A resume is a document whose main purpose is to create a good impression. Companies go through many resumes and many times only the candidates with resume’s that stand out are invited for an interview.
In my field, computer science, applying for a job is mostly done online. For large software companies, there is usually an online system which asks candidates to fill out questioners and submit a resume. The questioners are usually for basic information which does not heavily influence weather a candidate is invited for an interview. Candidates have only one chance to make a good impression, and that is through their resume.
Most companies are very open about the kind of characteristics that they look for in candidates. For example, Microsoft has an entire website devoted to listing the qualifications and skill sets that they desire ( http://www.microsoft.com/college/ip_swandhwdev.mspx#sde ). A successful candidate’s resume must convince the company that the candidate meets these qualifications and has the necessary skills.
A great way for a candidate to demonstrate that they meet the qualifications and have the skills required is by providing specific examples of past experience. This could include jobs, projects, and extra curricular activities. Describing past achievements, honors & awards, and educational history helps too.
Software companies are also very interested in a candidate’s skill set. A skills section of a resume is able to provide the employer with a rough understanding of what a candidate knows and is capable of accomplishing. Often times, employers organize the candidate resume’s into an electronic database and search for specific keywords that describe skills.
I have studied the hiring process of many software companies in order to design a resume that maximizes my chances of a job offer. From my experience, I have some criticism regarding this chapter.
The chapter is too concerned with categorizing resumes into types. Software companies don’t care if a candidate follows some style guideline or not; the only thing they are concerned with is being able to get a complete enough impression of the candidate in order to decide if the company should invest resources for setting up an interview. They are interested in both archival information and functional information, and a resume that does not provide some of both will likely be filtered out.
As we previously learned, it is very important to tailor documents for their intended audiences. In software companies, human resources are not very involved with decisions regarding interviews and job offers. This is mainly due to one reason: computer science is very specialized and only someone with intimate knowledge of the field can make such decisions. The job of human resources is mostly to facilitate interviews and job offers by doing things such as arranging travel and filing forms/documents. So in most cases, HR can be excluded from the target audience. The audience then consists entirely of software developers.
Cover letters (or “application letters”) are not used in computer science. Most online application systems do not even have a place for entering a cover letter. Since the candidate is applying for a job, the companies know that he/she is interested. The important qualifications should be emphasized in the resume so there is no need for a separate document to provide such an emphasis. If there are any special circumstances, a candidate can contact a recruiter regarding the matter via a casual email.
Response
Cover letters are definitely fluff. They seem to be quite repetitive, and as you pointed out-simply applying for a company shows interest and desire to be hired by that company. So long as the person reading the resume maintains an empathetic state of mind, this is all that is required to explain skills and experience. Of course, the portfolio can be quite effective as well by offering concrete samples of previous work to demonstrate skills, but I digress. As far as the resume itself goes, I'm in agreement with the combination of the two forms of resumes. Limiting yourself by committing to one type of resume is less than ideal-the one that is skipped is too important to completely ignore.
I wouldn't say cover letters are fluff
Hoo-boy, I have to disagree with you about cover letters being fluff. Because resumes should be limited to one page, you can't really explicate the material as well as you might like. The cover letter gives you the opportunity to do this. It's the place where you can put information that doesn't really fit neatly into the resume. The resume really just gets you past the first hurdle; the cover letter is where you plant your hook. In my experience, what cover letters are best at doing is shaping the agenda for the interview (assuming you get one). Interviewers almost always ask you about something from your cover letter, so you can steer the course of the interview by mentioning the things you want to talk about. This is just my perspective, however, and your experience may be different. We have an instructor blog about this if you want to jump ahead.
Response
I am in computer science too and have applied for many jobs online through a company website or through the CCO at Purdue and I agree with most of what you say. However a small number of the jobs I have applied for at some point or another did ask for a cover letter. And I feel like it gives the person looking for a job a good chance to show employers why they are interested and want to work at that particular company.
I also agree with the idea that you don't have to target HR personnel in a resume for a computer science. The only contact I have had with them is telephone calls arranging for interviews with the software designers and project managers.
Patrick Griffin
pgriffin@purdue.edu
Reply Reading Response 2
I agree with almost everything you said in your remarks on Chapter 15. As a Computer Graphics Technology major, our jobs are special to which we would have to get our resume review for consideration by an employee in our related field. The HR “gatekeeper” are only weeding out resumes to those who do not meet minimum qualification.
Whenever I am applying for a job I really do hope the company asks for a cover letter. If you find yourself stuck in the hole with a low GPA and lack of experience, a cover letter would benefit you. A cover letter can be that ticket you need to sell “you” to that particular company.
HR Department
Your response is well written and I agree with most statements. However, I feel somewhat differently about one topic. In your second to last paragraph, you write that "human resources are not very involved with decisions regarding interviews and job offers." I suppose that most companies work like this, but from my experience not all do. When interviewing last fall for potential full-time jobs, I noticed that some of the companies had interviewers that were from the human resources department. One company that I noticed, KJWW Engineering out of Rock Island, Illinois, sent two human resource employees as interviewers. These two would find potential candidates that possess organization, good manners, and a favorable personality. Then, if the human resource employees like the interviewee, the interviewee would be called back with a second interview with more knowledgeable persons, such as the head of the engineering department.
Hr Department
apersohn, I would have to agree with you on this one. The HR department doesn't necessarily always control the whole process, but their involvement is still pretty prominent. In my past experience the HR acted as somewhat of a liaison also. They knew what the company was looking for and interfaced with the public to find someone with these qualifications. The HR is just another point of your audience you have to take into full consideration when writing any of your professional documents. If any end of your audience has even the tiniest bit of significance you must take them into full consideration and treat them just as seriously as your primary audience. By doing this you cover all ends of where things could go wrong.
Response
Personally I hate the idea of sending your resume online. I know that many companies are going about resumes this way. Granted Online resumes are more convenient for employers, they can automatically find the most qualified candidates. Its just that right now if i were to create a resume, I just don't think it would be eye-popping. As a computer science major how do you set yourself apart from the herd? I know that I would do a lot better in an interview than my resume would depict.
Online Resume
I agree with you Evan. I think that even though it is easier for the employer to have the online resumes, I don’t think this method is as effective as handing a resume to the employer face to face. I think that when they have even a small amount of time to talk to you and receive your resume they will remember you. I think you stand a better chance of getting the job if the employer can get a feel for your personality some too. I think how you word your resume will help to make it stand out for those who wish for it to be submitted online.
-Chris
I really dislike the online
I really dislike the online questionnaires that many companies are using these days. I personally have had experience with quite a few of them and I think it is extremely unfortunate that these questionnaires are designed so that it is obvious as to which questions “should” be answered. If a person answers an entire questionnaire honestly it is likely that the system will just ignore the rest of their input and their resume will never even make it to the hands of a company representative. This just doesn’t seem like a very accurate way of identifying excellent employees, but maybe a good way at identifying the good bullshiters.
www.JFlitt.com