[Cialug] resume assistance

[Josh More]

Read "Don't Send a Resume".

The trick isn't getting noticed by HR, it's bypassing HR entirely.  A recruiter can help you do this.  Professional networking (LinkedIn, being active in local groups, having friends in high places) can work too.  The goal isn't to make HR understand why you're better than the competition ('cause let's face it, few of us actually are).   The goal is to make HR explain to the manager that knows you why someone else is better than you are.  That's a lot harder to do.

List your skills on a separate page and rank them by familiarity.  For example:  C++, QT, C, Perl, C++ Embedded.  That way the hobby stuff can just be tacked on the end and if they ask you questions about stuff at the end they'll know ahead of time that you've ranked your skills.  That allows you to shift the conversation further into your area of expertise.  Something like  "Yes, I've done some test projects with embedded C++.  I found it to very similar to the C++/QT projects that I've been doing for the past eight years.  Like  [[example of C++/QT project that you've practiced talking about]]"

The resume isn't going to matter nearly as much as your ability to find (nontechnical) backdoors into companies and talk about yourself.  The book "Brag" by Peggy Klaus is a good one to start getting comfortable with talking about yourself.

-Josh More, CISSP, GIAC-GSLC, GIAC-GCIH, RHCE, NCLP
morej at alliancetechnologies.net
515-245-7701

________________________________________
From: cialug-bounces at cialug.org [cialug-bounces at cialug.org] on behalf of Andrew Vick [andrew at vick.net]
Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 2010 18:28
To: Central Iowa Linux Users Group
Subject: Re: [Cialug] resume assistance

On 8/31/2010 11:47 AM, Tim Champion wrote:
> I've been on the hiring end a couple times, and from my experience,
> the cover letter is more important than a resume.  -- and because I
> hold that opinion, I have a huge hang-up on constructing a quality
> cover letter to the point where I work through recruiters instead so I
> don't have to deal with cover letters.

I've been worrying about the HR people who receive the resumes -- the
ones who don't know the tech, but are just going off of a list of
requirements that someone else gave them.  We can piggyback off of our
current skills into new areas, but I'll need to convince them of the
transferability so they pass the application along to the next level.
Case in point, a job writing C++/Qt applications for embedded devices:
I'm an expert with C++ and Qt, and I am confident of my abilities to
pick up the nuances of an embedded environment.  Any advice on how to
word this?

Or is this a case where I need to find a book and claim it as a
self-taught skill?

-Andrew Vick
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