Re: [PhillyOnRails] Resume advice

[Cliff Moon <cliff@chariotsolutions.com>]

IMO, you should prepare two things: a one page resume that you will
tailor specifically for each job you apply to, and a curriculum vitae
(CV) that lists everything you've done - excluding any burger flipping. 
As part of your cover letter tack on at the bottom that a CV is
available upon request.  The most important part of the resume though is
keeping it short and tailoring it towards the job for which you're
applying.  Put yourself in the position of the hiring mgr and say, "what
would make me want to hire this person?"

As far as resume content goes, my personal inclination is to leave off
the objective.  Your objective is to get a job.  Duh.  My preference is
to have it contain: contact info which excludes any innapropriate email
addresses, executive summary of you as a professional, skills list,
short work history (last two jobs is reasonable), education, and any JOB
RELATED extracurriculars.  Open source contributions and speaking
engagements are great because they show that you're interested.  For
each job, project, whatever don't describe the project or the software
or your budget or any of that nonsense.  Keep it to short bullet points
about things you personally did to make a difference.  "Saved X dollars
by recommending we use BlahSoft" or "Consistently beat time estimates
for delivery" are great if you actually did those things.  "Worked on a
project with 200 people and 10,000 lines of code" isn't good, because it
says nothing about what you did and why it matters to this particular job.

Finally, you should go over your resume with a fine toothed comb for
little things: Alphabetizing your skills list, proper caps,
chronological order, etc.  Good hiring managers pick up on those things
to see if you're an organized thinker.  And always have someone else
read it over.  Every time.  Seriously.  Nothing says, "I'm lack
attention to detail." like a resume littered with obvious spelling and
grammatical errors.

John-Scott Atlakson wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I've been working for a non-profit for the last couple of years, in
> which time I've taught myself web development using RoR (of course),
> but also Zope/Plone (not my choice) and Django. I'm now looking to
> transition into the for-profit world so I have a fighting chance at
> handling my impending student loan payments.
> I'm a bit embarrassed to say I've never put together a 'professional'
> resume before and I'm unsure what's the expected way to present my
> skills. Previous resumes were just simple single-page overviews of my
> work history to indicate I wasn't a bum. But now I want to present
> myself specifically as a web developer. Should I list each site I've
> worked on and have bulleted highlights of what I did? Or is that TMI
> for a resume? Or should that info be factored out into a 'portfolio'
> (and what would a portfolio look like in contrast to a resume)?
> I don't have a CS or relevant degree (BA in philosophy, so lucrative),
> so I'm probably aiming for a 'junior developer' territory to get my
> foot in the door (just mentioning it if that should be a factor in how
> I pitch things). Anyone willing to volunteer a resume for a guiding
> example? I really get stumped when it comes time to toot my own horn,
> but I need to get over that soon ;)
>
> Thanks,
> John-Scott
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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