Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

A few (hopefully helpful) comments:

Resumes are sales documents; you're trying to convince someone to spend a lot of money paying you and hopefully investing in your skillset. Rather than think "is my resume good", reframe the question to, "who will be reading this, and what do they want to see?" There isn't one "right" resume.

Your word choice ("enterprise", "leverage", "medical applications", lots of talk about "projects"), certifications, and type of projects say "enterprise IT". If that's what you're going for, you might've hit it.

If you're writing a contractor resume (1099/freelance/etc.), you need to focus more specifically on skills and technologies, and how you've used them in the past. For a consultant resume, focus more on the business results of what you've accomplished (revenue/cost, customer satisfaction, retention, etc.) although frankly, you're probably too junior for that route.

If you want a job at a product company, figure out the age of the hiring manager. Most are 30-40 these days, if you want to get in front of those guys, talk more about "products shipped" and wins/successes you've had. For younger hiring managers/more progressive companies, a portfolio website would be nice. Also, the more code you can show/projects people know you can claim credit for/etc. the better, a big part of the hiring process for me is placing you on the social graph so I can try to find someone in my network who might vouch for you. It's surprising how easy it becomes to find someone who's worked with you after you've worked in the industry for 10+ years; help me do this.

Other general advice: "Good writing shows rather than tells". Rather than saying you're "passionate", talk more specifically about the projects you've done. SHOW.

Try to keep it plain; just make a PDF or if you really can do it well, a well-designed portfolio site. Formatting is table stakes, I don't think it would help much for a real dev/backend position, but it might hurt if you make it too hard to consume (esp. on a mobile device).

Get a copy editor. The writing is pretty bland, I think you could sell yourself better using more active language (focus on "what you did" vs. "what you are").

Put dates on things. I want to get the chronology of your career; this format makes that difficult.

Try to include links to websites. I want to see your github profile, what project's you've been working on, your blog, Twitter feed, etc. Again - trying to see who you are, what you do, and if we know anyone in common.

Try to use as simple language as reasonably possible. Say "use" rather than "leverage".

Be more specific about what you want. Full-time vs. hourly contractor vs. part time, if you want remote say which timezone you're in, talk more about what role you want (generalist/full stack, developer, designer, UX, manager, quality specialty, product management, ops, etc)

Finally, don't be afraid to let some personality show through. It's pretty bland, I don't know whether you're a wise-ass, what your sense of humor is like, more straight-laced, etc.; don't be afraid to be a little more funny/human with this.

Hope this helps. My email is in my profile if you want to talk further, I'm happy to chat more. I work in SF and regularly review resumes, so I see this stuff a lot.



Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: