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I've had to hire many hackers myself so I'll cut to the chase for you: * RESUME ACCEPTANCE IS BASED ON KEYWORDS: If your resume does not inlcude the SAME KEYWO

by snorkel 15y ago

I've had to hire many hackers myself so I'll cut to the chase for you: * RESUME ACCEPTANCE IS BASED ON KEYWORDS: If your resume does not inlcude the SAME KEYWORDS MENTIONED IN THE JOB POSTING then it gets tossed aside. if (posting.keywords() != resume.keywords()) { resume.destroy(); continue; } Are hiring managers really this stupid and shallow?! YES!!! All of them!!! HR reps are even twice as shallow because HR doesn't know the meaning of the keywords! * If the job posting says "Scrum" and your resume says "Agile" then you edit your resume and change that word to say "Scrum". * If the job posting says "Django" and your resume says "many popular Python frameworks" then you edit your resume to say "Django" * If job posting says "Ruby" and you put "Rails" ... guess what you should do about it? * Skip the cover letter. This is not an essay contest. Nobody reads this. * Top of resume: BRIEF two sentence description of your typical role on a technical team and the type of role are seeking. * Next item of resume: Bullet point list of skills and experience. Keyword A, Keyword B, Keyword C ... remarkably similar to the job posting. What a coincidence! * Remainder of resume: Employment history. Short descriptions. Everything you ever worked on is boring so don't get into details. Don't exceed 3 pages. ACTUAL RESUME HACKS: * Fill employment gaps decreasing the time scale. Instead of Month/Year next to each job, just put the year. Nobody cares if you weren't working between April and August so don't draw attention to it. * If your GPA sucks then don't mention it. Nobody cares about your GPA unless you have no work history to speak of. * Don't mention unrelated jobs in your work history. If your spent a year as a galley cook on oil rig then mention that under hobbies, not work history. It makes you seem like a transient to have a lot of odd unrelated jobs that don't follow the theme of this job posting. * Non-paying jobs are still jobs. If you worked on your uncle's business web site for free while looking for a job, and you had to build the web site, then put it in your work history if you need it to fill the gap. Technical work is still work. If later on someone verifies your work history tell them it was an unpaid volunteer. Nobody cares. * Isn't omitting the truth lying? If this is how you feel then don't bother applying for marketing jobs. Ask a marketing person to tweak your resume for you. Explain to them you are a technical person who only has a binary understanding of truth. * Send your resume as a PDF attachment. Everyone can open a PDF. Not everyone has the latest greatest version of Word. If your skill set matches, and you can prove your skills, then don't put things on your resume that will kill the deal. The resume makes the introduction, it is your calling card, it is your marketing. List the skills you have that they want. Your resume not your complete autobiography or a place to confess your gaps and incompetencies.

spacemanaki 15y ago
"Fill employment gaps decreasing the time scale. Instead of Month/Year next to each job, just put the year. Nobody cares..." Not true, I had a pretty awkward conversation with someone in HR at one of the big tech companies who wanted me to break down my employment history into as much detail as possible, to explain a gap. This was very, very late in the hiring process and needless to say, I would much rather have talked about it up front, before getting my hopes up, etc. I don't know what the answer is here, but I'm not sure that obfuscation is it.
- snorkel 15y ago
  If they want to get into details you can explain gaps in person. If they care more about analyzing your work gaps than your skills then they already decided to pass on you and now they want you to help them justify their decision.
Peroni 15y ago
There is a lot of shitty advice here. I have found work for a lot of hackers (including a few HNer's) so allow me to nitpick: If the job posting says "Scrum" and your resume says "Agile" then you edit your resume and change that word to say "Scrum". If the hiring manager can't see the relevance then I'd rather not waste my time with them. This applies to your Django & Rails reference also. Skip the cover letter. This is not an essay contest. Nobody reads this. Most people don't read it, some insist on it. ACTUAL RESUME HACKS: I agree with your first 2 points. The third and fourth a contradictory however. Send your resume as a PDF attachment. Everyone can open a PDF. Untrue. You will find most places prefer Word over PDF.
- snorkel 15y ago
  > If the hiring manager can't see the relevance then I'd rather not waste my time with them. You have to understand that hiring organizations have layers of people, your resume passes through a few human filters before it gets to the desk of the manager who posted the job, and not everyone in that filter process knows Agile ~= Scrum so you have to factor according to the lowest common denominator.

by snorkel 15y ago

spacemanaki 15y ago

"Fill employment gaps decreasing the time scale. Instead of Month/Year next to each job, just put the year. Nobody cares..." Not true, I had a pretty awkward conversation with someone in HR at one of the big tech companies who wanted me to break down my employment history into as much detail as possible, to explain a gap. This was very, very late in the hiring process and needless to say, I would much rather have talked about it up front, before getting my hopes up, etc. I don't know what the answer is here, but I'm not sure that obfuscation is it.

snorkel 15y ago
If they want to get into details you can explain gaps in person. If they care more about analyzing your work gaps than your skills then they already decided to pass on you and now they want you to help them justify their decision.

Peroni 15y ago

There is a lot of shitty advice here. I have found work for a lot of hackers (including a few HNer's) so allow me to nitpick: If the job posting says "Scrum" and your resume says "Agile" then you edit your resume and change that word to say "Scrum". If the hiring manager can't see the relevance then I'd rather not waste my time with them. This applies to your Django & Rails reference also. Skip the cover letter. This is not an essay contest. Nobody reads this. Most people don't read it, some insist on it. ACTUAL RESUME HACKS: I agree with your first 2 points. The third and fourth a contradictory however. Send your resume as a PDF attachment. Everyone can open a PDF. Untrue. You will find most places prefer Word over PDF.

snorkel 15y ago
> If the hiring manager can't see the relevance then I'd rather not waste my time with them. You have to understand that hiring organizations have layers of people, your resume passes through a few human filters before it gets to the desk of the manager who posted the job, and not everyone in that filter process knows Agile ~= Scrum so you have to factor according to the lowest common denominator.