On 2005-05-10, Mark Edwards penned:

I updated my resume:

http://home.comcast.net/~Mark-Edward...tml/resume.htm

I had almost forgotten to update the version that was on my web
site, but there it is.


Hugs and Purrs, Mark

Mark,

I'm not sure if you posted this for feedback or not, so I hope you
won't mind some ideas.

It looks good. Here are some suggestions:

I hate the dreaded "Objective" part of the resume, but I was told by
several people that I really needed to have a decent objective. It
seems silly to me unless you have a very specific goal, but a lot of
people want to see it, anyway.

"Additional Information" -- this is really your cover letter, right?
I spoke to an HR person yesterday who commented that "a lot of people
don't even bother with cover letters." To her, this was clearly a
sign that they didn't care enough. I'd be tempted to either label
that link "Cover Letter" or even move the body of the letter into the
resume link.

It sounds like you might have experience on several types of
platforms. I'm seeing a lot of job postings involving "Unix"
experience; I'd suggest listing whatever platforms you've worked on.

This may sound odd, but my husband suggested putting my education at
the bottom of my resume. What I've done since then is far more
interesting than the fact that I got a degree, and I only have a
few short years of experience compared to you. You want the
interesting stuff to come first. But I would add the year in which
your degree was completed, just for context.

I'm not sure about this, but I've been told by a lot of managers that
they're not interested in seeing more than one page of a resume.
They'll either decide based on the first page, or toss longer resumes.
On the other hand, a friend who does research-oriented stuff for
universities and the government says that with several years of
experience, it's natural that your resume would take up several pages.
Regardless, I would make absolutely certain that everything important
shows up on the first page of the resume.

Finally, more of a general comment. I see a lot of "what," but not
"why" or "how." In all likelihood, the first person to read your resume
will be an HR person, and they may not be able to see how your specific
experiences translate to the current job opening. But even the
technical person looking to hire someone wants to see more than just the
ability to code. I'm having trouble putting this into words ... hrm.
If you have experience working with, leading or mentoring people, for
example, that would be something worth mentioning. Communication
skills. Design experience; most of what you describe is very
implementation-specific. For example, did you design the databases you
mention in the SQL section? Were they normalized at all? Experience
with software methodologies (if you've used C# and C++, you probably
have experience with OO)?

But most importantly, follow your own gut instinct. Only you know how
you want to present yourself to the world. I took a good deal of
advice from various people when constructing my resume and cover
letter, but I ignored a lot, too. It has to be a product with which
you're comfortable.

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca