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the quality of a candidate is inversely proportionate to the number or technologies listed on the resume. In some cases, maybe, but there are genuinely people

the quality of a candidate is inversely proportionate to the number or technologies listed on the resume. In some cases, maybe, but there are genuinely people who have worked in lots of technologies, and others who have stuck with the same stack (in other fields, this is also known as the fox vs. hedgehog paradigm). Making both types list the same number of technologies elides an useful distinction. I also find it somewhat naive to advise “selectivity” and “focus” in resume writing, if said resume is then filtered by machines or humans doing keyword spotting for specific technologies (and implicitly assuming you could not possibly learn them if you haven’t listed them on your resume). What I’d try to do is an expansive listing, but providing perspective. In my case, I’ve written C++ pretty much every day for the last 25 years; I wrote a substantial amount of Tcl/Tk for 3 years, 15 years ago; I used PostScripts for 2 smallish tasks, both of which left the customer amazed and happy. I feel entirely justified in listing all three languages, as long as appropriate qualifiers were added.

fecak 13y ago
The difference here is people who have worked with a technology and people who are listing technologies that they have 2 weeks with in the same group as the technology they have 5 years in. I'd hope that you would somehow differentiate your expertise in C++ from your rusty Tcl/Tk. If you list them side by side with no differentiation, it almost serves as you misrepresenting yourself (not intentionally perhaps). If you are providing perspective as you say, you are not part of the problem here. It is a bit naive to advise candidates to be selective when they know that a machine might be ranking their words. If candidates that have 9 page resumes and 2 pages of buzzwords stop getting phone calls and find out why, that will solve the problem eventually.

fecak 13y ago

The difference here is people who have worked with a technology and people who are listing technologies that they have 2 weeks with in the same group as the technology they have 5 years in. I'd hope that you would somehow differentiate your expertise in C++ from your rusty Tcl/Tk. If you list them side by side with no differentiation, it almost serves as you misrepresenting yourself (not intentionally perhaps). If you are providing perspective as you say, you are not part of the problem here. It is a bit naive to advise candidates to be selective when they know that a machine might be ranking their words. If candidates that have 9 page resumes and 2 pages of buzzwords stop getting phone calls and find out why, that will solve the problem eventually.