Ask HN: Hacker Resume

2 points by dytrivedi 15 years ago | 9 comments

I want feedback/constructive criticism from HN community. I know it should've been plain text/markdown; I actually wanted to write in in markdown, parse it, and display in HTML5 + hcard + hcal + hresume. But didn't have enough time :(

Here's the PDF - http://advancewith.us/stuff/Resume.pdf

Anyways, from today I am starting being active on HN. Hello, people!

david_shaw 15 years ago |

Let's start with the critique, then move on to the compliments.

I'm not sure that the icons in your introductory statement help your cause. They look cool and professional, but make reading the statement a little disjointed. Sometimes you're using the icons like a noun ("Thumbs Up" is smart, and gets things done), while other times they seem to be just images off to the side. I would put one (1) icon per sentence, at the end of the sentence so as not to make the paragraph seem disjointed.

You should read your resume aloud so that you catch any typoes. For example, you say 'having wore multiple hats,' but that should really be having worn multiple hats.

You say 'he' a lot, while speaking about yourself in third person. If this is supposed to be an 'objective' statement, it's okay to actually make it about you.

I like the nice layout of skills and interests, but some of them seem totally pointless. Freenode does not need to be on your resume. Unless you're working on or with them, neither do the plethora of blogs and people you have listed (Joel on Software, Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Steve Jobs?!). Honestly, all of those things that aren't a skill you have or a tool you use shouldn't be there. A hiring manager does not care that you like xkcd or read How to Win Friends & Influence People.

The 'Experience' section, however, looks great! I love the little skill buttons that you put under each position: great call! It might not hurt to have a small blurb about what exactly you did there, but with the buttons I'm not even sure that that is necessary.

The tl;dr here is that you have way too many gimmicks and unnecessary information on the first page (although it does look pretty, you UX Engineer, you), but the second page is almost perfect.

Good luck in your job search!

dytrivedi 15 years ago | |

I think your feedback about icon placement is quite correct; they should be uniformly placed at the end of sentences. Also, thanks for pointing out typos. The initial section is indeed about an 'objective'.

There are some of the points that I would like to explain (and not defend ;-)). I'm based out of India, and a lot of companies here are quite traditional - upto an extent that they block facebook and gmail in the office.

I have listed a set of things which are out of context, but then I want to ensure that I want to get hired by somebody who actually understands the importance of IRC, Joel's views, etc. How to win friends and influence people = people skills, which I think connects with other aspects like Peopleware, Developer happiness and motivation, etc.

Finally, having an objective insight from another perspective is very helpful, and thanks for doing so! All the inputs that I'm getting are being taken into consideration and will help me further refine the CV.

Cheers!

dytrivedi 15 years ago | |

Btw if you observe closely, the icon preceding 'programming is an art' is Mona Lisa's portrait and the once preceding 'on his way to become a hacker' is the hacker emblem!

olivvv 15 years ago |

You have cool ideas for your cv. There is style. I like your idea of the icons and the writing style you have there.

From a purely graphical point of view, you may want to check spaces and line.For instance, looking at vertical lines from the right side, you may notice that the codebar is not aligned with the right border of text, or with the border of titles on the second page. Also, the second page give me a different stylistic feeling. Took me a little while to figure out that it is because there is no black used there. There is some green used, but this green cant be found on the first page. I think that by looking at that kind of things (line, colors, spaces between paragraphs) you can make sure that you design is more homogeneous. Oh and i did not know that you are a motorcycle maintainer. I'll probably ask you a few questions in the future..

-olivvv

dytrivedi 15 years ago | |

Heyo olivvv!

Thanks for your feedback man; your input on making the design more homogeneous is certainly worthy; I didn't notice it from that perspective. And umm, well, Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance is kinda more of a philosophical / metaphysics of quality book :p

Cheers,

Dhaval

CaptainMorgan 15 years ago |

Seems simple to me: the major issue with this resume is the amount of noise. If you're submitting this via email or through online application forms you should stick to one page. If this is to be displayed on your website then I would just reduce the number of images(possibly all of them), and do a spelling check. Objective statements should be short and to the point. Same with descriptions... I really don't see the need for the long paragraphs and the bloated number of tags you're using. Whether it's a site or as a printout on paper, the hiring manager is limited on time.

Take a look at some of these examples, a lot of them are ideal in terms of efficiency and noise. Best of luck.

http://microformats.org/wiki/hresume-examples-in-wild

dytrivedi 15 years ago | |

Thanks, this will be really helpful. I've looked at hresume microformat and as I mentioned in the original post, I was actually going to implement it that way.

The reason for including a lot of other non-professional things was that I would like to be hired by somebody who understands a lot of them; be it a one man startup. I have often found that 'jelling' is more important than technical competencies.

Thanks for your feedback.

kaisdavisOR 15 years ago |

Bonus points for going outside of the stock resume and trying something new.

I really like that you're thinking out of the box - that gets noticed - but a lot of what you're forcing into the resume format should be in your cover letter: your objective, the tag cloud, and the icon-centered text at the top.

That said, I can't read this. Keep in mind that in a lot of places you may be applying a non-technical person may be reading the resume, so having it built in a certain way can work against you.

Rand's has a great article (http://bit.ly/hd7fRt) on resumes and their function that can help focus you.

dytrivedi 15 years ago | |

Hmmm I think you made a point - of having the cover letter content into the resume. I have especially noticed one thing with some start-ups - they prefer a 'cultural, personal' jelling. I put personal information, thinking of that.