Resume Help Needed


  • BINNED

    I'm currently looking for other opportunities, as my current job has work/life balance issues and the environment is sometimes toxic. A few recruiters have submitted my resume, but I'm not getting any interviews. I haven't had to look for a job in 10 years, so the format of my resume is probably outdated. I've attached a redacted version.

    0_1465850041974_redacted.docx



  • @antiquarian Ok, first of all, I personally consider being in the same position for 10 years as being something of a warning sign. Not necessarily a deal-breaker, but something the candidate would have counting against them from the start. Generally speaking, unless they work for a dream company like Microsoft Research or maybe Google, quality candidates don't spend more than 5 years in any single position.

    For your resume specifically:

    Your skills list lists MS SQL Server and T-SQL separately... combine those two into the form recruiters will be most likely to know (which is MS SQL Server-- that it uses the T-SQL syntax is completely implementation-detail. Nobody cares.)

    I'd remove Visual Basic, unless you're applying to a position you know uses Visual Basic.

    I'd fill-in what Oracle product(s) you have experience in. I assume you mean their database, which may indeed only be called "Oracle", but a lot of companies use, for example, OracleApps to do HR-related stuff and employers might get the wrong idea if you have DB experience and they think you have OracleApps experience.

    I'd treat COBOL like VB-- remove it unless you know for sure the company you're interviewing with uses it.

    Active Server Pages has been deprecated for like... 9? years at this point. Can it. (If a company still uses it, you probably don't want to work there. Unless you really enjoy stodgy horrible companies.)

    • WTFCorp1

    "Some maintenance of C# code?" Go big or go home. "Maintained critical C# line of business application" or something like that. At least get rid of the "some", it sounds mousy and uncertain.

    I had to look up OTLP. Don't make your audience look shit up. It's also kind of implementation-detail-- the focus should be on how successfully you maintained it. The type of application is only important in that it shows your versatility, but you can easily name-drop it elsewhere. For example, if the previously mentioned "C# code" was the OTLP project, you could combine those two bullets into a much more impressive-sounding single one.

    • WTFCorp2

    Only one bulletpoint, which is a repetition of something you already said above. You were there for at least 6 months, right? You must have done more than just that. If it was a seriously awful position that didn't grow your skills at all (like my horrible 4-month insurance gig) remove it from the resume entirely. Nobody'll notice a gap at the resolution of dates you're using. (They'll just see one position end at 2006 and the next begin in 2007. That's not a big deal.)

    Remember, you want the stuff in the resume to be the stuff you want to talk about in the interview. If the job is something you'd rather not have brought up, don't bring it up yourself.

    • WTFCorp3

    Oracle 8i was released in 1999. Not really that big a deal here, but in the "Credentials" section that comes next, it might bring up a "how is that still relevant in 2016?" question you should prepare an answer for. (If you don't have one, again, omit.)

    I honestly don't know how other people would react to a laundry list of old technologies like that. I'm pretty neutral on it, but I could see employers (especially startups) balking at that. I suppose these long employment terms (over 10 years?) don't give you much leeway for picking-and-choosing what goes on your resume, so you might need to get creative. You could always rewrite it to be slightly more vague but more obviously relevant to 2016: instead of "implemented Oracle 8i database" try "created database using third normal form design optimized for insertion performance" or something like that.

    • WTFCorp4

    Seems like an "omit" to me. Both because there's nothing useful to an employer here, and because we're drifting into the mists of time.

    • WTFCorp6

    No comment on 5 (could take it or leave it), but I'd leave in 6 because it's great to have some experience on your resume that's a very useful skill but isn't just yet more programming mumbo-jumbo. Everybody knows legal assistants do a lot of great work, and every company can use more people who know about legal issues. (Which isn't to say you necessarily do, but you can bluff them.) It's a good way to communicate you have a more holistic experience than just the software development stuff.

    Similarly, the "created presentations for client meetings" in job 5 and the "manned the helpdesk" in the latest position are good to have. Widens your focus and indicates you can successfully get on the phone, or present your ideas to a group.

    • Education

    Since you don't list a degree here, I assume you don't have one? You've probably made the best choice here. (I'm in the same boat-- spend 4 years at a university and didn't get a degree, so I just say it was the computer science program and hope they don't ask.)

    Note that since you went to Harvard, you might need to be prepared to provide evidence of that. Nobody ever asks for a transcript from Central Washington University, but Harvard probably has a lot of fakers using their name.



  • Fix the formatting in few places. The CV IMO should look impeccable.

    From the POV of a tech guy in a tiny business, I'd like to see at least some code or actual work product. However, since you'll probably go against an HR department of a larger company (given your SQL server focus), then it probably doesn't matter at this stage.


  • kills Dumbledore

    Don't just say what you did, say how it helped the company. Look at it from the point of view of an interviewer and ask "why should I care?"

    For example, " Developed and maintained stored procedures and triggers in T-SQL and SSIS packages. " could talk about how the stored procedures saved x man hours per week by automating a previously manual process, or that it reduced errors in data processing by y%. If you can point to something you did directly impacting the bottom line (cost savings or revenue increases) then shout about that from the rooftops.


  • I survived the hour long Uno hand

    @blakeyrat said in Resume Help Needed:

    I personally consider being in the same position for 10 years as being something of a warning sign

    That's really not how hiring managers and HR folks see it, though. They see "willing to be loyal to the company for the long haul", not "couldn't get a job elsewhere" (as long as you have skills to back it up).

    Here's some advice by someone else: http://www.askamanager.org/category/resumes



  • @blakeyrat One thing I just thought of. Since you're using recruiters, make sure you bring your own copy of your own resume to any meeting/interview with a potential employer. Recruiters frequently change resumes, or at least reformat them, and usually from my experience they turn out worse.



  • 0_1465915014480_amazing.png

    Borked.



  • A guy on reddit recently posted a good post on how he does interviews for administration/IT positions.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/4o1mz9/resume_and_interview_advice_for_those_who_care_to/

    Worth a look.



  • @JazzyJosh said in Resume Help Needed:

    Borked.

    Click save-as, it's the wrong MIME type, tries to display it as image.


  • โ™ฟ (Parody)

    @blakeyrat said in Resume Help Needed:

    @blakeyrat One thing I just thought of. Since you're using recruiters, make sure you bring your own copy of your own resume to any meeting/interview with a potential employer. Recruiters frequently change resumes, or at least reformat them, and usually from my experience they turn out worse.

    This is good advice even if not using recruiters. You never know what an interviewer will get from upstream or if they lost their copy or whatever. Always bring a few extra just in case.



  • Send it in LatEx source format. Recruiters dig reading .tex files.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @fbmac You mean LATEฮง?



  • @dkf we keep discussing markdown vs BBCode when there is nodebb-plugin-latex


  • Notification Spam Recipient

    @fbmac said in Resume Help Needed:

    @dkf we keep discussing markdown vs BBCode when there is nodebb-plugin-latex

    You're both monsters.


  • Grade A Premium Asshole

    @fbmac said in Resume Help Needed:

    Send it in LatEx source format. Recruiters dig reading .tex files.

    That only works if you are applying at the EFF. You only want to work there if you eat the crusty bits that accumulate between your toes.



  • @Polygeekery True. For other places I send markdown source as .md files.





  • Agree that WTFCorp 4 should be a remove.


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    link borked.

    Doesn't matter anyways, I only have office 2003 ๐ŸšŽ

    Anyways, where are you located and/or willing to relocate to?



  • @Lorne-Kates said in Resume Help Needed:

    link borked.

    It's not "borked", it's just that this Quality Open Source Software doesn't use the correct MIME type. You have to use your browser to Save it to a file with the .docx extension, then you can open it fine.

    Speaking of which, I wouldn't mind an update to this thread. What suggestions have you taken? Which have you ignored and why? Have you gotten any interviews since revising it?


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @Polygeekery said in Resume Help Needed:

    That only works if you are applying at the EFF.

    No, it'd also work for any mathematician's post.


  • BINNED

    @Lorne-Kates said in Resume Help Needed:

    Anyways, where are you located and/or willing to relocate to?

    I'm in suburban Dallas.

    @blakeyrat said in Resume Help Needed:

    Speaking of which, I wouldn't mind an update to this thread. What suggestions have you taken? Which have you ignored and why? Have you gotten any interviews since revising it?

    I haven't done anything with the resume yet, as I've been really busy at work and things aren't so bad that I have to get out right now. I did like your suggestions and I'll probably work on it this weekend.


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @antiquarian said in Resume Help Needed:

    I'm in suburban Dallas.

    Is that near Canada?


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @Lorne-Kates said in Resume Help Needed:

    Is that near Canada?

    Compared to how close it is to Antarctica, yes.



  • @FrostCat said in Resume Help Needed:

    Antarctica

    Why not use a ๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ชtter point of reference for this forum?


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @ben_lubar said in Resume Help Needed:

    Why not use a tter point of reference for this forum?

    ๐Ÿ‡น๐Ÿ‡ญ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡น ๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ช:e:๐Ÿ‡ฒ๐Ÿ‡ธ ๐Ÿ‡ฑ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ฐ๐Ÿ‡ช ๐Ÿ…ฐ ๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ฆd ๐Ÿ†”๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ฆ.


  • BINNED

    @ben_lubar said in Resume Help Needed:

    a ๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ช tter point of reference

    A Belgiumed point of reference? How would that help?


  • I survived the hour long Uno hand

    @ben_lubar said in Resume Help Needed:

    a ๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ชtter point of reference

    Otter idea thread is :arrows:


Log in to reply