Subj : Re: Categories? resume references? (was: How much should I charge f...)
To   : comp.programming,comp.lang.java.programmer,comp.lang.lisp
From : David
Date : Sun Sep 04 2005 02:39 pm

  Hello Robert,

  I've offered you advice from my perspective.

> How do I get any prospective employer to actually see my resume,
> when there are several thousand resumes submitted for each job ad?

  What makes you think that your resume does not reach the
appropriate party or invoke the appropriate response?

  When you receive inquiries from potential employers how well do
you handle them?
 
> How would you feel if you asked me for more information about something
> I'd done and I spent the next ten minutes telling you about it?

  That would depend largely on how it was presented.  If we were 
interacting well and I was interested, it could be a great insight.
I would hope that we could move on to other subjects when it was
appropriate.  A one sided conversation lasting ten minutes would be
a bit excessive.
 
> > A good description is quite enough.  What your responsibility was,
> > perhaps the major technologies, and what you accomplished for the
> > employer.
> 
> That would take a whole page for each job, far too much to include in a
> one-page resume. Where should I put that info?

  Surely you can keep your descriptions at an appropriate length for
the size resume that you want to produce.  There is nothing sacred about
producing a one-page resume.  Make it larger if that is what fits your
relevant experience.

  As for your question, leave that information out!

  The purpose of a resume is to entice the reader into contacting you
for further information or perhaps discussing a particular job
opportunity.  You need the right balance of information to get by
someone that screens resumes for HR and just enough information for
the appropriate hiring manager to decide if you warrant contacting.

  If you applied for a particular position it will likely get to the
hiring manager without a screener.  Persons that screen resumes have
a different role, that being to take general submissions and decide
if they can meet the needs of specific groups.
 
> > You listed C++ exactly once on the multipage resume you published
> > a web link to.
> 
> Please cite the URL so I know which resume you're talking about.

  You have changed the subject line far too many times for me to
find the one post where we started this particular discussion.  Perhaps
the subject is moot now.
 
> > A resume is only supposed to tease you into contacting me for more info.
> 
> Did you in fact try to contact me, by e-mail or telephone, or even
> by my Web application for sending me instant short-messages/alerts?

  Please don't take this the wrong way.  We have been talking already.
I've read your posts for years.  I have considered what you have to
offer and have not found a situation where your particular talents
matched the needs of any of the groups that I've been involved with.
Your name has come up in discussion with people I network with.  I have
no idea what communications you may have had with them, if any.

  These news groups are as an effective way as any to network with
professionals and potential employers.  You need not specifically
advertise your availablity with a resume sent to posted jobs.  That
is just one way to be considered for a position.

  You have an online personality that presumably matches your real
life personality.  That can make it easy for someone to contact you
if they want.  It can also allow an employer you have already contacted
through other means to do a quick search on your name and find these
discussions, other web pages you might announce, and of course other
people with the same name.  You are not anonymous and don't wish to be.

  My experience has been that others are likely to remember those of 
us that have a personality that is memorable.  I have been offered
and taken some of the jobs offered to me through various news groups.
I have also found many people that were not in contact and needed to
be.  In other words, becuase we all knew each other through some means
new relationships, including employment opportunities were formed.

> > I'd suggest listing C++ only if you could be useful to an employer
> > in that language.
> 
> I believe I could be useful for some C++ tasks, so if I leave it out
> I'm stupidly cutting myself off from jobs I can do.

  Are you equally open to finding junior employment opportunities in
C++?  Your experience appears to be focused in other areas where you
are likely to command a higher salary.
 
  David

.