Subj : Accomplishments important or not? (was: Overcoming age discrimination...) To : comp.programming,comp.software-eng From : rem642b Date : Sun Aug 21 2005 05:01 pm > From: JXStern > >To avoid the sprung-full-grown appearance, I have an idea: Water down > >anything more than fifteen years ago by writing like it was an > >entry-level job, like my first job out of college, and merge anything > >over 20 years ago with the stuff 15-20 years ago into a single "more > >than 15 years ago" section, and make it really sound like 5 years work > >and no more. "Talk up" the very most recent 5 years to make it sound a > >lot more professional than the middle ten years (5-15 years ago). > Exactamundo. Ah, it's rare that anyone in these newsgroups like any of my ideas about how to improve my resume. Thanks for posting. So now I'll have to put on my to-do list a new resume per my idea above. If you don't see it in a few days, send me e-mail, with "ReSpam2002Jan08" in Subject field to bypass my spam filter, asking what's taking me so long, OK? > Nobody cares about your accomplishments, just your current buzzwords. In this case I see a vehement difference of opinion. Compare what others have written recently. (I tried a Google Groups search just now but couldn't remember the exactly correct keywords to find the example, but it basically said, paraphrased:) Your resume/CV shows no evidence that you've accomplished anything in 30 years of programming. You sound like somebody just graduated from high school looking for a first job. So the other person thinks I need to emphasize more solid achievements or accomplishments, especially on large projects, while you consider such information worthless on a resume. So maybe I'll need to write two different new resumes, one per your flavor for you to help me perfect, and another totally different per the other person's flavor to have him and many others help me perfect? (You're the only person so-far who has ever said that buzzwords are the *only* important thing on a resume, that there's no place whatsoever for any actual achievements or accomplishments.) By the way, here's the very latest general resume I wrote this past June, which I haven't uploaded to the net yet (until just now below), but have used for FAXing or e-mailing in response to job ads (but haven't gotten even one call-back yet much less an interview, so this resume must be 100% crap just like every other resume I ever wrote). Robert Elton Maas, Sunnyvale, CA Voice: 408-749-0453 Internet electronic-mail: rem642b@Yahoo.Com EDUCATION: Mathematics major at University of Santa Clara, Bachelor of Science degree Computer-programming classes at De Anza college, Cupertino, CA ACADEMIC/INTELLECTUAL HONORS, PROFESSIONAL LICENSES, AND PUBLISHED WORKS: - First place in University of Santa Clara High School Mathematics contest for three years - Undergraduate mathematics research project at University of Santa Clara for five summers - Among top five (in whole United States) in William Lowell Putnam undergraduate mathematics competition - Abstract on differential algebra published in Notices of the AMS - Passed California civil service exam for Programmer/Analyst I - Report on nuclear magnetic resonance relaxation published - Report on English-language programming for robot published - Passed Mensa exam, achieving top 1% on BOTH tests, whereas achieving top 2% on EITHER test is sufficient to qualify for Mensa - Toplevel meta-index to the Internet (including Usenet and Bitnet) published electronically and available via HTTP/WWW - Passed federal civil service exam for Writing & Public Info PROGRAMMED IN THESE LANGUAGES: - Java (on 3 platforms), including: applets, JDBC/ODBC, JSP, J2EE servlets, XML parsing (SAX), GUI (AWT & swing), JavaDoc - JavaScript, including calls to methods in Java classes - C (on 4 platforms) C++ (on 2 platforms) - Visual Basic - Fortran (on 5 platforms) - Lisp (on 5 platforms) - Assembly/machine language on 7 different CPUs * Platforms (programming environments) include: Unix+CGI, Macintosh, MS-Windows, RedHat Linux MAJOR PROGRAMMING PROJECTS: - Computer-assisted instruction for Calculus - Laying out text mixed with mathematical formulas for printing or display - Information retrieval and indexing, including linked-text frames - Packet-based client/server telecommunications, including handling interrupts from I/O devices - Effective algorithm for flashcard drill ONLINE (Web-accessible) DEMOS: - Unix+CGI: http://www.rawbw.com/~rem/demos.html - Applet: http://www.rawbw.com/~rem/Lab7a.class - JavaDoc: http://www.rawbw.com/~rem/JavaDoc/Blab2/index-all.html - JavaScript: http://www.geocities.com/rem642b/JavaScript/js1.html - Multi-CGI-language education: http://www.rawbw.com/~rem/HelloPlus/hellos.html - XML parsing (SAX): http://members.tripod.com/~MaasInfo/New/2005.6.12a.zip .