From: jnle@cbnewsd.cb.att.com (C.N.M.T.)
Subject: Re: [MISC] Interview Tips?
Reply-To: jnl@ihlpe.att.com
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs - Windy City, IL USA
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 02:20:18 GMT
Summary: Tips for writing GOOD resume'
	 Written by ...

+-------------------------- C.N.M.T. writes ---------------------------+
| ....
| If anyone would like to receive an article on how potential employers
| screen resume', let me know.  If there is enough interest, I'll post
| it here.  It was a very good article I save from "misc.jobs.offered"
| newsgroup.  Hope the above information helps.  Good luck to all who
| are looking for jobs.  Keep your faith.
| 
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+

OK, there are several requests that hit my mailbox sooooo here is the
repost of "Why I Won't read YOUR resume'" written by Ed Matthews,
posted on misc.jobs.offered a while ago.

Enjoy!!!

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
|       @  @  @  @              John (Tua^'n) N. Le       C.N.M.T.   |
|       @  @@ @  @              AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL USA   |
|    @  @  @ @@  @              Email: UUCP:      ..!att!ihlpe!jnl   |
|     @@   @  @  @@@@              INTERNET:     jnl@ihlpe.att.com   |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

+----------------------------- Reposted message -----------------------+
| From edm@vrdxhq.verdix.com Fri Dec 29 11:52:26 1989
| From: edm@vrdxhq.verdix.com (Ed Matthews)
| Newsgroups: misc.jobs.offered
| Subject: Why I Won't Read YOUR Resume
| 
| Dear Job Seekers:
| 
| I read a lot of hardcopy resumes and resumes that people like you place
| on USENET.  Let me give you some hints about writing resumes.
| 
| 
| First, let me tell you how I read all these resumes:
| 
|   o I don't read them -- I don't have time; I scan them.
| 
|   o The first thing I look at is the title.
| 
|   o Next is the Objective Statement.
| 
|   o Next is the location where you want to work.
| 
|   o Last is Experience/GPA.
| 
| 
| Second, let me tell you the things I RARELY read:
| 
|   o Cover letters
| 
|   o List of Courses you took in school
| 
|   o Awards, Personal Info, Hobbies 
| 
|   o Paragraphs of Text
| 
|   o Long lists of computers/software/languages that you have used
| 
| 
| The kind of people I want to hire instinctively know how to write a good
| resume because they are effective at communicating.  They don't need to 
| tell me they have good communications skills -- I can tell from the resume
| and its organization.
| 
| I give each resume perhaps 5 seconds of my time.  In other words, you have
| 5 seconds to impress me to read further about you.  So, let's go through
| the things that I scan:
| 
| TITLE:  The following titles from recent posts are losers:
| 
| 	B.S. in CS & Math
| 	Recent Graduate's Resume
| 	Resume
| 	BS/CS seeks Unix Job
| 	Unix Person Seeks Employment
| 
| If your title is similar, I won't bother to read further, because you have
| done nothing to distinguish yourself from the crowd.  Furthermore, you have
| shown no imagination or initiative.  Why would I hire you?  One of the best
| titles I have seen recently was similar to:
| 
| 	Experienced Ada Engineer to Relocate in Silicon Valley
| 
| Why is this so good?  This person thought about the title and told me in
| eight words that he/she a) has experience, b) wants an Ada job, c) is only
| interested in Silicon Valley jobs.  Not only can this person communicate
| effectively, he/she is decisive.
|  
| OBJECTIVE STATEMENT:
| 
| Here is your chance to tell me that you are a decisive, imaginative person
| who knows where your careeer is headed.  The following objective statements
| are losers:
| 
|     A position combining software, hardware, and systems design, development, 
|     and support.
| 
|     Seeking a challenging position as a software engineer
|     developing system or application software in a UNIX/C
|     environment.
| 
| The first is terrible -- this person just wants a job, doesn't matter what
| kind or where.  The second is not much better, except that the scope has
| been limited to UNIX and C.  The following is better:
| 
|     To find challenging work in product oriented research
|     where I can leverage my broad hardware and software
|     skills in revolutionary ways.
| 
| This person has obviously thought about what kind of job he or she wants.  It
| should be in product research (not development) and it should be state-of-the-
| art research.  But, it hasn't focused on what area, for example Project
| Management software or PC-based statistical packages.
| 
| I realize that it is hard to come up with a good objective statement in a
| general forum like USENET.  It is much easier when you are targeting a 
| resume for a specific job opening.  Still, you are going to face this dilemma
| many times over.  Here is an example of a good objective statement:
| 
|     I desire to work for a leading-edge company designing state-of-the-
|     art user interfaces for graphics workstations.  The position should
|     lead to software product management and should offer possibility of
|     learning software marketing.
| 
| This will get me to read on, because you have shown thought about where
| your career is going and that you are interested in a broad range of topics
| and desire to take on new challenges.  Yet, at the same time, notice that
| this objective statement is still very general -- it could be more specific
| (e.g., UNIX-based workstations, X-Windows, SunView etc).
| 
| LOCATION WHERE YOU WANT TO WORK -- For best effect, put this either in the
| title, a sentence directly before the resume proper, or in the objective
| statement.  If you are willing to consider working anywhere, say so.
| 
| EXPERIENCE/GPA -- If you have more than five years experience, I don't care
| what your GPA was.  If you are just out of school, you had best put your
| GPA in a prominent location.  As for experience, I want to see relevant
| experience.  Clerking at a hotel and waiting on tables is not relevant to
| software development.  Do not pad your resume with this manner of experience.
| 
| I want your experience section to show me that a) you are organized, b) you
| have communication skills, and c) you can/will be capable of leading/designing/
| developing software.  If you have experience, tell me those things that you
| have done that will convince me that you have organization, leadership, and
| communication skills.  After all, that is what it takes to make an effective
| software engineer.  If you have no experience, as is typical of most recent
| graduates, show me with examples from school how you demonstrate these skills.
| 
| Finally, the experience section is the place to assert your personality and
| creativity.  Be creative and don't mimic every other resume you see.
| 
| 
| TURN OFFS AND THINGS THAT WASTE MY TIME
| 
| Instant Turn Offs:
| 
|   Spelling and Grammatical Errors.  If you can't spell and don't have a good
| grasp of grammar, that doesn't prevent you from getting a job.  It does
| prevent you from getting documentation jobs, but not the typical software
| development job.  If you leave spelling and grammar mistakes in your resume,
| I assume that you will be equally careless with the things you do for me, and
| I will not hire you. 
| 
|   Long Paragraphs of Text.  I don't have time to read these, so keep the
| resume succint and to-the-point.  Lists are concise and effective.
| 
|   Long Resumes.  If you can't say it in a page to two pages, you can't say
| it effectively.
| 
| Things That Waste My Time:
| 
|   Cover Pages.  What can you say in a cover letter that you cannot say in a
| resume?
| 
|   References.  I'm going to phone screen you before I call your references.
| If you pass my phone screen, then I'll ask for references.  Be prepared to
| give them.
| 
|   Awards.  Save it for the phone screen or face-to-face.
| 
|   Personal and Hobbies.  These have no bearing on my hiring decision.  If
| I like you during the phone screen, I'll probably ask about these just to
| put you at ease and to establish some common ground.
| 
|   Course Listings.  If you're experienced, I don't care what courses you
| took or what marks you received on them.  If you're inexperienced and are
| looking for a very specialized job, then you need to convince me that 
| specific classes you took and projects you worked on have prepared you
| sufficiently.  Providing a list of courses that looks like the average
| CS curriculum is meaningless.  
| 
|   Long Lists of Computers/Software/Languages.  Unless you are applying for a
| very specific job that requires knowledge of a certain mix of these, then
| use your time more constructively to convince me that if you need to know
| one of these, that you are willing and able to learn it rapidly.
| -- 
| 
| Ed Matthews                                                edm@verdix.com
| Verdix Corporation Headquarters                            (703) 378-7600
| Chantilly, Virginia
| 
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Newsgroups: soc.culture.vietnamese