Experience writing resume

Problem

Not so long ago, I needed to update my resume. Last time I did it a few years ago, so I decided to write a resume from scratch.

In this post, I would like to tell you about my experience in creating a resume: about the intended target audience and details of the design. I’ll make a reservation that I’m a programmer, never worked in the personnel department, so considerations should be treated with skepticism.


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The target audience

It seems reasonable to approach the resume as a user interface. Indeed, the resume solves well-defined tasks, the resume has “users”, at a certain level a person is judged by a resume. Let us turn to the methods of developing interfaces: we define users and usage scenarios, and then draw up a summary so that it satisfies eighty abstract percent of users.

I decided to focus on small companies (up to 200 employees). I note, I will consider the general case. There are, of course, exception companies. Such a standard approach may not be appropriate.

Highlight resume users and their tasks, that is, what they can expect from a resume:

1. Agents for hire. On the table, the agent has a pack of resumes and a pack of jobs. The task of the agent is to look at the resume and understand what job a candidate can apply for. We can not assume that the agent understands the subject area. You also cannot assume that an agent can spend a lot of time reading a resume. It should be noted that this user is not the main one: it is quite possible to send the resume yourself.

2. Employees of the personnel department. An HR employee receives a stream of resumes from recruiters or candidates. The task of the employee is to understand which resume best meets the requirements of the vacancy and whether the candidate of the company is suitable. It cannot be assumed that an HR employee is well versed in the subject area. However, it can be expected that he will pay some attention to the summary. An HR employee is one of the main users: his decision influences the fate of the candidate.

3. Project managers. The HR employee sends the most interesting resumes to the project manager where the employee is required. The task of the project manager is to understand whether to invite a candidate for an interview. I want to believe that the manager is well versed in the subject area and is ready to read the summary carefully. The manager is one of the main users: his decision influences the fate of the candidate.

4. Programmers conducting the interview. The programmer will receive a resume from the manager. Most likely it will be attached to the invite for an interview. The task of the programmer is to understand what you can talk with the candidate. I want to believe that the programmer is well versed in the subject area. It seems to me that it cannot be assumed that the programmer will read the summary. At the interview, everything will become clear.

Summary structure

I would suggest the following structure summary:

1. Name, email and telephone
Agents, HR and managers should simply contact the candidate without reading the text of the resume. Therefore, I would bring the contact information to the top.

2. Block "About myself"
This unit is for recruiters and, most importantly, personnel department employees. They may not understand the subject area, however, according to this block they will be able to evaluate the “adequacy” of the candidate. Can this person put two or three words together? Does it copy stamps from the Internet? Can it pretend to be a normal person?
It seems to me that the writing of this block must be approached very carefully: they say that some personnel departments for “work well in a team” (or another stamp) can send an applicant in the ass.

3. Block "Skills"
And this block is for recruiters and human resources staff. In this block I would put abbreviations of technologies with which the owner of the resume is familiar. This block should help to quickly understand whether the candidate is familiar with the required technology. For example, if you are looking for a Java developer, an HR employee only needs to glance through this block to see that the applicant is familiar only with Javascript. Moreover, this block can help the programmer conducting the interview. If suddenly there is nothing to talk about, he will always be able to take a look at this block and ask a question about some other technology.
The difficulty in drawing up this block is to find a balance. On the one hand, it’s dangerous to specify everything that I’ve ever met with, because it can create a false impression (yes, I wrote a Rails site a couple of years ago for a fan, however, I cannot call myself a Ruby programmer). On the other hand, too few skills can deprive a candidate of interviews in a company where some skills are not perfectly necessary (for example, the requirements for a J2EE position of a developer can be indicated by knowledge of CSS).

4. Block "Experience"
This is perhaps one of the most important parts. She is likely to be read by the project manager and decide whether it makes sense to talk with the applicant. Where did the candidate work? In which position? How long? What did he do there? Can he clearly articulate what he did? During the interview for each line of this block I am ready to answer, explain, tell in details, show a screenshot and dance a jig. Therefore, it seems to me that it makes sense to focus on successful projects, and errors should be mentioned very carefully. I note that the programmer who conducts the interview is likely to read with interest about the last job, and can start a conversation about recent projects.

5. Block "Education"
I would indicate the university, the highest degree and specialty. Many indicate the certificates received. At this unit, look at a hiring agent or HR, if the requirements state that you need a college degree. Most likely, the manager or programmer will look at the university, in the hope of seeing the "countryman." Certificates will certainly attract attention.

6. Block "Other"
It seems to me that this is an important block. Both the manager and the programmer conducting the interview look in here. Here I would point out any difficulties that the employer should be aware of (for example, the absence of a viable visa, inability to travel, and the like). Moreover, I would point out any projects that may not be directly related to the work, but prove that the candidate is interested in IT in his spare time. Quadcopter, Chrome plugin, github account, blog about a secret bunker in Cupertino - all this perfectly reflects the interest of the applicant. For example, to make it clearer, I made a small website supplementing my resume. On this site I put links to my personal projects.

Registration

Fonts, colors and pins a lot. Teaching "design" is not a thankful business, so I will try to tell about my experience. I tried to use the font created for computer displays, to use four styles: for the title of the summary, for the titles of the blocks, for references and for the main text. From the flowers I used only black and dark gray. Just in case, I made sure that the resume looks decent if printed out. And, of course, I opened the PDF with resumes on different platforms, to check that everything was displayed as it should.

Conclusion

I hope that these considerations will seem useful to someone. My resume can be found here .

I very much hope for comments, suggestions and tips for writing a resume!