Programming Interviews Exposed: Secrets to Landing Your Next Job, 3rd Edition

The Technical Résumé

Technical résumés are written differently than the non-technical résumés described in most résumé books. Non-technical jobs generally have some latitude in terms of necessary skills, but technical jobs usually require a specific skill set. Employers aren’t interested in talking to candidates who don’t have the necessary skills for the job. This means that technical résumés generally require more specific information than non-technical résumés.

A Poor Example

The example in this section starts with an extreme case of a poor résumé from a junior developer. Hopefully, no real résumé would ever be this bad, but the steps taken to improve such an extreme case are relevant to almost anyone’s résumé. Figure A-1 shows the sample résumé before improvements.

Figure A-1

Figure A-1 continues

Figure A-1

Sell Yourself

Most of this résumé’s problems result from a single fundamental error: Lee wrote his résumé to describe himself, not to get a job. Lee’s résumé is much more an autobiography than it is a sales pitch for him and his skills. This is a common problem. Many people believe their résumé should describe everything they’ve ever done. That way, a potential employer ...