Ask HN: Too specific? Too arrogant? Too sparse?
12 comments
I don't like it. There's no information here. It's like one of those sales brochures that you open up, hoping it's a technical datasheet full of specifications, and close two seconds later, when you see there's no meat in it.
Where's the meat? What open source packages? Windows and Linux drivers for what? Using what toolset? What mobile apps, for which platforms?
I get that you're trying to have a resume that's different, but even a different resume needs to provide some actual information.
Where's the meat? What open source packages? Windows and Linux drivers for what? Using what toolset? What mobile apps, for which platforms?
I get that you're trying to have a resume that's different, but even a different resume needs to provide some actual information.
It would help to know what kind of position you are looking for. I think the style of résumé depends on the type of position. I'm assuming a software engineering internship?
In general, you have to think about the audience for your résumé. More than likely it will be a recruiter. Once it's picked out of hundreds or other résumés it will be forwarded to a hiring manager. Recruiters are probably looking for very specific criteria provided by the hiring manager.
I'm not sure how effective an un-résumé is. It's a gamble, but you'll definitely stand out of the pile of other résumés. A recruiter might take a look at it and admire your creativity and give you a shot, or they will trash it because they don't want to spend time figuring it out. More than likely it will be the latter since yours leaves a lot of unanswered questions (see below).
I would be more specific on your résumé in the following ways:
1. You mention over 4000 hours of development experience. What languages? When? For what companies? What did you build and what value did you bring to the table?
2. What's your GPA? Many recruiters filter by looking at GPA. What is your expected graduation date and what degree will you receive upon graduation?
3. Which independent albums? Be as specific as you can to show that you actually did work.
Also, I'm not sure about including the "is looking for section." You have some very specific criteria with little leeway. A recruiter might look at this and say "Well, this kid looks bright and motivated, but we can only provide 1 out of the 4 things he's looking for" then move on to the next one. Also, the phrase "a job" might ring a wrong bell. Companies don't want to hire you for "a job" but for "a career."
With that said, maybe a traditional résumé format will work better. Either that or you're going to have to redesign your résumé to quickly answer the above questions.
If you're going into a technical field, I think a traditional format is better. Managers won't really care about your design skills, but they will care about your experience and your ability to solve problems.
If you're going into a creative field, then this format may work. But it's still too broad. Try to be more specific.
In general, you have to think about the audience for your résumé. More than likely it will be a recruiter. Once it's picked out of hundreds or other résumés it will be forwarded to a hiring manager. Recruiters are probably looking for very specific criteria provided by the hiring manager.
I'm not sure how effective an un-résumé is. It's a gamble, but you'll definitely stand out of the pile of other résumés. A recruiter might take a look at it and admire your creativity and give you a shot, or they will trash it because they don't want to spend time figuring it out. More than likely it will be the latter since yours leaves a lot of unanswered questions (see below).
I would be more specific on your résumé in the following ways:
1. You mention over 4000 hours of development experience. What languages? When? For what companies? What did you build and what value did you bring to the table?
2. What's your GPA? Many recruiters filter by looking at GPA. What is your expected graduation date and what degree will you receive upon graduation?
3. Which independent albums? Be as specific as you can to show that you actually did work.
Also, I'm not sure about including the "is looking for section." You have some very specific criteria with little leeway. A recruiter might look at this and say "Well, this kid looks bright and motivated, but we can only provide 1 out of the 4 things he's looking for" then move on to the next one. Also, the phrase "a job" might ring a wrong bell. Companies don't want to hire you for "a job" but for "a career."
With that said, maybe a traditional résumé format will work better. Either that or you're going to have to redesign your résumé to quickly answer the above questions.
If you're going into a technical field, I think a traditional format is better. Managers won't really care about your design skills, but they will care about your experience and your ability to solve problems.
If you're going into a creative field, then this format may work. But it's still too broad. Try to be more specific.
So I checked out your resume. And as a graphic designer, I found it a little jarring. But your not applying for design jobs, so thats not a huge deal. It's an interesting idea, a great idea probably. But if you're going to do something like this you need to establish a flow of information.
Here is my resume: http://www.zevdesigns.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/czh-res...
It's not the avg business person's resume, cause I'm not a business person. Anyone can have a resume like this tho.
a) I feel like a sentence/phrase formatted layout for your resume is interesting and effective if they read it. If they read it, they'll get the info they need.
b)Yes
c)Why not?
d)I have no reason to assume otherwise, imho. Nothing seems out of the ordinary.
I just worry about a TL;DR. sentiment when seeing this.
If you're gonna go with the phrase format, then you need to follow through the pattern throughout the piece. dont capitalize first letters. And add periods at the end.
here's my version of your resume: http://www.zevdesigns.com/dev/images/benglert.pdf
dont look if you dont wanna see it completely reworked.
Here is my resume: http://www.zevdesigns.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/czh-res...
It's not the avg business person's resume, cause I'm not a business person. Anyone can have a resume like this tho.
a) I feel like a sentence/phrase formatted layout for your resume is interesting and effective if they read it. If they read it, they'll get the info they need.
b)Yes
c)Why not?
d)I have no reason to assume otherwise, imho. Nothing seems out of the ordinary.
I just worry about a TL;DR. sentiment when seeing this.
If you're gonna go with the phrase format, then you need to follow through the pattern throughout the piece. dont capitalize first letters. And add periods at the end.
here's my version of your resume: http://www.zevdesigns.com/dev/images/benglert.pdf
dont look if you dont wanna see it completely reworked.
Very nice resume. Swiss grid for the win :)
I like the general look of it.
You shouldn't say you're a "competent traveler", whatever that means. In case you're applying for a job that involves travel, the company will be happy enough to know that you're willing to travel.
The "does" and "is looking for" parts are too sparse.
On the "does": there are dozens of real-time and mobile OSes, tell us which you know and what did you do with them. Can you build a device driver from scratch? Are you a Debian maintainer, or you just maintained a customized local package during an internship? Maybe if you answer all of this your un-resume will turn into something more like a resume, but so be it.
It's not clear what you're looking for. Do you want to be a developer, a product manager, or would you be just as happy to do customer support if there's travel involved? There's nothing wrong with not knowing what you want to do in that stage, but I think your description could be clearer.
You probably should not garble your email address; just write a "@" instead of "AT". No need to make the HR person think. If you're really worried about spam then either don't put that version online or make the address an image.
You shouldn't say you're a "competent traveler", whatever that means. In case you're applying for a job that involves travel, the company will be happy enough to know that you're willing to travel.
The "does" and "is looking for" parts are too sparse.
On the "does": there are dozens of real-time and mobile OSes, tell us which you know and what did you do with them. Can you build a device driver from scratch? Are you a Debian maintainer, or you just maintained a customized local package during an internship? Maybe if you answer all of this your un-resume will turn into something more like a resume, but so be it.
It's not clear what you're looking for. Do you want to be a developer, a product manager, or would you be just as happy to do customer support if there's travel involved? There's nothing wrong with not knowing what you want to do in that stage, but I think your description could be clearer.
You probably should not garble your email address; just write a "@" instead of "AT". No need to make the HR person think. If you're really worried about spam then either don't put that version online or make the address an image.
a) Says more about your personality than the typical "objectives", but says less about your experience than the typical "experience". I don't care how many hours you've spent "working profesionally" (using MS Word?), I care what you've made or accomplished. This resume only lists some very broad areas.
b) I don't know. If you left off the last one I'd say "probably", but I really don't know.
c) Never hurts to ask for it. :) Whether you can get it is unclear.
d) Absolutely.
A couple minor things: "A competent traveler" is not really impressive. "Ben is... along with possessing" is ungrammatical. "Customer support, training, and debugging" sounds like you debug and train customers -- which I want to be true.
b) I don't know. If you left off the last one I'd say "probably", but I really don't know.
c) Never hurts to ask for it. :) Whether you can get it is unclear.
d) Absolutely.
A couple minor things: "A competent traveler" is not really impressive. "Ben is... along with possessing" is ungrammatical. "Customer support, training, and debugging" sounds like you debug and train customers -- which I want to be true.
Thanks all for the feedback. Looks like I was running away from dense, cluttered text so fast that I went too far in the other direction and sacrificed specificity.
Can someone remind me, what is the figure for the average amount of time someone spends looking at a single resumé while they are shuffling through a stack? Is it 30 seconds? That seems almost optimistically high.
Following some of the comments here I am looking at cleaning up my old resumé and adding a "Summary" or "Quick takes" section at the top for people who are just skimming/browsing. What do folks think of that?
Can someone remind me, what is the figure for the average amount of time someone spends looking at a single resumé while they are shuffling through a stack? Is it 30 seconds? That seems almost optimistically high.
Following some of the comments here I am looking at cleaning up my old resumé and adding a "Summary" or "Quick takes" section at the top for people who are just skimming/browsing. What do folks think of that?
>I realized that it was a very poorly designed and visually unappealing document that did not convey especially well what I've done or what I want to do
I was expecting a high-graphic presentation when you said that. This is clean and crisp for sure, but I wouldn't call it visually appealing.
I was expecting a high-graphic presentation when you said that. This is clean and crisp for sure, but I wouldn't call it visually appealing.
a) "Experience" is really supposed to be "Accomplishments". Rather than saying you worked X hours (which anyone can do), say what value you brought in those hours. The objectives section should ideally be tailored to the company you're applying.
b) network like crazy and you'll find out
c) rather than asking, you should focus on offering to do something. Ask in the interview.
d) to be honest, no. You say you have ~2 years full-time experience being a developer on bunch of fairly different platforms, plus an audio engineer, and customer support, and you're still a student. That has Dunning-Kruger written all over it. Show what you worked on (e.g. by linking to them)
b) network like crazy and you'll find out
c) rather than asking, you should focus on offering to do something. Ask in the interview.
d) to be honest, no. You say you have ~2 years full-time experience being a developer on bunch of fairly different platforms, plus an audio engineer, and customer support, and you're still a student. That has Dunning-Kruger written all over it. Show what you worked on (e.g. by linking to them)
Online viewable http://viewer.zoho.com/docs/mPWtg (expires in 1 week).
People prefer to download random bods CVs rather than view them?
This is only my first attempt after looking at some similar "un-resumés" created by colleagues and friends. I'd like to get HN's feedback on it. It's here (warning, PDF):
http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/benglert/concept1.pdf
I have a couple of questions:
a) Do you feel like you got the same amount of information (if not more) out of this document that you would have gotten from reading a traditional resumé containing "EXPERIENCE" and "OBJECTIVES" and so on?
b) Does my dream job even exist?
c) Am I at a point where I get to ask for it?
d) Does my description of my abilities/interests/experience strike you as honest and sincere?
Don't be afraid to be brutal, HN. I have some time to iterate on this before I'd dream of trying to use it in a professional setting in place of or in addition to a traditional resumé.