Simple Resume Fails

scottalanmiller

So you are working on your resume, watch out for common pitfalls, especially in technology jobs. It is amazing how often the same basic mistakes are made that warn employers that you are sloppy at best, or don't know the stuff you are talking about at worst.

scottalanmiller

Things I know about... Oracle.

How often do we see resumes listing "Oracle" as a skill. Hello people, Oracle is a company, not a product. Knowing about a company means nothing. Oracle makes Java, Oracle Database, and hundreds of applications including VirtualBox. We can only assume you know none of these if you know so little about "Oracle" to not even know that it is a company and not a thing!

scottalanmiller

I know "Sales Force" and "Java Script" and "Xen Server".

They probably mean SalesForce, JavaScript, and XenServer. Or did they? Are they just so unfamiliar with these things that they claim to know that they messed up the most casual copying of their names? Or do they know that these are wrong and are trying to trick us...

Maybe they are used to managing sales people... a "sales force." Maybe they use some sort of scripting on Java. Maybe they use a Xen server, not XenServer! We just don't know.

LilAng

When they list their religion down. smh.

CCWTech

@scottalanmiller Putting where you served a church mission, statements under Interests & Skills - Outgoing father for my daughters are wholly inappropriate as well.

I don't care what your religious beliefs are or if you are proud of being a father when I consider your resume'.

LilAng

@CCWTech it's almost manipulation like ," look I have mouths to feed."

LilAng

spelling/grammar errors

dafyre

@CCWTech said in Simple Resume Fails:

@scottalanmiller Putting where you served a church mission, statements under Interests & Skills - Outgoing father for my daughters are wholly inappropriate as well.

I don't care what your religious beliefs are or if you are proud of being a father when I consider your resume'.

The exception to the church rule should be if what you did is directly related to the job you are applying for ie: PC Technician or Sound Technician... Paid or not, that should be listed under Previous jobs and not under interests & skills.

CCWTech

@dafyre said in Simple Resume Fails:

@CCWTech said in Simple Resume Fails:

@scottalanmiller Putting where you served a church mission, statements under Interests & Skills - Outgoing father for my daughters are wholly inappropriate as well.

I don't care what your religious beliefs are or if you are proud of being a father when I consider your resume'.

The exception to the church rule should be if what you did is directly related to the job you are applying for ie: PC Technician or Sound Technician... Paid or not, that should be listed under Previous jobs and not under interests & skills.

In this case it wasn't a job. It was a mission for their church, totally volunteer and not employment.

NerdyDad

@dafyre said in Simple Resume Fails:

@CCWTech said in Simple Resume Fails:

@scottalanmiller Putting where you served a church mission, statements under Interests & Skills - Outgoing father for my daughters are wholly inappropriate as well.

I don't care what your religious beliefs are or if you are proud of being a father when I consider your resume'.

The exception to the church rule should be if what you did is directly related to the job you are applying for ie: PC Technician or Sound Technician... Paid or not, that should be listed under Previous jobs and not under interests & skills.

Does $Work -eq 'Yes' && $Pay -eq 'Yes' {
then { $Work -> $Experience.Work }
Else { $Work -> $Experience.Volunteer }

scottalanmiller

@NerdyDad said in Simple Resume Fails:

@dafyre said in Simple Resume Fails:

@CCWTech said in Simple Resume Fails:

@scottalanmiller Putting where you served a church mission, statements under Interests & Skills - Outgoing father for my daughters are wholly inappropriate as well.

I don't care what your religious beliefs are or if you are proud of being a father when I consider your resume'.

The exception to the church rule should be if what you did is directly related to the job you are applying for ie: PC Technician or Sound Technician... Paid or not, that should be listed under Previous jobs and not under interests & skills.
Does $Work -eq 'Yes' && $Pay -eq 'Yes' {
then { $Work -> $Experience.Work }
Else { $Work -> $Experience.Volunteer }

Working FOR a religious organization is totally different than announcing an affiliation. I've worked for religious groups to which I was in no way affiliated, for example.

StorageNinja

@scottalanmiller said in Simple Resume Fails:

Working FOR a religious organization is totally different than announcing an affiliation. I've worked for religious groups to which I was in no way affiliated, for example.

Also as an example, many hospitals in the US might have in theory religious affiliations (Catholic, Methodist, Lutheran) but outside of SPECIFIC clergy roles, they can't discriminate in who they hire. No one in their right mind is going to assume the IT guy at Methodist is a Methodist.

Putting that you have kids is a resume is a more odd one that I'm kinda neutral to. While a hiring manager can't ASK that question if volunteered it could be a purposeful signal that he likely doesn't want to consider roles that are 300 days of travel (and be saving a lot of people time).

Non-profit volunteer information might be valuable to companies who encourage that sort of thing (I get 40 hours of "volunteer time, in addition to our vacation policy" as an example). For companies that have policies encouraging community involvement, this might be important.

wrx7m

@LilAng - I have never seen a resume with someone's religion. That is weird.

scottalanmiller

@wrx7m said in Simple Resume Fails:

@LilAng - I have never seen a resume with someone's religion. That is weird.

Common in places like Utah.

wrx7m

@scottalanmiller Ahh. The Mormons.

wrx7m

I was going to post a couple of questions in my own thread, but I will start here first. I haven't been maintaining my resume since I started working here 8 years ago. Obviously, things employers are looking for in resume formatting, content, etc have changed. What would be a good format and things to focus on? What order would you be placing things in?

CCWTech

@scottalanmiller said in Simple Resume Fails:

@wrx7m said in Simple Resume Fails:

@LilAng - I have never seen a resume with someone's religion. That is weird.

Common in places like Utah.

Yep! We have clients ask us (on occasion) if we are LDS.

My answer is always that we help anyone and don't discuss religion or politics.

wrx7m

@NerdyDad - So if you don't get paid, it isn't work experience? What about interns?

scottalanmiller

@wrx7m said in Simple Resume Fails:

@NerdyDad - So if you don't get paid, it isn't work experience? What about interns?

Unpaid is still work. Volunteer, intern, paid intern, low pay... all work experience.

If being unpaid makes it not work, that would imply that slaves didn't have to work. That doesn't make sense, right?

wrx7m

@scottalanmiller - I get it. I was saying that the code was less than accurate.