Re: [PhillyOnRails] Resume advice

[Cliff Moon <cliff@chariotsolutions.com>]

And I realize that it's very ironic to have an obvious grammar mistake
in a sentence about not making grammar mistakes.

Cliff Moon wrote:
> 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
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> To unsubscribe or change your settings, visit:
>> http://lists.phillyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
>>   
>>     
>
>
>   

_______________________________________________
To unsubscribe or change your settings, visit:
http://lists.phillyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/talk