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Question on Resume

 
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Hi All,

I have a question. How does one know that the resume that one has, is in a good format?

Thanks,
Pavan.
 
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If you show it to someone else, are they able to easily read it? Is the important info on top? Can it be skimmed quickly to get the important points?
 
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Check the fall of famer Bear's Résumé. It is an excellent format to follow (not to mention an excellent career to mimic ).
 
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Hussein Baghdadi wrote:It is an excellent format to follow (not to mention an excellent career to mimic ).



Is it? It seems very tool focused to me, and doesn't really say a lot about the challenges and interesting things that he's done.

Repeating ad nauseum that one's used Java and JavaBeans doesn't tell me a great deal. There's no mention of scope in terms of volume, people managed, or areas of technology investigated and seems more designed to hit as many keywords as possible. That's probably a good strategy if you're looking to maximize your chances of getting any job, but tools is down at the bottom of what I look for when hiring software architects. The only things less important are certifications and education.

All I care to know is that someone is a "Java guy", a .".NET guy" or both - what the primary focus of their experience is. After that I am focused on the hardest, most interesting and exciting things they've done. I want people good enough to share their likes and dislikes on a resume because they know it filters out bad employers as much as I use it to filter out bad candidates. Good people tend to gravitate towards interesting problems and fortunately my role is to match them up. Tools or keywords? Meh.

I'd be curious to hear Bear's opinions on what his resume is targeting.

Cheers!

Luke
 
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I like Bear's resume. It's 3 pages and organized.

I can quickly see that he is an experienced Java web developer and leader. He's written books which show he can communicate and write. I probably don't care about the specific technologies he used in 1996, but it is far enough down that it doesn't detract from the point. The technologies could be condensed, but the approach Bear chose is fine to because it is short so easy to skim.

I also like what he doesn't do. He doesn't tell us about the business details of the project. (Too many people do this at great length and it becomes hard to find the tech parts.) He doesn't go into a tone of detail of everything he has done at each job. Talking about challenges and the like can be done at an interview. It's not bad to put in a resume, but it is ok without too. Especially when someone has a large amount of experience to cover. [No I'm not calling you old Bear]

And I don't think it is buzzword driven. Using the word Java 20 times doesn't add more buzzwords. And he doesn't use a lot of buzzwords (communicate, etc) in there.

When you say what you are looking for as a software architect, I don't get the impression that is what Bear is targeting. I think he is targeting web specifically and not overall app design. If you are looking for someone to architect a batch processing app, I'm sure Bear would do a great job, but I don't think that is what he is looking for.
 
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Thanks for the information everyone. I have another question. Should resume be sent in PDF or should it be MS Word? I'm asking this as I got mixed opinion when I googled.

Thanks,
Pavan.
 
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You send whichever format they request. Sending a pdf has the advantage that it does can be read by many programs without losing formatting information, and it is more difficult for the recipient to alter a pdf than a .doc.
 
Pavan Kumar Dittakavi
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One last question. Is it necessary to convey the experience one has in his resume [for facilitating easy reading] ? Please suggest.

Thanks,
Pavan.
 
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whatever you do, don't ask more than one person for advice on how to format your resume. The number of opinions goes up exponentially with the number of folks you ask.

Some people say you should tailor your resume for the specific job or corporation for wich you are applying. A format that works well for one will not work well for another.
 
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Put yourself in prospective employer's shoes (Not always easy), and see if it is easy to scan. The resumes are mostly scanned and only read when you make it concise and impressive.
 
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Campbell Ritchie wrote:You send whichever format they request. Sending a pdf has the advantage that it does can be read by many programs without losing formatting information, and it is more difficult for the recipient to alter a pdf than a .doc.


If you are applying via recruitment agencies, they often insist on MS Word, because they usually want to remove your contact information before they send the CV to a potential employer. Also, many agencies use automated processes that shred your CV contents to fit their own templates/systems anyway.
 
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