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> Yes but this is misleading and missing the point: there is nothing really wrong with this person's resume/CV. There is nothing about it which is off-putting a

> Yes but this is misleading and missing the point: there is nothing really wrong with this person's resume/CV. There is nothing about it which is off-putting and it does the job of communicating that this person is a very experienced software engineer who can communicate clearly, and has enough attention to detail and care to produce a nicely formatted CV and that they're obviously a reasonable candidate for pretty much any programming job that's close to their centre of gravity wrt the technologies required for the job. I agree there's nothing wrong, but (respectfully, truly) I think you're actually missing the point, possibly the is/ought fallacy? The point isn't to have "nothing wrong" with your CV/resume (which I agree OP has nothing wrong), the point is to get noticed. Generally speaking for most people, the whole point of a resume is to get you an interview. When you're competing against dozens, hundreds, or thousands of other resumes, standing out is hard, and failure to do so usually means no interview, which means no job, even when you are the most qualified candidate.

MattPalmer1086 3y ago
Exactly. A CV is a marketing tool to get you to an interview. These days you probably have to make sure all the right keywords are in there too so you don't get filtered out by a machine, as well as getting noticed by a human. I've reviewed hundreds, if not thousands, of CVs in my time. This CV, while not absolutely terrible, is most definitely not great, and I'd go so far as to say below average. It does not help the person reading it make a positive decision. * It's hard to figure out what the skills and experience are. If I have to read the entire thing work to even know if you might be a fit, there's a good chance of just going on the rejection pile. * It's not clear what kind of role the person wants. Do you want to do front end? Mobile? Back end? Full stack? This can be tailored of course to a particular role if needed. * It's extremely passive. Saying "worked on X" is about as interesting as watching paint dry. * One page is not enough for a technical role. I know some people say keep it to one page, but to me, 2 (and sometimes 3) pages is OK if it's not horrid to read and I have reasonable confidence there might be a fit there (not if I have to read the whole thing though to figure out if there might be a fit). * There is absolutely nothing in it to make me think "ooh, would be good to talk to this person." Fundamentally, this CV says "I have built some different software for people. I have nothing interesting to say about it. I dont care if I waste your time reading it.". In a strong market that might be enough. In a weak market it will be straight to the reject pile.

MattPalmer1086 3y ago

Exactly. A CV is a marketing tool to get you to an interview. These days you probably have to make sure all the right keywords are in there too so you don't get filtered out by a machine, as well as getting noticed by a human. I've reviewed hundreds, if not thousands, of CVs in my time. This CV, while not absolutely terrible, is most definitely not great, and I'd go so far as to say below average. It does not help the person reading it make a positive decision. * It's hard to figure out what the skills and experience are. If I have to read the entire thing work to even know if you might be a fit, there's a good chance of just going on the rejection pile. * It's not clear what kind of role the person wants. Do you want to do front end? Mobile? Back end? Full stack? This can be tailored of course to a particular role if needed. * It's extremely passive. Saying "worked on X" is about as interesting as watching paint dry. * One page is not enough for a technical role. I know some people say keep it to one page, but to me, 2 (and sometimes 3) pages is OK if it's not horrid to read and I have reasonable confidence there might be a fit there (not if I have to read the whole thing though to figure out if there might be a fit). * There is absolutely nothing in it to make me think "ooh, would be good to talk to this person." Fundamentally, this CV says "I have built some different software for people. I have nothing interesting to say about it. I dont care if I waste your time reading it.". In a strong market that might be enough. In a weak market it will be straight to the reject pile.