*need

sorry its late.

I need someone who has experience with technology related resumes (a HR person, or successful CSC major) that can help me make sure mine is right. I am done with school after i pass this summer 2 class and I'm already job hunting.

Most resume people i go to have no experience with computer science majors and have no idea what we need on our resume.

PM me if you can help.

[Edited on July 10, 2008 at 10:17 PM. Reason : ss]

7/10/2008 10:14:32 PM

Once you've found a job description for a job you want, go through it, pick out the keywords like "markov chains" and list class projects or work experience with whatever it is. List class projects if your at the masters level in another category or if you don't have a lot of work experience class projects are MORE important than listing a restaurant.

In general resumes:

Name at top

goal: A full time job in the area of advanced search algorithms (or whatever, that's poor wording)

I list my degree and grades

I list classes I've taken relative to the field I'm applying for

I list relative computer skills (programming languages, office, linux, maple etc...)

Job title, location, time span
sub title if you held different positions at the same company,
Bullet points listing the important(in context) experience

repeat

I list my personal interests so that the Interviewer has something to BS with me on...

when I'm available


for the bullet points under experience they should start with action describers: developed debugged, led, characterization... you should be able to only read the first word from the bullets and get the sense of what it says. Looking through resumes especially at a career fair it's really difficult to actually give it any reading justice.

if your applying online ESPECIALLY put the keywords from the job in... HR doesn't know what most of the terms mean, so they just do a keyword match and contact the applicants with the most matching hits. (thank you Deborah Brown for that one) This is how I've landed several jobs...

I'm not HR, and I'm not CSC... but I have interviewed people and I have obtained several different jobs... Your SUPPOSE to look before you graduate... people hire college kids during certain seasons typically...

Best of luck (I gotta get to work, no time to check over... will correct later as needed)

7/11/2008 7:28:04 AM

Goal/Objectives are old school. Summaries are much better. Its basically two or three sentences that describe what you bring to the table. Don't put what you want or what they can do for you.

7/11/2008 7:33:54 AM

If you've just looked at PHP code before, don't put down that you know PHP. You'll look like a retard when they call you on it. This obviously goes for any other skill set that people put down to make themselves look better.

7/11/2008 9:40:08 AM

^ yup, know what you know and know it well. I had a former military buddy (senior nco) write bullets for mine, and I kind of questioned weather or not I knew things the way he represented them at first. I did know the topics, but the fluff added in the statements I thought was overboard. Low and behold I got an interview quickly... and even more quickly I got my ass handed to me in the interview because I couldnt answer questions on the level representative of my experience and skill sets on my resume.

I wanted to bitch slap the mo-fo for writing my resume like that. Since then (6 years or so now) I write my resumes and keep a humble tone. Impress them with the interview and knowledge that comes out therein. Ive found that is more effective, especially in entry level work.

^^ I dont even use a summary. For my student resume I have:
skills
organizations
experience
university/major info and GPA.


That being said anyone want to take a gander at mine to keep me in check?

Im always looking for feedback.

7/13/2008 11:39:31 PM

What goFigure said.

Put in buzzwords/keywords when possible (languages, technologies, hardware/software used, etc). At least in my job, having those keywords gets it past HR to someone who looks at the meat of the resume.

Be honest with what you know and try to be direct with how previous experiences (jobs/projects/etc) have increased your skill set. When I read resumes, its more of a "how will this experience help us if we hire you".

7/14/2008 12:13:31 AM

I highly agree on not miss-representing yourself. I was told at one point "If you've ever written 'hello-world' in a language you can put that down on the resume"... For an EE this goes over fairly well but I wouldn't think so for a CSC...

On your resume, and even more importantly in the interview, it's very important to not say your an expert on something unless you have a PhD on the subject or truly have NO questions on the matter... when I was first searching for jobs with a little co-op experience under my belt I was a little cocky on some of the things I claimed to be good with... I was painfully humbled during an interview.

Good general rule: If it's on your resume, it's absolutely fair game for discussion and you should be able to go into great detail about it... I made the mistake of not refreshing myself on my projects I had listed before going to the career fair... even though I was the architect for one of my projects and had taken care of ALL the details, I couldn't remember the specifics several months later and looked like I was one of the slack group members... it was very frustrating. Now I carry references and formula sheets from everything I have listed in the notebook I distribute my resume from...

7/14/2008 7:02:06 AM

good idea.

my lisp and fortran are little slack now. I did 3 or 4 projects in each language but nothing to brag about.

7/14/2008 7:16:29 AM

bttt for the good info.

9/8/2008 5:11:54 AM

put together a requirements/contributions list...although if you have no field experience i don't know what that list would look like exactly

9/8/2008 12:25:44 PM

Quote :

"Put in buzzwords/keywords when possible (languages, technologies, hardware/software used, etc). At least in my job, having those keywords gets it past HR to someone who looks at the meat of the resume. "

Great point. Many companies will scan your resume using some sort of text mining software and if you don't have the right keywords you won't ever make it through HR.

9/8/2008 4:49:44 PM

Then thats probably a company too full of its own bullshit that you DONT want to work for.

9/9/2008 11:30:17 AM