Resumes

[Asher]

That is a terrible resume for many reasons.

He doesn't even maintain tense and sometimes ends his points with punctuation, sometimes doesn't.

[SlowwHand]

FWIW my resume has gotten me about 50 headhunter calls in the past 1 1/2 months since I posted it on monster and made it searchable. That's the other thing about having a longer resume in the tech scene -- it's all about the keywords with Monster.

Put it on LinkedIn.

And Ben, for one, it depends on your age and where you've been.
If you're just going to cover the last 7 years, one page is fine.

[-Jrabbit]

Good luck, HC. Let us know how it goes.

[Asher]

Put it on LinkedIn.

And Ben, for one, it depends on your age and where you've been.
If you're just going to cover the last 7 years, one page is fine.

Yep, I'm on LinkedIn, too.

[MikeH]

For IT skillz I find it's useful when reading resumes if they are grouped them by how much experience you have in them, how well you know them or to what level you've worked with them. Listing a load of languages, applications, environments with no relevance is pretty useless.

eg. My 5 days pissing around on .NET for fun/helping a friend with a site carry considerably less weight than multiple years commercial business experience on other platforms.

[Hauldren Collider]

I got an interview with the company! It seems that I was correct and I am precisely the person they were looking for. Interviewing with them on Wednesday. Again, fingers crossed! This job looks perfect; it covers just about all of my interests, which is pretty unbelievable. CS, electronics, physics, robotics. Awesome.

Of course I should give credit where credit is due: Thank you so much for your help everyone. Who knows, you might have been the people that enabled me to get the interview

[Japher]

Yes, it was all because of us. Why do you second guess that?

[Hauldren Collider]

Yes especially you Japher. You are the key to my success without a doubt. Also fantastic new avatar, I approve highly

[Japher]

The garlic was a place holder for the Kool Aid guy. this one represents me more

[Ming]

I got an interview with the company! It seems that I was correct and I am precisely the person they were looking for. Interviewing with them on Wednesday. Again, fingers crossed! This job looks perfect; it covers just about all of my interests, which is pretty unbelievable. CS, electronics, physics, robotics. Awesome.

Of course I should give credit where credit is due: Thank you so much for your help everyone. Who knows, you might have been the people that enabled me to get the interview

Congratulations... Now don't screw up the interview

[-Jrabbit]

Ever been interviewed before, HC?
There have been numerous job search/resume/interview threads over the years here.

If you have questions, post away.

[Hauldren Collider]

I've been in a job interview before but it couldn't hurt to hear your guy's advice, although I am consulting with my dad as well obviously. I have nice clothes and such I can wear. Most important thing to know is what I SHOULDN'T say, do you have any tips for that?

Thanks again, you guys are great.

[Ecofarm]

Dude, you take leet classes and do not drink or smoke. You're gold. Just try not to be too full of yourself (while it is fun, it doesn't engender empathy).

[Asher]

I find it hard to give interview advice. I've had to interview about 45 people since I started my career, most of them young university students.

I look for genuine interest in the job (in technology I find this important), I look for people easy to talk with (I need to work with this person, I need strong communication skills), and I look for people with quiet confidence (not to be mistaken for arrogance). This is, of course, on top of technical questions.

I appreciate honesty too -- if you don't know, make that clear but then make the effort to reason through a problem or provide your 'best guess' with reasoning why.

It takes some practice, but be very good at picking up on social cues. Try to know when they're interested in talking more about a subject, if you're talking too much about the subject, etc. Make sure you don't drift off topic yourself, which is easy to do when you're nervous.

[Asher]

I always take a casual, conversational approach with my interviews...like I would be meeting prospective clients at a bar. You shake hands (firm grip, don't kill them though), maintain eye contact to a reasonable degree (don't be creepy), smile a lot and if you have a sense of humour, make 100% safe humorous comments where appropriate (don't just say jokes...needs to be situational -- this is risky if you have no sense of humour. If you say something you thought might be funny but no one laughs, don't make any other attempts at it -- they're hardasses. At that point I don't want the job anyway, but that's me).

I find that kind of interview is pleasant for everyone, and goes a long way to colouring their overall thoughts of you. It helps them see how you'd fit in on their team.

I just need to be careful to read the situation, some companies are ridiculously formal and wouldn't appreciate the more casual approach. It's all about sensing and adapting in an interview.

Again, this is just how I do it. I've been ridiculously successful with it, I've gotten an offer from nearly every interview I've ever done (which is to say I've only been interviewed about 6 times in my life, so maybe my sample size is small).

Keep in mind, interviews are about selling yourself.