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Common mistakes: 1. Over-focusing on technologies, rather than skills. (https://codewithoutrules.com/2018/01/18/worst-resume/ https://codewithoutrules.com/2018

Common mistakes: 1. Over-focusing on technologies, rather than skills. (https://codewithoutrules.com/2018/01/18/worst-resume/ https://codewithoutrules.com/2018/01/18/worst-resume/) 2. Leaving out organizational context, project context. Why did you do that? Why should I care? 3. Leaving out outcomes. Don't just tell me what you did, tell me how awesome the results were! So like "I wrote some software for the X project at company Y." Leaving out what company Y does, what the X project is, the fact that you worked alone on a really tight deadline and ended saving the company massive amounts of money.

lhorie 9y ago
> Over-focusing on technologies, rather than skills For me, technologies actually help me contextualize how much experience the person has. When a resume says "fast learner" or "team player", well, everyone else will claim that too and it becomes somewhat of an empty claim in my mind. With that said, a bullet list of common technologies does tend to come across as a junior level of experience > Leaving out organizational context, project context. Why did you do that? Why should I care? This is a good point. I would phrase it as "What was the purpose of the work". IMHO, there are two types of good answers, the ones that highlight the business impact, and the ones that tie in to code quality. > Leaving out outcomes Overall I agree, but I think there are some types of answers that raise flags, e.g. when the acccomplishment seems like the person might be claiming credit for the whole team's effort. Heroic stories might also be a sign of team friction.
- itamarst 9y ago
  > For me, technologies actually help me contextualize how much experience the person has. When a resume says "fast learner" or "team player", well, everyone else will claim that too and it becomes somewhat of an empty claim in my mind. With that said, a bullet list of common technologies does tend to come across as a junior level of experience A list of technologies is just as easy to fake. So ideally it's "Because of X, in context Y, I did Z using technologies A, B, C." Rather than "I know A, B, C.".
  - lhorie 9y ago
    I use it as a dunning-kruger sort of test. You can get a reasonable idea of skill level and areas of strengths if, for example, a resume only mentions Javascript/MySQL vs also mentioning Java/Hibernate or RabbitMQ/Docker I definitely don't take a technology laundry list at face value, especially if I see something like 2 yrs experience and a list containing Swift, React, MongoDB and [insert fad technology here]

lhorie 9y ago

> Over-focusing on technologies, rather than skills For me, technologies actually help me contextualize how much experience the person has. When a resume says "fast learner" or "team player", well, everyone else will claim that too and it becomes somewhat of an empty claim in my mind. With that said, a bullet list of common technologies does tend to come across as a junior level of experience > Leaving out organizational context, project context. Why did you do that? Why should I care? This is a good point. I would phrase it as "What was the purpose of the work". IMHO, there are two types of good answers, the ones that highlight the business impact, and the ones that tie in to code quality. > Leaving out outcomes Overall I agree, but I think there are some types of answers that raise flags, e.g. when the acccomplishment seems like the person might be claiming credit for the whole team's effort. Heroic stories might also be a sign of team friction.

itamarst 9y ago
> For me, technologies actually help me contextualize how much experience the person has. When a resume says "fast learner" or "team player", well, everyone else will claim that too and it becomes somewhat of an empty claim in my mind. With that said, a bullet list of common technologies does tend to come across as a junior level of experience A list of technologies is just as easy to fake. So ideally it's "Because of X, in context Y, I did Z using technologies A, B, C." Rather than "I know A, B, C.".
- lhorie 9y ago
  I use it as a dunning-kruger sort of test. You can get a reasonable idea of skill level and areas of strengths if, for example, a resume only mentions Javascript/MySQL vs also mentioning Java/Hibernate or RabbitMQ/Docker I definitely don't take a technology laundry list at face value, especially if I see something like 2 yrs experience and a list containing Swift, React, MongoDB and [insert fad technology here]