

Ask HN: Hacker Resume - dytrivedi

I want feedback/constructive criticism from HN community. I know it should've been plain text/markdown; I actually wanted to write in in markdown, parse it, and display in HTML5 + hcard + hcal + hresume. But didn't have enough time :(<p>Here's the PDF - http://advancewith.us/stuff/Resume.pdf<p>Anyways, from today I am starting being active on HN. Hello, people!
======
david_shaw
Let's start with the critique, then move on to the compliments.

I'm not sure that the icons in your introductory statement help your cause.
They look cool and professional, but make reading the statement a little
disjointed. Sometimes you're using the icons like a noun ("Thumbs Up" is
smart, and gets things done), while other times they seem to be just images
off to the side. I would put one (1) icon per sentence, at the end of the
sentence so as not to make the paragraph seem disjointed.

You should read your resume aloud so that you catch any typoes. For example,
you say 'having wore multiple hats,' but that should really be having _worn_
multiple hats.

You say 'he' a lot, while speaking about yourself in third person. If this is
supposed to be an 'objective' statement, it's okay to actually make it about
you.

I like the nice layout of skills and interests, but some of them seem totally
pointless. Freenode does not need to be on your resume. Unless you're working
on or with them, neither do the plethora of blogs and people you have listed
(Joel on Software, Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, _Steve Jobs?!_ ).
Honestly, all of those things that aren't a skill you have or a tool you use
shouldn't be there. A hiring manager does not care that you like xkcd or read
_How to Win Friends & Influence People_.

The 'Experience' section, however, looks great! I love the little skill
buttons that you put under each position: great call! It might not hurt to
have a small blurb about what exactly you did there, but with the buttons I'm
not even sure that that is necessary.

The tl;dr here is that you have way too many gimmicks and unnecessary
information on the first page (although it _does_ look pretty, you UX
Engineer, you), but the second page is almost perfect.

Good luck in your job search!

~~~
dytrivedi
I think your feedback about icon placement is quite correct; they should be
uniformly placed at the end of sentences. Also, thanks for pointing out typos.
The initial section is indeed about an 'objective'.

There are some of the points that I would like to explain (and not defend
;-)). I'm based out of India, and a lot of companies here are quite
traditional - upto an extent that they block facebook and gmail in the office.

I have listed a set of things which are out of context, but then I want to
ensure that I want to get hired by somebody who actually understands the
importance of IRC, Joel's views, etc. How to win friends and influence people
= people skills, which I think connects with other aspects like Peopleware,
Developer happiness and motivation, etc.

Finally, having an objective insight from another perspective is very helpful,
and thanks for doing so! All the inputs that I'm getting are being taken into
consideration and will help me further refine the CV.

Cheers!

------
olivvv
You have cool ideas for your cv. There is style. I like your idea of the icons
and the writing style you have there.

From a purely graphical point of view, you may want to check spaces and
line.For instance, looking at vertical lines from the right side, you may
notice that the codebar is not aligned with the right border of text, or with
the border of titles on the second page. Also, the second page give me a
different stylistic feeling. Took me a little while to figure out that it is
because there is no black used there. There is some green used, but this green
cant be found on the first page. I think that by looking at that kind of
things (line, colors, spaces between paragraphs) you can make sure that you
design is more homogeneous. Oh and i did not know that you are a motorcycle
maintainer. I'll probably ask you a few questions in the future..

-olivvv

~~~
dytrivedi
Heyo olivvv!

Thanks for your feedback man; your input on making the design more homogeneous
is certainly worthy; I didn't notice it from that perspective. And umm, well,
Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance is kinda more of a philosophical /
metaphysics of quality book :p

Cheers,

Dhaval

------
CaptainMorgan
Seems simple to me: the major issue with this resume is the amount of _noise_.
If you're submitting this via email or through online application forms you
should stick to one page. If this is to be displayed on your website then I
would just reduce the number of images(possibly all of them), and do a
spelling check. Objective statements should be short and to the point. Same
with descriptions... I really don't see the need for the long paragraphs and
the bloated number of tags you're using. Whether it's a site or as a printout
on paper, the hiring manager is limited on time.

Take a look at some of these examples, a lot of them are ideal in terms of
efficiency and noise. Best of luck.

<http://microformats.org/wiki/hresume-examples-in-wild>

~~~
dytrivedi
Thanks, this will be really helpful. I've looked at hresume microformat and as
I mentioned in the original post, I was actually going to implement it that
way.

The reason for including a lot of other non-professional things was that I
would like to be hired by somebody who understands a lot of them; be it a one
man startup. I have often found that 'jelling' is more important than
technical competencies.

Thanks for your feedback.

------
kaisdavisOR
Bonus points for going outside of the stock resume and trying something new.

I really like that you're thinking out of the box - that gets noticed - but a
lot of what you're forcing into the resume format should be in your cover
letter: your objective, the tag cloud, and the icon-centered text at the top.

That said, I can't read this. Keep in mind that in a lot of places you may be
applying a non-technical person may be reading the resume, so having it built
in a certain way can work against you.

Rand's has a great article (<http://bit.ly/hd7fRt>) on resumes and their
function that can help focus you.

~~~
dytrivedi
Hmmm I think you made a point - of having the cover letter content into the
resume. I have especially noticed one thing with some start-ups - they prefer
a 'cultural, personal' jelling. I put personal information, thinking of that.

