Tips for Interviews/Resumes

by Mike Fleming at 11:03 am (3 Comments) General

As some of you know, I accepted a new management position at work a few weeks ago.  Since then we have been receiving resumes and interviewing folks to take over my old position as a senior engineer.  Going through this process, many pet peeves I have are appearing.  This is just a quick list of things I have seen that chap my rear:

• If you claim to have been proficient in ColdFusion for 10+ years, then you should know the correct spelling of the product name.  It’s ColdFusion and NOT Cold Fusion.  You would think one would have noticed that after using it for 10 years!
• It’s the year 2009.  Do you really think it’s necessary to list on you resume you are proficient in Windows 3.1?  Seriously?
• So you know Pascal?  That will come in handy into today’s world wide web programming!  Pascal is most widely using a language to teach you the basics, not for programming web applications.
• I’m also glad to see that you know Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Notes.  You will be a better programmer just by knowing those two software applications.
• When I ask you if you have experience in programming custom e-commerce sites, you cannot reply by saying you use Magento and Miva as plug in play applications.  I am amazed by how many folks in this field have never created their own shopping cart, even in the jest of learning.
• I know the economy is not great at the moment, and lots of folks need jobs.  But please, do not send in your resume to every open job you see when you are  not qualified, or not even in that field of expertise.  I have spent hours reading through resumes of people in totally unrelated fields to what the job was requiring.
• So I see your resume shows you have knowledge of .NET right?  No, not really?  You have only read a book or blog post on it?  If you list out a language on your resume, you need to have real world experience in using it.  
• It’s really not cool to list EVERY current industry buzzword in your resume, some of which you do not know the meaning of!
• If you email or upload you resume, do not name it resume.pdf or resume.doc.  Name the file with your name, so it does not get overwritten by the next person who sends in resume.pdf.

Update: After receiving some emails on this topic,  I just wanted to add that a lot of these are tips.  I am not saying that if I saw this on a resume I would immediately deem you unfit for the job.  Some are more of a courtesy, like naming your resume first_last.pdf instead of resume.pdf for example.  If candidate A and candidate B are equal skill wise, maybe the fact that one candidate was a little more truthful in their resume would lead them to land a job.  Last of all, these are strictly my opinion!  They are not right or wrong for everyone.

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