4 ms·

Personally, I got burned listing far too many skills on my resume without quantifying my experience. After that, I got rid of anything that I didn't have strong

Personally, I got burned listing far too many skills on my resume without quantifying my experience. After that, I got rid of anything that I didn't have strong experience and I think that helped the credibility of my resume.

blurry 18y ago
That's a very reasonable assumption but you don't know that. A more realistic scenario is that your new, pared down resume lost major points as far as making it through the headhunters' and HR's dumb keyword filtering software, lost minor points as far as impressing generalist managers, and gained minor points as far as impressing technical managers. I'd say when you tally it all, you get more points than you lose by listing non-core skills. Technical managers are usually the very last in the process and if your resume gets rejected upstream, you don't get to impress or un-impress them at all. Personally, I have never had anyone question my non-core skills. People usually look at several most recent projects to get an idea of your actual strengths.
- arockwell 18y ago
  In my particular case, I doubt I really lost any points on HR screening because the skills I took off my resume were not skills that were even being asked for in the job postings I was looking at. But, you are right that I don't really know what is the impact of the change. That's probably what I've found most frustrating about job hunting and interviewing, its very hard to tell what is and isn't working.
- timr 18y ago
  I customize my resume for each job. If the company is small, I submit a tight, super-honest resume, and omit the buzzword-bingo. If submitting to Inittech Corporation, I submit a keyword-optimized resume guaranteed to please the screening software (then swear never to do that again...)
lsc 18y ago
Eh, I think listing some sort of 'skill level' (for example, my resume lists lisp under programming languages, but notes that I'm a novice.) The best of both worlds, I think, because it gets you noticed by the keyword seekers, and sets reasonable expectations for the technical person who actually interviews you.
- arockwell 18y ago
  I do also list a skill level. The skills I removed were ones where I had very limited knowledge. I wouldn't list lisp on my resume even though I have some basic lisp programming, but I don't think listing novice lisp experience on your resume will hurt you either. I keep my resume down to a page, so I only want the most interesting information about me.
  - netcan 18y ago
    This is what the article says to do.

blurry 18y ago

That's a very reasonable assumption but you don't know that. A more realistic scenario is that your new, pared down resume lost major points as far as making it through the headhunters' and HR's dumb keyword filtering software, lost minor points as far as impressing generalist managers, and gained minor points as far as impressing technical managers. I'd say when you tally it all, you get more points than you lose by listing non-core skills. Technical managers are usually the very last in the process and if your resume gets rejected upstream, you don't get to impress or un-impress them at all. Personally, I have never had anyone question my non-core skills. People usually look at several most recent projects to get an idea of your actual strengths.

arockwell 18y ago
In my particular case, I doubt I really lost any points on HR screening because the skills I took off my resume were not skills that were even being asked for in the job postings I was looking at. But, you are right that I don't really know what is the impact of the change. That's probably what I've found most frustrating about job hunting and interviewing, its very hard to tell what is and isn't working.
timr 18y ago
I customize my resume for each job. If the company is small, I submit a tight, super-honest resume, and omit the buzzword-bingo. If submitting to Inittech Corporation, I submit a keyword-optimized resume guaranteed to please the screening software (then swear never to do that again...)

lsc 18y ago

Eh, I think listing some sort of 'skill level' (for example, my resume lists lisp under programming languages, but notes that I'm a novice.) The best of both worlds, I think, because it gets you noticed by the keyword seekers, and sets reasonable expectations for the technical person who actually interviews you.

arockwell 18y ago
I do also list a skill level. The skills I removed were ones where I had very limited knowledge. I wouldn't list lisp on my resume even though I have some basic lisp programming, but I don't think listing novice lisp experience on your resume will hurt you either. I keep my resume down to a page, so I only want the most interesting information about me.
- netcan 18y ago
  This is what the article says to do.