I don't agree with adding something interesting about yourself unless you know for certain that it is something that is going to catch the hiring manager's attention in a positive way. It is easy for this kind of thing to backfire, especially if your interesting fact might have something that has a political, religious or similar slant to it. That's why I almost never mention my military experience until after I'm hired and I know that it won't get a negative reaction.
From what I understand PDF format is a bad idea because resume parsing software usually won't work with it. This could get your resume rejected before a human even looks at it.
Common sense should always apply, of course you should avoid controversial topics.
Re: PDF, it depends on how it’s written. A PDF resume is for a human to see not a machine to read, in my opinion.
Also I used to work at a company that develops recruiting software, resume parsing was done only as a way to perfil fields in a form, kind of like importing from LinkedIn, you still have to review and submit the form yourself. That is pretty common on most recruiting software I’ve come across.
Most of the places I submitted my resume to in my recent job search only wanted resumes in Word (.DOC or DOCX) or ASCII Text (.TXT) formats and many specifically said no PDF.
I also found that I had to adjust my resume to make it more simple so that it could be read properly by recruiting software. Many couldn't properly handle fancier formatting such as you described. It felt a bit like doing a web design that would still work in an older version of IE.
I've come across others that say specifically no Word Documents, so it goes both ways. It will vary wildly across our entire industry, specially given that almost all types of companies now have an IT department, and might be looking for developers. Each of these companies will most likely have a very particular HR process, which is why I mentioned to tailor your resume based on where you apply.
If you have a very good PDF resume, and the place where you want to apply only accepts Word, or .txt, then convert it, and submit it. If they ask for these filetypes, it is very likely they do not care how the resume looks, just what info is on it. Which is a valid way of doing things, just not how I would do it.
It's pronounced Diane. I do data architecture, operations, and backend development. In my spare time I maintain Massive.js, a data mapper for Node.js and PostgreSQL.
Another point that bears mentioning is that tailoring your resume to individual job openings takes a fairly substantial amount of time. It might be worth doing if you're being extremely selective and want to maximize your chances at a position you really, really want. But I feel like "you should always tailor your resume for each job you're applying to!" is a recruiter's ideal, not an applicant's. There's no shortage of tech jobs in general and for most people, quantity is a quality all its own. The same resume landing on thirty desks has at least as much a chance of getting you somewhere as five painstakingly tuned resumes landing on five desks. Addressing the specific job is why we haven't ditched cover letters.
That’s a good point, but I still think it depends on the situation. It’s true that having a generic resume will save you time, but trying to stand out can only improve your chances, e.g. if you are applying to a Rails job, move your Rails experience to the top, reorganize your projects so these kinds are more prominently displayed. That shouldn't take longer than 10 minutes.
It’s also true that there is an abundance of job opportunities in tech, which gives us the luxury to be more picky. Aim for the job you’d love to have, don’t settle for the first one that will take you. (Of course this depends on your particular financial situation)
Also, like I mention in the post, cover letters are another way for you to stand out. A good cover letter gets you in the door, and probably into the short pile, but that pile will most likely only contain your resume (specially if they don't use any recruiting software to keep all documents in a single place). By then only your resume will get you further.
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A couple of observations...
I don't agree with adding something interesting about yourself unless you know for certain that it is something that is going to catch the hiring manager's attention in a positive way. It is easy for this kind of thing to backfire, especially if your interesting fact might have something that has a political, religious or similar slant to it. That's why I almost never mention my military experience until after I'm hired and I know that it won't get a negative reaction.
From what I understand PDF format is a bad idea because resume parsing software usually won't work with it. This could get your resume rejected before a human even looks at it.
Common sense should always apply, of course you should avoid controversial topics.
Re: PDF, it depends on how it’s written. A PDF resume is for a human to see not a machine to read, in my opinion.
Also I used to work at a company that develops recruiting software, resume parsing was done only as a way to perfil fields in a form, kind of like importing from LinkedIn, you still have to review and submit the form yourself. That is pretty common on most recruiting software I’ve come across.
Most of the places I submitted my resume to in my recent job search only wanted resumes in Word (.DOC or DOCX) or ASCII Text (.TXT) formats and many specifically said no PDF.
I also found that I had to adjust my resume to make it more simple so that it could be read properly by recruiting software. Many couldn't properly handle fancier formatting such as you described. It felt a bit like doing a web design that would still work in an older version of IE.
I've come across others that say specifically no Word Documents, so it goes both ways. It will vary wildly across our entire industry, specially given that almost all types of companies now have an IT department, and might be looking for developers. Each of these companies will most likely have a very particular HR process, which is why I mentioned to tailor your resume based on where you apply.
If you have a very good PDF resume, and the place where you want to apply only accepts Word, or .txt, then convert it, and submit it. If they ask for these filetypes, it is very likely they do not care how the resume looks, just what info is on it. Which is a valid way of doing things, just not how I would do it.
Another point that bears mentioning is that tailoring your resume to individual job openings takes a fairly substantial amount of time. It might be worth doing if you're being extremely selective and want to maximize your chances at a position you really, really want. But I feel like "you should always tailor your resume for each job you're applying to!" is a recruiter's ideal, not an applicant's. There's no shortage of tech jobs in general and for most people, quantity is a quality all its own. The same resume landing on thirty desks has at least as much a chance of getting you somewhere as five painstakingly tuned resumes landing on five desks. Addressing the specific job is why we haven't ditched cover letters.
That’s a good point, but I still think it depends on the situation. It’s true that having a generic resume will save you time, but trying to stand out can only improve your chances, e.g. if you are applying to a Rails job, move your Rails experience to the top, reorganize your projects so these kinds are more prominently displayed. That shouldn't take longer than 10 minutes.
It’s also true that there is an abundance of job opportunities in tech, which gives us the luxury to be more picky. Aim for the job you’d love to have, don’t settle for the first one that will take you. (Of course this depends on your particular financial situation)
Also, like I mention in the post, cover letters are another way for you to stand out. A good cover letter gets you in the door, and probably into the short pile, but that pile will most likely only contain your resume (specially if they don't use any recruiting software to keep all documents in a single place). By then only your resume will get you further.