Subj : Re: CV, work-history, 91C, CompSci?, Applet? (was: Software Job Ma...) To : comp.software-eng,comp.programming From : Arthur J. O'Dwyer Date : Wed Aug 24 2005 03:34 am On Tue, 23 Aug 2005, Robert Maas, see http://tinyurl.com/uh3t wrote: [massive snip] > and if you click on "Looking for employment" you get just a single > resume, the 1998.Nov resume, which is the most recent ASCII version on > the Tripod site: > http://members.tripod.com/~MaasInfo/SeekJob/Resume.98B.txt > You don't like that resume?? What exactly is wrong with it? Okay, I'll bite, one last time... 1. It's seven years out of date, to judge from the filename (which a savvy potential employer /will/ notice). 2. (minor) There's no postal address listed. 3. You use the word "Voice" instead of "Phone" or "Telephone", and the mouthful "Internet electronic-mail" instead of the correct "e-mail". Your BiCapitalization of your e-mail address suggests you are out of touch with current Web conventions, which in turn suggests you may be out of touch with current technology. 4. (debatable) I would write "B.S. in mathematics at the University of..." rather than simply "Mathematics major at..." with the fact that it's a B.S. tacked on the end. I imagine recruiters care more for the degree than the major (especially when it's not computer science). 5. There's that high-school math contest again. Drop it. (The Putnam is good; I'd keep it, losing only the "whole" in "whole United States" --- that sounds whiny.) 6. "Undergraduate mathematics research project": That's a lot of syllables to say basically zilch. /What/ did you do, with /whom/, and /how/? For example: "Basic research in nonlinear optimization under Dr. Willard Fooselmore." 7. "Abstract on differential algebra published." Here's what Duane meant by "making up works." /What/ was published, /where/, and /when/? If you really don't know, and can't explain any more than "something to do with differential algebra," then drop it. 8. "Report on ... published," x2. Ditto. Cite, or get off the pot. 9. Mensa. Bah. From what I've heard, Mensa is easier than they make it sound --- which makes sense. Certainly it isn't one's typical resume material. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, actually! But the "whereas..." is whining again. I'd just put, "Member of Mensa." Unless you aren't, in which case why bother mentioning it? You gonna put your 1600 PSATs on there, too? 10. "Toplevel meta-index... available via HTTP/WWW." Cite or get off the pot. 11. "Writing & Public Info": The feds seriously call it that? I bet it's more like "Writing and Public Information." Sloppiness is a sign of... well, sloppiness! I wouldn't hire a gratuitous abbreviator. 12. "1992.Sep". Two problems: First, it's 13 years ago. You honestly haven't done a single thing since then? (Forget about "paid" work experience. Mention your contributions to SourceForge, or the local Boy Scout troop's website, or /anything/ to get that "1992" out of the top line of your work experience. Also, explicitly writing "PAID work experience" is dangerously close to whining, IMO. 13. Second, what's with the funky date format? You're writing for a business major with a deadline, not a punchcard reader. 14. "(2.5 weeks)" --- Ouch. Circular file, right there. I'd write "September 1992: Contracted with Tree Star, Inc., to (something more intelligible than what you wrote)." Sorry I can't be more specific --- what the heck did you /do/ there? 15. An explanation of what in the world "Tenex," "VM/CMS," "Tops-20," and co. are would be helpful. For example: "porting from the proprietary operating system Tenex to the CMS virtual machine" or whatever they really are. Also, I thought it was "TOPS-20", not "Tops-20". 16. "PSL (Portable Standard Lisp)" --- Never introduce an acronym if you're not going to use it. Just write "Portable Standard Lisp." Even better, write "an interpreter for Common Lisp," if that's what it was. ("Common Lisp" is a buzzword. "Portable Standard Lisp" is a bunch of capital letters that the reader will assume to be an obscure trade name, whether it is or not.) 17. "up&running". 18. Mixed use of present and past tense, and various moods: "Contract" versus "Helping" versus "Develop"; "to teach" versus "that teaches" versus "that processed." Either you're sloppy, or you're trying to convey some kind of information through tenses --- the reader will miss it, if you are. Be explicit. Be consistent. 19. "SL (Standard Lisp)" --- as above. 20. "FORTRAN" --- I believe the current style is "Fortran." Otherwise, this bullet point is very good: fairly detailed, but containing reference points such as "large molecules" and "Fortran" that the naive reader can latch onto. 21. (debatable) "3 platforms", "5 platforms", "7 different CPUs" --- Write out numbers less than 10. That's just plain old Strunk & White style, and you don't get to ignore it without a good reason. 22. Rather than "Programmed in," I imagine an employer would be vastly more interested in "Can program in." Which is also better for you, since you can include several more languages you may have dabbled in, or done some hobby work in, but never a large project. My resume lists METAFONT and APL as languages in which I have some ability, even though that ability was gleaned solely from a few months of experimentation. (Of course, you should make it obvious enough that you don't actually want to be hired to write a mail client in APL, if you haven't got the experience! :) 23. "Platforms include:" No Windows? Yikes! Whether you use it daily or not, it ought to be there, unless you're shooting for /really/ low-level work. Mentioning the "Excel" and "Visual *" buzzwords is always good, too. 24. "Unix+CGI" is meaningless, as far as I know. I expect the reader would assume "Unix+CGI" is one of those crazy Unix variants like Xenix or Ultrix or A/UX or HP-UX. If you know Unix (which could mean knowing the details of sendmail and the .a and .so formats, or knowing what 'rm -r *' does, or just having used 'grep'), say that. If you know CGI (which can really only mean one thing), say that. Don't try to combine the two. 25. If you mean you have knowledge of some specific CGI-enabling library for C++, or something like that, say /that/ instead. 26. "Demo:" Of what? And why should I care? 27. "Calculus" isn't Capitalized. 28. "Laying out text mixed with mathematical formulas for printing or display": This is what TeX does, right? If yes, then why should we care? If no, then how was your work different? Explain its most distinguishing or employment-relevant characteristics, in two sentences or fewer. 29. Is "linked-text frames" standard jargon? Certainly I don't understand it, and without it, that bullet point is /extremely/ vague and unhelpful! 30. Flashcard drill: So you know Russian and French? If so, say so! Multilingualism is a big plus in today's workforce. If not, then what's all this "by which I was able to learn..." stuff? Sounds like whining. Lose it. (After all, lots of people learn Russian the old-fashioned way --- from books and teachers --- and a lot more than 2000 words, too!) 31. "appx." 32. And that's it? I hit "page down" and see the same thing I saw before: some stuff about the candidate's flashcard-making expertise. Where's the kicker? Why should I hire you? Do you have any references? If you have nothing better, put your Web address down here. That says: "I've pulled all my best stuff into this document, but if perchance you want to see even more of my brilliance, I have a whole Web site!" (You don't write that, of course. You just write "Website: http://foo/" and let the reader infer your brilliance.) Right now, the last character on the page is a right-parenthesis --- double awful! > It has my paid work experience in the middle, a compromise between > putting it at the end where it looks like I'm hiding it, and putting it > at the very top where it shoots me in the foot before the reader has > seen anything else to interest him/her. If your work experience can't do anything but shoot you in the foot, remove it! Of course, it /can/ work for you --- but you need to write better, and get some newer stuff in there. If you can't shoot for "recent" (and there's no reason you shouldn't, since you can start phoning that Boy Scout troop right now), at least shoot for "Clinton-era." [...] > By the way, more recent than 1998 I have these two MicroSoft Word > format resumes, which I can neither view nor edit here: > http://members.tripod.com/~MaasInfo/SeekJob/Robert_Elton_Maas.doc > http://members.tripod.com/~MaasInfo/SeekJob/REM.doc > Can anybody view them and tell me if either is legible and/or good? No, nobody can. Don't send your potential employer a "resume" you haven't read yourself! That's just stupid! -Arthur, with bated breath .