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How To List FOSS Experience On Your Resume 103

maximus1 writes "If you're selling skills gained in an open source project, you have additional opportunities to shine, say experts in this ITWorld article. But what is the best way to explain your FOSS experience? 'Someone stands out because of how they talk about the project, says Zack Grossbart, author of The One Minute Commute. His advice is to describe the project and discuss your contributions in detail: 'If you were a committer, what did you do to earn that status? What features did you work on? Did you design new areas, or just implement predefined functions? Did you lead meetings? Define new architecture? Set the project direction?' If the FOSS experience is part of your background but not a shining beacon or job equivalent, it's common to list it under 'other experience.' Andy Lester, author of Land The Tech Job You Love, says: 'Think of each project as a freelance job that you've worked on. Just as different freelance gigs have varying sizes and scopes, so too does each project to which you contribute. The key is to not lump all your projects under one "open source work" heading.' Good examples are worth a thousand words. Grossbart offers up his resume as a sound but not perfect example (PDF) that includes open source experience. (His article on how to format your resume might also be of interest.)"
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How To List FOSS Experience On Your Resume

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  • Open source. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Gudeldar ( 705128 ) on Saturday October 17, 2009 @07:28PM (#29781047)
    Why not just show them what you did?
    • Re:Open source. (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 17, 2009 @07:34PM (#29781067)

      Big problem is that the resume is filtered by data mining software and HR types. Anything outside of standard keywords and job description might not make the cut to an interview. At interview is where you show them what you have done unless they have a specific style of Q&A.

      • by mysidia ( 191772 )

        If you did something significant, write a paper or book about your work, elevate the resume line from 'releasing free code as a hobby' to "research" work

        • Re:Open source. (Score:5, Interesting)

          by Jurily ( 900488 ) <jurily AT gmail DOT com> on Saturday October 17, 2009 @08:42PM (#29781379)

          elevate the resume line from 'releasing free code as a hobby' to "research" work

          And it's exactly this kind of thing that makes honest resumés look like shit.

          OTOH, if the software in question is good enough, you don't need to lie. "I have 14 lines of code in the Linux kernel" is more impressive than "coded an OS from scratch".

          • by AnotherUsername ( 966110 ) on Saturday October 17, 2009 @09:15PM (#29781495)

            And it's exactly this kind of thing that makes honest resumés look like shit.

            OTOH, if the software in question is good enough, you don't need to lie. "I have 14 lines of code in the Linux kernel" is more impressive than "coded an OS from scratch".

            Unfortunately, all 14 lines of code are simply comments...

          • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

            by Anonymous Coward

            There's nothing even close to dishonest here. If your code was so meaningless to you that you don't care to do the extra work to get it into a better category than "hobby" or "coding in spare time", then you deserve what you get.

            Yes, i'm suggesting that if you want optimal resume lines, you adjust the type of FOSS development you do, than you otherwise would, and do a little more work.

            14 lines in the Linux kernel is not an accomplishment that is the least bit indicative of a good developer; the hiring

            • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

              by Jurily ( 900488 )

              Coded an OS from scratch is comparatively much more interesting,

              Not really. I think you're forgetting the level of quality required for any code to make it into the main branch, much less stay there. Being able to read and change other people's code is also a big plus.

              You want to be able to say something like Wrote the USB Driver for a major operating system, not "fixed a bug in the Linux coffee pot power control driver".

              14 lines of code that thousands of people use regularly is more valuable than something big noone ever heard of.

              • 14 lines of code that thousands of people use regularly is more valuable than something big noone ever heard of.

                How "valuable" it is is not relevant. What is relevant, is what it implies about your ability to do the job well.

          • by jeremyp ( 130771 )

            "I have 14 lines of code in the Linux kernel" is more impressive than "coded an OS from scratch".

            Not if your name is Linus Torvalds.

      • Big problem is that the resume is filtered by neanderthals.

        There, fixed that for you.

    • Because they are PHBs. They are not interested in what you actually did (and couldn't understand it anyway).

    • by rubi ( 910818 )
      Because HR is usually the one that is doing the initial interviews or creating the pool of candidates. So, showing what you have done is contingent in passing this initial filter or bypassing it somehow.
  • profit ! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 17, 2009 @07:30PM (#29781055)

    step 1: get your resume posted on /. front page
    step 2: ???
    step 3: PROFIT !!!

    • No, I disagree. This is a book advert isn't it? OI!!! Slashdot!!! It's blatantly obvious when you take money for articles, or are dumb enough to fall for shills. Which are you doing? Please tell us so we know what we're getting. :(
      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by John Hasler ( 414242 )

        > Please tell us so we know what we're getting.

        You are getting what you see. Are you incapable of judging it on its merits?

  • "Meetings"? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by John Hasler ( 414242 ) on Saturday October 17, 2009 @07:32PM (#29781063) Homepage

    > Did you lead meetings?

    What are these "meetings" you speak of?

    • by MichaelSmith ( 789609 ) on Saturday October 17, 2009 @07:59PM (#29781177) Homepage Journal

      > Did you lead meetings?

      What are these "meetings" you speak of?

      It like a mailing list flamewar but not as fun to watch.

    • Re:"Meetings"? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Threni ( 635302 ) on Saturday October 17, 2009 @08:10PM (#29781211)

      If you're putting together a resume then you're looking for a job, and if you get a job, you're going to have to endure brain numbing meetings where your boss will ask you the same question you've answered at least 3 times that much, knowing full well that he won't understand and will ask you again in a few days. The meeting will waste your time, and not express any information you couldn't have committed to writing in an email. But it will pass an hour of your - and more importantly, your bosses - time, and given that bosses don't work but instead just attend meetings and try and make comments to suggest that they in some way add value to the company they work for, you'd better get used to it sooner rather than later.

      • > ...you're going to have to endure brain numbing meetings where your boss will
        > ask you...

        The summary speaks of "meetings" in the context of Free Software development. Does not compute.

        > ...you'd better get used to it sooner rather than later.

        Oh, I spent many hours in meetings (I even "led" some). But that was long ago and far away, and definitely had nothing to do with Free Software.

        • Re:"Meetings"? (Score:5, Informative)

          by Ixitar ( 153040 ) on Saturday October 17, 2009 @10:58PM (#29781825) Homepage

          Oh, I spent many hours in meetings (I even "led" some). But that was long ago and far away, and definitely had nothing to do with Free Software.

          I am currently working on a open source project and do have conference calls from time to time. Please try to not make such overreaching statements.

    • Re:"Meetings"? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by sergiodj ( 1489747 ) on Saturday October 17, 2009 @09:37PM (#29781561)
      Some FOSS projects (especially those sponsored by a company, like Red Hat's Archer project) have regular meetings via phone calls in order to discuss the status of the activities, decide about new features, etc. As a positive side effect, it makes the developers interact more with each other and create a stronger connection between them.
    • by mrmeval ( 662166 )

      They are the holy writ of corprat Amerika. If you don't know what they mean you're a FOSS sideliner who is a marginal twit of no merit or competence. If you are not spending 10 hours out of 40 in meetings you are NOT DOING YOUR CORPRAT duty and need expelled into the sewer of FOSS.

      Scum sucking malcontent!

  • by adonoman ( 624929 ) on Saturday October 17, 2009 @07:32PM (#29781065)
    except that that resume looks like crap. He spends all this time worrying about serifs and ligatures, when as a whole it's nearly illegible. It's all crowded into the page in what seems to the eye like one big chunk of prose. It hurts my eyes just trying to read the text. There are places for bullets - and lists of things is a good place for them. A separating space or line here or there isn't going to kill anyone. Also, it's not a sin to use two pages so that you don't have to pack everything in.
    • by Shados ( 741919 ) on Saturday October 17, 2009 @07:35PM (#29781077)

      Aside for the formatting of skill lists and stuff, its pretty good, which means one thing, in my opinion: he is another victim of the "YOUR RESUME MUST BE ONE PAGE REGARDLESS OF YOUR EXPERIENCE!!!!!111!" school of thought.

      The one page resume rule: hurting professionals everywhere since....well, ever.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        Aside for the formatting of skill lists and stuff, its pretty good, which means one thing, in my opinion: he is another victim of the "YOUR RESUME MUST BE ONE PAGE REGARDLESS OF YOUR EXPERIENCE!!!!!111!" school of thought.

        The one page resume rule: hurting professionals everywhere since....well, ever.

        if i had mod points i'd mod this +1 Insightful also. I've had an increasingly-long resume as I have moved up in my career. It started out as one of those "fit it in one page" jobs which makes sense when you are starting your career. People who have no experience, should not have a long resume. But if you've had any sort of career (which this Grossbart fellow seems to have had) it's right and proper to give adequate space to explaining what you did in these jobs, and highlighting your successes over that tim

      • by jc42 ( 318812 ) on Saturday October 17, 2009 @08:42PM (#29781375) Homepage Journal

        Perhaps a better way to express it is: Your resume can be as long as you think is necessary to describe your experience. But you should be aware that very few hiring managers will read past the first page. So the first page should list the experiences that you would like managers to know about when they're deciding whether to hire you.

        The rest of your resume may be read (or skimmed) by lower-level managers (and your friends), and it may be searched for keywords by HR's software, but it usually won't contribute significantly to any hiring decisions.

        This may all be disregarded if you know that the company's hiring managers are intelligent and knowledgeable in the company's field. Such people do tend to read entire resumes, and even understand them. This mostly applies to the smallest companies, since in large companies hiring is done by professional managers, not by people knowledgeable in their subject area.

        • "But you should be aware that very few hiring managers will read past the first page."

          I find it interesting that while there's all kinds of articles with dos and don'ts for somebody looking for a job (often contradictory), you rarely see one telling companies how to do a better job selecting candidates.

          Shouldn't a hiring manager read the whole resume? Don't these people want to do a good job?

          • I think most hiring managers will read past the first page... assuming that they didn't get 100 resumes in response to a single job ad. But in a lot of companies, HR people exist to eliminate candidates more than they work to find the right ones. So they perform a kind of triage, looking for the reasons to dump your resume immediately (which I wrote about at Javaworld in How to Make HR Dump A Programmer's Resume [javaworld.com] and they are attracted by some strangely shiny things like keywords What HR Professionals Look F [javaworld.com]

          • Shouldn't a hiring manager read the whole resume?

            Yes, and the whole resume should be a size that the hiring manager won't be wasting their time reading it.

            Don't these people want to do a good job?

            Assuming the job requires any kind of communication skills, screening for applicants who know how to present information so as to provide the necessary information for the audience, and only the necessary information, and to do it concisely, is an example of the hiring manager doing their job properly.

        • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • by MrCrassic ( 994046 ) <deprecated@@@ema...il> on Saturday October 17, 2009 @09:45PM (#29781571) Journal

        I agree that one page isn't enough for people with lots of experience, but his solution is not the best to address this either. --WAY-- too much to read.

        Note. I actually see the reason for keeping resumes under one page; most people that think they need two usually don't. I think it's only appropriate if the position is really important, since the pool for those positions are smaller and, thus, those who make the hiring decisions can (and will) spend more time on the person's merits and personality.

        The methodology my school uses for resume writing is that people should list three key responsibilites for each job listing, in list format. This can make keeping a resume within to a single page even more difficult because many people have had numerous interesting experiences at their previous workplaces that may or may not be able to get listed on there. Then again, if that person does claim to have many of those experiences, they should be able to list a few which will grab an employer's attention fairly quickly.

        After hearing of several interviews in my co-ops and speaking to a few managers about this, the logic behind this makes a lot of sense. Even though HR uses a bland filter to separate the "wheat" from the "chaff" (or, more appropriately, the ones who know the system and the ones who don't), those resumes still need to be passed down to management, as the decision is ultimately up to them. What this means is that they look at TONS of resumes, sometimes on a daily basis. Most of those resumes are ill-formatted, poorly written and are eyesores to look at. Additionally, they usually want to spend less than a minute looking at one before deciding whether to yay or nay a second interview (the nays don't get saved; they get binned).

        It's for this reason that having a resume in list format helps so much; hiring managers or others with decision power don't have to think as much when looking at one. They can sift through the list and see if they make the cut (for an interview, that is).

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Shados ( 741919 )

          This talk of school and co-op make me think you're mostly talking about early career resume. Thats different. IT is a volatile job market, and aside for a few people who like to settle down early, many IT professional and software engineers will frequently bounce from job to job. By mid career, having 3, 5, or 10+ -significant- jobs on your resume isn't uncommon. Add additional -relevant- trainings and certifications, and relevent publications, and a consultant will need 3-5 pages even if they keep it to a

        • by naasking ( 94116 )

          As a programmer who has interviewed co-op students for 5 years, I can tell you the two things I immediately use to separate wheat and chaff: which programming languages they know, and which school or personal projects they found challenging. The former tells me how open-minded they are when problem solving, especially if they learned a language that isn't part of the standard curriculum, and the latter tells me whether they are actually interested in programming, or whether they're just doing it as just ano

          • I can understand the rationale behind your decision criteria, but do you think that judging a student by the number of languages he/she knows is a bit shallow? I know folks that are excellent developers that know only one or two languages WELL, and at the ACM Northeast Programming Competition I was at yesterday, there were students who did respectably and didn't really know C or C++. (Ironically enough, it was at that competition that I proved to myself that I know C well enough to get by, even though I did

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Matrix14 ( 135171 )

        This is why you should have a separate resume (which, as word, means "summary", i.e., of your CV) and CV. Your CV can be multiple pages or one one long HTML page or whatever. Make your resume one page and put a URL for where your CV can be found on the web.

      • by Korbeau ( 913903 )

        Look, can't you find what are your most pertinent job experiences and put them in one page? I don't care about a bullet-point list of all your little IT jobs.

        Even Obama can do it:
            - American President
            - Nobel Peace Winner 2009

        See, easy?

    • by houstonbofh ( 602064 ) on Saturday October 17, 2009 @07:46PM (#29781125)
      I have not had a 1 page resume in 20 years. I seem to make all the automated HR filters too... I just wonder if that is connected? :)

      A friend and I were co-workers in a company that went bust. We had almost the same job and almost the same experience. We both applied at the same company, and I got a call back and a job. He never got a call back. My new boss asked if I knew anyone else. I said, "Uh, Yes?" and told him about my friend. He never saw the resume. I got it for him and he hired my friend as well. HR was pissed at him for at least 2 years. :) He is still there, and I have long since left. HR is worthless...
      • by MichaelSmith ( 789609 ) on Saturday October 17, 2009 @08:28PM (#29781305) Homepage Journal

        HR is worthless...

        Where I work, only HR is hiring...

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • by l3v1 ( 787564 )
        I have not had a 1 page resume in 20 years. I seem to make all the automated HR filters too... I just wonder if that is connected? :)

        The one-page resume was invented by people who don't have anything meaningful to fill more than a page with, and by idiot HR people who are lazy to carefully evaluate CVs.

        That said, when I see someone fill a page with stuff that for me and my colleagues is a nornal daily routine trying to sell it as something exceptional (well, age can become an issue here), now that's wh
        • I think the one page resume comes from the days in which people typically worked at one company for most of their lives. Or at least for 10-15 years.

          Not that it'd be easy to summarize 15 years of experience in a paragraph or two, either, but in most cases it'd be the most recent accomplishments you'd want to talk about anyhow.

          So I don't think that it's an issue of being boring but rather that our society has changed.

    • by Z8 ( 1602647 ) on Saturday October 17, 2009 @07:46PM (#29781127)

      It's all crowded into the page in what seems to the eye like one big chunk of prose. It hurts my eyes just trying to read the text.

      I hope you never accidentally open a book, you might go blind.

    • by kestasjk ( 933987 ) * on Saturday October 17, 2009 @08:57PM (#29781431) Homepage
      This guy is so good at writing resumes that he tells the rest of us how to write them as a job; what more proof do you need that he must have an excellent resume?
      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Kjella ( 173770 )

        And some people have become millionaires on selling "How to become a millionaire" books.

      • by l3v1 ( 787564 )
        This guy is so good at writing resumes that he tells the rest of us how to write them as a job

        Life can be a weird place. Like where someone having the guts stands up and says "I know stuff", then people around him who either don't know stuff or are just numb or shy or unexperienced say "look, he knows stuff", and after a while a lot of people will know that there's a guy who knows stuff. At that point, that fella doesn't even need to know anything anymore.
    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Eskarel ( 565631 )

      He's actually a pretty good example of everything you shouldn't do with your Resume.

      There's a lot to be said for being concise in your resume, and the first page is the one which gets the most attention. The problem is that this doesn't mean you should cram everything you have onto one page, since one unreadable page is worse than 20 you can actually parse properly.

      The reason for a one page resume is that your resume will appear in a gigantic stack of other resumes. If you're really lucky it might be being

  • Is not "worry about the content, not the presentation" the mantra around here? If we are supposed to follow that for the web-pages we produce, why should the resumes be different?

    One's resume should be in XML [sourceforge.net], from which various other formats can be produced automatically (and consistently)...

    • by John Hasler ( 414242 ) on Saturday October 17, 2009 @08:28PM (#29781303) Homepage

      > Is not "worry about the content, not the presentation" the mantra around
      > here? If we are supposed to follow that for the web-pages we produce, why
      > should the resumes be different?

      Resumes have to get past HR drones and PHBs in order to reach anyone who can comprehend the content.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by khallow ( 566160 )

      One's resume should be in XML, from which various other formats can be produced automatically (and consistently)...

      It's an interesting gimmick, but not sure what purpose it'd have for anyone other than XML monkeys. The problem is that a resume is about presentation as much as it is about content.

      • Put another (less technical) way, one's resume should be presented as an outline [wikipedia.org], so that authors may supply a full bio while enabling readers to dig down into points of interest from a short overview.

      • by mi ( 197448 )

        It's an interesting gimmick, but not sure what purpose it'd have for anyone other than XML monkeys.

        There are automated ways to generate HTML, PDF, PostScript, and Plain Text from the XML-resume (this, for example, is how I do it [freebsd.org]), that I use to generated mine). Yes, recruiters ask me about the Word-version once in a while, and I tell them, no, I don't use Word.

        The result looks pretty good to me (although it does not attempt to cram everything into a single page the way TFA's author does). One can even com

    • Yes, knowledge ontologies are the new hype in companies anyway

    • by upuv ( 1201447 )

      .doc MS word only still people.

      The HR department can only open word 97 files. Don't care how nerdy the job is. HR is still in the stone age.

      ( Yes I took the bait )

    • by he-sk ( 103163 )

      "Worry about the content, not the presentation" is probably the reason why most programs (FOSS and commercial) suck donkey ass.

      Ome of the most important thing about any tool is the workflow it supports and encourages. Presentation is a critical part of the picture.

  • Make a portfolio (Score:5, Interesting)

    by wrook ( 134116 ) on Saturday October 17, 2009 @08:01PM (#29781185) Homepage

    Make a portfolio of open source work you've done. Go in and extract code that you've written. Annotate it explaining what problem you were solving and why you chose the design you did, etc. Keep each section fairly short (a few hundred lines of code) and write an overall document linking up the various code excerpts, creating a narrative for them to follow. If you have planning/design documentation, etc feel free to show excerpts of that too. Even emails from mailing lists where you defused a potentially difficult situation is good. Finally, provide links to all the original projects that you've contributed to so they can see your contribution first hand.

    After you have organized all that, put it up on a web page somewhere and put a link on your resume. Burn a few business card sized CDs and hand them out at interviews. Make sure to bring a few to each interview. I've found they are popular.

    This has gotten me more than one job. I used to maintain my portfolio continuously on my web page, but I'm teaching now and have let it lapse. However, it's sometimes useful even outside the job searching venue.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by zgrossbart ( 535154 )
      Keeping a portfolio of your open source contributions is a wonderful idea. Creating a narrative really shows that you can speak well about your projects. This is what hiring managers are looking for, strong coders who can speak English and communicate well.
    • That's a really decent idea. I work for an ILEC. Technically, I'm in translations design but as a matter of need I've been hacking Asterisk code and building really locked-down carrier-grade debian and Ubuntu internal versions. Everything I do is completely outside of my job description and I've been trying to figure out a way to document my experience when my manager doesn't even really understand what it is that I actually do anymore.

  • Depends which jobs you are applying for, but if you aren't going into a super technology-based field (such as if you are applying to be a sysadmin at a local business, not applying for Google, MS or IBM) use big recognizable names. Even if you only submitted a small patch for the Linux kernel, saying that you have developed part of the Linux kernel might just be what is needed on your resume. Other large projects such as Firefox, Open Office, and other things that the people in HR recognize might just make
  • Uh easy... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Blakey Rat ( 99501 ) on Saturday October 17, 2009 @08:19PM (#29781253)

    Press "enter" after one of your job bulletpoints to make a new list items. Type in your role on the project, the name of the project, then the dates during which you worked on it. Provide a short description of the work you did, and how it impacted the success of the project.

    Done.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 17, 2009 @08:48PM (#29781397)

    opinion? Blah blah blah, try 30 different fonts. Blah blah blah, try 20 different text editors. And HR will still want a copy in word format or plain text format, ignore any formatting, and keyword scan.

    My resume is done in latex. Better font, better justification, better appearance.

    • My resume is done in latex. Better font, better justification, better appearance.

      Mine too. What do you do when they request your resume in doc form?

      I wonder if you can embed a pdf into a doc...

      • http://www.tug.org/utilities/texconv/textopc.html [tug.org]

        The converters being most complete and currently maintained / supported are:

        TeX2Word - a shareware LaTeX import filter for MS Word

        GrindEQ - a shareware LaTeX import filter for MS Word

        latex2rtf - a free standalone LaTeX -> RTF converter for PC, Macintosh and Unix,

        TexPort - a commercial TeX/LaTeX to WordPerfect and Microsoft Word converter for PC.

        TeX4ht - a free LaTeX to html or XML converter for PC and Unix produces html which is good for loading into Word. TeX4ht relies on other software, it needs at least a full TeX system.

        There are also converters to Powerpoint and to FrameMaker (see further below).

        That page goes on to give details on other methods of conversion.

        • I've looked into this, and tried many of those. I didn't find anything that does a satisfactory job.

          That is, I've yet to find one that will produce .doc output that reliably looks as good as the .pdf i could have sent instead.
    • Blah blah blah, try 30 different fonts. Blah blah blah, try 20 different text editors. And HR will still want a copy in word format or plain text format, ignore any formatting, and keyword scan.

      My resume is done in latex.

      Oh my. What kind of job were we discussing again?

  • Stretching it (Score:2, Insightful)

    Listing FOSS contributions outside of Other Experience can look like stretching, and is stretching unless it's either something you're spending, say, 20+ hours/week on, or you're applying for your first position out of school. If you're not, it's not really the kind of professional experience you want to showcase, is it?

    Even if you're spending substantial time on a FOSS project, you still may not want to list it outside of Other Experience other than to explain what you have been doing in the time since you

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by cenc ( 1310167 )

      You obviously do not have sufficient experience as either an employee or and employer.

    • I'll give you that HR in a typical corporate environment that doesn't leverage FOSS might not appreciate even a significant contribution to an open source project. However, even the summary of this article mentions that this is for "the reader who is selling skills gained in an open source project". So, uh...yeah. Way to miss the point.
  • You are forced to put the GNU notice in your resume and provide a blood sample in a test tube so they can sequence your ADN.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Korbeau ( 913903 )

      Acide (Deoxyribonucleic) Acid ...
      ADN, DNA ...
      Chemistry!!! Why aren't you language agnostic!!!!

  • by timmarhy ( 659436 ) on Saturday October 17, 2009 @11:27PM (#29781931)
    ... let me give you 3 rules.

    1. only list relevant experience, if your applying for a DBA position i don't want to waste time reading about how you enjoy cake decorating.

    2. put the good stuff first, i need to skim 100's of these resumes so having to read till page 10 isn't helping your chances that'll see your skills.

    3. keep the format clean and easy to read, don't make my eye's bleed because your going in the bin after page one with pink curly fonts.

    • by upuv ( 1201447 )

      I'm with yah brother.

      If I don't see what I want by page 2 it's in the bin.

      And all fancy paper needs to be banned. NO CIO EVER used sea shell green as a base color for the resume. EVER!

    • ...those rules coming from someone who doesn't capitalize anything, puts two sentences together with a comma, and pluralizes with an apostrophe.
      • ...those rules coming from someone who doesn't capitalize anything, puts two sentences together with a comma, and pluralizes with an apostrophe.

        Are you just documenting the supporting evidence that they are, in fact, a hiring manager?

  • by upuv ( 1201447 ) on Sunday October 18, 2009 @02:06AM (#29782425) Journal

    Why would FOSS or volunteer work be any different than work you did for a pay check?

    It goes on the Resume same as any other job. I treat them with the exactly the same.

    I read about data miners and other such rubbish filtering out FOSS and such type work. Well that is complete and total non-sense. Your resume is a record of your experience and accomplishments plain and simple.

    Hear is some advice.

    DO NOT MAKE YOUR RESUME OVERLY COMPLICATED. You do not need 20 headings highlighting the different views of your career. K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple Stupid is the rule to follow. Spend your effort on making sure that each piece of experience is effectively presented through a well written resume.

    I use this rule of thumb. I treat my resume/CV as a full time job for 1 week. I spend no less than 40 hours working on it before any potential employer will see it. That's nto for every employer. That's for each time I'm on the job market. In North America no more than 4 pages EVER. In other parts of the world they like to see as much as a page per year experience ( I know ridiculous ). So what if the agency filters it and puts into their format. Let them. You're bring fresh copies on PLAIN WHITE PAPER in B/W to the interview? Cause you should be slapped if you don't. Oh gee all of a sudden your resume stands out in the pile of identical resumes in the stack. Why? Because it is well formatted on quality WHITE paper.

    I read a lot of resumes. A LOT. I toss almost all of the resumes that have pictures / fancy paper / more heft than a phone book into the bin before turning the first page.

    ------
    Do NOT's
    - Put your picture on the resume. You are not that good looking.
    - Use colored paper. What are you 12?
    - Use textured paper. Again are you 12?
    - Use multiple fonts. Only use Helvetica. Why all printers have it and it looks clean and is easy to read.
    - Leave half empty pages. All pages should have a solid balance of text. Half pages are tossed pages.
    - Only use one recruiter. Where is there a law that states you can only use one recruiter?
    - Forget to shave. Guys Gals, it applies to both of you. Clean looks get the jobs and more money. Don't care if it's racist / prejudice or what ever complaint you have. Clean looks always win. Grow the pRon mustache after you get the job OK.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Hymer ( 856453 )

      You are so right... except for the font. Humans read a serif font about 20% faster and with less errors than a sans serif font so use Times instead of Helvetica (which btw. is not available on a std.Windows PC... Arial, Tahoma or Verdana are not good substitutes for Helvetica).

    • On that note... (Score:2, Insightful)

      by puroresu ( 1585025 )
      ...if you have what would be termed an "unconventional" appearance by more narrow minded employers, consider the kind of companies which are more likely to hire you.

      I have long hair, facial hair and tattoos. I recently took a temp contract with a publishing company. They didn't have a "dress code" as such and the atmosphere was pretty relaxed. A few weeks later they asked if I'd run the department. Plenty of businesses operate under similar conditions, and unlike places which mandate a particular look, t
      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by upuv ( 1201447 )

        Clean just improves the odds no matter the company. My self personally I like someone not afraid to self express. So I tend to take a liking to the ab-normal. Hell I drive a H.D. to work and sport the odd tat myself.

        I was just speaking of the average. As you have probably experienced in your own life there is a degree of higher resistance to you and your chosen appearance. Are these people that give you the "slanted" look narrow minded and a bit backwards? You bet yah.

        "Worth working for" is a lot diffe

  • Whether a project you worked on was open source or not is of no great importance. Treat it as you would any work experience: emphasize the skills used and learned, technically and socially, the tools, environment, and technologies you worked with.. You don't want to look like a commie zealot, anyway, so don't rant about FOSS on your résumé.

    Aside form the "like a job" experience, the best selling point of voluntary FOSS involvement is that it shows you like your work.

  • Sorry, but this is not the right tool to list FOSS experience. Next!

  • by MobyDisk ( 75490 ) on Sunday October 18, 2009 @08:37AM (#29783771) Homepage

    I think he didn't list his FOSS experience very well. It says:

    Sole engineer for the GoTD program (http://sourceforge.net/projects/mgatdirector), an open source program for directing Go tournaments. GoTD integrates registration, player pairing, handicapping,
    conict resolution, and results reporting into one easy-to-use interface. GoTD is the rst and only open source program available for managing Go tournaments.

    It sounds like he is selling the project, not himself. In my experience, you don't say what the project did, you say the technologies it uses and what YOU did. I might write:

    Sole engineer for the GoTD program (http://sourceforge.net/projects/mgatdirector), an open source program for directing Go tournaments written in C++/Qt. Ran on Linux, Windows, and Commodore 64. Maintained project in source control via sourceforge. Prioritized bug reports, applied fixes, and determined new features. A forum was established to solicit feedback from customers.

    • It sounds like he is selling the project, not himself. In my experience, you don't say what the project did, you say the technologies it uses and what YOU did.

      From what little I've seen, depressingly many do in fact just say what the project did, or copy/paste the job description (sometimes even forgetting to change some of the instances of "candidate will..." to "I did..."). Of course these all go to the bottom of the pile, so maybe there's just so many because those people each have to apply for several times as many jobs before someone takes them...

    • I completely understand what you mean here. I was really torn about what to say. I went the way I did because I was the creator of the project. I wanted to highlight not only programming skills, but organizational and product design skills as well. Designing an open source project and getting it off the ground takes a different set of skills than contributing to an existing project. If you're the creator of the project you should highlight that. Having said all of that, I really like your copy. It is
  • Most tech cvs/resumes i have seen list the various projects worked on in the career history section. If you wanted to include open source projects that don't relate to a specific job then you could have a cut down career history section with just an explanation of each job and then split out the projects into a seperate section. You could then just put a reference with each project to say which job or open source project it related to. That way your commercial work and open source work get equal preceden

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