Programming Interviews Exposed, 4th Edition

AppendixRésumés

Whether you have a contact in the industry, are going through a company’s recruiting process, or are using a headhunter, everyone will ask to see your résumé. Your résumé convinces people that you have relevant skills and talents and are worth consideration as a candidate, as well as providing people context within which to interview you. A good résumé is a necessary—but not sufficient—condition to get hired. If the people who read your résumé don’t find the relevant information they’re looking for, they’ll move on to the next job candidate. This is why it’s so important that your résumé doesn’t sell you short. At its core, it’s a marketing document. Make sure it’s a good one where the key points jump out quickly.

THE TECHNICAL RÉSUMÉ

Technical résumés are written differently than the nontechnical résumés described in most résumé books. Nontechnical 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 nontechnical résumés, including detailing which technologies you have experience with.

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 ...