Thanks for the response Luke. You make a lot of good points. Thomas Ptacek's article was eye opening. The suggestion to ask the hiring manager if they would like a sample of me doing company related work for them is a good one. The networking tip is one I hear time and time again, but the more I hear it the more I believe it. Also thanks for being somewhat specific on what you mean when you say networking. Overall this post has helped me get a picture of what a good job search or rather network building looks like. Again thanks for taking the time to write this post.
On Thursday, March 23, 2017 at 2:24:34 PM UTC-4, Luke Burton wrote: > > > On Mar 23, 2017, at 10:10 AM, Jason Basanese <jason.b...@gmail.com > <javascript:>> wrote: > > Attached is a fairly bad resume that I am using. Any tips on how I might > change it to appeal to more places that are looking for functional > developers? > > > Couple of general tips … based on a few decades of looking at these things > :) Sorry about the length but I care a lot about hiring! > > * Redact your home address and phone number when you circulate it on the > open internet. I wouldn't even include that in a resume I sent to an > organization, personally. > > * Resumes are the worst. There's almost no correlation between "things the > candidate had on his/her resume" and "that candidate is performing really > well for us 2 years later", but we persist in using them because everything > else is a lot more work. Just keep that in mind before you think there's > something "wrong" with your resume. > > * Resumes should be considered a marketing document. A classic new grad > mistake is to think that what hiring mangers and recruiters are looking for > is a complete transcript and accurate information. What they're actually > looking for is purely subjective. I could tell you stories - resumes > skipped over for the dumbest of reasons. After looking through hundreds, > people start cutting corners or just plain discriminating. So, think of it > as serving roughly the same purpose as a blurb on the back of a paperback > novel. > > * To play along with the resume game, I recommend customizing your resume > to the greatest extent possible based on what you know about the job. > That's "the job" singular, as in you need to do this for each application. > It's easy to carpet bomb the same resume across many companies, but you > simply won't stand out. You are on the right track here already - what > would make it appealing to places looking for functional developers? Take > it a step further and find those places, then write something that > specifically targets them. Remember it's not just about keywords, you also > have to come across as someone who might fit the culture. > > * To avoid (or supplement) playing the resume game, build relationships. > Keep all your projects up on GitHub, find and cultivate > <http://freakonomics.com/podcast/grit/> things you want to stick at and > improve, and start getting to know people. Meetups, fixing issues on other > people's projects, it doesn't have to be super involved, it just has to be > an involvement. The absolute best jobs you will ever land will come from > people who know the quality of your work and recommend you from the inside. > > * I am a huge fan of Thomas Ptacek's perspective on hiring > <https://sockpuppet.org/blog/2015/03/06/the-hiring-post/>. Very much > worth your time to read. If you can find a company that asks candidates to > write some code - actual code like you'll be writing on the job, not a > graph traversal puzzle - then jump on that chance. I started applying these > techniques and we immediately experienced an inversion between who we > thought looked strong on paper and who ended up being a great engineering > fit for our team. This candidate we hired would have flunked the keyword > filter had we used one, they had not used a single technology in common use > for our team. Eye opening. > > * So … if I was in your position, knowing what I know now, if I couldn't > find companies that had very progressive hiring practices, I would make my > resume stand out by leading in with an offer to spend a few hours writing a > small implementation of anything the hiring manager would like me to write. > Many hiring mangers are scared by take home projects because they're afraid > of what the best candidate will think. "It's an insult to experienced > candidates!" or "how would a rockstar candidate possibly spare the time?" > But secretly I think all hiring mangers *really* want to know what it will > be like to have you write code on their behalf. It's just not the industry > norm to ask. > > Hope this helps! Good luck … > > Luke. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Clojure" group. To post to this group, send email to clojure@googlegroups.com Note that posts from new members are moderated - please be patient with your first post. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Clojure" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
