Question:
I interviewed for a contract position. I told them in advance that
I would be going there from my current position (where I did not want to tip
off that I was interviewing) and would be wearing my regular work clothes. I
spent 4 1/2 hours there (more than I had planned) talking with a half dozen
people on different levels--and I was in jeans and a short-sleeve polo shirt
with a logo from a company that I worked for several years ago.
I also had samples of my work.
I was not asked for references. I got an offer, for my asking price, and was
able to give a start date that I could live with (they wanted me to start
last Monday).
I don't even own a white button down shirt. In SiliValley, if I'm
underdressed in slacks, a colored button down shirt, and casual tie with no
jacket, then I already know that it's an environment where I'd not be
comfortable working (such as Siebel).
Besides, if you're more interested inthe clothes I have in my closet than in
what I can do to help your development team, then your priorities are in the
wrong place. When I pick a place to interview, I already believe that I can
help make your product better and your company more profitable. I can
impress people with what I ahve done, and what I know I can do. I can write,
very well, and am very familiar about many technologies, including some of
the newest. I'm clean, neat, enthusiastic, and work hard.
Answer:
-I'm talking about a "nicely produced" resume, also. A nice resume
carefully typeset with good choice of fonts on nicely chosen expensive
paper does look much better and more professional than one presented
with less care. It's not a "spectacle" at all. Nevertheless, different
people might react differently to such a thing. In general, even though
I would agree that it looks very nice and is tastefully and carefully
done, my reaction wouldn't be, "Wow, this person takes job hunting very
seriously, I must hire him immediately," but rather, "Isn't it strange
that this person has put so much effort into resume layout?" Since my
normal expectation for skilled computer professionals is that it's easy
for them to get jobs anywhere, it's rather unusual for them to spend a
lot of time making a fancy resume.
Just as if the candidate shows up in a two thousand dollar handmade
Italian suit, I might agree that he looks very nice, but nevertheless my
reaction would be more one of bemusement at the unusual attire than of
excitement at the opportunity to hire someone who dresses so well.
-People looking for a job tend to have the time to produce their resume -
it's a way to kill time and feel productive while waiting for the next
interview and/or phone call. I ran a computer department at a Kinkos
a long time ago, and half my daytime customers were job seekers killing
time, and they would come in and tweak for hours.
Or they have designer friends who are bored. (I get to be reaquianted
all the time with old friends - I'm a designer, and they always call me
up looking for a free resume typesetting job.)
(Note to designers - your resume is NOT the place to show off. Save that
for your portfolio.)
My exerience is that a very fancy resume with all kinds of different
fonts and swirlys and such on expensive paper with gold foil or printed
designs are usually tossed - an interviewer needs the resume as a point
of reference to see the person's background and abilities - nothing
more. They don't care if you bake, or like to garden or jet ski, and
could care less if you pledged a frat in college, or ran some marathon.
A lot of people who are reading resumes tend to look for keywords, and
they don't want your life story. I've typed enough resumes in my life to
know that most people put too much info in their resumes - they think
it's the time to strut their stuff. What they don't realize is,
especially in big corporations, some admin is going to be thefirst
person to read it, and they don't care. They have a list of criteria to
look for, and your personal info ain't on it.
What can you do, where did you learn to do it, where did you do it last,
and how much do you want to do it here?
The interview is the time to get the measure of a person, and to look at
personality and *maybe* in some cases outside interests and family and
wardrobe (grin). It's also the time for the interviewer to take points
on the resume and have the applicant expand upon them.
The rule I have always followed, and been told to follow, and use when
typesetting a resume, is to keep it as simple as possible, use as few
fonts as you can, make it easy to read (no essays!), and try to make it
one page. Elegant, clean, and a quick read. People I have worked for, HR
people I've worked with and all the books I have read say this - it's
also a factor that large corporations tend to OCR resumes, so complex
ones on fancy paper won't work.
I've watched many of my bosses go through stacks of resumes when we
hired - the first round of culls was always the really complex and
garish resumes, or the really obvious bad ones (like the guy applying
for a graphic designer postion that was advertised asking for 4 years
experience, and he was an accountant, but graphics looked "fun", so he
thought he'd give it a shot. Okay, Sparky.) (Real example) Then they
would read the remaining resumes, and start culling on things like
experience and background.
Keep it simple. White or very, very soft pastels - a colored paper is
harder to read - no HR department or potential boss will pick you out of
the stack because your resume is "pretty". I always loved the resume I
saw printed on dark green linen paper - between the texture and the
color, you could'nt read a word. Keep the fonts simple - helvetica,
garamond, times, ariel, things like that. Easy to read, and you don't
want your resume passed over at 12:00pm because some HR worker has tired
eyes, and that bitchen phat font you got that looks like the one WIRED
magazine used pisses them off. One page. Last job in detail, the rest
much more condensed. Who cares that you got the "Worker of the Week"
parking space ten years ago.
