Resume Help

It has many of the usual problems. Since the FAQ button is currently broken, use the search button to find other resume critiques and ideas to improve yours.

Reviewing it line at a time:


Summary line: Cut it to one line so HR knows which pile to put you in.

Skills and toolsets: Cut the entire section, it is useless for employers. Search related posts for expanded comments to why. Employers have no way to know if an item was a three-day experiment, or a book, or a training course, or professional work with many years of experience. Show what you have done, don't simply tell what you used.


Both FSN and Aldor jobs look good, expand on anything game related. You mention specific actions, specific results, and technologies used to reach those results. That is an example of showing rather than telling. Add more.

Where is a link to the 3D Pong Room? Again, both game projects need to mention specific results along with how you used tools and technologies; show, don't tell.


BS SENSOR JUST TRIGGERED --- graduation date in 2011, but you have seemingly professional work history dating back to 2005. WHY? Was this intern-level work being masquaraded as advanced work? Or were you hired professionally and going to night school? When you said you were the "programming lead", that tends to imply something totally different, was it a hobby project leader or leader of a student group, and not what is usually meant by professionals?

I'm not sure the right way to resolve that because I don't know your actual history. It could have many different situations. Please fix it.

End.


I'm curious how you will resolve that last item with the graduation date. Every employer who looks at the document will have several questions when they notice that, possibly enough doubt to push it out of the 'to interview' stack. If you were working full time professionally at the same time as going to school, you may want to include how you managed to keep your hours up at both, as that by itself is an accomplishment. If those were intern-level or part time jobs, make that clear as well.

Hey Frob,

Thank you for your feedback. I think you made some excellent points about my resume, so I've revised it and hopefully, it's quite a bit better.

I'm going to go ahead and address each thing you mentioned, along with some questions. Thank you for your time.

Summary line: Cut it to one line so HR knows which pile to put you in.

Skills and toolsets: Cut the entire section, it is useless for employers. Search related posts for expanded comments to why. Employers have no way to know if an item was a three-day experiment, or a book, or a training course, or professional work with many years of experience. Show what you have done, don't simply tell what you used.

Good point. This has been done.

Both Current Job and Aldor jobs look good, expand on anything game related. You mention specific actions, specific results, and technologies used to reach those results. That is an example of showing rather than telling. Add more.

I've tried to expand on that a little bit with current job; talking a bit more about the specifics of implementation. There really isn't much to add to the Aldor stuff.

Where is a link to the 3D Pong Room? Again, both game projects need to mention specific results along with how you used tools and technologies; show, don't tell.

I've added a portfolio link.

BS SENSOR JUST TRIGGERED --- graduation date in 2011, but you have seemingly professional work history dating back to 2005. WHY? Was this intern-level work being masquaraded as advanced work? Or were you hired professionally and going to night school? When you said you were the "programming lead", that tends to imply something totally different, was it a hobby project leader or leader of a student group, and not what is usually meant by professionals?

So, I'm extremely lucky in this regard. I knew a guy who was able to get me hired to Aldor & later, my current job. Both jobs scheduled around my coursework (working 25-30 hours a week) but it was professional work. It's given me a clear advantage when it came to university projects. As soon as a graduated, I was hired full time and the only thing that's changed is my task sheet got 25% bigger. I've modified my resume to try and reflect this.

On the programming lead, this was the title that my group gave me. Basically, I decided how we were going to implement everything technically and gave direction to other programmers on the team. I would occasionally review their code & try to instruct. I had a question about this in my first post, but I'll ask again:

I've developed RESTINCT with some students of Columbia as well as Alum. The game wasn't used for any class credit, I'm finishing it after graduation, and we plan on selling it. I wouldn't think it would be a "Student/Hobby Project", but is it? Who should I say is developing the game? Currently, I've got: "developed by a team from Chicago's Columbia College."

I'm curious how you will resolve that last item with the graduation date. Every employer who looks at the document will have several questions when they notice that, possibly enough doubt to push it out of the 'to interview' stack. If you were working full time professionally at the same time as going to school, you may want to include how you managed to keep your hours up at both, as that by itself is an accomplishment. If those were intern-level or part time jobs, make that clear as well.

I've added that the work was part-time/full-time and how many hours I've worked on each job. I'm not sure if that's the correct way to do it, but I couldn't find anything in the forums.

Again, thank you so much for your feedback. I've re-uploaded revised copies of my resume and any additional feedback is appreciated.

Thank you!

Edit: Resubmitted resumes with additional detail

Much improved. My BS sensor didn't go off with this one. It now provides quite a lot of evidence that claims you can do the job.

I'd kill the color. Generally color does not help and bright orange does not impress. The (default) blue hyperlink color is questionable but common enough to be fine.

If you are sending it to distant cities you might want to add a note about moving. Companies generally hire locals at the entry level.

I've removed the color all together, added a note about moving to the top.

I think this resume is significantly better than what I started with. Thank you so much!