and 
the actual customs, and has alluded (or said) he meant seniority. But do 
feel free to bust on him again instead of understand what he _meant_.

> I haven't worked for any company for many years, so obviously a
> description of what I've done **recently** wouldn't include anything so
> far in the past. If you want to know about when I worked for a company,
> you need to look at my resume. Did you see the toplevel pointer to my
> index of eleven resumes?
>  http://members.tripod.com/~MaasInfo/SeekJob/Resumes.html#Topics
>
> Please tell me what you consider to be "qualifications" for employment.

For the love of [pick a deity], why did you write that your resume 91C took 
"5 months to finish"? Do you want to show off to time-conscious bosses that 
you are thorough or slow??

Then, why did you say "currently unemployed"? Hasn't anyone told you this is 
the number one trigger HR looks for when shortening their resume stack?

Why "for self, unfunded"? Who gives a rat's ass? If something was good for 
you, write about the good things!

About the hirability issue, you seem to have zillions of "computer science" 
certs, and not much visible "software engineering". I suspect you _have_ 
them; they are just not in my face. Software Engineering is the process of 
efficiently _avoiding_ computer science research, while adding value to 
useful software. I am aware you can nitpick that statement for many pages. 
Unfortunately for someone as smart as you, incapable of thinking common 
things, it's what HR _should_ look for. Stuff like "I wrote a cute window 
with a slider, and linked it to a database." Idiotic stuff that's accessible 
to a hirer, and helps them think "Ah, you are one of us".

-- 
  Phlip
  http://www.greencheese.org/ZeekLand  <-- NOT a blog!!!

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