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How a programmer reads your resume (comic)

Posted 16 years ago

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Unauthorized Chinese translation, I think.

Here are the real tips

How to recognize a good programmer
Another Resume Tip - From Joel on Software
Ten Tips for a Slightly Less Awful Resume - Advice from Steve Yegge. An entertaining read.
Getting your resume read - From Joel on Software

Steve Hanov makes a living working on Rhymebrain.com, rapt.ink, www.websequencediagrams.com, and Zwibbler.com. He lives in Waterloo, Canada.

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AHH

one year ago

Wont work

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Skux

ten years ago

Resume has semi-colons where full stops would usually appear +5

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Alan

eleven years ago

The following paragraphs written by Jared are [questionable]:

"I might split "founded company" into two things: "founded company that produced useful product" "

What if he founded a company and it failed??? Isn't it important to have someone who knows how to deal with failure or projects being shut down? A developer with real experience has shut down projects by management or C-level executives. It happens all the time, and some can't handle it, some programmers take it personal, and never get over it.

Also: written papers/spoken at geek conference (+) and written papers/spoken at marketing conference (-).

you discard points for being a speaker at a marketing conference? What's your problem? A programmer who has solid business and marketing knowledge, is a potential CTO at any company. I'd be beyond impress if a read a developer's resume and it says that he has spoken at a Business/Marketing companies. It only shows me that he has other interests other than developer, and it's not going to be a code monkey. That probably has a career mindset, and not a job mindset, and that matter a lot.

I just can't believe the stupidity in those comments above.

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Benjamin L. Russell

eleven years ago

I would also add "works on Wall Street" with a "-10," and either "programs in Haskell for a living" or "programs in Scheme for a living" with a "+10."ï»¿

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Sean

eleven years ago

Although, having an Objective section is never irrelevant. Part of finding the right fit is knowing where the candidate is trying to go. Otherwise, you'll assume too much about what they want.

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Radoslaw Golebiewski

14 years ago

Fantastic drawing!!! It is really true...

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Matchu

14 years ago

Personal web page uses Rails, PHP, ASP.NET? To me, "web page" implies static, and so none of those should be used.

If they hand-rolled their own blog software, that's different, but that's not a "personal web page." Otherwise, that would be -4 for me, not +4.

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exSoftie

14 years ago

Internship at Google or Microsoft: +7

Full-time job at Google: +9

Full-time job at Microsoft: -1

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Paul Schreiber

14 years ago

The designer in me gives all LaTeX documents -5.

Also, Microsoft-only, C# ASP.Net are -10.

Resume more than 1 page: -10.

Sending resume in Word (or anything besides HTML/text/PDF): -5

...using tabs incorrectly in Word: -5 more

The point about certifications is dead-on.

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mokadd.im

14 years ago

@Moschops nice find out! :D

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Shiplu

14 years ago

"Knows only 1 programming language" -> not a programmer. A language based developer

"Lists visual basic experience first" -> MS Lover?

"Resume uses combination of tabs and spaces to indent sections" -> No idea 'bout indentation

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Luke

14 years ago

This is a terrible list, though it tries to be funny.

Found a company below participating in a programming contest? I guess startups are a dime a dozen out in Cali, but that's quite silly.

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Moschops

14 years ago

"Topless in Facebook picture (female candidate) +20"

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Somebody

14 years ago

Can't get the -1 on "has PhD"

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Jason

14 years ago

How about points if your resume is written in YAML :)

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Brent Lintner

14 years ago

Too funny Steve. A good laugh, the tabs/spaces one made my day.

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Svend

15 years ago

Hehe, Latex is so right.

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Evan

15 years ago

How very true, except "Took certification course in a technology". For most of the good Cisco certifications you HAVE to take the course, otherwise you will epic fail.

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awesomest

15 years ago

how is being topless on facebook a BAD thing? I am assuming its because of the assumption there are no girl developers in which case it is true.

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Jared

16 years ago

Found this by way of Jeremy Zawodny. Pretty spot on if you ask me.

I might split "founded company" into two things: "founded company that produced useful product" with some positive value and "briefly had [lastname] and Assoc. consulting gig because previous employer couldn't find anyone to maintain code" with some negative value. Maybe that's too wordy.

Also: written papers/spoken at geek conference (+) and written papers/spoken at marketing conference (-).

Also, one of your old comics, on how to avoid people bugging you with questions, reminded me of my old cubicle. Good times.

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Scott

16 years ago

The metric checks out, for example:

Candidate wrote an OS for fun, but inconsistently uses tabs/spaces. Hence, unreadable code base will net them a zero!

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Steve Hanov

16 years ago

Thanks, Ben.

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Ben Karel

16 years ago

Missing "Has email at own domain +4." Also, Grammer->Grammar.

Test Driven Development without Tears

Every company that I worked for has its own method of testing, and I've gained a lot of experience in what works and what doesn't. At last, that stack of conflicting confidentiality agreements that I got as a coop student have now all expired, so I can talk about it. (I never signed them anyway.)

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Some time-saving shortcuts for C code that will make your coworkers scream. In Awe.

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Even though I saw through their tricks at every step along the way, I am now a customer and proud of it. It is worthwhile to look at what they did, because these are simple things that you can do to improve your software business.

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Most people, having already paid $2000.00 of their hard earned money, and then having flown, driven, or otherwise travelled to Boston to attend a conference, and then having paid an additional $250/night plus $33/night parking and "tourism taxes" to the Seaport Hotel -- most people, after all this, are unlikely to say that it was a waste of time and they should have stayed home watching the remaining salvaged episodes of Doctor Who on Netflix.

In fact, I found it quite useful.

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Do you use sort() to find the top results? Here's a simple trick that will make your software run much faster.

Optimizing Ubuntu to run from a USB key or SD card

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Dust off your old Commodore 64, and you could be the coolest kid on the block by plugging SD cards into it instead of floppies.